- cross-posted to:
- lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/33746300
The worst thing about Linux is its users
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/33746300
The worst thing about Linux is its users
I don’t know how to feel about this. Because the intelligent guy is totally me, but I also recognise that Linux is in no shape for a non tech literate person just to jump into.
You could install Mint on your mother’s computer and don’t tell her, and she’d probably still think she was using Windows until it came time to install new software. Linux For Normies has come a long way, especially recently. It could be ready for mass adoption very soon, if not already.
That is the big giveaway. I used the term “It’s free” too many times when setting up software for them. “I used to have to pay for all of that.”
I just installed Linux mint on my laptop… and fuck me, it is easy as all hell to use. Made me wonder why the hell I took so long to do it! I’m doing some backups on my desktop in order not to lose anything important (and save time) while installing it on my PC… I intend to format my old drive as I move on. So-long Windows!
I do like Mint, but now I’m thinking Bazzite might be better for a beginner or average user because all those configurations and default apps/packages meant to make gaming easier also trickles down to having things “just work” for a casual average PC user. 🤔
I am going to mint.
I’m writing this on Bazzite right now, it’s awesome, works great, and it’s true that the preinstalled apps and scripts are really useful for someone coming over from Windows… but not just for them! I’ve been a Linux user for maybe a couple of decades now and I find them very useful.
I agree. My mom has been running Mint for 9 years with no problems. My tech illiterate friend who has an nvidia gpu on the other hand needs a lot of handholding. He would never be able to make a transition on his own.
Yup. Linux + Nvidia is the problem here. I convinced my friend to move to Linux, explaining that all his favorite Steam games work on my Linux machine with no issues, just download and click play, tested it myself. Turns out, I don’t have an nvidia gpu, he does, and a lot of the games straight up don’t work, and the ones that do need at least one config change, if not more.
I have yet to have any issues on Steam myself when gaming with my Radeon card.
Times have really changed, especially in the past five years. Even completely tech-agnostic people use GNU/Linux in my family. Reason is “Because it just works.” no more Windows installing things that you hate. No more advertisements in the start menu or file manager. No more screenshots every five seconds. No more Windows slowing down the computer gradually. A relative’s computer was unusable because of Windows, because it has slowed down the computer so much that the start menu took 10 seconds to open. All she did was her net banking, text editing and some very light photo editing. Ever since switching to GNU/Linux, her computer works again normally. And all of the tech questions about weird things like programmes randomly not starting have disappeared.
Also, nowadays you really never have to touch the command line. You can use an App-Store-like experience to install your programmes, just like you would on a phone. It also handles all updates automatically. This alone makes it such a better, “normie” operating system than Windows. Hit “update all”, and it updates all of your packages for the system, the kernel itself, drivers, the apps themselves, literally everything. Because try explaining grandma, she needs to update the system, then the drivers, then every single application separately. Now you can tell Grandma instead: “Press this button and wait for 20 minutes.”
The difference is night and day. Old computers work normally again. You don’t need such overkill configurations like most Windows computers have to just run your text editing on net banking. By now it is objectively better.
If you’re new, just use one of the many pre-configured options. No need to tinker with your system if you don’t want to. Just install one of the literally hundreds “just works” distros that package everything for you.
Lastly, I’m going to say it is no exaggeration if I say installing GNU/Linux has solved literally every single issue people in my family had with computers. Because now it just works. No bloat, no nonsense. Just a computer.
Edit: typo.
I find the “it just works” line ironic.
Because that’s usually what Windows has going for it. Meanwhile any Linux distro I’ve tried so far has me search for how to install a specific thing and try 5 different results, because of course the command to copy&paste on the first few doesn’t work. Doesn’t help that most sites and people tell you to install software this way instead of using some software centre / app store where you just click on an install button.
That’s not my experience at all ,there’s nothing about windows that “just works”. If feels like two or three different systems badly stapled together.
Windows arguably is, indeed, two or three different systems stapled together. There’s the C code kernal bits, the .Net runtime higher level bits, and the Electron “this didn’t need to be fast anyway and we only knew how to write JavaScript” bits.
I don’t know about you, but unless you’re downloading a programm made for Windows 95, you can install anything without any trouble on Windows. Meanwhile Linux needs you to run a bunch of commands every time and half the time the commands from the download page don’t work because they’re for some specific distro only and you gotta look up different ones.
I don’t know what’s so difficult about going to the app manager, searching for the app and installing it. It’s a thousand times easier than on windows plus everything is neatly updated automatically
I find the windows update and Linux graphical updater processes identical. They only diverge at the end when the Windows one fails with a mysterious error message and offers to retry or open a troubleshooter that won’t work.