Technology
This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.
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Cool - forcing ads into the start menu, forcing edge on users. Guess like Win10 is where I leave windows forever.
I downloaded Mandrake Linux back in 1992. I've always fiddled with linux over the years but could never fulfill all my needs. But things have changed recently. I've started using ChatGPT to help me when I hit roadblocks with Linux, and it's REALLY helped work around the various barriers that have kept me from fully adopting linux. Honestly, I am looking forward to switching entirely over to Linux for my business - I'm tired of Windows. And I've been here since Win3.1!!
I haven't seen any ads, so my feelings about Windows might change at some point. But I've tried linux in the past, and there's a reason why it just doesn't get as much adoption.
First of all, linux seems to be built around the command line. I hate using the command line, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Everytime there's something to troubleshoot I have to figure out command line inputs and outputs.
Second, the annoying issues with windows are annoying, but I've learnt to figure it out. No, I don't want to set as default, no I don't want to send data, no i don't want to create a MS account. Even if I didn't figure it out, I can still change it later - sending data is annoying af and i don't like it, but it doesn't stop me from doing something. On the other hand, i encounter issues with linux that stop me from actually using the OS all the time. Everytime I do, I have to post in forums asking for help, wait 12-36 hours while using an alternate OS/workaround, and dread the inevitable use of command-line that follows.
The use of command line is literally Linux's biggest strength and why they dominate the server space. Linux servers can be run "headless" with no monitor and no Graphical User Interface. Command Line only. GUI takes so much processing power from the CPU/GPU and it eats up RAM.
Until very recently, Windows servers required much higher system specs to run the server because windows was never primarily command line. You always had to have a GUI, no headless.
MS has gone whole hog with PowerShell, their answer to Linux. They even have versions of server that run headless now.
Sorry, I just think its a little funny that your biggest complaint is the thing that made Linux so powerful and that Windows has been playing catch-up with Linux in that arena for over a decade now.
i don't doubt that linux has its uses and command-line is powerful. What I'm saying is >80% of users only know how to use a GUI, and that is why linux won't go mainstream without having a GUI for everything user-facing.
I have messed around with Linux for 20 years. In all that time it's always been completely unsuable for most users. The use of the command line for anything routine is complete bullshit.
All I want to do is download a program and click on it to install. How fucking hard is that. I am not a programmer and have zero desire to be one.
I do not want to go to the command line and try to fucking remember the sudo bullshit and fail because I missed one letter in the sintax.
Just let me use the fucking computer for the tasks I need to do, not fuck around with the OS.
For most modern Linux distributions that's exactly how it works. You have an app store, you look for the program, click install, then click launch.
Unless the program you need is not in the store, which, for some reason is still normal for the programs I want to use. Then it's back to the stupid tar.bz bullshit and typing in random shit I found on the internet into the command line hoping it works.
Every 2-3 years, I get fed up with the bullshit Windows is doing and test out a few distros in a vain hope it's finally usable. Then for some random thing I have to hit the command line and inevitable failure to accomplish what I want to do. So I unistall the OS and wait a few more years.
With flatpaks becoming more and more common, that issue doesn't crop up too often anymore. Mainly for niche software or things that need to burrow deep into the system, like VPNs. That's usually not more than copy&paste from the developer's website either though.
But if you don't like that, you gotta pick your poison.
I don't know about "most" users but I've been using it for about 25 years and it's perfectly usable for me and my family.
Keep using Windows if that's what you like, but be aware that many non programmers use Linux and don't need to go to the command line to install software.
I don't know if you have used Linux in the past three years, but with modern workstation distros like popos, mint, or fedora it is very rarely necessary to use the command line if you don't have to. Both KDE Plasma and Gnome have simple and intuitive appstores with massive app libraries through flatfub, and in many ways I find the UI less confusing (especially in settings) then what windows offers.
@Interstellar_1 @The_v, agree, I've used in the past Kubuntu along with Windows in Dual boot and in all the years I only needed the command line 2 times. In current Linux, at least in many distros, the command line is less and less necessary.
Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows I ever used unless they change their attitude, which seems unlikely considering the entire fucking world is all about anti-trust oligopolies forcing ever increasing amounts of bullshit down people's throats now. They pushed me past my breaking point about 2.5 years ago and I've been on Linux ever since. I use a Mac at work. I ordered a Windows machine from work because the hardware was considerably more powerful and within one day I remembered why I left Windows and returned it. It's a real shame too. Windows 10 was an outstanding operating system before they started filling it with spyware and advertising. See ya Windows, it was fun for awhile.
There is an enterprise windows version that comes without tracking, telemetry and auto installed crapware, but it costs more.
"Just switch to Linux!!!1!!" - yeah sure, and throw away the 3rd party software licenses I paid money for in the last 20 years, not to mention the games...