this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2024
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Yes, but most people don’t ever have to use it for anything. The average Windows user doesn’t know what you mean when you say “open a command prompt.”
I literally only use it on Windows to compile some source code or run python scripts.
And most people, if they used Linux, wouldn't have to use the terminal for anything either. Linux has come along a long way for the average user, assuming you choose a sensible newbie-friendly distro like Zorin on Linux-friendly hw, or your PC comes with Linux OOTB (like System76 machines) - then an average user, would never have to touch the terminal.
Just ask my elderly parents - they've been running Linux for about 15 years now without having to touch the terminal or learn any commands. And before you say anything - yes, they do more than just Facebook - they print and scan stuff, backup files from their phones, transfer files across USB drives, do some light document editing - pretty much all your basic computing tasks really - and they never needed to touch the terminal.
This misconception that Linux users need to use/learn the terminal really needs to die.
Your one use case does nothing to convince me. I’ve read enough recent examples contrary to that to know better, not to mention having had to manually edit a ridiculous number of setting files on my own system to get something to work properly that should have just worked without jumping through all the hoops. Keep lying to yourself that this will be the year of the linux desktop.
I've set up Linux for various family members over the years, most recently for my Wife (lubuntu lts on an old laptop) and it's always been smooth, unlike windows where I'm having to fix their problems every other week.
Key takeaway here is I had to set it up for them, none of them had a chance in hell at doing so themselves. For simple tasks, once setup correctly - it's great. For an end user experience without initial help, the slightest thing will throw them during setup.
Until a normal system update breaks something within a few days, weeks, months, whenever. And you may be able to fix it. This is a common occurrence that can happen to anyone, not that it necessarily will. It is well documented in the annals of lemmy.
I mean it depends on the hardware - you can get unlucky with that, sure. I've usually installed timeshift so it can be easily restored if necessary, but I've never had to restore any of the systems I setup besides my own - since Ubuntu 12.04 - around 12 years ago.
LTS is what I go with so no bleeding edge updates, and I've not setup anyone else's system that has a dedicated GPU so many of the common issues don't apply in my case.
However, I remember from 8.04 - 12.04 having a complete fking nightmare with WiFi adaptors. I get a twitchy eye just thinking about ndiswrapper...
I’ve done an update and suddenly bluetooth doesn’t work. Or audio. Or the network is fucked. Or there’s no display on soft reboots, and you have to completely shutdown, turn off and restart to get video again.
One of the current Microsoft-induced selling points for linux is that it's supposedly a great alternative for hardware that doesn’t support TPM, particularly for people who wouldn’t know how to disable that requirement on Win11 and above. Well, guess what? All that equipment is old. So all the arguments that it’s a hardware problem are not great for linux, since it’s linux that doesn’t play nice with it without fiddling.
For a time I was able to turn this machine into a Hackintosh that ran MacOS well with everything compatible, including the video card before they switched to metal and discontinued support for nVidia drivers. That was easier than getting linux to work and stay working properly, and it’s well documented how much of a pain Hackintoshes were to get working right.