this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2024
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Perhaps another perspective is where to draw the line in terms of expected expertise.
Sure, and where the line is drawn now is why more people don't use Linux. I even use it for work, but still don't want to deal with the hassle at home. I am getting a new home pc soon, and I thought maybe linux is ready. So I started reading up. No, I do not want to have to reinstall the os several times before I get it right. I don't want another chore.
Perhaps you're simply more familiar with Microsoft / Apple, maybe it's not more difficult?
I too use Linux for work, but I have limited experience on Microsoft systems and have been on Linux based systems for over a decade. For me windows is a chore.
In my opinion, it's a matter of perspective and experience. Yours is aligned with something different, that's all.
I was reading pages about going linux only. Everyone I read warned people off about how it isn't easy and such. That was just one example. But for work linux is easier to support, hands down. I have supported both. But for my home pc... which surfs the web, plays games, and not much else... windows is sadly easier according to the pages I read.
Windows may be easier for games, they're exclusively written for Microsoft so that's to be expected ( although Valve has done a lot here).
Generally speaking, modern distributions like Fedora will be no more difficult than Windows or Mac. The important distinction is that it will be different.
Microsoft has spent a lot of effort putting their operating system into every single school and business on the face of the Earth and as a result many have decades of training with that OS. That doesn't mean their operating system is better or easier. It just means it's familiar. If you used Android for two decades and then picked up an iPhone, I'm sure that would be just as difficult.
In the scientific space, we've been using *nix systems since well before Microsoft was even around so our tooling doesn't typically support Microsoft. For us Microsoft is more difficult because that's the training that we have.
So, it's not that Linux has a worse user experience per se, rather it provides a different user experience. Some may consider shell scripts worse than control panel, but that's a preference. One isn't worse than the other. They are just different.
In my opinion:
The difference is in work, If your workflow is heavily Microsoft focused, Is a truly awful experience and you'll feel like a second-class citizen. But if you're working on technical things, the inverse is true, eg
For document production:
pandocFinally, it's not really fair to lump all the next distributions into the same bucket, Is over 1,000 distributions and they are all quite different, Only common element is the kernel.
Gentoo is very technical but it's also very interesting, Arch is similar. Fedora OTOH we'll usually walk out of the box And you have your choice of desktop environment with Good support for alternative window managers like sway/Hyprland etc.
So here is one of the pages I read... https://linux-gaming.kwindu.eu/index.php?title=Should_you_switch_to_Linux_gaming%3F I saw similar sentiment in other places as well. Sounds like you are saying this isn't the majority opinion?
Overall, I have a strong dislike for apple in general, and I won't take a job where I have to work with windows ever again unless I am desperate. And I am also getting very tired of Microsoft's bs. But I don't want my main home pc to be a project either. I already use Firefox and a vpn. But every time some page doesn't work right I have to turn off the vpn, and try chrome before I know the problem is on thier end. And it usually isn't, well other than not supporting firefox and a vpn, but these are banks or doctors offices, I don't have a lot of choice in most of them. There is only so much of that I am willing to do on my main home pc. But overall, I would like to be part of the solution, as long as I am a target user, which from what I have read, I am not.
You don't have to compile your own kernels you know that right?
Nice. My info was from googling using Linux as a home pc. So it may be a gate keeping attitude or it may be fact. I don't want to fight with my home pc that just browser the web and plays games. Oh... I guess it runs turbotax in april.
What do you mean?