Sometimes, I get tired of Linux
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- Опубликовано: 18 июн 2024
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00:00 Intro
00:24 Sponsor: Check out TuxCare's newsletter for news about Linux
01:09 Parts of the community are holding Linux back
03:08 Less visual innovations
05:22 Duplication of effort
08:03 99% there, forever
10:00 Hardware choice
12:43 Parting thoughts
13:11 Sponsor: get a PC made to run Linux
14:02 Support the channel
#Linux #opensource
First, the community. It's plagued by individuals who resist change. They see Linux as a closed, elite society where only the most tech-savvy belong. Any enhancement, especially ones that make Linux more user-friendly, are seen as a watering down of the 'pure' Linux experience.
What they don't realize, or what they count on, maybe, is that this attitude creates barriers. It can deter newcomers who might have over time become active contributors, offering help, or maybe even code.
Second, there was a time when each new update brought with it some big, shiny feature that got us all excited.This isn't just nostalgia speaking - Linux desktops truly received constant innovation and big changes.
But as Linux desktops have pretty much matured, the updates have started to lose some of that 'wow' factor. The focus has shifted more towards refining what we have, and towards backend work, with stuff like pipewire, wayland, portals and the like, and there's certainly a lot of value in that. However, it does make the system less thrilling for me.
Third: fragmentation in the development process. Now, when I say 'fragmentation', I'm not just talking about the huge number of distros available. See, the Linux community has people with their own way of how they want to use their computers. This diversity often leads to differing paths.
Everyone wants their idea of what Linux should be to be the one everyone works on. And if no one works on it, they'll start it themselves, even if there's a project that already does 99% of what they want.
In turn, this lack of concentrated effort can slow down the overall progress of Linux.
The next thing is what I'll call the 99% there status. What I mean by that is that on Linux, we very often get a feature or an app up to 99% of the features of its proprietary counterpart. But we never reach 100%. We make fast progress on all fronts, but we never completely go all the way.
And this is frustrating, because while personally, I'm ok with 99%, I also know that this missing 1% will be the perfect excuse for someone to not stick with Linux.
To finish, hardware choice and support. What happens when you want to stray from Linux manufacturers and take a walk on the Windows side of the market? Well, that's where things can get a bit... unpredictable.
Let's take a look at some examples. You've got your external peripherals, things like streaming gear or specialized controllers. While these devices will always have drivers for windows, and often for macOS, with Linux, it can be pretty hit or miss. Even when we look at newer form factors, like touchscreens, 2-in-1s, or even something that mimics the functionality of a Microsoft Surface device - the options available that run Linux natively are few and far between, if they even exist at all.
Even something as seemingly straightforward as a fingerprint reader can become a nightmare.
So, when you use Linux, you either have to be content with the hardware selection from various Linux manufacturers, or you have to be prepared for some potential hurdles when it comes to hardware compatibility. It's not an insurmountable challenge, by any means, but it's certainly something to keep in mind as you plan your Linux journey. 
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Another video that wasn't edited by myself! Let me know what you thought about it!
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I think the edit is good! Maaybe a bit "over edited" with "swooshes" a bit too often and a bit too fast cuts, but overall really nice I think! :)
A bit over-edited, but generally good!
@@MattiasLindagreed.
The new way you're editing your videos is okay, the whooshing sound is a bit much though I think.
I don't have a preference between the new way you edit your videos and the way you edited them a few months ago.
I feel like the video is cut too quickly when you're done saying something. It often feels like you barely finish your sentence before it cuts to the next thing. I think it would be nice to have just a little bit of time where nothing is happening between segments
Reporting bugs on distro's forum is equal to starting a fight in a pub. So much hate.
Some people just can’t accept the thing they use isn’t perfect… it’s really annoying
@@TheLinuxEXP Man,dont pay attention to LTT s Trolls Farm,MS use the same tactic as that russians"troll s farms"...on twetter,instagram,whateaver
Most distro's (all?) have a bug-tracker for that, forums are not meant for reporting bugs.
@@skynetisreal still don't justify people being pissed by mere characters written on the screen
Linux Mint forums are quite friendly and helped find an answer to even the stupidest questions people have
What annoys me is simply the graphics stack. Broken drivers, no HDR, broken VRR, poor compositors, missing features like raytracing, PRIME bugs, inexplicably low freamerates on my external monitors, the Wayland transition taking 14 years.
That annoys me. A lot.
Yeah, it feels slow…
Broken drivers? Sure maybe with Nvidia but not and. The correct drivers are already built into the kernel
@@motoryzenrong. RDNA 3 is completely and unequivocally broken in dozens of ways. And I’m not the only one. I’ve spent days playing with kernel parameters together with similarly affected users on Reddit.
@@motoryzenunless you want AMF to work with OBS and/or Davinci Resolve
Man, I sure do love my 6800xt.
As an open source developer, sometimes you end up forking a project because the original author goes MIA or stops responding to pull requests. It's often a hard decision, because it's often made knowing you'll fracture the community, but the hope is that you'll be able to build something that will be better for everyone long term. It's unfortunately not always as clear-cut as this video made it seem.
Worse, they just drop support for the software you use and now you have to maintain your own fork
Im forking kali undercover right now! Trying to get it on linux mint without errors.
There is also a lot of struggle to get something (even a side-feature) to work on a main branch.
I was looking for ways to adapt Joplin notes to SSG once, and it was incredibly annoying to see an enthusiastic guy wanting to make a main plugin have to change the template language because one of the lead devs talking was insisting on handlebars and other minor complaints that eventually led to well, the project not being done.
Basically GNOME, they has to have the most hostile devs ever lol
for a big one in that is why the triforce emulator exist the dolphin did not wanted to add support for that arcade system so they forked it
I feel like the divide between the general population and the "Linux community" is that the former group just want their computers to work, but the latter want to work on their computers
Isn't that the same for televisions, radios, washing machines and refrigerators, lawn movers cars, motorcycles as well?
When I am using a car there are certain things I am expected to know - like what's the engine, exhaust, clutch, gearbox, battery, chassis and tires, and some maintenance processes like changing tires.
Sure you can use your car without knowing all this, but you will be the one stuck on the road not being able to explain to the mechanic what has even gone wrong.
If you don't learn how to use your operating system you are in that category
@@aravindpallippara1577are you saying it should be expected of everyone to have technical knowledge of how televisions, dishwashers, lawmakers etc work in order to just use them? I would say that’s very unrealistic
@@galaxybounce1002 You shouldn't need to know how something works in order to use it, but if you are going to own it you should know the basics. These basics should be in the owner's manual. For cars you'd have things like the importance of oil for engines, or proper tire pressure.
@@eDoc2020 I'm not sure how often you actually interact with non technical people. Its not just zero interest in the topic it's negative intrest. People want the minimum steps to perform the action their interested in, not whats actually happening when they perform those steps. Get out of your bubble
@@1funnygame If they don't want to learn because they have other things to do then of course that's fine. If somebody has an explicit _negative_ interest in the workings of something I would argue they shouldn't be using it. The car owner who knows to change engine oil is going to be a happier owner than the one who doesn't know to get their oil changed.
Sometimes I just want to play game no matter on which OS and source code.
Yeah, sometimes I stop caring too 😅
Absolutely, this is why I've just dedicated my gaming rig to windows and my everyday laptop to Linux. I use the right tool for the job I need. I play new online multiplayer games all the time with friends and when I tried making it work with Linux it would always cause more pain than it's worth when windows it just works. No scripts, no special modifiers, no needing to ensure the work around hasn't changed (happens a lot). I could care less what people's opinions are because I'm gaming how I want and it works
@bigbay1159 You do realize dual booting is a thing too? It's really easy with two or more drives.
ahhh, me too
@@cameronbosch1213well aware but it literally means nothing to me. The gaming rig is literally the only thing it does, it has no other purpose, no streaming I don't even really use it for browsing the web, I have my laptop next to me that hosts discord, RUclips etc.... So for MY context windows is the only thing needed for my gaming rig. Since dual booting is a waste of time and partition space, there is nothing dual booting would add to my experience for souly gaming rig that plays new online multiplayer games
Most Linux videos YT algorithm recommends me are about Linux, distros and graphical environments. I miss more videos about the Linux programs to get stuff done. I think many non-linux users are afraid of switching to Linux because the focus seems to be in the OS instead of what you can do with it (professionally for example).
I would agree with that. I am not a Linux user but watch a number of videos and many many of them seem to see the selling point as either 'digging into the guts' / learning about all the intricacies of the OS or 'look how pretty I can make it' with how they can put windows, tiles, widgets all over the place to become unique. Maybe a tech version of getting tattoos to stand out and self identify or something. :D Even at the end of this video Nick was mentioning the customizability.
thats because only a dingus would use a distro that is not well known or has a huge user base, thats why fedora and ubuntu are used in industry, for home use i can recommend kde plasma with arch base, if you dont wanna bother setting it up just get garuda os
I've been a fortunate newbie for the most part. I've been told off for using an older laptop to install linux on that would have ended up as e-waste otherwise. I was also told once "if you can't do (insert thing) then maybe you shouldn't even use a computer". Sometimes it's not a case of not wanting to learn. Sometimes it's not knowing where to look because the error message/ code you type into search gives a just as cryptic explenation to what it means or a dead end solution. "Sucks to be you, get a better distro/ supported hardware" kind of attitude. I've managed to fumble through it for the most part and avoid most of the rudness and elitism that can come out of the various linux factions.
The sad thing is that this is one thing that seems to have changed for the worse; it used to be common to use Linux to extend the life of older hardware because, really, what did people need Linux for that required the latest hardware anyway? The rise of Linux gaming and especially Proton has shifted those demographics quite a bit; now people want to not just run the latest games, but the latest games from companies that are openly hostile toward Linux. And I don't want to be one of those purists, but like...these people literally dumped their entire OS over Microsoft's unethical behavior, but then turn around and drop $60 on the latest game from companies like EA and Activision, but _we're_ the idiots for wanting to save our own computers from the landfill? SMH
Haha, got to love that irony.
"Linux will run ten times faster on the same hardware as Windows and gets much longer support for new features and capabilities!"
"Oh cool, so my old dual core laptop will run like new?"
"Ew, hell no. Why would you want to do that? You have to go buy a new octo core with 32GB of RAM so you can sit there and appreciate how it only uses 1% of your resources."
Learning to solve anything by yourself is probably the best skill you need in linux anyways
@LovePoison23443 the issue I had that I did solve I don't even know how it was fixed. After the fixes and trouble shooting didn't work first 5 times per the guides, wiki and support forums it just... worked the 6th time.🤷 Not sure I really learned anything
@@VektrumSimulacrum well those issues kinda exist, but are the minority
My big issue is mostly with the attitude of a lot of people who have "mastered" Linux and tell newbies looking for help on something to "just read the manual". Which is often not as simple as that, because those manuals are written in a language that assumes you already have a certain degree of understanding of things. When I first started experimenting with installation and ricing of window managers and panels, and I looked at e.g. i3/Polybar manuals, there were instructions there that used terms I did not know the meaning of (e.g. "add a bar boostrap routine to config" - what is a bootstrap? What exactly do I type to add it there?, etc). There is a lack of basic manuals that will explain what the basic things mean (and especially how syntaxes work), before you tell a newb to do X thing in Y file.
Then there are also things that aren't mentioned anywhere in manuals because they are specific to every user's situation, and you can't realise what the problem is until you brainstorm with actual people. e.g. when I was first trying to use icons instead of names/numbers as Polybar workspace titles, I did everything the two manuals (for i3 and Polybar) said, but was getting squares instead of icons. I was given some hints on Reddit but it still wasn't working, and then while I was in conversation with another user, they suggested I try a different font, and that fixed it. Neither manual had mentioned anything about icons possibly not working with some fonts, and your head is so loaded with different possibilities of the source of the problem being linked to some string in these new configs/apps you are learning that you probably will not think of something like that.
People are already taking a lot of initiative and spending a lot of time from their lives to learn Linux. Let's not make it even harder for them and have clear and newb-friendly introductions to things, so we can grow the FOSS alternative to the corporate software model.
Really agree with your comment. In another video, Nick himself mentioned how Windows has several GUI tools for computer management making it so much easier to troubleshoot problems for a newbie. On linux, I didn't even know half of the CLI tools (like powerctl or something) that exist. Even with access to the man pages and ArchWiki and all the forums, I don't usually know what exactly to search for when trying to figure how to do something like what you mentioned.
Lol , what manual? I use Mint, so it's easier, but I still have to search for the answer and hope that it's something that other people have dealt with
Advanced tools require advanced prerequisite knowledge.
@@SnakePlissken25 Do any of the forums, guides and people who tell newcomers how cool and useful and fun things such as window managers and bars are present them as "advanced tools" and tell those newcomers they need "advanced prerequisite knowledge" to start out with them? Did everyone who got into those things start with "advanced prerequisite knowledge"? Are there manuals that explain those "advanced prerequisites" before those people get to those "advanced tools"? And then even if the answer to all of those questions was "yes" - which it isn't - that still doesn't change anything in my point that telling people "just read the manual" when it is clear they do not have that "advanced prerequisite knowledge" is neither helpful to those people nor to the idea of promoting FOSS and bringing more people in.
@@SvalbardSleeperDistrict And expecting people that VOLUNTEER to provide support FOR FREE on forums to answer questions that have been answered before ad nauseam (which is why the manual was written in the first place), and on top of that to provide free computer literacy lessons when it's outside of the scope of the project or the system that their forum is about is entirely unreasonable. Yes, to tinker with components of an operating system, you need to know what an operating system is, and to some extent - how the specific one that you tinker with is built, and to be familiar with its logic. Yes, tinkering with OS components is indeed an advanced topic in that context.
My biggest annoyance so far in using Linux as a daily driver in my own personal desktop PC is definitely the graphic stacks. No matter if I use AMD or NVIDIA, there will always be something broken or not right (i.e. AMD RDNA2 power management issue requiring a udev script to "fix", AMD Vulkan driver shenanigans, NVIDIA being NVIDIA in general). It just gets so tiresome a lot of the time. The relevant parties need to do a lot better.
No complains with Intel so far by me 😅
@ That's because Intel is a decent vendor that supports Linux well.
It's not a Linux problem, it's a hardware vendor problem.
Hardware support has always been interesting on Linux. So I have one older AMD machine that used to run Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04 with no issues then after some updates way back when it just randomly hardcore locks up ever since even newer Ubuntu versions or any debian derivative including debian itself. Strangely PopOS runs without locking up and I have been playing with arch based Garuda with no issues either. I have tried so many boot options etc. to isolate the cause but to no avail. Then I have an old flatbed scanner that works fine with Linux because it provides a wrapper for the old driver firmware whereas it just won't work in windows 10 because the scanner company went out during the xp days. And a wifi laser printer that works with base Linux generic driver but requires manufacturer driver for windows 10. Those are two happy exceptions for me.
This is why I shill Intel. They aren't flawless, but at least I'm happy with my intel laptop and the bugs that I reported got fixed timely.
I’ve used Linux since the early 90’s (yes, I’m an old fart) and the Yggdrasil distribution on a cd. I was also a certified HP-UX administrator for many years. The problems you mentioned have been my concern ever since then. I am still appalled at the treatment of many newbies that I see. Now in retirement, the gui is important for me to work with photos, even though I am very comfortable in the command line as well. Thank for another thought provoking video.
Damn you really hit the feels for me with that second point. I remember when I was younger always looking forward to every new Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint release, to see the new big features and styles and headlining stuff. This was around the time when Ubuntu introduced Unity, Gnome dropped version 3 and Linux Mint became popular. It just felt so much more polished and alive but still human in a weird way. This was before I learned about the various desktop environments and I got more knowledgeable about Linux, so maybe it's just rose tinted glasses, but damn it was a good time 🙂
Yeah it’s probably mostly nostalgia, but still…
@@TheLinuxEXP Yep but it would be awesome to see some new creative ideas in the Linux world actually grow out and mature, like Ubuntu used to do
Your opinions are valid, but there is another side to that.
I use my computer for a few hours a week, not full time. That means that time taken learning a new gui is proportionally more for me than it probably is for you
Because in the days you are nostalgic for, I would put off distro updates the way Win-users put off moving to the next Windows major version: to avoid the relearning costs.
So I agree with you that this shift has happened: most disastrous have gone from revolutionary to stable in terms of updates since I started with Linux in the nineties.
However, for my needs that is a good thing, not a bad. Familiarity is good for me, better than (what I felt to be) excessive change.
@@trueriver1950 Sure, I 100% see your point as I very often have to deal with older relatives who know little to nothing about computers struggle to do basic tasks because Windows changes stuff or because of some glitch, so from a utilitarian point of view I totally see what you mean. But just like most people see their cars as a utility to go to work and not much more, there are people who are excited about new and shiny stuff, and get expensive/innovative cars because that's just their thing. That was the same thing with the innovations in desktops in 2012-2016. Also luckily the Unity GUI at least remained after they discontinued it in 17.10 because the new GNOME based thing is basically identical because of familiarity (and because it was iconic, that sidebar means Ubuntu even for non technical people, you could immediately spot Ubuntu among a sea of corporate PCs just for that reason)
Why can't Linux just be fast and stable not one or the other and not have any bugs like some android phones
To be honest, a large number of things you mentioned are why I quit Linux on the desktop and only stick to servers these days. Professionally, I manage thousands of Linux servers and at the end of the day when I go home and want to play a game, I just want it to work. For now, at least, my rig runs windows because all of my games, components, and peripherals function without any hassles.
I'm a Windows user but even I don't use the latest versions of Windows, because I just need things to work when I sit down at a computer. The older I get, the less I care about tinkering and personalising an OS.
I here yeah man, that is why I have a dedicated gaming PC with windows, it does nothing else but play games. And I play the newest online games with my buddies, we constantly buy new games, and for that reason when I get off work, also working on servers lol. I just want to turn it on, pick literally any game I want even buy any random game and know it works.
I tried going with Linux and I had high hopes but sometimes I have sleeping daughter in same room. And I can't turn of freaking rgb on my RAM sticks because why would I have compatible RAM with OpenRGB, right? They will not stop pewing fucking rainbow. Other than that I am on the same boat of working my ass off the whole day and not having enough time and desperation to go to Linux. Also Overwatch does not work and I like this game. Sad times 😢
@@FlyboyHelosimAmen. I’m a DBA running Oracle on Linux IRL. When I end my workday, the last thing I want is to screw around with a desktop.. which I why I went to Apple. Maybe when I was younger.. 30 years of windows problems just pushed me to Apple. Games after work? Solitaire.
Similar here. Using Windows on my PC because I want my games to just work without having to do anything special but outside of that I use Linux for almost everything else, including the laptop for uni and work. Even when writing code on my PC I use WSL so I can be on Linux as much as possible. At least in a few years we may reach the point where gaming on it becomes good enough for me to ditch Windows for good.
Linux being "boring" in the sense that it isn't rapidly changing all the time is actually one of my favorite features honestly. I adopted a mentality of "what's going to break this time" on my Windows work machine, or "what stupid new feature will I have to disable next". On my Linux machines, the biggest change in the same period was Gnome going horizontal... which I couldn't have cared less about. (though to be fair that really irked a lot of people)
Yep, 100%. I absolutely hate change that I can't control. My least favourite days are those where I find out that something I rely on is changing and I have to waste countless hours adapting to that change, hours that I could be using much more fruitfully.
stop lying
For those who want constant changes, they should use bleeding edge distros.
Same here. I actually rather dislike having to upgrade Debian every couple of years or so.
I'd rather things stayed more or less the same. Exactly the same, if possible.
Even upgrading to KDE Plasma 5.27 was a distressing experience due to all the minor changes to the GUI.
Which is why, at the end of the day, it sometimes pays off to do things using the terminal as the commands are immutable.
Some of you act like it's the Vista days when it comes to windows. Windows for all its flaws is stable and rarely breaks if you have even a tiny bit of computer knowledge. Linux feels like the XP days, especially when it comes to gaming. I want Linux to be a viable alternative for the general masses, but let's call a spade a spade. Change is good, even if mistakes are sometimes made. Humanity and tech is about progression.
The gatekeeping thing certainly rubs me the wrong way everytime. "Using locale-gen is debian-ism" was a sentence i found recently
gatekeeping is a must , diversity is weakness
@@orkhepaj im with you
that’s exactly the reason why I purposely use locale-gen
To prove them wrong and piss them off
@@orkhepajwtf does that even mean
@@orkhepaj Is this a N*zi manifesto or Linux elitist comment?
You brought up a point that i dont think is as bad as you say it is, updates that dont change your distro extremely drastically isnt a bad thing, reinventing the wheel means everyone has to learn how to use that new wheel, whereas improving the wheel just means you have to slightly change your approach, i don like having to completely relearn how to use my computer every update, a great example is the jump from ubuntu 22:04 to 23:04, the new version is absolutely amazing, it kept the same feel as ubuntu while improving the user experience, i love being able to switch my bluetooth devices and wifi without opening the settings app, and that alone is enough for me to want to switch regardless of the other improvements canonical made, which they made several, refinement is a perfectly good reason to update an OS in my eyes
there are issues, but the work done by volunteers is just amazing. look at how far gnome has come and how well it works. love these people.
Oh yeah, it’s awesome!
so is it not fugly anymore?
@@orkhepajGnome imho still looks chunky and ugly. Also the whole gnome extensions thing is a pain in the ass. KDE blows it out the water, QT really is a great experience to work with as well. GTK and glib again pain in the ass
@@jonforhan9196 good to know thx
KDE would be a better example, GNOME at least have Red Hat and other companies paying them for their work, and still lacks some basic features.
They should make an Linux app where you could upvote what you want fixed and send money tip into a pot for upvoting something to get done. Then a dev could focus on that problem and receive the tip pot directly.
There’s a thing called quadratic funding that’s used to fund public goods development in crypto (Gitcoin). I think open source/Linux development would explode if we had a similar thing and I wish we did
I like that. Users should vote with their wallets. I contribute monthly to Linux Mint, and I don't care what they use that money for, but I'd pitch in extra to get some thing taken care of and this would be a great way to do it.
The mouse being in the middle of the screen the whole time really made me irrationally angry. Bad Nick. No sudo for a week.
Not my sudo 😞
doas supremacy
@@midann su is fun.
The community is the reason i dont even bother with asking questions or interacting with them. I love helping people and talking with others that love the same thing but i would rather talk to chatgpt.
Same. I've been using Google's Bard for a lot of small questions now. At least it doesn't tell me to use what they use for the 6th time.
@@skelebro9999 or treat you like you're an idiot for not knowing what they know. 😞
@@KR1ML0N Yeah. It's so sad.
Well it's still better than Windows when it goes " :( " instead of providing actual info.
Yeah it's even worse on certain sites. You search up and down for an answer to something, and when you find someone who's asked a similar question they get dogged on for asking a "stupid question" when you don't even always know if a question is stupid or not. They just expect you to already be a developer or something.
@skelebro9999 oh yes I can't stand the random reboot with a qr code that doesn't show any useful information and in logs the same. What's the point of logs. At this point they don't want you to know so you have to pay them to have a person who doesn't care tell you idk also.
This editing was done much better than the last one. Pretty darn close to your typical style.
Great Work. As other have pointed out, the woosh effect is a little loud, but other than that.
Yeah, still need to tweak the sound effects!
I agree you know you'll always find something that will bug you about an OS or software!! It doesn't matter who you are.
Yeah, that’s true! There isn’t any perfect OS
@@TheLinuxEXP Windows 7 would like a word with you. 😈
@@FlyboyHelosim BeOS enters the chat...
@@musicalneptunian... and swiftly exits. 😂
There's one thing that I have learned after daily driving Linux: At the end of the day, if you have a system that works the way you want, the OS really doesn't matter.
If you care about resource usage and don't want telemetry, then Linux is great. If you don't care about any of that and just want to play online games, then Windows might be better for you.
Windows customizability is simply subpar. After a decade on Linux, i can't get used to Windows defaults and Linux direct competitor isn't Windows, but the *BSDs.
@@Sharp931 Windows Customisation has always been kind of a grey area, I remember back in Vista (I didn't really experiement much with xp, too young back then) there was tons of custom themes but as windows progressed the amount of people creating custom themes seems to have dropped.
dpcdpc11 on gumroad makes some really nice themes but you gotta pay for them. Mostly for Windows 10 but he's started porting them to Windows 11 (only 2 for 11 so far)
But as you said, compared to Linux customisation is subpar
hopefully we can have a linux distro that can do both.
I care about resource usage and telemetry and want to play online games 🙃
@@koromau3854 Then just be like me and dual boot both Windows and Linux.
I think the first step to mitigate fragmentation is the creation and adoption of a common standard before implementing each new feature.
Sometimes you need lot of experimental project to really see what is the best, like gui in Rust rn. Imo
I think that is only part of a solution. Those standards will need updates as time goes on, and laters a change of standard will also be necssary. It would require constant and very consistent communication. And the more difficult part: Actually getting people to agree.
That's the issue though, is that none of the major players can agree to anything unified and to make it worse some feel that goes against the philosophy. As discussed numerous times even by linus Torvalds is software packaging standards. There's so many and none of them work together by design, flat pack, app image, debs, rpm, etc. If you can't unify how software is loaded into a system then making progress on many other things is just near impossible
I think Godot is a great example of how to manage open source projects while keeping everything organized
That's the opposite of how innovation works though. Standards evolve AFTER the various implementations have been tried out.
The fragmentation is the "survival of the fittest" process that needs to happen before we know what works, which we then (hopefully) standardize on.
Who should be the oracle that determines what will work and what will not? And why should a software engineer, working for free on a passion project, follow the rules (aka standards) made by someone from a competing project with a different vision?
100% agree about the community. That has been one of the biggest barriers of entry for me. This is especially the case when asking how to do something. I swear that 90% of the time they just reply with "You shouldn't do that." instead of telling me what I want to know. This is not a new issue by the way. I've run into this for at least the past 15 years.
my favourite is when you mention something being broken or missing, the usual reponse is for you to go and code the fix yourself and submit a pull request.
From my experience in the Linux community, that's usually just a really tactless condescending way of saying "You're asking the wrong question, what are you actually trying to accomplish at the top of whatever chain of thinking led you here."
@@shogakusha No, it's usually shit they don't wanna tell you because it's "Not proper security procedure" when I don't give a fuck and I just need my offline data recovery machine to do something without prompting me for credentials every five fucking seconds.
It really depends on what you are asking. Many people come with some rather bad ingrained habits from Windows and try to replicate things like opening scripts on double click or using a file manager/DE session as root, and those are pretty terrible ideas that shouldn't be encouraged.
Of course, we'd have to know your specific issue but many times it just boils down to a matter of Linux having a different idiosyncrasy to whatever you were using before, which will require you to adapt to it.
@@TakumiJoyconBoyz yeah the password every 5 seconds is a deal-breaker, at least windows prompts are one click. fixed by editing sudoers, if a one-user personal computer can't be secure without prompting for a full password entry every time you install a program, theres something wrong with your entire security model. meanwhile half of linux users just copy and paste random code of the internet trying to fix linux not working right (ofc), and enter sudo password every time. meanwhile they're fine running rooted Androids giving APKs full superuser access without expiration
2:00. What topic I see often is the gate keeping of wayland. Some developers don't agree with wayland and see it as useless. Like for example wayland support in appimages when someone made pull request that allow wayland support but the developer didn't want to accept the changes just because the topic was wayland.
This will be rant-ish.
You just need to accept fact that some choices are antithetical to each other:
How do you expect to agree telemetry with anti-telemetry user?
Or person who likes menu-paradigm with GNOME-paradigm on menus?
Also there are people that based their workflow on some linux DE that then decides to axe the function they were using.
This all compound to real issue - users/admins alienated from their community.
Wayland is great example - for you it may seem basic/good enough/great - for WM user not so much.
They see it as useless because X11 works enough while wayland does not for them.
They do not want to support the approach because then they will be allowing spread of this approach and it will inevitably repress their approach.
You also need to understand that some people would like things that are not noob friendly by their nature - arch devs are great example here.
You have people that do not like direction that linux mainstream went into - people who would want more user voice in development.
There is your Trinity DE guy somewhere there - who just want to keep their DE irrelevant of everything else.
And finally you have the person who does not have anything against the noobs - it's just that when DE developer writes "we need to axe this and that because it's not common user friendly" once, twice… twelfth time. When they disagree with your merge because it's "unnecessary, niche and will distract or confuse 'common user' "when all of this compounds with "why the hell I need to recompile piece of software with one line patch" and fact that some users went to linux Because they disagreed with mainstream choices, seeing DE developer acting like "we need to be mainstream even if we become like mainstream" you may get that not happy reaction.
Maybe the solution is to not axe everything, maybe it is to give community more voice about project, maybe solution is not making 180° on what users perceive as essence of project, maybe you should not participate on the project if you want to transform it - and if you really want to transform it then maybe fork it and do it there. And maybe we shouldn't create new standards for whole of linux haphazardly or on the go. Or maybe everything.
@@void6623 that merge request I was mentioning would increase support on Wayland. Doesn’t impact x11. Forking appimages and making another version would be so pointless because all that does is increase more package standards. Wayland isn’t for newbies (just because gnome supports it) and at the time Wayland was getting more devs and better graphical performance and fractional scaling. Just by rejecting something that just increases the support in my opinion is idiotic.
@@JoshuaT902
"Just by rejecting something that just increases the support in my opinion is idiotic." - I didn't say that it isn't idiotic :) just that it can be understood - and if community can understood mechanism that creates issue then they can at least try not to create more of that. [ leaving aside linux libertarians - which you cannot force to follow anything ].
"Doesn’t impact x11." - "increase support on Wayland." you get that these are exclusive? The person in question understood that if he gives support to wayland more people will switch to it and x11 will die faster - so he slows it down by that. [to be clear I understand but not doesn't support his actions].
"Wayland isn’t for newbies (just because gnome supports it)" but as I wrote most WMs do not support it - so most of WM (non-sway) users will not like wayland - you can easily see this dynamic on youtube.
Rest were not directly about your case - it was more about (rant-ish) what creates "gatekeeping" on linux in general.
for an interesting example of open source fragmentation is with custom android roms
overall, the main developers of the roms out there made the asop (andriod open source project) alliance to reduce doing the same work for 3 or 4 different roms when doing it once would be perferible
True, Android is a perfect example of this!
Yeah, I didn't get why vendors used custom kernels and forks (feels more like reskins) of AOSP, it might not be the prettiest thing in the world but it is definitely sufficient and would save the manufacturer a lot of money....
@@JordanPlayz158Vendors? Because they want to make their phones "unique" and advertise to you even after you bought the phone.
@@doctahjonezlocking you into their ecosystem is another big reason.
@@zmc9403 that too
About the hardware support for convertibles, personally, I bought an HP Envy 2-in-1 and I found it pretty amazing: the touchscreen, the tablet mode, the Webcam shutter and everything just worked OOTB.
That is, until I noticed that the speakers were unsupported lol.
So for what I've seen I'd say that even convertible laptops are well supported today, it's just that Bang&Olufsen technology that makes a pretty funny case.
I didn't face almost any of those issues, but it's because I've never used literally any peripherals. I don't have a biometric option on my laptop either. But I've seen similar problems faced by some people in the community. I hope it gets solved, because I'm thinking of switching to a new PC in a few months, and I don't want most of those issues.
I did face some issues with the Libre office having not-so-perfect compatibility with the document support, but that's common with other closed source softwares as well. So I can't really be mad at them.
I am quite new to Linux and I must say, that the refinement of Linux is the thing that made me switch to it from Windows. I tried to switch couple of times before, but it was not so pleasant of an experience as it is now. So I get what you are saying about excitement of the "new thing", but I think the refinement was needed.
I wonder if the IEEE would be able to address some of the standardization issues you highlighted. They already maintain POSIX so it might be a natural fit for them. Perhaps Ecma or ETSI in Europe.
The Hardware Choice section really spoke to me. As somebody who likes 16 : 10 screens, the only option with an ANSI keyboard was the System76 Oryx Pro, but that device didn't have an RTX 4080 or 4090 option and the screen was quite lower resolution for a 16 inch laptop.
So I went to two Windows options, and NEITHER had working speakers and one didn't have working Wi-Fi on the live environment (but did once I installed the distro).
Linux-first hardware is probably oging to be the biggest problem for Linux users. If users could just buy a laptop from a well-known brand like Lenovo, Dell, or HP, with Linux preinstalled, then I think a lot more people would use Linux. Unfortunately, we have the problem that fewer and fewer OEMs are offering Linux options, and those options that are provided often have major compromises or just don't exist, because Microshaft wants OEMs to _only_ use Winblows.
I ended up buying a Framework Laptop 16 and am having to deal with no CUDA or DLSS support (because no Nvidia dGPU for the moment) and I'm screwed until the end of the year when I get it. However, many other Framework Laptop 16 buyers will be screwed until _2024,_ because that's when their laptops will ship out...
TL;DR, if more devices came preinstalled with Linux from better known brands, I think Linux would have broken 4% if not 5% of personal computer market share. If Microshaft had actually gotten broken up in the 2000s at their peak by the U.S. government, I think Linux would be in a much better position as well...
honestly linux is nice as an os on a secondary device, have a gaming laptop with a gtx 1050 and tried using different flavors of linux for a while until i got a chromebook and replaced chrome os after a few weeks with linux mint
its unfortunate cuz i love linux and foss in general and i dont wanna use it just on a secondary device but certain hardware just doesn't have linux in mind
Supposedly framework has started offering GPU modules for the 16! So far I think it's only AMD, but hopefully someday we'll get nvidia options.
I really want a framework laptop but they're so expensive, but I'm definitely saving up for one. I'm not scared to get my hands dirty with the build it yourself edition (I built my gaming rig already) so at least I'll get somewhat of a discount.
How do you like it so far? How does linux run on it and what distro did you choose?
@@RedVRCC I have one. It runs Linux well and I use Arch (btw) on it. Even the fingerprint sensor worked on KDE Plasma 6 & GNOME!
@@cameronbosch1213 nice! That's great to hear. I'm a beginner to linux so I'm hoping that mint or kubuntu will work just as well on it and recognize the fingerprint sensor. I still run win10 on my gaming rig because I'm not ready to take the plunge yet and have to figure out how to get all my games and peripherals to run, but on a laptop it's perfect for my needs.
I'm definitely looking forward to finally replacing my 8 year old lenovo yoga running mint on it with one of these amazing, user serviceable machines. The best part is that I can save money upfront and easily upgrade it later and even turn the old motherboards into a desktop pc, could be the perfect base to set up a NAS with or something.
I think we are very lucky to live in these times. I was a professional developer from the 80's to the present and I feel 'free' from big corporate control (i.e. Microsoft and Apple Mac).
In 2000 Microsoft thought they were were doing you a favour by sending you a bundle of software to the 'lucky few' for £200 which included Visual studio. Yippee I thought, but they were not clear on licence agreements. If you wanted to write software (e.g. in Visual Basic) and sell it, you had to sign a license to pay Microsoft. I've seen charities and small companies ripped off.
No More ! Linux is wonderful ! Linux is freedom ! Join the ride. I love it !
I'm not an open source contributor (yet), but I am super weary of loosing my passion for programming, and a sure fire way to kill that (to me) would be to prioritise what others want made over what I want to make, in the languages and frameworks that I enjoy writing. It makes sense to sacrifice this enjoyment when you're getting paid for it, not when you're volunteering your time. I am super grateful that linux exists and that it is such a joy to use nowadays, free to use and to modify (otherwise we'd be reinventing the wheel more), and until we can figure out how to pump more money into open source development, we need to remember that that thing you're waiting for, is someones passion project, who has a life, responsibility, other hobbies and probably a day job.
I just want to be an independent user of the hardware I own, without a company like microsoft using their position as leverage to get me to buy extra stuff or give them more data to sell, and yes, I want things to be more accessible so that my less techie friends and family can also have that.
There's always an exploration vs exploitation trade off, but unless you explore, you don't know what other options there are out there and what really is better, so I think project diversity is good. Besides, there's basically only 3 distros (fundamentally) and ideas do slowly seep laterally.
Edit: Also, nice clickbait ;)
I hear what you are saying and glad you found something you have passion for and enjoy doing. What you said in a nutshell is what Linux is all about and why it's stuck around for so long. On the flipside, it's why Linux is still not a viable option for the masses. Normies for the most part want something that "works" with minimum fuss.
I would hazard there are more than 3 distro lineages right now though (granted they are the most popular)
Apart from debian, fedora and arch we have ones like gentoo, void, nix which follows different philosophies and have different package managers
I really love that from time to time you call Linux (a thing you clearly really like) out on its problems. So many channels fall into blind fanboyism and see everything as perfect and untouchable, thus in the long run hurting whatever they like by not talking about whats wrong.
For me a huge thing that also boils my blood me with Linux (or whatever distro I'm using) is that some really basic stuff like config files or certain commands change every couple of years. There are few things I hate more than re-learning how to configure basic shit like my network cards, samba network mounts and how to autostart something, on a server without a GUI.
Also if we could at some day standardize config files to one format like json, yaml, xml it would be such a godsent.
The config file standardisation will never happen. It would mean that people who use nginx or apache have to relearn or change their config files. Config files shouldnt be necessary for the average user anyway. There should be guis for most things.
While the problem described are common user problems, but they're not simple at the slightest.
The community problem is kind of a dead end, you will always see the vocal parts of a community, which are often the ones complaining.
Combining development effort is way harder than you may expect, I have often wanted to extend a project but finding myself wanting to just make it myself, maybe because their styling is something I don't do, or it's just a different language, or a different approach, things may look similar but be fundamentally different under the hook, and it's often for that reason they are developed separately. The goal being the similar doesn't necessarily mean they can be easily pooled together
99%: that is just the long tail effect. The tiny bits and pieces are much harder to clean jp because at the branches, every feature has much less demand than bigger features, so only the much smaller group would be willing to work on it, causing it to take a long time to complete, that is, again, present everywhere
Hardware support: That's just unfair for Linux. MacOs and Window have majority market share by farrrr, and of course manufacturers would make drivers for those platforms. Expecting the community to support all obscure, or just lesser used hardware is hard, again, just like the previous point, the more specific something gets, the less general demand there is for it, and therefore less development. Only if manus are willing to support linux can this be solved, it's a catch 22.
Most of these will drive regular users away because they just want a smooth experience, and with little knowledge about the system, it can easily get very frustrating to fix, which is an issue with the majority of Linux users being technical users, so documentation would obviously be targeted towards those, and because there aren't many regular users, it is often less refined in thar aspect. There's no way to fast track this, as Linux currently is, you really do have to love it for being Linux to keep using, the friction will be larger than Windows and MacOs just due to the lack of time and users to refine everything, the only way for this to be fixed is for people with passion to slowly increase the userbase and have enough of a base number to have high demand for everything for 100% to be done, driver support, and the necessity for standardization. I just don't see another way this can be done. It will be a long time before it becomes smooth enough, or 99.99999% enough for it to be an actual consideration when someone is buying a computer/choosing an OS.
At last someone raised many issues. I would add some more, like some legacy stuff e.g hdparm still using units instead of straight. seconds, because during dinosaurs time it consumes less resources.
Great video, I agree with it all and would say it the same way for nearly every point.
My biggest complaint, is so much gatekeeping. If you are not a programmer, know multiple languages or a graphic designer, most projects won't help you get into to project/community. It turns off many really excited new users.
Yes, gatekeeping is an extreme turnoff, but do you remember LUGs? Now, there was a community that was helpful, welcoming, and it didn't matter whether you were a noob or a graybeard. The Internet is pure id and that's probably why the online forums are invariably terrible: no real interaction.
I began my GNU/Linux experience less than a year ago, after a decade of DOS, C64, Amiga and 3 decades of Windows. The ever encroaching privacy issues with each new windows version is what finally made me give linux a serious look. I distro hopped a few times and broke things more than once, but I learned things. There are minor issues and quirks that pop up from time to time, but looking back I don't think I spend any more time googling linux issues as I did googling windows issues. I've gotten every game I've ever tried working (some were harder than others). In my opinion Linux is the stronger OS of the 2. When I'm asked to play the I.T. guy from time to time, I now bring different tools and do what used to be challenging Windows problems with relative ease. Linux has allowed me to make some old forgotten systems usable again. I'm a realist in that I understand that most new hardware, firmware, software, drivers, and devices are developed for commercial reasons and so for the market share dominant Windows users and systems. The price that windows users have to pay for everything being made for them is that their information gets farmed and they get targeted advertising and tracked. So they can keep that released to first thing and I'll keep my privacy, thank you.
I support linux, but my god its exhausting at times
Which is why i keep a Windows machine when i need an important thing done quickly
I would be able to use libreoffice so much more if they had a citation manager that was even 75% of what Microsoft has, but I can't figure out how to insert in text citations, can't figure out how to have an auto generated bibliography, it would be so useful but it also isn't quite a big important feature
I was actually surprised that Libreoffice didn't pick up on system-wide installed fonts. Seems like something essential for a software suite like that.
Had to put the font into a specific folder to use it.
Linux is great as a hobby after a long time and that's just linux for me imo.
Windows has always felt like a tool for me while Linux just feels like a toy for adults. If only they learned from the secrets of what made Windows successful as an operating system, which is how I think Linux Mint earned its success.
It's a really exciting episode, you said every I want to say for a loooong time. Imagine all developers putting their hands together and making one big Linux project it really will defeat the big companies.
Thank you again for your hard work and effort in making the high-quality episodes.
I've used Linux for years as an everyday desktop user who doesn't dive deep into command line stuff. I prefer using the GUI and try not to overthink it. Linux can be like this for everyone.
I don't think parallel projects are inherently a bad thing. Seemingly small technical disagreements can cause serious animosity within a project, and at the same time, those technical details can lead a project to evolve along a very different path. Just look at the birth of DragonFly BSD.
Even when two projects are working toward roughly the same goal, I think it's a good thing to have competing projects. Some approaches will resonate more with some users than others, and big innovations made in one project can be ported to another, assuming they have compatible licensing. Look at the evolution of Slic3r into PrusaSlicer and SuperSlicer, and the evolution of Cura in parallel to them.
It comes back to discussions around the 2010s with respect to Linux lacking a clear brand identity. That was one of the concepts that pushed the GNOME Project into reeling back customizability with GNOME 3.x as compared to GNOME 2.X. The trouble is, that's just not what Linux is about.
The best analogy I can come up with is that comparatively proprietary actors in the OS space, namely Microsoft, Apple, and Google, can be likened to traditional music synths from companies like Yamaha, Korg, or Roland. Whereas Linux is more like a piecemeal Eurorack synth, made up of modules that adhere to some core standards enough to be integrated into a larger system, but otherwise have their own distinct aesthetic, and their own little quirks, and their own separate identities as independent products. The end result is this kind of cobbled-together Frankenstein's monster of a synth with a tangled spaghetti web of patch cables. It's not as easy to learn, and it doesn't have a distinct brand identity, but it's unbelievably flexible. Some people just stick to a handful of common modules and produce kind of a samey sound, some people go off the beaten path with weird and experimental modules, but everyone has the ability to find their own sound. Whereas if you got a Roland Jupiter, it's going to sound like a Roland Jupiter, end of story.
The chaos is the appeal.
Exactly this.
I use all three operating systems. They have their place and purposes.
Yep
Except for Windows 11's spyware and adware and macOS's locked down nature and extremely bad window management.
@@cameronbosch1213 Your criticisms are why people steer clear of Linux. Every operating system has major flaws.
Multi-booting is the way to go, at least for a IT enthusiast like me that likes to use, tinker and experiment with everything
If Nvidia didn't hate Linux I'd dual boot it on my desktop. As for Mac I'm not a devotee of fruit based electronics, and of course Hackintoshing won't be possible for much longer.
Of all the issues you mentioned i think the hardware support is the the most difficult one to resolve. I'm not against creating more distros but it needs to be at least some stable ones that we fall back to to get better support
Well, the last few releases of Ubuntu brought significant improvements for me:
18: Made PCIe passthrough super easy
22: marks the first time an operating system consistently handles my audio devices and switching between them correctly. And I mean OS, not just Linux. Windows just messed up differently, not less by any noteworthy margin. The diffrence was in Ubuntu 18 I found a way to script the workaround. In Win7 it was some manual GUI tickling. Among other things I had to disable and re-enable the audio device I wanted to be active. And if I was lucky that was ist. But that I had to do pretty much every time the system woke up or rebooted.
I have been trying to daily drive linux for quite some time now but there is always something that stops me...for instance, i installed fedora last month and it worked (and looks) great, gnome apps look good and consistent, gestures are smooth (better than windows ,to my surprise) and then after 2 days of being very happy, i had to attend a lecture, so I connected bluetooth earbuds and everything went downhill almost instantly, i just couldn't make it work without jitter, i struggled half a day with that and then just reinstalled windows.........i have come to realize problems i face with linux are hardware problems and NOT linux problems
If Linux distros wanted to introduce more people to the OS, then a good goal to strive for would be minimizing how often new users would have to use the terminal for basic and common tasks. As a Windows user, using the command prompt or powershell always feels like an advanced level task, and one where there's no way to explore or learn about the program within it's self. You have to know what you're doing or rely on an online guide. They aren't user friendly, but Microsoft knows this since nearly any program that runs in CMD is for rare use cases or mainly for power users.
Take robocopy for example: A majority of the people transferring files are either just gonna copy/cut and paste them to the new location, or upload them to the cloud through file explorer. robocopy is for a minority of users looking to copy a huge number of files efficiently, send files to a personal server, or use it as a backup method they have a lot of control over. robocopy doesn't need a GUI interface since it's uses are either rare or for power users, not for people just setting up Windows or doing basic tasks.
And sometimes there are programs that can be used both with Window's GUI and the command prompt. Chkdsk for example is a program that's rarely used, but one that should still have some accessibility since it's an important troubleshooting and error checking program that, if not used, could result in mass data loss at worst if the user notices anything weird going on with their drive. It can be accessible through the GUI with one button, and for a good chunk of people, that's good enough. But to anyone who wants a deeper scan, force dismount the drive, change where the log gets placed, what to exactly do when it finds errors, skip steps they are confident in it not finding any issues and so on, it can also be used in CMD where they can all make those choices.
CMD and Powershell are for power and advanced users, and Linux should treat it's Terminal the same. When I first had to use CMD, I was already pretty comfortable with Windows, which made me more willing to learn basically another operating system since CMD is kinda like DOS. If a majority of Linux users have to use the terminal to do a common task, then it's a bad user experience since trying to learn how to use the terminal is like learning how to operate a computer in the late 80's. If new Linux users can be comfortable with the OS before they learn how to use the Terminal, then both the learning curve and user experience will be better.
There’s a lot of truth there. DOS was a bit complicated but given some time was fairly straightforward to use in running programs. Linux in terminal is that but on steroids. That’s why sudo is soo important. Many users shouldn’t ever even attempt to do things in the terminal. It’s just a recipe for disaster. That said if there isn’t a proper GUI alternative we’re kinda already screwed. Now for some of the simple functions I find terminal to be much speedier than going through the GUI (updating the system rebooting ect). Many of the tools that are in the terminal need a GUI counterpart. This way when a user needs to do something they can bring up what they need without accidentally borking their whole system cause of a mistype somewhere.
Linux is not Windows, it's a different system, with a different approach, and it should do its own thing, and not try to imitate other approaches, even if they appeal to a larger audience. Using the terminal to do a relatively simple task is not "bad user experience", it's simply a user experience you're not used to; I, for example, find moving files around using GUI slow and cumbersome. Expecting different systems to have the same UX and the same approach to things is, well, pointless. Linux is not "a windows replacement"; It's Linux. It's not meant to cater to expectations from other systems or to the workflows of their users, or to imitate their UX, but to do its own thing, have its own workflows, form its own habits, and have its own UX. We already have one Windows. We don't need another one, that's the whole point.
@@SnakePlissken25 everything you said is exactly what was wrong in Linux that was mentioned in the video. Linux isn't a Windows alternative? How do you think this all started. Linux should just be it's own thing is why it's languished in not attracting new blood. You can have the terminal be the greatest thing since sliced bread. If it takes a month to understand it then you're failing miserably at it.
@@RobertWilke No, it's not a "Windows alternative". It never was, and it was never intended to be. It's its own system and environment, defined by the Linux kernel in combination with the GNU tools, and not an imitation of another.
How it all started? It started with Linus Torvalds wanting to use MINIX, also a type of UNIX, and not being able to do what he needed with it because of the license that MINIX used at the time. Windows has absolutely nothing to do with the creation of Linux. Linux is not meant to imitate Windows and its functionality, it's meant to be it's own thing, which it does really well, to the point where it basically dominates the infrastructure of the Internet, and can provide a solid desktop experience - but it's not a Windows desktop experience, it's a UNIX-like desktop experience, with its own workflows, use cases, and idiosyncrasies.
@@SnakePlissken25 geeze did you go to left field. Anyone worth their salt know why Linus started Linux. It doesn't matter how it started this is what it is for many now getting into it. Yes it runs spectacularly on the server side, that's one of it's strengths. People though saw the potential to be an alternative to using windows. That's why KDE. Gnome ect are used instead of just a black screen and a prompt. WE all know it's not a Windows clone sheesh. You want to stay there in your world of idiosyncrasies go right ahead. Others are trying to make this a more cohesive and understandable experience for newcomers.
It's been my experience that windows has its fair share of limitations and aggravations as well. Yea there is some tinkering and research you might have to do when buying or setting up peripherals in Linux but usually once you set it up it stays set up. I set up a win10 laptop a couple years ago and a update came through and wiped everything out. Yes I know updates can screw up any operating system but I never had the wholesale uninstall and elimination of tweeks I made to the system from any Linux distro I've ever used. Furthermore the huge variety of Linux options is from my perspective the greatest thing about Linux. I think if that HoloOS system you set up survives the test of time and updates you'll be better off than your giving it credit for in spite of the hassle you went through. This seems to me like you want a convenience store not a grocery store but you'll always pay a huge premium price for that convenience and it almost always comes with strings attached. The fact that anyone who has the desire to learn how can go the Linux from scratch route and basically create their own personal distro if they choose to is incredible to me. Someone wants something simple that usually just works and is familiar on the surface then go with Linux Mint or a whole host of others. Someone who made the effort to go a more advanced route will likely (even if unreasonably) expect everyone else to pay the same dues they did but that's true of people everywhere on pretty much every topic. "Back in my day I walked twenty miles to school, in a blizzard, uphill, both ways!"
Great video sir! I'm one of those Linux fans who sees the potential but still can't recommend it to my clients, family or friends yet. Starting to think that will never be the case. I'll never forget the time when I built 4 identical AMD FX based systems for our Dev Team and 3 of the 4 worked flawlessly with Ubuntu 12.04. But one of them simply refused to boot no matter what I did. So, I installed Windows 7 to see if I could run hardware diagnostics, see if it was a faulty board, ram, etc.
That same system ran flawlessly with Windows 7 for a full month. Not a single blue screen, crash, error.. nothing. Being confident it wasn't hardware at that point I installed Ubuntu 12.04 LTS again...same problem. Wouldn't run reliably to save it's own life. So until we decommissioned it and upgraded everyone in 2018 it ran Windows for it's entire life. We never did find out why, with the exact same hardware just that one system refused to run Linux.
But basically, that's always been my experience with Linux. When it works it's great! But when it doesn't...man.. it can be a nightmare and for no apparent reason sometimes. I still want it to be viable to recommend for everyday users someday but.... I'm afraid that day my never come.
Kinda agree with most of this tbh... the hardware issue is infuriating at times, the software for me personally not so much as with most things given enough time things tend to start working lol.
Overall though I think a lot of people are way too unwilling to even consider the fact that someone may have an issue they don't have or doesn't affect them and totally dismiss it. It's been a Linux "problem" IMO for at least the last decade or so, tbh it's probably gotten worse over the last decade as more and more people look for alternatives to "proprietary" stuff in almost all parts of their lives.
Keep up the great work Nick! Thank you for all the videos and content!
100% agreed. I feel like I've reached a point in my understanding of how Linux works that made me loop back to being frustrated that we haven't gotten that last 1%. The most frustrating part is that we can have major strides on different 1% issue... and then another 1% issue is still stuck in the same place for the past two years.
The point being... pls gib portals for WebExtension / NativeHostMessaging and graphical folder permission / neighboring files / share current file to other apps already... is this what waiting for the GTK file picker thumbnail to be worked on feels like?
Last point in video on HW compatibility.. So fricken true! I had to try 3 Linux distros with Surface kernel to get things to work right on my Surface 4 pro. The winning combo was Endeavor OS with the Surface Linux kernel.
My main problems with linux is that the screen reader is no longer being developed, and I need that as I am completely blind. They still include the screen reader in many distributions, but it hasn’t been updated at all for many years. So it’s missing quite a lot. I also just feel like the community just doesn’t care at all about blind people. Also, gaming for the blind really just isn’t there on Linux. Windows is the only operating system that lets me play all my games. Also, I haven’t ever heard of one distribution that includes speech recognition/dictation, something which is bundled with windows. And something that I need as I find it difficult to type. Also, the screen reader will not interact with any Windows apps at all. So even if I can run them, I can’t have access to them with the screen reader. All in all, linux is just not blind user friendly in many ways. And it just doesn’t have some of the stuff that I need in windows. I do like it, but could never use it as my main. I would like to run it alongside windows one-day, so that I can use both. But I could never use it as my main operating system at this point. Also thank goodness it’s so easy to crack windows. Which it is. So I don’t have to pay every time I get a new computer that I build. That also means I should be able to get a linux computer, I should be able to run windows alongside linux. Anyway, those are just my opinions. Although I would love to hear anyone else’s opinions on what I’ve just said.
Finally time for The Risc-y Experiment
This is why i have an iPhone. There are some things that Linux just can’t do as well as a proprietary option yet. And I’d argue that we shouldn’t be focusing on phones, the desktop and laptop still needs to get to 100% for a user of average technical knowledge before Linux can see widespread adoption.
Great one Nick! I can at least relate to almost all of your arguments, but I guess that is, like you are, I have a more product management kind of focus. Yes, I can do all myself but it actually shouldn't be necessary in 2023. The trouble you can have in installing a simple printer is crazy. Good one, thanks!
I remember ancient LINUX in 1999 when even install was a nightmare but it was also fun. Today LINUX is much more mainstream.
I'm willing to unite and pool our efforts as long as we do it my way.
I'm tired of terrible documentation.
It goes hand in hand with the top search results being from 2004. Thanks G, the next time I install Ubuntu 4 I'll know how to fix it.
Be nice if, when searching in the menu, the programs listed show from what sub-menu they are on. Sometimes it's hard to figure out where on the menu system they are located.
I agree, I have tried running insta360 studio on Linux Mint, and it's been a journey, Linux Mint forum was very helpful.
I do not think we would be faster if there is less fragmentation:
- people would leave cause disagreement
- projects will have more blindspots not having competition
That is one way to look at it.
Exactly! Fragmentation is an advantage of open source vs huge corporations where everything gets decided top-down. Different groups can create the same thing, and better implementations will win in the long run. It's still not a perfect system, but way better than just forcing everyone to work on the same projects.
(Besides hardware) Apple is winning by taking very few new features for each update and going 200% on them. While on Linux we have everything unfinished forever.
TLE video on Sonoma features proves this statement is incorrect :P
@@LautaroQ2812 that's 2 things, Linux has much less focus than 200 things let alone 2. Love Linux though!
+1 from me
if macOS were a linux distro i would switch to it
@@ImDelphox pearOS /sarcasm
I wonder what such a shiny new update would be nowadays.
Back in the day Linux was missing A LOOOT of features and so it was rather easy to have a new thing to play around with with pretty much every update. But now desktops are as feature complete as they need to be for a working system. There is no use in change for the sake of change. And people like consistency. What they usually don't like is a new UI that does not improve anything (think about Windows 8 for example. For me it would be the new UI of Android 13).
But maybe we just need to work at the backend for now so that we can bring the crazy ideas we already have to life.
Great Nick! I totally agree with you. I 'm working as a software engineer since 30 years (green phosphorus era 😁) on 5-6 operative systems and 8 different languages.
Well, every new feature that make my work easier and faster is positive, it doesn't matter if the interface is graphical or command line. Computer and software are my passion, but they remain instruments and they have to work better and better.
I agree with some of the 99% arguments. Often you find brilliant software where the user perspective has been totally neglected by manual or very complicated file edit based config. At the software company I used to work for, we actually recruited developers that were focused on "packaging" to make sure to reach as near 99% as possible.
The idea that parallel development should be something negative is something I don't agree with.
If we had a committee to decide what to do, will never lead to the best end result. This is how Sovjet used to run their country. Linux should always be run like Darwin's natural selection or a free economy. Many competing ideas and only the future will tell which ideas that will be the best and which ideas will be discarded.
Linux is already run by comittees e.g. posix, x11, Linux Foundation itself, GNU project, etc.. The community fragmentation has resulted in millions of wasted man hours reinventing the wheel over and over again
Toxicity in the linux community is soooo overblown. It's a self fulfilling talking point that gets repeated because it's been mentioned so many times already not because people actually come across toxicity frequently.
The example shown was just a criticism of flatpak. What was so toxic about that? They're just voicing an opinion.
Yes people are often told to search better and rtfm but that happens on every forum and isn't unreasonable imo. Is that really such an aggregious thing? If that's the worst thing to worry about is that actually so bad?
I've had so much help over the years with everything linux from people that only do so because they love linux and want to share it. It might be the most helpful, selfless and positive community that I've come across.
Not every forum but mostly every forum that is related to computers. I have heard horror stories of asking help in Stack Overflow. Thankfully, programming (basically using R for statistical analysis 😅) is a very small component of my work as a researcher so I don't have to go on there. In fact from what I have heard and seen, linux forums are less toxic compared to other tech forums. But again I feel this to be a problem with the tech community that the community needs to work upon.
I agree about the searching before posting aspect but do note that answering questions on the forum is not mandatory but voluntary, so why not try to be a bit more nice (or if one doesn't want to, then can choose to not answer.)
Yeah I personally haven't had problems asking the community for help. Not that it doesn't exist, I'm sure it does. But it goes for anything in the techworld, really. I've been guilty of being bothered by people asking for help on Windows in my job as IT lol.
So far my Linux experience has been very good with very few major issues. I've tried a few different distros recently, I was looking at possibly moving away from Fedora, but so far Fedora seems to be the only one I've tried on my trusty HP Z620 that works fine with no real issues. I do agree with some of the points you made in this video, it can be very frustrating for a 'noob' to get the help they need, and yes, hardware support for certain peripherals can be a bit hit and miss, but overall I love using Linux as my daily driver, I only use Windows 10 for a few games, and even then I'll stop using it when I get my head round getting the right gaming setup on Linux.
Having a more unified experience on Linux as an option would be amazing, would make hopping some Distros easier for the general public/userbase.
Random side story, I remember when I first attempted to use Linux, I was so lost on what to do that I couldn't even go online since the Distro I used didn't have the drivers installed and I didn't know I missed the option to have them installed during the OS setup. It was an interesting experience, but to say it was frustrating would be an understatement.
I think we need more big named people talking about Linux in general. I know Mutahar (SomeOrdinaryGamers) has been really vocal about using Linux. He's the reason why I even went on several of my Linux experiences. Him along with yourself, Nick, and Titus Tech Tips, have made the attempts to transition away from Windows easier each time I attempt to do so. Also now that ChatGPT and other AI bots are available to ask questions, I won't get called down into the dirt when I come across a problem and get told "I don't know what you're talking about, I didn't have that problem at all, idiot."
Linux is not an OS, it's a family of OSs that share a kernel and the GNU tools. Don't think of it as a homogeneous unified thing. Its diversity is it's strength, as it allows for a large variety of use cases to be possible, and it's one of its main appealing factors. "It's not a bug, it's a feature".
Nick: "You cannot have a bleeding edge distro that is stable."
Me: "NixOS."
( Also, @TheLinuxEXP, saw a screenshot of The Linux Cast's browser, and this video was the tab front and center! Congrats! )
The only problems I've had with linux are because I use a laptop, power management, sudden crashes and graphic drivers being annoying.
I know that some of these are because laptop manufacturers make this a problem, but I wish it was a lot better so I could recommend it more to my friends who mostly need a laptop too.
Still, I'm happy with the things I've been able to do with Linux, mostly customization, better file management and automation of things. I also see less problems every update and I use a rolling release (openSUSE Tumbleweed). My gaming hasn't been affected because I use a Xbox One and my laptop is a little bit old, but has enough power to run some Xbox 360 games.
I gotta say, my experience in Windows wasn't better so I'm prerty happy with using Linux as my daily driver most of the time. LibreOffice and Office365 Online have been more than enough for my workflow and I just return to Windows to play Minecraft Bedrock lol
The really tragic power management differences between Linux and Windows are definitely a long-standing issue, especially for laptop users. Support forums are full of posts from people asking why they get worse battery life in Linux than they did in Windows, and asking how to fix it, but the dirty truth is there is no fix, even with everything set up perfectly you just aren't going to beat about 80% of the battery life you'd see in Windows.
9:35 part of the issue is that some of the more advanced techniques used by proprietary software are actually patented meaning others cannot use them
Hot take (esp. in 2023) but abolish IP; pay the inventors based on the invention so that they can afford to spread it
I feel your pain. The idea of abolishing the idea of IP should be the most tepid, moderate take there is.
Very good video ! I share the same idea as you. Duplication of work is really a pain and a waste of productivity.
I think it's funny that we still have Desktop Environments like Xfce and Mate; the original reason for their existence was as a 'rebellion' against changes made to GNOME, but even so many years later, there are still people working on these DE's and adding new features. To me, Cinnamon is a superb DE, and continues to be modernized, but every time I try to run a distro with Xfce or Mate, I feel like I'm being thrown back 15 years ago. I just don't get that mentality. Of course, I love the new GNOME, so maybe I'm the weirdo.
My first linux experience was with XFCE DE. it gave a horrible first look for me to think linux is an old rusty OS which deserves to die in the modern era of windows 10 or Mac OS. Man XFshit still looks like windows 98.
@@chaoticpanda6272 "XFshit"
Look is subjective - and if someone disagree with what you think or what someone made you think "modern era" OS is - don't call it shit, just understand that our standard mismatch and it is not DE for me - that's just it. (also btw you should take account that look is adjustable on most DEs - to bigger or lesser degree)
@@void6623 bro show that out of the box XFshit to anyone they will vomit looking that gore.
Some Linux RUclips channels are hosted by bigots, edge lords, and gatekeepers who manage to get popular enough to get higher ranking than useful Linux content. When I started my Linux journey in 2020, those channels nearly turned me off to Linux. Thankfully, this channel cuts through the noise and helps me understand the meta of Linux. I should buy a mug.
I try my best to be as welcoming as possible! Sometimes I’m not clear enough, but the intention is here!
@@TheLinuxEXP You make Linux accessible and you give each Linux project a fair shake. Your coverage has helped me make sound decisions for my computing needs, not just Linux.
Exactly. You quickly learn which channels to avoid, or just peek in for a laugh. (Because sometimes it is obvious they are presenting stuff just to hunt views and likes). I don't take them seriously at all at this point.But at the end of the day, I use Linux for myself. I couldn't care less about what some gatekeeper thinks. I will never meet these people and they have zero impact on what I do. But someone who is new to Linux could very well be turned off. Thankfully there are better channels like this one. Not only are the presentations in general a lot better because Nick is a regular user, but he also isn't afraid to point out flaws. I like that.
I switched to Linux (ubuntu) on many of my machines a few years back. One thing I think would be a game changer(Maybe AI can help with this) is better help with the command line, like a list of commands displayed depending on what you're doing or if you make a small spelling error the OS makes suggestions, just overall better guidance for things so you don't always have to search for answers. This would be so good for new users.
command-not-found can help with some of this. If I try to run "irefox", it will ask if I meant firefox.
I'm still new, so I don't have any pet peeves yet. But accessibility has been a deciding factor - I didn't install a certain distro because it didn't support my regional settings (I think it was the keyboard layout) despite being an established OS.
I want to decide how I use my computer. That includes being able to use my native language and its format, even if the OS is in English. Which I prefer.
Some newbies frequently ask questions that are extensively documented. I always do research before I attempt to make a post if I can’t find anything else.
I’m also not all that bothered by updates being less revolutionary. You eventually hit a peak point for what you can really innovate towards.
Yeah, but some people are simply not used to research the issues, or don’t quite know what to search for :) It’s not always laziness!
When I was still on Reddit my usual answer was a Google url and a recommendation of the most useful answers. Trying not to be like "don't bother me" but more like "I look smart because I use these tools"
@@TheLinuxEXPtrue. I know I like to ask people rather than searching online too (a decreasingly common thing), but, usually if I’m posting on the distro’s forum I want to make sure I cover all my bases before I try to make a post. I’ve been in a lot of situations where there’s good documentation (signs, pinned comments and threads) and people just ignore them and ask anyways. The first few times it isn’t a big deal but the more and more it happens it’s like “why do we even bother?” I will say that with the nonsense going on with Reddit I’ve lost a few resources to do my own research because of privated communities and nothing shows up elsewhere on the searches I do. I was more just bringing up what usually happens on the arch forums. 😅 not knocking on Arch, it’s really amazingly documented. There’s just a subset of vocal users who will not so kindly tell you to READ THE MANUAL AND DO RESEARCH. Which, can or cannot be helpful depending on the circumstances. The other issue I’ve noticed with bug reports or questions is lack of information to help with resolving the issue. I’ve had people get mad at me for asking for more details on the problem they’re having. They just post “help! X thing isn’t working!” And I ask “can you give some more information?” And they act like I just ran over their dog or something. Just saying X doesn’t work isn’t always the best way to ask for help. Error logs or any other information. Even for video games. Sometimes the most vague problem report doesn’t help at all. I work in support, and automated reports don’t always give the most helpful leads either. But usually the logs on Linux are detailed enough to really help narrow things down.
I don’t disagree on any of the points made. The only thing with hardware compatibility is that there needs to be a profit incentive to really go all the way. I’d like to contribute to Linux in some fashion but I don’t think I’m skilled enough in coding to contribute.
@@RobMoerlandeah, it’s mostly from people who don’t give any additional information and get mad at me for asking for something, anything additional that would help rather than just saying “X doesn’t work” and then the body of the post is “title”.
It’s just frustrating because I want to help and some people don’t seem to understand that just saying “it doesn’t work” really doesn’t narrow it down.
I also help Japanese people with their English and sometimes they ask me a question about why a correction was made and I can’t elaborate as to why other than “that’s just wrong.”
And even doing searches doesn’t always bring up something useful for me to explain and trying to explain some grammar rules in Japanese is even more difficult. すみません。説明できません。
what gets me is the old school Linux people not at all wanting Flatpacks or Snaps, but what they dont understand is most end users dont care how the OS works and sets app's up they just want to click and install and it work and for 90% of Linux users its seen as a good thing to move Linux forward but the last 10% of die hard users dont like change even if it makes things simpler for every one.
Ps. To clarify: Just because I'm against flatpak doesn't mean that I think you shouldn't use it - just that I don't want to use it. And that it's generally bad idea to allow software to have multiple versions of same library - because developers will go easy and will not update their dependencies - which will create outdated libraries in your system.
Original comment:
"simpler for everyone" - for me it would make it harder and not easier - thanks to that "you can install many versions" - now I wouldn't need to patch one library for my use - I would need to do it for every version it would install… And the small SSD drive would also be a issue (and before you ask - nope I cannot replace SSD).
Also don't know from where the 90% came from?
And just face it: flatpak is new rpm (and debs for debian) and snaps are new debs (for ubuntu).
This mindset of "we are mainstream" of Linux - even if you literally understand that there is group that were there before you - does it as it was done before and do not appreciate what you are doing is what gets me - why should I do as newcomer wants?
Just face it linux is and always was about choice - so idea that someone will create something uniform in linux means that it would be uncontroversial - that's really rare.
Absence of Free Software licensed device driver kernel modules has ALWAYS been a problem of frustration with me...the nonfree firmware requirement.
ARM SoCs sort of sum it up: no wireless modem module and no video display kernel modules (gratis redistributable by a distro).
YES. touch-screen, finger print scanners, USB Type C external display out, HP printers, Wacom pen...
Strangely, anyone I ask about it tells me that kernel moduels are "trivial" to develop.
Then there is Google Chrome Widevine and (years ago) Adobe Flash and Free Software video codecs.
Even Google won't play 4K video if not using Google Chrome.
I never get exactly tired lol. Most often I don't notice it though. Except when I need something and I can cook it up (e.g. shortcut key for cycling all attached speakers) and I remember why it's so awesome.
I use Arch, BTW.
The only thing that makes me wanna Gatekeep Linux, is when people don't want to learn why things don't work.
There is not knowing and wanting to understand and there is not even trying to understand... the latter might be better off staying with microsoft tbh.
i have the same feeling with things like mastodon and lemmy
You're correct, most users don't want to learn the inner workings of their computers or applications. They just want it to work. They don't have the time, or don't want to spend time looking at error codes, backend configurations, etc. Most person are not tech savvy and don't want to be. So as long as you Gatekeep, linux will always hold a minor piece of the pie in the end user space.
It is the same issue with Microsoft. When I worked at the help desk people would call and ask where downloaded files go. Had no idea what file explorer is. Some people should just use a typewriter or go back to writing it all down and mailing it.
That’s just people being lazy. There are a group of computer users that have never bothered to learn anything beyond the bare minimum they need to do what they need to get by, and nothing more. Asking them to take some initiate and learn enough for basic troubleshooting is no different than expecting people to have a basic understanding of how an automobile works, so they can do basic maintenance or have some understanding of when something is wrong. They will make those same mistakes on any OS or platform they use.
Gatekeeping is saying that Linux should never have a GUI interface, or that a distro focused on ease of use is a waste of time.
No no, you have to cater for the worst people, the dumbest people, the laziest people. Apple and Microsoft do, and we need to as well. I know you don't like it, but that's what you need to accept in order not to be a gatekeeping anus. [additional: No, I'm not being sarcastic.]
About gatekeeping. I think people are afraid of linux becoming popular. Because a tech giant would interested, money would exchange hands, and ta-daaa, another windows 11.
But the very model of Linux and open source makes that virtually impossible, though
@@TheLinuxEXP I believe you!Thank you for the videos btw. Sometimes it's easy to forget people are making content, for free. Quality remains the same, even with the new editor.
A giant might never be able to take over like that, but they could very well be a bad influence that could do a lot of harm.
One major irritation I'm having since upgrading to Ubuntu 22.04 (Gnome DE) is the lack of image preview thumbnails in nautilus GTK 4 using the file picker. Why is it so hard to fix (bug is 18 years old) ?
Pro tip : the arch Linux wiki is a very good source of knowledge about product compatibility with Linux.
Why. Just why do you upload your videos in 1080p50
It’s good
can you explain 1080p50?
1080p because anything above that is a waste of space and bandwidth with RUclips’s compression, and 50FPS because I live in the EU and our lights flicker at 50HZ. Recording at 60FPS makes lights flicker on video
@@TheLinuxEXPSo that's why you use 50 fps... I knew you were French, but the lights flickering was something I didn't know. Interesting...
@@TheLinuxEXP* the more you know *
The gripe that I have about the hardware is that there isn't enough Linux focused laptops in the resale market. If you want an old laptop to upcycle you're stuck with Windows first laptops. That doesn't mean there isn't a lot of great choices when it comes to hardware but the compatibility issues can be pretty annoying to say the least. Granted the older a laptop is the more likely it'll be patched for their hardware configurations. It's still not easy to find out ahead of time if it'll be 100% compatible unless you find a forum post from someone with the exact same laptop
Ironically, one of the old Windows laptops in my household is a Surface Pro 3. It runs Linux Mint just fine, touch screen and all.
@@tonywise198 bet it would be even better on vinalla Ubuntu or with any gnome 3-4 DE since they are more touch screen focused
This is a timely video, as yesterday my PopOS install self-destructed (just grey screen and never got to log in) and wouldn't allow a repair install.
i am enjoying you videos, thank you.. as a noob to Linux (i have tried a few distros on and off for decades) you mentioned something about a controller worked in one distro but wouldn't work in another.. i wanted to used Debian 12 (latest), rather than a distro of it, but i could not get it to print to my wifi HP colour laser (it detects it but won't print) .. if i install Ubuntu (latest) it just works.. I also have a Dell Precision M4800 32gb ram i7 4th gen Quadra graphics and this will not install ubuntu but Debian works fine (not able to print though).. i am not asking for help just pointing out that this is the sort of things holding back Linux for the noobs out there.. i am trying to migrate everything i do to Linux (except DCS and Elite Dangerous) and just hit odd problems..
I had once an entertaining driver experience with Linux not in a bad but in a good way.
I bought a, what was it, I think an USB to Ethernet adapter or a USB to SATA adapter.
Had no issues with drivers at all. I plugged it in and Linux said: “oh sure I have drivers for that”. Everything fine. But that not the fun part of the story. The device (despite being sold in 2022) was still bundled with a good old driver CD (one of those tiny GameCube sized ones).
Out of curiosity I checked out the CD, and like expected, there where Windows and MacOS drivers on it. More surprise where the Linux drivers for a 2.x.x Kernel you had to compile yourself.
I was rather amused. It’s such a stereotypical idea that all Linux users are good with computers and know how to compile and install a driver.
But well at least they had open source drivers.
I didn’t compile them, why should I if it works out of the box.
I'd like to say I am using Linux Mint now and I love it and highly recommend it even to people just learning computers it's a great OS. I have found that I have really taken Window's scroll bars for granted over the years since they really do it way better then everyone else, I like the nice thick design with the arrows on the top and bottom, I found it the most user friendly.
Very good point. You touched on many topics
a) first i would like to start calling it either linux-based. I believe the OS' are Debian, Gentoo, Fedora, Arch, etc.
b) yes there seems to be many people doing the same thing, and it may never be 100%. I believe the only way coordinate the efforts, would be to have either a company or a community program manager/project engineers, which would report to the community. The community way would be more difficult because of a weak chain of command. Very difficult to manage. So if they cannot reach a cohesiveness in the community then i would say its the nature of the beast!
c) There will always be those that go to windows and those that use Debian, Fedora, etc, or Linux-based OS. In my limited experience, once i have Linux installed, i can do anything i could do on windows, except for games but i don't play games. I guess i was born a tinkerer or sysadmin.
At this point, i think that games are the only difference in the fork between windows and Linux. And that difference is becoming smaller and smaller thanks to the community.
d) Any Linux-based OS, following the Linux standard, has one of the most powerful command lines in any OS, macOS being Unix-based, doesn't count. Windows or dos was so clunky, it was rediculous. Linux allows for one to do almost anything from the command line. So for those that believe the gui is bloat ware, i believe that running multiple terminals on a desktop is a super productive workflow. With Linux-based OS', you have your cake and you can eat it too!!!! HAHA :)
e) I think the fact that you are talking about it is the right thing to do, and i think we need to talk more. I believe just talking about it, allows for the communication of idea, first hand, and not watered down.
I also believe that what we are going through may be the necessary steps to an interesting future. Will there be Windows, or Debian or Mac in the future??? Was there a Big Bang! :)
f) final note. Thanks to the Linux community for introducing me to a super fantastic OS'. I have learnt so much!!!! I also have found the community responsiveness and the quality of the information that is available on Linux it tremendous! Many thanks to all.
Sorry for the long comment
Keep up the Great Work!
I agree with you so much on the fragmentation, if people made a standard thing for example a standard for a package manager and then each company would make its own take of it, it would make development for linux way better. take for example the linux kernel, we wouldn't be here if there wasn't a linux kernel being actively worked on while each distro uses its for its own vision of what an operating system should be...
Your point of not being 100% there is clearly visible in my little brother, I showed him several Linux distros that are great but he wants a Linux distro that is "just a better Window$" or just Window$ itself. When I told him that Linux has reached ~3% of Desktop marketshare he said "That's way too much, it should rather be zero", and that he hates Linux because it isn't Window$.
I mostly have issues with the community and it's not just a Linux community issue, seems to be every tech community under the Sun, which is how it feels like most people use really dry language and feels like they are angry with me all the time without saying so. Then, when you deviate from the most common path and need help with something, instead of helping the person that needs help, they flat-out get denied and insulted for ever trying to deviate from the common path. This isn't specific to those that need help either. I posted a thing that could help people with deviating from a common path and got upset people ramming me for no apparent reason. This isn't the exception with the Linux community, it's the rule, and I have since stopped communicating with Linux folks and now talk to people that happen to be Linux folk. The Gentoo Greybeards and the Linux From Scratch Cabin Keepers in my experience are the exception and are really nice!
5 distros later i think the best Way for a beginner to be happy with Linux is to not get too attatched to one distro and just try several until you find one where eveything just works on install. If something isnt working, like your external monitor or gamepad, you may not be able to get it working even if you try every driver you can find, but if you try something else and it may work right away. I wound up with Fedora KDE x11 as an Nvidia user. Avoid Wayland builds for now if you have Nvidia, i have heard the 555 driver solves the issues but im happy with how mine is now on x11 550 driver. DO NOT try to run off of your live boot stick, you must fully install or you will not be able to fix anything or even update anything. The live boot is not a real install its VERY important to understand this fact
These are reasons why I switched to Mac. I still have a few Linux installs for specific tasks I prefer to handle in Linux, but all my “productive” tasks are on Mac.
Also have a windows laptop for gaming.