Linux has its conveniences but I think I definitely spend more times on updates. Some break things and some like Nvidia's drivers can take me ages to actually apply (though with that one the usual trick seems to be to remove --purge nvidia-* first).
> Linux has its conveniences but I think I definitely spend more times on updates.
That depends on which distro and hardware you're using. I use laptops that are known to work well with Linux and Ubuntu LTS releases. This way, I spend perhaps 3-5h a year on admin tasks and it's mostly easy stuff.
It's actually amazing how GNU/Linux allowed me to gradually transition from configuring everything (when I was a student: XFree86, custom kernels, ...) to using GNU/Linux productively with almost zero housekeeping effort.
On my optimus laptop fedora+nvidia work quite well, I recommend you give it a try. Use official instructions for adding nvidia drivers from the rpmfusion repository.
You can even try Silverblue. On the off chance something breaks, i do an rpm-ostree rollback, reboot and the system is on it's previous working state. I could troubleshoot stuff If I want to but I usually wait for an upstream fix before I update again.
Silverblue is a desktop os not a server.
There is the coreos version that is intended for server use. It does need a different paradigm however. On normal fedoara server you are installing packages for applications you want to use, however on an rpm-ostree based system it is intended that you install applications by using containers.
Depending on what you want to do, you use the appropriate version.
Indeed if one is not willing/able to climb the learning curve of this paradigm shift, then they shouldn't use it.
Well I was setting up a desktop machine as a server. The idea of silverblue is great, only it sucks to actually use. Updates are slow, and everything is just needlessly harder.
I get why maintainers want to push flappypacks, I just don't care, it's a shit solution that leaks all over your users. Find a better way to fix your problems.
You might want to look into something less unstable.
I've had arch running unattended upgrades in a Cron for years.
Worst case I have to find my USB stick and do some debugging, not that an update has ever broken anything.
There is some minor maintenance I run maybe once every 6-12 months to clear caches or fix up any configs that need updating but I've never run into anything that prevents booting.
Just Ubuntu though admittedly I use a lot more packages than average so there's more that can break across updates. Also a lot of things that have caused me problems over the years are getting more stable.
Ubuntu is famous for breaking spectacularly as soon as you start install PPAs or non-stock packages. I'm still convinced that APT is not the right tool for a desktop OS, it's way too complex and has too much automagic to withstand a user that wants stuff like the latest versions of GCC, etc.
Once you learn to avoid NVIDIA, your life gets way easier. I've bought an RX 580 4 years ago and it's been a pleasant plug'n'play experience ever since.
