Honesty this might be the best option if they need Windows stuff.

Ubuntu Gnome is awful in so many ways

Also gnome is not Apple like at all

There are far better options than Ubuntu at this point.

I would go with something else personally

Yes. I might at least try Ubuntu on the Linux partition I have before I wipe it. But I did find out StartAllBack is sick for Windows 11 so usability wise it will be fine.

1. Yes DHH is a person. But he is also a business guy so the point still stands.

2. And userland for desktop really isn't

You can actually open DEB files in the Software Center and install them.

OP has an Nvidia GPU, presumably running their proprietary drivers. AMDs open source drivers vs the hemi forum have nothing to do with this.

Moreover, OP seems telling us their experience in hope to get help more than complaining…

No I never saw a question there.

he wants sound!

Then use something that is Linux compatible.

Dunno where this meme came from. Its well more secure than win 10 with TPM and the new boatloader something

That being said, "Linux is not the problem, XYZ is" is totally an unacceptable answer for people coming to Linux.

If it's a piece of hardware that is known for not getting along with Linux, this is literally just a factual statement.

It depends what you do. I'm on KDE too with Wayland, and one can experience a lot of issues. In example global shortcuts are not figured out in Wayland. KDE has some hacks that are specific to KDE, not a Wayland solution. Window position are also not remembered or cannot be forced, unless off course you use KDE, and use specific window recognition and saving their position as special settings and so on. But those solutions are specific to KDE and not a global solution for every user and environment.

For the PiP (picture in picture) mode in Firefox, it does stay above other windows for me. But that is probably because I use an extension on KDE that manages the windows (name Krohnkite).

I also love it to be on Wayland for multi monitor support. Mixing up 120 Hz (or 144) with 60 Hz monitors is great, and this even works if individual monitors have some sort of VRR that does not affect the other. Overall I was not saying that Wayland sucks, otherwise I wouldn't stay on it. But I was saying that Wayland sucks in some points, and some of those are solved with workarounds in KDE specifically. So that's why I can't say its okay in Wayland, its just okay in KDE (sorry I repeat myself).

Damn straight. It's been said that the biggest obstacle for Linux on desktop is other Linux users.

I use Linux since the 90's, I have nothing Microsoft at my home, not a Windows fan at all.

That being said, "Linux is not the problem, XYZ is" is totally an unacceptable answer for people coming to Linux.

The guy doesn't want a list of finger pointers, blames, good-or-bad reasons -- he wants sound!

Linux strong point isn't multimedia / customer hardware support, and that's totally fine.

"Skill issues", "Work on my machine ", and " Not Linux fault, but EvilCorp fault" never helped anyone, nor "don't use HDMI" ...

So, before telling OP that his "complaint" achieves nothing, take a good long look at yourself.

Moreover, OP seems telling us their experience in hope to get help more than complaining...

X11 doesn't provide a poor experience compared to Wayland. If anything, its the other way around, because Wayland has still some missing features and support from all applications that are established standards on X11.

Hard disagree in 2026. On KDE, Wayland is now perfectly stable on my old-ass Nvidia GPU (noting that because it wasn't nearly stable a few years ago). Wayland to me feels smoother and faster (144 Hz display), fractional scaling exists for high-DPI displays, there's no screen tearing, and there's HDR support.

I've recently had no problem with things like screen recording, although I can't speak to screen sharing/remote desktop or accessibility. KDE maintains a list of significant issues.

The only issues I actually have that are regressions from X11 are that 1) picture-in-picture in Firefox doesn't automatically stay above other windows and 2) session restore doesn't keep my windows where they were. Given there's a quick, just slightly annoying, workaround for PiP and given I'm not restoring my session that often (one to maybe a few times per day), these hardly outweigh how much worse X11 feels constantly due to its poor frame presentation.

To that end, I think you're wrong on "if anything", because for most typical users, Wayland is going to feel better to use.

Moreover, I imagine finally dropping X11 support will allow KDE more room to improve the Wayland experience.

Otherwise, though, I agree about not downvoting poor Linux experiences.

They could, but the HDMI forum just had a recent history with not allowing even AMD to make their hdmi 2.1 compliant drivers open source, so progress on open drivers efforts across the entire open source community slowed down almost to a halt due fear of critical open projects being sued due to patent infringement and copyright.

Refer to the news: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/hdmi-forum-rejects-amds-hdmi-21-open-source-driver

The history of Linux hardware incompatibility is paved by hardware and software monopolies holding the line via legal/economic interference, lobbying and malicious compliance such as the infamous: Embrace, extended and extinguish.

Refer to the history:

Embrace, extend and extinguish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish

Widespread efforts by Microsoft and at&t to smother the image of open source legal stability by patent trolling:

BSD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIX_System_Laboratories,_Inc._v._Berkeley_Software_Design,_Inc.

Linux: https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-ballmer-steps-up-linux-infringement-suit-rhetoric/

Summaries of the situation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patents_and_free_software

As seen above, these sort of interventions are nothing new, standard desktop Linux could not only be theoretically capable of doing many of the things it currently can't, it already does those things in: closed, out of Linux kernel tree repositories that companies refuse to open source and merge into the main kernel due a protectionist stance on artificial scarcity and upholding of existing monopolies.

Refer to infamous Linus middle finger to nvidia: https://www.techspot.com/news/49025-torvalds-blasts-nvidia-over-linux-support-gives-them-the-middle-finger-during-speech.html

If a massive company like nvidia is like this, imagine the thousands of hardware companies out there, with varying levels of competency and "ethics", now put into perspective how low the bar is for profit first companies, ie. All of them is set, where would your DAC manufacturer stand exactly between them? How many inches above the crust of the seventh layer of hell, exactly?

Post like these sting because people have no ideia just how much effort it takes to make Linux work in spite of the unwillingness of hardware companies, which are not only awful, have been awful, they are also getting exponentially more awful by the dollar. The future of open general computing is grim, man, we're in the trenches with AI slop now even.

Sorry for the rant, but I felt compelled to, please be reasonable given the circumstances. Again, my bad.

1. Audio is always an issue. I still have issues with Audio on some distros. like on Void I couldn't get audio working at all to save my life. Try a different distro like Fedora or Debian if you want it to work out of the box. if you're looking for a gaming focused distro like CachyOS try PikaOS which is a fork of Debian. by far one of the quickest and most straight forward installs i've ever experienced.

2. you don't have to use Wayland, I don't. I can't stand wayland. I use X11 with Picom. I use DWM cause it just works. if you want a desktop environment then use XFCE4. that just works and is very light weight.

But honestly at the end of the day if Windows works for you and still works for you then just stick with it. Don't listen to the people who say "wah wah windows bad" it doesn't matter. Use whatever works. I mean I use every OS on various machines because I honestly enjoy playing around with Operating Systems. I use Linux, BSD, Windows, MacOS on various machines. there's no perfect OS out there and I've used them all. just use what works for you and your hardware.

Look, I get it, Linux isn't at fault for all the issues he's experiencing, but it is what it is. It not being Linux's fault won't magically make OP's DAC work, and who knows why OP is using HDMi - there may be a good reason for that, too (maybe the TV doesn't have Displayport?). You will never be in a 100% FOSS environment if you need certain functionality, at least not in this day and age. OP tried, I'm assuming gave it his best, and is frustrated that it didn't work, since he would have liked to switch. That's 100% legitimate.

Wayland is cool, but I had to revert to X11, but with KDE Wayland didn't support the keybindings I wanted. It might be a KDE problem, but nonetheless I chose to go back to KDE for the overall better experience. And I never had a problem with X11.
AFAIK Wayland is as much about developers wanting a fresh slate and a clean start. Not that that there was anything wrong with X11.
I fully understand that, and I expect that in time I will switch to Wayland, it's not actually a huge issue either way IMO.

PS:
Thanks to to the coders who are putting in the hours for both projects to be great. 👍 😎 😀
It really was only one minor issue that made me stay with X11.

Yeah, you'll hear a lot of Wayland fanboying, but X11 is still more reliable and full featured IME. Someday þat may not be true, but over 10 years in and Wayland can still not support global keybindings unless you are willing to accept DE bloat.

1. DHH is not a corporation, and he seems to be making Omarchy for free and fun

2. Over 80% of Linux kernel developers are employed by corporations. 2024 Open Source Software Funding Report estimated a $7.7 billion funding per year by organizations, with 86% of that being the salary or contract payments of developers

Second that. There's LMDE as well, which is Debian with a few perks for beginners. Just Ubuntu isn't all that great. It used to be some sort of default recommendation for newbies. But that's a long time ago. And with Ubuntu you just picked a vendor who regularly does weird business decisions. And they (Canonical) also massively suffer from the "not invented here" syndrome. Oftentimes they'll deliver some sub-par experience to their users because they developed it, instead of going with the accepted standard solutions everybody else uses. Which also don't get abandoned after a few years. I mean Ubuntu isn't unusable... It does work. But I'll usually recommend some gaming distro to gamers, LMDE or Debian to someone who just wants to use their computer as a tool, or sometimes the shiny newer distributions like CashyOS which are popular as of today for good reasons. I wouldn't recommend Ubuntu, though unless that's some kind of work-related requirement or you've been using it for a long time already.

Of course, of course. Apart from being the most privacy respecting OS ever, Windows 11 is famous for never never ever having technical issues.

Can't wait for a whole new world of DNS issues