#just go for ubuntu or mint

[unidentifiedfuckingthing]

im huge on the value of vibrant & intuitive interface so i never wouldve thought id feel this way but a good text-only software store is so much better than an average gui software store its unbelievable. people are genuinely put off from using linux stuff because it involves the terminal but the terminal can mean a lot of things! its like saying you know itll be a bad interface if its Hosted On The Web, its just like, the most atomic platform for a thing and it can be good or bad.

i think it works in your favor to have icon-first lists only if Everything youre looking for has a unique and immediately distinguishable icon. like if you're searching the apps youve already downloaded on your own phone. but if the whole POINT of your interface is looking at a lot of different options for one thing, with very similar icons and official names, and your store is so set up for Clean Modern Minimalism that you get the first 5 words of the prose description of an app and you have to click into every single one and try and remember details to figure out whats different, it's annoying and tedious!

when a software store mandates that you have a single line description about your thing thats useful enough to distinguish it from other similar things even without a picture, and you can see them all at the same time, its so much easier to just Find your Thing, so that you can Use it

[cephalofrog]

how does one become a person with strong opinions on linux distros

[autolenaphilia]

Why enshittification happens and how to stop it.

The enshittification of the internet and increasingly the software we use to access it is driven by profit. It happens because corporations are machines for making profits from end users, the users and customers are only seen as sources of profits. Their interests are only considered if it can help the bottom line. It's capitalism.

For social media it's users are mainly seen by the companies that run the sites as a way for getting advertisers to pay money that can profit the shareholders. And social media is in a bit of death spiral right now, since they have seldom or never been profitable and investor money is drying up as they realize this.

So the social media companies. are getting more and more desperate for money. That's why they are getting more aggressive with getting you to watch ads or pay for the privilege of not watching ads. It won't work and tumblr and all the other sites will die eventually.

But it's not just social media companies, it's everything tech-related. It gets worse the more monopolistic a tech giant is. Google is abusing its chrome-based near monopoly over the web, nerfing adblockers, trying to drm the web, you name it. And Microsoft is famously a terrible company, spying on Windows users and selling their data. Again, there is so much money being poured into advertising, at least 493 billion globally, the tech giants want a slice of that massive pie. It's all about making profits for shareholders, people be damned.

And the only insurance against this death spiral is not being run by a corporation. If the software is being developed by a non-profit entity, and it's open source, there is no incentive for the developers to fuck over the users for the sake of profits for shareholders, because there aren't any profits, and no shareholders.

Free and Open source software is an important part of why such software development can stay non-corporate. It allows for volunteers to contribute to the code and makes it harder for users to be secretly be fucked over by hidden code.

Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird are good examples of this. There is a Mozilla corporation, but it exists only for legal reasons and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the non-profit Mozilla foundation. There are no shareholders. That means the Mozilla corporation is not really a corporation in the sense that Google is, and as an organization has entirely different incentives. If someone tells you that Mozilla is just another corporation, (which people have said in the notes of posts about firefox on this very site) they are spreading misinformation.

That's why Firefox has resisted the enshittification of the internet so well, it's not profit driven. And people who develop useful plugins that deshitify the web like Ublock origin and Xkit are as a rule not profit-driven corporations.

And you can go on with other examples of non-profit software like Libreoffice and VLC media player, both of which you should use.

And you can go further, use Linux as your computer's operating system.. It's the only way to resist the enshitification that the corporate duopoly of Microsoft and Apple has brought to their operating system. The plethora of community-run non-profit Linux distributions like Debian, Mint and Arch are the way to counteract that, and they will stay resistant to the same forces (creating profit for shareholders) that drove Microsoft to create Windows 11.

Of course not all Linux distributions are non-profits. There are corporate created distros like Red Hat's various distros, Canonical's Ubuntu and Suse's Opensuse, and they prove the point I'm making. There has some degree of enshittification going on with those, red hat going closed source and Canonical with the snap store for example. Mint is by now a succesful community-driven response to deshitify Ubuntu by removing snaps for example, and even they have a back-up plan to use Debian as a base in case Canonical makes Ubuntu unuseable.

As for social media, which I started with, I'm going to stay on tumblr for now, but it will definitely die. The closest thing to a community run non-profit replacement I can see is Mastodon, which I'm on as @autolenaphilia@chaosfem.tw.

You don't have to keep using corporate software, and have it inevitably decline because the corporations that develop it cares more about its profits than you as an end user.

The process of enshittification proves that corporations being profit-driven don't mean they will create a better product, and in fact may cause them to do the opposite. And the existence of great free and open source software, created entirely without the motivation of corporate profits, proves that people don't need to profit in order to help their fellow human beings. It kinda makes you question capitalism.

[abbiistabbii]

I think every computer user needs to read this because holy fucking shit this is fucking horrible.

So Windows has a new feature incoming called Recall where your computer will first, monitor everything you do with screenshots every couple of seconds and "process that" with an AI.

Hey, errrr, fuck no? This isn't merely because AI is really energy intensive to the point that it causes environmental damage. This is because it's basically surveilling what you are doing on your fucking desktop.

This AI is not going to be on your desktop, like all AI, it's going to be done on another server, "in the cloud" to be precise, so all those data and screenshot? They're going to go off to Microsoft. Microsoft are going to be monitoring what you do on your own computer.

Now of course Microsoft are going to be all "oooh, it's okay, we'll keep your data safe". They won't. Let me just remind you that evidence given over from Facebook has been used to prosecute a mother and daughter for an "illegal abortion", Microsoft will likely do the same.

And before someone goes "durrr, nuthin' to fear, nuthin to hide", let me remind you that you can be doing completely legal and righteous acts and still have the police on your arse. Are you an activist? Don't even need to be a hackivist, you can just be very vocal about something concerning and have the fucking police on your arse. They did this with environmental protesters in the UK. The culture war against transgender people looks likely to be heading in a direction wherein people looking for information on transgender people or help transitioning will be tracked down too. You have plenty to hide from the government, including your opinions and ideas.

Again, look into backing up your shit and switching to Linux Mint or Ubuntu to get away from Microsoft doing this shit.

[magz]

"7 Of The Best Linux Distros For Beginners"

Article Date: April 8, 2024.

"Using Windows just keeps getting worse. If it's not Microsoft pestering you to use Edge — or making it harder for you to change the default browser — then it's how the platform has almost become spyware, driving many users to change privacy settings immediately after installing. We could go on all day about reasons you should abandon Windows, whether it's Microsoft effectively ruining sleep mode for laptops or giving nonstop forced updates. Sadly, the grass isn't always greener on the other side with Macintosh. Sure, Apple doesn't have the issues we mentioned, but it remains a very un-customizable operating system with expensive apps and a comically high price of entry. Oh, and if you've got an Apple Silicon Mac, there's now an unfixable vulnerability in your chipset – so much for Apple security. If ever there was a time to switch to Linux, it's now. [Continued In Article]"

The ones on the list (more info in article):

Ubuntu

Zorin OS

Linux Mint

Elementary OS

Manjaro

MX Linux

Puppy Linux

Thoughts on the recommended Linux distros there?

[muffinlance]

While I am by no means an expert in Linux distros (distributions) might I recommend two widely supported and user-friendly ones?

Linux distributions are basically packets of software that envelop the Linux kernel that determine the look, feel and function of the operating system. While there is a multitude of flavours, Debian-based systems such as Ubuntu and Mint are widely supported and have huge communities while being user friendly (i.e. keep the command line usage low/ explained). I managed to squeeze so much processing power out of my old laptop just by switching from Windows 10 to Linux Mint (very lightweight, has a graphic interface very similar to Windows). If you don't have to worry about every every Byte of RAM tho, I'd say Ubuntu is a very good start

Hope this helps <3

Thank you! I'm currently deciding between Mint with the Cinnamon desktop or Fedora with either KDE or Cinnamon. Going to try live USBs to test them out.

For others considering the switch: Mint is the most commonly recommended "easy and stable for new Linux users" version. Fedora is "stable but you're going to need to Google how to do more things until you're used to it." Cinnamon desktop is "things look like Windows", KDE is "not trying to be Windows but similarly intuitive, and you can customize everything", and the third common desktop is GNOME which is "doing it's own thing but looks like Mac, with lots of tiled apps".

Note that these are one-day-of-research impressions. I'll probably try GNOME too, but it looks instinctively ugly to me when I search up images of it.

Most common versions seem to have the option to try them before switching your computer over, so that's my next step.

[arch-official]

Hey! I've only used Windows so far, and am thinking of migrating my desktop to Linux, probably Arch. I mainly use it for gaming and programming.

Any glaringly obvious reasons not to do this, or should I just go ahead?

I wouldn't recommend starting with arch. Arch is fickle and requires some prior knowledge; but other distros like mint, majaro, Ubuntu, pop_os, fedora, etc should be good.

Make sure to make a backup and install wine in case you want to use any windows apps and you should be good 👍

[mountmortar]

oh i'll post this here too. if you're someone who has no experience with linux and you potentially want to install linux after windows 10 loses support this time next year, let me just say that no matter what you see Loud Tech People saying online, ubuntu is a perfectly fine distro to install. one of the main issues you'll see that people online have with it is that (and this is putting it Really simply. like "compress a situation into one sentence" simply) its parent company keeps pushing its own particular software packaging format over more popular packaging formats. if you are A Normal Person who just uses your computer to do shit in the browser, with maybe a handful of other applications that you use occasionally (like a document editor to write things or something), you are neither going to care about nor be affected by this. like. it's fine. it's solid. it's stable. it's user-friendly. it has a long history of Just Working out-of-the-box. ignore what redditors screech about "UBUNTU IS THE DEVIL BECAUSE OF SNAP PACKAGES!!11!1!!!1" it's literally just a normal operating system. this is not to say that ubuntu derivatives that people recommend for beginners (linux mint, pop!_os, zorin os, etc.) are bad, because they're not! they're also really good! i like them a lot (especially zorin)! but because linux spaces are populated with some of the most opinionated people on earth you will see a metric fuckton of people saying that they'd rather die than recommend someone regular ubuntu and ultimately you just have to ignore them. It's Fine. what's most important is that you find an operating system that works for you. That's It.

[ricofox]

A bit of a strange rant, which I don't think really anyone will see but here we go.

Due to recent events regarding windows 11. I've been considering swapping to linux, atleast partially.

Looking for the right distro the main question i've gotten from most sources is: "what do you use your computer for?". A fairly simple question that has had me spiraling as the way i do things crumples down around me.

The real answer is...

Not much.

While yes the pc i main is a win 10 gaming pc and still capable (not in Microsoft's eyes apparently). The fact is that I don't do much other than browse and game.

I'm currently considering cutting gaming for a while and downsizing my set up to just a laptop, currently learning to use arch as i saw it as the OS that i could use indefinitely on an old device. (I have considered mint and ubuntu, but they felt temporary in my eyes. From personal experience i just used them like toys to be fucked around with for a bit.)

Let's see how far this goes

[transingthebourgeoisie]

I will never understand why people keep recommending linux mint to people. people keep saying oh it's like windows and like. they are literally just wrong; every time you tell someone Mint is like Windows you are setting them up to spend 20 minutes on Mint and then run into an obstacle and pay for a windows license. no matter what kind of mediocre UI they dress it up with, despite everything, it is a linux distribution and thus, crucially: not windows. It's popular I guess so it's better than hyperspecific micro-distro of the week or, arch, because people keep recommending arch for some unknowable reason.

I'm going to be real here: if you are new to this just use ubuntu. ignore everyone else. if looking at the gnome GUI makes you want to start killing hostages like it does for me, you can just get it packaged with KDE by default and that's a very familiar and intuitive UI to a windows user. it's called Kubuntu they put out their own little thing and everything it's easy. and unlike mint, it's vastly more likely to just, actually work, and be compatible with software. it will be a learning experience; you are switching to a fundamentally different OS, one that still has deep roots in enthusiast preferences and a whole different crop of bizarre decisions that made sense to some guy who thought the GUI would be a passing fad. and that's fine. you had to learn all this for windows too, you just did it when you were like 7. stick with it and it'll make sense quickly even, as unlike windows, Linux is highly transparent in most cases; it will usually tell you what the problem actually is, even if you don't understand how to fix it.

speaking of which: don't be afraid of the terminal. It's daunting, it's initially opaque, and yes, it is entirely possible to horrifically mangle your install with it. You cannot be afraid of it. you don't have to learn every facet of it; frankly I hate the thing and I refuse to accept any distro where it is expected that the user crack open the console to do basic tasks. Ubuntu - or yeah mint I guess - do not require this. 9 times out of 10, you will use the terminal to enter one command that you stole off a tech support forum where the kind of people who use Arch have magically fixed the incredibly specific problem you're having 13 years ago and it still works. I have been using linux semi-regularly (yeah yeah I still have a windows 10 install sue me) for a year now, and barring one particular incident attempting to install GZDoom where it was manifestly my fault, that has been the extent of my interaction with the terminal. I have opened it like 3 times total.

I highly recommend learning what the basic structure of a command is - get a general idea of what it is doing. you don't have to be able to write these things from scratch, but getting just that basic understanding will make your life so much easier. here's a first step for you: if you see 'sudo' in a command, that means the command makes use of admin authority, and will bypass any protections or restrictions on what it is trying to do. scary! it is the effectively same thing as when you click on a program on windows and it throws that shitty little popup window asking if you're *really* sure you want to run the program as admin. not scary; you do that all the time.

linux is more consistently and straightforwardly usable than it has basically ever been; if you are willing to spend a week or so getting used to it, you'll do fine. if you have a spare drive - hell even a USB stick, you can literally boot into Linux straight off USB, it's that easy, - you can dual-boot and still have a windows install to fall back on in case you absolutely positively just need something to work or just cannot get it to run on linux.

[unidentifiedfuckingthing]

seems 2 me like pathfinder is much easier to draw up a character as you make a character sheet than to come in with a character and try to find all of the potential traits and paths they fit just because theres So much stuff. maybe it's an aon problem because id just rather be able to flip through a book in page order than thoroughly learn their site organization but it just seems too abstract for me somehow. which sucks because theres so much fairy food type shit in pathfinder. like i look at dnd and it's like wow this would be so much cooler with this thing pathfinder does instead

[zoobus]

do you have any Linux advice for someone Linux-curious? i have a copy of Ubuntu downloaded but have been hesitant to bite the bullet on it

Having a reason to switch to do something is generally the only way I'll make a major change. In this case, my laptop was dying, so it was the ideal time to break from Windows. If you're just curious, I would make a bootable USB and play around with the OS, see how it feels.

My experience is that the transition was fine. I think I'm a little more tenacious than most, so I may have forgotten the more painful parts, but thus far I think it's been worthwhile.

Advice if you go through with it

If you choose linux mint, it will offer the option to dual boot with Windows. I wanted to jump right in, so I said no. If I could do it again, I would dual boot. It's good to have a backup.

Replace libreoffice with OnlyOffice

Download Gnome Tweaks, Gnome Extensions, Caffiene extension, and either Dash to Dock or Dash to Panel for basic QoL improvements

when you install stuff, it generally doesn't show up in your list of applications. Usually rebooting fixes this.

Understand that it can take a while to grasp whether something is doable or not because Linux users struggle with understanding where new users are coming from. Sometimes "of course it's possible to do x" means "It's possible to do x but it will take you days to implement what is ultimately an inferior version of what you were asking for."

on that note, if you plan to use photoshop regularly, leave a partition for Windows. Yes, it's ostensibly possible to make photoshop work on linux through methods x, y, and z, but you'll sink a lot of time into creating an unstable, less less functional variant. Or try Krita.

make anki cards or print out a list of the more common commands, the kind of stuff they put on linux command mouse pads. Or get a linux command mouse pad.

^probably would have had a smoother install if I'd remembered I had this rolled up not three feet away from me

[punk-in-metal-detector]

Begging Tumblr users to finally discover Linux

Everyone keeps complaining about Google and advising to use Firefox etc while still using OS produced by Microsoft which is just like Google maybe worse. Linux is literally free and out there, there are so many different distributions produced in different countries and so much free open source software. Go grab yourself a flashdisk and do yourself a favour. Tbh if you get Ubuntu it is very easy to set up(seriously if you managed to download firefox and add Ublock you probably are very much capable of installing Ubuntu), has shit ton of support online, comes with many useful programs preinstalled and you can even get an add-on to make it look more like windows. Nothing is stopping you

Edit: people are also recommending Linux Mint a lot so you can give that a try! (Personally I have never used it but it looks very windows-like at least when it comes to the UI layout)

[ntrlily]

I have been considering getting into Linux but the only thing holding me back is game support really, as I'm primarily a PC gamer. How difficult would you say dual booting really is (as in, "how difficult is it to achieve" *and* "how difficult/quick is it to swap between OSes")? Does specific distro affect the difficulty? Do you think it would be worth it?

Also, what are your favorite or recommended distros? I've been told about a few mainly on fedi but haven't looked too far into many. Mint gets frequently recommended, for instance.

Thanks!

I have actually never dual booted before, so opening that up to anyone reading who has! I don't think it's more difficult with one distro compared to another, probably. It is fairly easy to set up as far as I'm aware, your install disc should have an option to set dual booting up for you, nothing too arcane. But anything past that, I don't know much about.

Personally vanilla Debian is my favorite but Ubuntu-based distros have the advantage of being the distros that Valve targets, like the build of Steam on their site is specifically built for those distros. You can get Steam running on other types of Linux though, but that is still an advantage for gaming stuff. (Among other things, it's not uncommon for "game with a Linux build" to really mean "game with an Ubuntu build")

Mint is Ubuntu-based, but the defaults for it are more user-friendly so imo it makes a good distro for gamers.

I personally consider it worth it, some of it is my personal philosophy and some of it is more basic practical stuff like Linux running faster, having better UI customization, not having all the bloat and adware that comes on a fresh install of Windows (although there are means to remove that bloat, of course)

Also not having to reboot and lock my computer to update, oh my god.

Extra notes for gaming, now that I have a Linux gaming setup to reference from:

The current thing I mainly have issues with is MMOs with client-side anti-cheat, some of them really don't want to play with Linux compatibility tools. There are people who have gone to efforts to get these running on Linux but it's a pain in the ass and I don't care enough to do that.

Proton GE can be really helpful for some games. I run most of my games through vanilla wine, but I did end up needing GE to run FF7R. If you're not already a Linux user with Existing Ways You Do Things, just running things through Steam+Proton is generally going to work out just fine for you. You can play pirated Windows games this way too, just add them as non-Steam games and run them through Steam.

If you have very recent hardware, and are going with Mint or another Ubuntu-based distro, go for the edge edition. The old kernel on the standard edition can be kinda finicky with brand new hardware.

[scaththefloof]

Why the year of Linux isn't actually happening

This is a long post so make sure that you have some time to actually read it.

I'm going to say some things that linux users may hate, but it is the fucking truth.

we all hope for the year of the linux desktop, but the thing is it will never happen until it gets more user friendly. Yes you heard it right, it has to be USER FRIENDLY.

This is the reason that ubuntu, mint, elementary, etc. are so popular. Because mint is good if you're transitioning from windows, elementary OS is good for if you're transitioning from MacOS. And Ubuntu is User-friendly and has a high amount of support. It doesn't have a familiar UI, but the learning curve is relatively easy. Plus if you're me, you have actually riced Ubuntu and made it look 100% different from what ubuntu looks like

This was my Ubuntu rice, it is completely derailed from the original look which is this:

this is Ubuntu 24.04 LTS "Noble Numbat"

Now yes there are some shitty things Ubuntu has done, like sell user data to amazon. However that was in the past and my views are if someone (or in this case a company) has actually changed their ways, they deserve a second chance. Ubuntu has telemetry yes, but if you actually look at the source code for the telemetry (they let you do that at the installer) you will actually notice there is no user data reported. They only report the specs of your PC to Ubuntu, and the reason for this is to help better Ubuntu and expand support. Ubuntu is actually making an effort to make the year of the linux desktop actually happen.

Now yes people may have their opinions on Ubuntu and their implementation of GNOME, but really in this version of Ubuntu, canonical has fixed the issues they had. See the Buggy GNOME desktop environment was from this weird move they did in the name of stability. They would roll back the version of GNOME so you were 6 months behind. Yet use the latest extensions for GNOME, thus causing some frankenstein, GNOME thing. This is why GNOME is so buggy. the thing is Ubuntu did this for stability when even Debian didn't do this. If Debian, the mother of linux distros didn't do this weird frankenstein GNOME, then why did Ubuntu need to. But Canonical changed this and is now on the right track with Ubuntu 24.04. Now the other thing is the forcing of snaps down people's throats, this is a very shitty thing to do. To be honest with you, I would actually try snaps out if Ubuntu did NOT do this move that they do.

This is the same thing with some distros only allowing open source software, otherwise they just crash (yes there are some out there). Yes FOSS (Free and Open Source Software for the people who don't use linux, or use linux but don't know the term yet) is really great, but that doesn't mean become Ubuntu with their snaps and force FOSS down their throats. It is really nice when you have freedom, when you have the choice to not use FOSS and use Proprietary Software. Because now you have made the choice instead of had a gun pointed to your head and FOSS was the only thing you could choose to use otherwise the trigger would be pulled.

Now these distros are the minority and you don't really have to worry about that. But the thing is Ubuntu, I would actually take a bite out of the snap package cake, if you weren't shoving it in my face. I have actually heard of a new feature that canonical has released for snaps that fixes these slow boot times. And I have heard that some snaps actually run faster than flatpaks. such as some video editors. But these instances are most likely few and far between. Canonical making snaps is similar to another project that they did a long time ago. and that was create unity. They suffer from Not Invented here syndrome. Now Unity was actually a great move that they did when you consider why they did it. GNOME 3 just released and it changed the entire desktop environment and made it completely different. And Ubuntu didn't want to go with this new change. Because they didn't want their users to have to adapt to an entirely different workflow. So canonical made unity instead. Now eventually Unity failed and so they decided to instead, modify GNOME. But if you look at what they did when they made this move. Unity influenced what Ubuntu is today. Look at unity, and then look at Ubuntu 24.04. you can see what they took from their loss and made into a success.

Now if you made it this far, congratulations here is a cookie for you! 🍪. But now we're going to start talking about things other than user-friendliness. And that is what people use computers for. See the average Joe uses a computer for browsing the web and doing maybe a few word documents and that's about it. But if you're anything like me. You one, have differing opinions that highly oppose even the 1% (literally this entire tumblr post), but you also want to use a computer to go into a world where you rip and tear demons to shreds deep in the depths of hell, or you want to use a computer for killing greek gods. Or use a computer to open a portal to an alien world and destroy society. If you can't pick up on the references, what I'm saying is you use computers for a niche such as gaming. gaming is widely known, but the most common platform for gaming is the phone. not the console or the PC, the phone. Linux PCs are used more for getting work done. Hell, my dad who works at lenovo, installed ubuntu onto a mid 2012 macbook (btw that is the best laptop I have owned so far, it is so fast it scares me, how tf is a 2012 laptop that fast), he also has a hard drive with ventoy installed on it to boot other live environments so that he can work on his other projects (which he has a blog and he is working on a home lab setup).

funny thing is he doesn't specify on his blog what he uses ubuntu on, he just says he has a machine that uses it. So yeah he uses a Macbook Pro 9,2 (Mid 2012 13 inch), same as me

But the thing is, Yes linux gaming has come a long way. It really has, but the thing is that it's still not there yet. If you watch SomeOrdinaryGamers/Mutahar you would know that he plays games on Arch Linux (BTW) but he still has to fire up Windows in a Virtual Machine to play some of the games he has just because they do not work on Linux. If you want linux to take the market share. If you want this year of the linux desktop, you need to have games and such actually run on linux.

Now like I said linux is great for the average joe. If you gave the average Joe three laptops with a browser open and told him to just surf the web for a little bit, he would not be able to tell the difference between the OSes other than the UI being a little different (taskbar position, taskbar design, Icons, you know things like that).

The only people who would know what OS you just gave them are the people who engage in these niches such as cybersecurity, Development and Gaming (there are other niches I haven't covered, but let's keep it simple). Linux has two of the three listed here 100% covered. it's the third one that is the problem. The thing is let's use roblox as an example just because why not. They never actually made their game for linux. they just enabled wine support and told their linux playerbase to use wine (recently they disabled this wine support because people were using vinegar, a popular wine wrapper used to run roblox, to cheat in the game).

Now the Proton project has done an AMAZING job at this. In fact the steam deck had our hopes high for the year of the linux desktop. And honestly, I think we're close to if not on the home stretch here.

Alright so we understand the user friendliness and the gaming piece of the puzzle, but let me elaborate more on the user friendly.

I have recently seen this video where people asked Linus Torvalds some questions on why he doesn't use Debian or Ubuntu and he said something here that really resonated with me. he said that he wants a distro that is easy to install because he has a life. And this is the thing. look at MacOS, look at Windows, fuck look at ChromeOS for that matter and look at their installation experience. You see how user friendly it is.

Now look at installing apps, Windows you install a .exe file, hope and pray that it's not a virus, run it and you're done. you can also use a .msi file to install your app if you want to. MacOS, you download a .dmg file and copy it to your applications directory, simple as that. Hell it even gives you a fucking window that tells you "drag to install" and you drag the program into the applications directory.

this is from Livakivi's MacOS challenge video down below

Now this video shows me one: reasons why I shouldn't use MacOS, and two: user friendliness features that if put in Linux, it can cause the year of the Linux desktop we've all been waiting for.

Now installing stuff on linux, you have to type in one command. But for some people, that terminal is a scary place that they don't want to be. And so there is the way of installing it using a .deb file or a .rpm file. But the thing is that way is the wrong way. That is how you get malware, yes even though linux doesn't have much malware, it still has some. Hell, when I used Ubuntu (I use Kubuntu now) the Ubuntu software thing would actually WARN ME, that .deb packages had the capability of installing malware. But another point to make is that, deb and rpm files are only available for Debian and it's billions of forks, and fedora (and possibly it's forks, idk if it has any though).

Now there is a solution to this problem though, and that is the Discover app, (or the GNOME software app). these apps basically use the terminal method of installing the apps, making it more secure because they install packages that are checked for malware. But they just make it easier for your average joe to install them. They make it so easy that even your grandmother can do it. But the issue doesn't appear when you look at how not every desktop environment has the software app, meaning not every distro has the app because you can just use a distro that has the app. But the issue arises with the fact that some apps require you to add the repository in order to install it. There has to be some way for the software app to look at all repositories without adding them until you install a piece of software from it. Sort of like how a browser skims through the websites or something like that.

Yes there is documentation on how to do this type of stuff, but the thing is. With Windows, it just does it. Now I'm not saying linux should be like windows or Mac OS hell nah. What I'm saying is linux should be as noob friendly as windows and Mac OS.

The conclusion to this entire thing is that the year of the Linux desktop will never happen until the noob distros become as noob friendly as Windows and MacOS. Where you don't need a manual to use it. All you do is click a button and "oh that's what it does". It needs to be able to be used by someone who doesn't know shit about computers, and has never touched a command prompt in their life. Yes you might say "BuT tHe CoMmAnD pRoMpT iS tHe EnTiRe PoInT oF LiNuX!!!11!11" yes, but the thing is there has to be a distro for the ones who don't want to touch the command prompt

[vivian-location]

with all this stuff about windows recall going around, you know you can just. not use windows, right. if youre tech savvy enough to know and care about windows recall and microsoft's other shitty practices then theres a good chance you could probably learn how to use linux.

go learn about some basic distros like linux mint, ubuntu, fedora or manjaro and try using linux for just a day. just give it a try. literally every major distro lets you test it out before installing it. hell you could even go to distrosea.com and check out some distros entirely in your web browser. and if you reallyyyy need a couple windows-specific programs to work then you can just dualboot with your existing windows install. its just one button you tick during setup and it works literally always.

is linux objectively more complicated than windows? yes. are there some stupid issues you can encounter? yes. but theres this thing called "the internet" which has literally never failed to solve the issues ive encountered. just go try linux you have literally nothing to lose and so much freedom to gain