Some trouble
Some trouble
147 comments
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Switch to Linux and spend way more time making sure everything is updated and having to jump through hoops installing things.
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That is not a problem on any of the major distros, so I'm not sure what you've been using. Most distros have a GUI package manager that is awesome and you can update with just a few clicks. So what hoops are you jumping through, and how is this such a problem that it's costing you time?
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My grandma runs Ubuntu and has gotten by fine without the command line
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Mostly just when you initially install like most OSes ; browsers, office suits, game launchers, etc... My mother doesn't even notice fedora automatically installing updates when she turns her PC off. (I enabled automatic updates for her)
Even with my arch Linux install with Hyprland, most of the time I just update before I turn it off. With a terminal command but even that is just
paruand my password orflatpak update. If I had kde or gnome desktop, I could set it up to auto update too.Sometimes I don't even bother and use the computer without updating it for a couple of months or it automatically updates when I install new software.
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I remember I had a date with a girl back in the'10s. We hit it off and got back to her place. Wanted to show her a funny Internet video.
She brought out an ancient laptop that refused to boot and said her Ex had tried to fix it with Linux.
I got it pointed at the right dependencies, she fellated me as it updated.
I think this is my only sexy story that includes Linux.
Well, I guess there was this one time I loaned a lonely neighbor DOS 6 disks.
But, that does not include Linux.
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Switch to Linux! Then you can have problems with Linux.
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The problems are different, and you can fix them in Linux. However, if you like dogshit workflows, a lack of customization, no control or the feeling like your OS is in control instead of you, ads in your OS, and telemetry data being sent, then Windows is the far better option.
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About the same when you ask for a good GUI replacement for X and someone replies "just use the command line", like cheers for that men, not what I'm asking for.
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AMEN! I asked recently if there was a good Linux alternative to this program I used in Windows called "Bulk Rename Utility" and i was flooded by people telling me how easy it was to set up a script to do what I want.
Turns out the best alternative is running BRU in Wine.
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Krename is pretty nice
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There almost always powerful existing utilities that can do what you want in linux.
But you have to find them and they have a learning curve. Sometimes that "curve" is a cliff.
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This makes me wonder how powerful a repo platform like gitlab would be if it allowed people to suggest software ideas and have people make them. In this instance a simple GUI wrapper for bulk rename command line would be sufficient but I would bet there's millions of things like that, not world changing software just nice qol stuff
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I'd have recommended KRename personally. It uses some programming-esque stuff (format specifiers for stuff), but it's not exactly difficult to do advanced stuff with it.
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No need for a script, just use
rename.
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I do have to vouch for sometimes the command line is easier, not with everything but sometimes. Like my VPN sometimes it’s a little slow on the uptake and finding a server all that nonsense but I can also just have a few taps away at the command line and bing bang boom it’s done.
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"Why even use a DE? Try a WM like openbox"
Well, because a lot of things are simplified with DE functionality, and not everyone has the same preferences...
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The WM folks can be obnoxious lol. But it comes from a place of passion and love for the ecosystem so it’s not bad.
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I still don't understand why there isn't a terminal-gui (you know, those text but graphical utilities) for basic stuff like mounting a network share. Why do I still need to manually edit fstab?!?
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Based 😁
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A non-technical end-user once had a problem with Windows. A technical friend said "SWITCH TO LINUX". Now they have thousands of problems.
I've been a non-stop user of Linux as my primary OS since before Ubuntu was a thing. I do not recommend Linux systems to my non-technical friends.
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My Aunt bought a new laptop to run her eBay/Facebook selling business on. She's not particularly techy but has used Windows machines for admin work for prob 20 years or so. Laptop had no office apps installed and she tracks everything in a spreadsheet. Original plan was to install Libreoffice but it was running some budget version of Windows 10 you can't install anything on, can't remember what it's called. So I installed Fedora. Chromium and Libreoffice Calc open on login, her ancient HP printer works, she's able to access her camera as USB mass storage when she lists items and unattended upgrades are enabled. That was 2 years ago, no problems since.
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Cool story, bro. And for every such cool story you can bring up I can bring you a hundred, probably, of people who got set up on Linux and returned to Windows because it was a horror show from their perspective.
Let me give you the clue: "The Year of the Linux Desktop" has been declared with monotonous regularity since the 1990s. It still hasn't arrived. There's a reason for this, and the quicker Linux (and other F/OSS) advocates grasp why this is, the quicker will the year actually arrive.
Until then, Linux is a fringe OS for techies. (And there it excels. As I said, I've been a non-stop user of it for ages.)
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Windows S can be turned off, but it does require an internet connection.
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As someone who has had been around Linux-based people and whenever I have had a single gripe about Windows - it's this.
I don't have a hate boner with Linux, I just feel like Linux is a little too much for the average casual user. Everything is fine until they run into a single issue with Linux, if the bewilderment of not having their familiar easy to run programs that they had on Windows wasn't a turn off for them from the get-go.
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50% of the time the Microsoft forum help solution for any Windows problem is "Have you tried Re-installing Windows?"
- source, my ass
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Or
sfc scannow, absolute classic
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No, you don't say "switch to Linux". This is an opportunity to be free from the shackles of being the go-to IT support person! If they say they are having computer problems, ask "Is it Linux? No? Sorry, can't help you"
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The ones that make me laugh uncontrollably are those Windows disk encryption issues for which the solution is…wait for it… run Linux from a LiveISO, fix the disk with Linux, then reinstall Windows. Because Windows is incapable of fixing its own issues that it itself caused.
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As a former computer service technician, we used Ubuntu Live USB and DVDs (yes it was a long ago) a lot.
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Linux will only be the solution when it finally learns to adequately cater to a better class of idiots. Once Linux handles a fool as well as Windows, then we can talk.
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Doesn’t even have to be a "class of idiots". It would be enough if stuff didn’t just sometimes break, seemingly randomly. (It’s not quite random, obviously.)
Recent example: I had OpenSuse TW recommended because of its reliability. First tip: install codecs, which requires adding the Packman repository. Now, simply updating threw up errors several times because Packman and the other repositories are apparently not in sync, and some dependencies would break if I updated. (Waiting a few days "fixed" it, but still shouldn’t happen.)
Depending on which update method you use (Yast/Discovery/zypper/update widget) you get different error messages, most of which are not informative. This is for an established distribution known for its reliability, and this alone would keep me from ever recommending it to normal users, even moderately tech-savvy ones.
Things are getting better, but I’m still shopping around for a distro that just works. Perhaps that new Fedora version, or one of the immutable ones, now that they are getting popular.
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ngl, the "switch to linux" crowd is close to a vibe of complaining that "my car is making some weird sounds" and the response is to "buy a new car!" I mean, it would solve the problem of not having that issue with windows/your car, but it also means you have to intrusively replace your workflow and probably find some entirely new programs to do what you already could, and potentially have many new, less explicable problems, just to not have that one tiny problem that you could live around.
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Often it's worse. It like telling people to move to a different country because the roads are better there.
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Ehh
More like someone saying
"Then change the station"
When someone complains
"I don't like the ads on this radio station that I listen to in my car on the drive home"
There's no financial loss by doing so, it's relatively easy, just have to find out which frequency another broadcast you like is playing on
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You know, I can't remember the last time that changing the station on my radio required me to sift through thousands of subtly out of date web pages to find clues as to why I just can't hear that one guitar riff.
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But the other radio doesn't play the vital radio show you need for work.
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depends how much you value your time. if you've nothing to do or just like fucking about with your os in your spare time then sure, linux is free. if you're, say, a freelance graphic designer and actively losing money whilst trying to learn the foibles of a new os, and just fixing the bullshit that win & mac do by default; then it's decidedly not
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Linux is free if you don't value your time.
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Im gladly to help!!
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Okay, I'll bite. I've been trying Linux every few years for the last few decades and it's never been anywhere close to replacing Windows for me. I'm not a luddite; I was in tech for many years (MCSE certified) but there just... ALWAYS something that doesn't work right. And there's NEVER a simple fix. Linux for me ends up being more of a hobby than a tool and I haven't had the time or patience to deal with it in the past.
But I'm willing to try again,
Anyone have any resources to get me pointed in the right direction? Which distro to try, how to install as a dual-boot on an exiting Windows machine without breaking it, how to get Steam/Nvidia drivers/games going, etc?
EDIT - Apparently trying to dual boot with Windows on a machine with two physical drives is too much to ask (unless you have a CS degree). Maybe next time, Linux.
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I had the same experience as you did: I've tried Linux every few years ever since someone brought it to my attention in the nineties. And it always felt like a hobby instead of an invisible layer that just makes my computer tick. After Microsoft tried to ram W11 up my arse for the umpteenth time, I tried again recently. And it was amazing. Absolutely zero driver issues and it is FAST and CLEAN. No pop-ups or sneaky ads or any of the other things that make me feel like a tenant on my own computer. I now have a dual boot setup Ubuntu/W10, where I really only still use the W10 boot for games. And I have my office and audio software living in separate VM's that I can use regardless of which OS I booted into at the start.
It's awesome.
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Yeah it's both windows going the Facebook route, and Linux getting quite user friendly IMO.
I'm checking out Linux Mint since a bunch of years and now everything is a breeze, or already installed. Sure, I have learned a lot along the way, and maybe I use less specific softwares and more a browser, but still I feel it's (I haven't checked out gaming yet) become a quite mature os.
And its inherent security that windows doesn't have (I know it's not "full security" or anything but at least an account is locked in in its own world) makes my Linux pop a command line instantly and my corporate (both thinkpads, corporate is faster) takes 30+ seconds to 'verify' over the internet that I'm not hAcKiNg I guess...
I have never been as close as this to switch main PC to Linux :-p
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Three distros usually get recommended as fairly hassle-free. Ubuntu (personally haven't used since 2012 or so, don't like that they started advertising stuff), Linux Mint (haven't used in years either, but through no fault of Mint - I changed to something less hassle-free, Gentoo) and Pop!_OS. The latter uses customized Unity, but is working on its' own desktop environment. I have a feeling that when they're finished with it, it will be very user friendly (maybe not the FIRST release, but certainly the later ones).
Mint and Pop!_OS are both based on Ubuntu, so you'll have the vast repository of knowledge that is AskUbuntu to help you with most things.
So get one of those 3 distros and you'll be good! They come in different flavours (desktop environments), I believe GNOME is the most polished one, KDE (on
Also there's two new methods to install software - flatpaks and snaps. Flatpaks are considered the better standard and are supported by Linux Mint and Pop!_OS out of the box and Ubuntu... tries to force you to use snaps. Flatpak is decentralized and anyone can host a store (but mostly you just need Flathub, which is configured by default on most distros I believe). Snap is centralized and its' backend is closed-source, so you're dependent on Canonical.
Both of these install your software in a sort of sandbox that manages the dependencies - this means there should be no library version conflicts, so it doesn't matter what the system version of library X is, the application can use whatever version it needs. Should be a way to reduce compatibility issues on your Linux system, I believe - I haven't tried them yet, mostly because I minimized my kernel to the point where flatpak was complaining about missing some filesystem driver, and I didn't care too much about getting it to work. Will do it soon though.
As for gaming - Pop!_OS has an image available that comes with nVidia drivers straight out of the box, but the other ones I suggested, will also allow you to install them easily. Steam can be installed via apt (may require configuring a secondary repository) or flatpak (Flathub has it!). Once you have Steam installed, playing Windows games is as easy as checking compatibility on Protondb and seeing if there are any tips on whether you should use a non-default Proton version or add command-line options. But most games without draconian kernel-level anticheats work nowadays. New AAA games that don't work on default Proton get support fairly quickly on the GloriousEggroll fork of Proton, but that has to be installed manually (I guess nowadays there's an utility that can handle it too). However, oftentimes, a brand new game will work right away on existing Proton versions too. And sometimes there are regressions, so you may also want to try older Proton versions for some games. But that's as simple as changing a setup option in the Steam GUI. No terminal-fu required.
Overall, it's actually fairly pleasant compared to what it was 10 years ago, when you had to configure wine and pray. Proton handles all that for you. If you're a patient person and can wait a few weeks or months after a game comes out, it's very good, otherwise it can be a bit hit and miss.
You CAN also play non-steam games using Proton via Steam. I played through the entirety of AC Valhalla that way, by adding Ubisoft launcher as a non-steam App. Completely unsupported so it doesn't have a special config like it does for officially supported games, but it worked, just had to change the version to something old
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This was really helpful and informative. Thanks for taking the time!
I think I'm leaning towards Mint this time based on comments here and my research. Fingers crossed!
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Yeah ignore the people in this thread. I've been using Linux for the past year and a half, and it's the exact same experience for me. And I am definitely more technology literate than the average person.
As much as people want to believe that Linux is easy and hassle-free, it's not, and it is a long way off. They are biased because they have technical knowledge so they don't see the problems that the average user would have.
That being said, I do like Linux. There's a reason why I still use it despite all this. But it's up to you if it's worth it.
Edit: Also all the people recommending Linux Mint, in my experience, it was horrible! Very unstable, and not even very customisable. I feel like I'm going crazy. Can someone explain why it's so popular? Was I doing something wrong?
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Also mention that you use Arch
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how do these two birds interact in the first place?
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Every time I try Linux on my own, it's fine. But God forbid I ever use any device that comes with Linux pre-installed, and I'm cursed. I'm on my third steam deck after it software bricked itself, and our university Linux server is so unstable that it disconnects my session with vim every 30 minutes or so. Pain. At least there's a method to the madness: trust nobody but myself :P
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Holy hell, three Decks? How did they get bricked? I've had mine since the second shipment batch and beyond some very early software issues it's been pretty solid.
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Screen and tmux are your friends in this situation. They can keep your vim session alive when your SSH connection drops, so you can reconnect and continue where you left off.
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Windows issues?
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This is the way
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Pop os wolnt let me use my gpu so there's that
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Why? So I can have more trouble? :P
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Of course I know him, that's me!
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That used to be me. Now whenever someone ask me to fix their computer I'm like "no hablo windowes"
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First time I agree with the Raven. Switch to Linux!!! Windows is just a shitshow, we all watch and can't believe they are doing this. Win 11 will bring us one of the biggest hardware-waste ever in a world where we should spare with resources.
But hey, throw that 4GB RAM machine in the trash bin everyone wants Win11. So glossy and shiny, so hot right now.
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Do you know what makes windows great? It just works out of the box with broad driver and software compatibility. Extensive hardware support (Windows 10 runs on any brand new hardware as well as old hardware from 12 years ago). Many professional software applications, such as Adobe Creative Cloud, Autodesk products, and Microsoft Office, are primarily developed for Windows. If you rely on specific professional software, Windows offes better compatibility and support.
Linux offers better security and has a large repository of open source software as well as being very developer friendly. If you're reading this it's thanks to Linux. However switching to Linux isn't a viable option for everyone for the aforementioned points. It surprises me to this day how many smart and tech savvy individuals still can't grasp this concept.
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Yeah, I'm going to have to call you on that whole "Windows just works"TM business. I just had to install drivers, during setup, for a regular hard drive in Windows Server 2019. Last time I tried to run the game Rust on Windows 11 it just wouldn't run and I blew hours and never could find a solution. Had to go back to Win 10 to get it to run. It's also pretty easy to pay attention to any news feed and see an endless string of Windows is now broken like X on basically a weekly basis at this point. MS Fired their entire QA team and only tests on virtual machines now. Zero surprise Windows breaks in all sorts of new and interesting ways when it finally meets the real world. Anyone who makes this statement is at best naive and at worst a bold face liar/shill. I do try to assume most people are the prior of course.
That said the rest of your statement is spot on. Right tool for the right job will never not be relevant.
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Linux is not more secure really, it's just assumed to be so because it's less widely attacked for having less market share
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Unless Linux starts getting support from game developers, I'm not switching
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Nearly all games work flawlessly on Linux now thanks to Steam and Proton.
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I was amazed yesterday. I tried L4D(1) on native GNU/Linux Steam (Ubuntu) and it just worked after installing the game, zero tweaking. No need to set up Steam for Windows with WINE or anything.
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I've been trying to switch to Linux for 30 years now and am still trying to figure out permissions. Best of luck!
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If you figured out how logging into any site works, you can figure out permissions. Claiming that after "trying to switch" for 30 years and still are unable to figure out permissions means either you are lying or not trying to switch. And mind you not wanting to use it or not trying to switch is fine, but making mountains out of mole hills is just disingenuous.
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Please try linux mint, it truly is an exellent and nearly bullet proof OS. Pretty much the most popular distro so theres a good chance if you ever do run into an issue or want to know something its not hard to find the info you need with a simple query. No driver jankiness or hardware support issues ive ever experienced either.
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Well... I jokingly told my friend to switch to Linux - that guy switched and I can attest to it that he is much happier now 😁
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The problem is windows
147 comments
"Okay, I switched to Linux, now I'm getting this error message: _______."
"Install ______."
"It gives me this error now: ______."
"You have to update the _____ library first."
"It won't let me."
"You have to use sudo."
"It tells me to clone the git via the command line, but git says verifying login from command line isn't supported any more."
"You're following seven year old instructions."
"They're the only instructions I can find."
"You should switch to this other flavor of Linux."
TIHI
I do not prefer apt-based systems, but I've installed variations of Ubuntu (e.g. Mint) on systems for geriatric (grand)parents in the past 5 years and have not yet needed to drop into shell to fix something.
If the needs are basic (browsing, email, printing, documents), Linux hasn't needed wizardry for years. This is mostly thanks to Gnome and KDE's hard work on GUI admin tools, but if someone is going directly from Windows to i3, they've chosen a steep hill to climb.