Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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I'm so frustrated rn. (lemmy.world)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I have been distro hopping for about 2 weeks now, there's always something that doesn't work. I thought I would stick with Debian and now I haven't been able to make my printer work in it, I think I tried in another distro and it just worked out of the box, but there's always something that's broken in every distro.

I'm sorry I'm just venting, do you people think Ubuntu will work for me? I think I will try it next.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

There is not a single distro where everything works out of the box. I would be very surprised if even Windows or MacOS work exactly like you expect, the second you boot into them the first time.

I like Arch / EndeavourOS, but you will definitely need quiet some configuration for them. If you want more user-friendly or more up-to-date Debian, try Sparky Linux. It's honestly quite good. Instead of Ubuntu you might want to give Mint a try. Many fancy it as a more open and less corpo alternative.

Ubuntu itself is alright, but it's being criticised for pushing anti-consumer moves lately (i.e. forcing Snaps and telemetry onto them). Also, updates on Ubuntu are extremely slow in my experience. Maybe that has changed, but in some areas I doubt it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

There is not a single distro where everything works out of the box.

On the other hand, if hardware manufacturers or software developers test their products with one Linux distribution, it will be Ubuntu. So that's generally the safest bet - and that's coming from someone who doesn't use Ubuntu.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Windows generally does work exactly like that. It's the reason it has such a huge market share of desktops.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Windows breaks something all the time. Just the other week I had to fix their stupid new Email program for my dad.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

There are many reasons why their market share is so high:

They were there before Linux
They had a GUI before Linux even existed iirc (let alone before Linux's were any good)
They were focused on desktop + consumer market from the start
They are for-profit and have a marketing budget
They have the Office products many depend on (be it justified or not)
For a long time, gaming was basically impossible on Linux

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

That is absolutely not true, Ubuntu has been a lot more out of the box experience for almost 2 decades. Thing is people are already familiar on how to do things on Windows, and most laptops already come with windows and drivers pre installed. Windows 10 was the first version to have a driver manager that could find the correct drivers for you, still you need to waste a few hours and reboots to get all of the drivers and updates.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

As a very casual user, I can say that windows has intuitive solutions to issues that may arise. At least there are some things users can try by just using logic.

In Linux, solving issues requires you to type in the Romanian national anthem backwards, speperated by ; and the ocational "sudo" and "apt get"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

If you tried to stumble your way around the UI on Linux you'll probably find very similar UI paths to solve any issue. The thing is that Linux has several different UIs so when you ask in a forum it's easier to give you the UI-agnostic solution. Let's take a common issue with an apparent arcane solution, e.g. change your screen positions. On windows you do this by going start > settings > system > display and adjust them there, on Linux you'll get given an xrandr command like xrandr --output HDMI-0 --left-of DP-2, but on KDE you go start > system settings > display and monitor and adjust them there, but because you might be using Gnome, Lxde, XFCE, Mate, etc (all of which have a very similarly intuitive path to adjust this) it's easier to give you a command that does it.

For the first several years I used Linux I almost didn't touched the terminal, and that was a long time ago so it's not that it's not possible or recent, it's just that because windows has only a single graphical interface you get answers for it, but if you ask things on generic Linux forums you'll get generic Linux responses, if you had to do things without asking anyone online they're very much the same.