Depends on the distro, some are rolllig. /s

And some are intended to fiddle with (Arch and Gentoo for example). Others are made to explore new ways to do things (like immutable root, state managing package manager, each app in their folder Mac-style, such things). Of course there’s a lot of stable general-use distros too. But you may ask someone else for examples.

Linux is stable if you pick a stable distribution. The big thing is the skill floor is higher than windows, but the skill ceiling is way higher too. But yeah pick a well respected LTS distribution (not arch based, use a Debian based one) and Linux will be just a boring computer until you start fucking with it. But you can fuck with it, and that’s the beauty and the danger of it. Remember the “delete system 32” memes? Yeah you can’t do that in windows anymore, they idiot proofed it so hard it’s smart people proof too, linux will let you make a terrible decision if you sudo it.

it’s been awhile since i dove into Linux, but last time i dabbled i was liking Kubuntu.

Can you not set it up and then not have ongoing issues?

That’s a tough one to answer, because Linux has one key element that is different from other OS : it isn’t one single thing dumbed down to cater to everyone, instead it has multiple variations (distributions), each has their own logic and ideas, and everyone of them are highly customisable (so yeah you can spend a lot of time editing stuff if you want to). This means that it higly depends on what you chose to use, what you wanna do with it, and what are your skills.

I could say that you would get as much issues as you would with any other OS, but that would be wrong depending on the distribution you use, that would be wrong if you have a specific need that isn’t easy to get on Linux or not yet troublefree to use, and that would be wrong if you have no idea what you are doing. You could even have less issues (but I wouldn’t advertise that thought). This is why there are what people call “noob friendly distros”, meaning as much troublefree as possible and easy to learn (doesn’t mean it has all your needed features, or that it will grant you the best experience).

I have been toying with Linux since I was 15, but I only made the switch some years ago (I’m 29). Most of my issues were either that the distribution I used did’nt satsfy me, or that my needs were a bit complicated to get working, but once I found something that worked for me most of my experience has been «you configure it once and then you are good to go», I cannot say it is the same for everyone.

One important thing to note is that switching from a familiar OS to an unfamiliar one is never easy (people tend to forget how hard they had to learn using a pc), and it can get painfully hard to do if you go at it with the wrong mindset. So if you want to try it out, I’d suggest you first spend some time looking if everything you need will be available and easy to get working, then find a distribution that you think would suit you (since it’s a first dive you might try something “noob friendly”). Ideally you would first look how it works before trying anything, for exemple don’t be fooled thinking a distribution is only defined by how it looks, it’s how it works that matters most. It’s a bit like preparing yourself for a trip, never try it blindly (it’s a common mistake people do when switching between OS, be it Linux or otherwise), it will require patience and an open mind because you will have to learn how thing works since it’s new to you and it might feel like nothing is working the way it should, so it’s better if you can still go back to an OS that is familiar to you if something goes wrong. And then you’ll see for yourself if it is a troublefree experience or a masochist one :p

Make it an alternative OS before erasing your existing OS so you can switch back and forth and use the old one to research when something unexpected happens on your new one. This way you can transition slowly. Expect there to be challenges, but also expect to learn a lot. It’s a fantastic platform.

Part of Linux culture is customizing your system. Linux allows you to do much more with your computer, but some of these things require tinkering or might cause you to break your setup. If you don’t tinker much things will most likely be stable, but having the ability to tinker is for me a major part of the appeal. What are you hoping to get out of using linux? It’s a good alternative if you wanna make an old computer run more smoothly, if you care about privacy or if you don’t want to have to pay for your operating system, and if any of those are your main reason go for it and it will probably work out smoothly. If you’re interested in linux because it seems “cool” or “fun” you’re probably gonna have to do some tinkering so in that case you should be prepared to edit some files, read some instructions online and possibly ask for help online.

For a reasonably stable but updated os I would recommend FreeBSD. You only have to install X yourself, and linux guides doesn’t work. But reading manual page and searching on mailing lists can solve every issue. OpenBSD is easier but it is a bit “slow”, packages are not updated (you have to follow -current, the latest development branch).

I don’t know who these people having issues are but I run Linux Mint Debian Edition and have no issues editing my stuff.

The only issue I can imagine is if they had formatted an external HDD with ext4 and and copied docs from a previous Linux install, and now when they copy it to their new install, they don’t have permission to edit the doc.

For example, you try out Ubuntu for a few weeks/months. You format your ext HDD in ext4 and create docs in Ubuntu. You then copy those into the HDD. Or maybe you had another drive formatted with NTFS and copied docs from there onto the ext4 drive.

After a few weeks you erase Ubuntu from your machine and install Arch. Now when you try to edit a doc on the HDD or copy it to your machine, you find you don’t have permission because those permissions were set on your previous Ubuntu install.

I’ve had permission issues with that hence I format my ex HDD with exFAT and it works perfectly. Also works perfectly with Windows and macOS as they can all read/write to exFAT without permission issues.

You absolutely can. I set up my Debian server to automatically stay updated and restart regularly and don’t have to touch it if I don’t want to. Yesterday, air had to spend like 30 min getting kde 6 setup on tumbleweed because it’s a roll in ng distro. The nice thing about linux is it allows you to make trade offs depending on what your priorities are.

The biggest issues I’ve had were either because of hardware (native drivers not supported by manufacturer) or because I was manually editing config files.

Is it not stable?

Can you not set it up and then not have ongoing issues?

You are going to get gaslit to hell about this on lemmy. But no. It is not stable in the sense you mean.

The effort is worth it though.

I don’t think you could go wrong with any of the top user/newb friendly distros. I see Mint mentioned a few times in these responses, and I agree, use Mint. It’s a nice distro.

I’ve never really had issues with Fedora (has more up to date software vs Debian stable) or Debian, they generally just work. Back when I used arch there were a couple of times in about a year and a half where it stopped booting (mobile nvidia graphics forced me to do weird things that lead to issues), but that’s a less stable OS on top of a bad hardware setup for Linux (obligatory fuck Nvidia).

Maybe you are seeing issues as the people who don’t have issues rarely post.

What’s your setup? I can tell you if there are things you might have issues with.

the dark secret of linux is that there are just as many people who dont understand how to solve problems and resort to searching the correct way to shake a dead chicken as with every other platform.