Somewhat alarmingly, I had one of those on my work Win7 laptop a couple of weeks back - it was somewhat unexpected…
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Been ages since I have one of those. I feel more comfortable with Windows because it is what I use the most and that’s what I have at the office (and the software I teach is Windows based) but I’m comfortable enough with Linux to use it too
I agree with this, there are some things that linux simply does not do well:
- Gaming (Although this is getting better)
- Running Adobe products (although for my use all I need is photoshop and Krita is more suited to what I need anyway)
- Fully utilising exotic hardware.
I somewhat disagree with your last statement although you did mention debian specifically. Distros which aren’t so focussed on LTS (Ubuntu, Mint, etc) run much newer kernels and Arch runs the newest kernel pretty much as its released. Hardware support in the kernel is not an issue for most hardware. AMD, Intel, Nvidia and chipset manufacturers actively contribute to the kernel releasing code well before their products are even launched. For example, the current linux kernel supports Intel’s skylake architecture which isn’t even going to be in a consumer product for at least a year or so.
Gaming is pretty pathetic on Linux. I was hoping for more push for Linux when they released their SteamOS, but they didn’t really push that hard until recently. I actually have access to way more games on my Mac than I did on Linux.
Photoshop runs fine in a VM and I actually prefer running it this way. You can boot a VM from a saved state where it’s already running faster than you can boot it normally from disk (I do use a SSD) Or you can use Wine if you want a more native feel to it, but you’ll need to spend more time on this. Wine usually ends up just pissing me off and I tend to just steer clear of it all together.
When I used wine I didn’t have much problem with Photohsop but it can be a pain when you get an error, yes.
Yes, my experience is primarily with Debian which advertises as being ultra stable, and it is, if you use last years hardware 
One thing to note, I’ve had little issues with actual CPU and motherboard architectures, more of my issues have been around network cards and graphics cards. The latest and greatest doesn’t always have immediate support (on Linux Mint and Ubuntu you’ll get support far faster than you will on Debian – even if you use the Testing branch of Debian).
Wine itself is a pain to me. lol
I don’t have good luck with it and just tried to steer clear of it in general.
This thread is giving me a bad case of “grass is always greener” syndrome. Maybe I’ll talk my wife into taking my Mac and go back to Linux. I hear Ubuntu Gnome is pretty stable now. 
I think my better half is going to get a Macbook Air at the end of May - I guess that leaves her Vaio going begging for something…
PS. Yet another BSD this morning - should learn to keep my mouth shut
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You must be doing something wrong - from memory I have not had one of these for 10+ years. There are 3 laptops in the house plus my two works Pc’s and they have never had one.
We do suffer from lockups and slow downs which are sorted after a reboot.
My daughter wants a Mac but I refuse to buy any mac products out of principle. Also she uses Windows at school which will be leading her down the Windows path.
It’s the company’s laptop, over which I have no control.
Like you, I’ve not seen a BSD at home in donkey’s years - that’s across 3 PC’s, 3 laptops, and a Netbook running XP, Win7 and Win8.1 - they all just run, with some perched on what must now be 8-year old hardware.
I was so confused for a second at the usage of “BSD” in this thread given we are discussing operating systems
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Definitely the Windows kind of BSD
I’ve definitely had BSDs in the last 10 years, but not maybe in the last… couple.
@mawburn - yeah. Me too (grass greener etc)… considering my options on how I’d try switching over. I’m doing a bit of a computer shuffle in my house sometime between now and a few months from now anyway, so now would be the time.
I can’t cord-cut away from Windows 100% though - I only really run one game now, but it’s one I won’t get rid of and it won’t work on Wine, so I’ll need dual boot still, at very least. I like the idea of trying PhotoShop in a VM or Wine though, that was my biggest working related hurdle.
Switch to Gimp, I did 
(though I never used photoshop)
I keep trying and failing to do that 
Sorry but GIMP is not enough for me so no, no switching. For most basic stuff, GIMP is OK. But for advanced stuff, Photoshop rules
Try Krita, for some stuff it’s better than photoshop see http://www.pcazorla.com/2013/09/28/from-photoshop-to-krita-an-invitation-for-digital-illustrators/ for a basic run down.
Try Krita
I’ve never tried Krita out for anything, I might do that as well, just see what it’s got anyway.
I’ll give it a try