Microsoft in their infinite wisdom has replaced the Hide Desktop icon with Copilot.

AnActOfCreation@programming.dev to Technology@lemmy.world – 1408 points –
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just switched to Linux for the first time this week!

I'll happily help you if needed. Hmu.

This is the problem with Linux. People that know how to use a PC and are not tech illiterate still can't use it very well. Just the fact that you offered means you know they are probably having some issues.

I know how to use a PC and I am tech literate and I can use Linux just fine so I don't get what your point is.

I have used Linux off and on for almost 20 years.

I install it, see if I can do everything I want.

Get lost in terminal hell.

Give up and uninstall it.

Until I can browse to a webpage, download a program and click on an icon and have it install and work, the OS is shit for the general user. It's not that fucking difficult of a concept.

I mean, for most distros you should be about to install and use the OS without touching the terminal. Yeah, you may want to use it for some things (idk what you were trying to do) but it's kind of the same thing in Windows with registry edits and such. It's a tool and if you don't know how to use it, you're probably gonna get lost.

Also how is it easier to go to a webpage to download an installer instead of using a store? Even microsoft is trying to move in that direction.

I don't want to say your experience is invalid because I definitely think Linux can improve in terms of user experience. But it's not very helpful to just complain about stuff vaguely.

The issue you're having is it sounds like you don't understand package managers. On your phone you go through the Play store or Apple store, and they manage your apps and keep them updated. It's the same for Linux. You download and install things through the package manager (using the terminal or through the Discover application, assuming your distro has that). On Windows you go to a website and download an application, and that application has to keep track of updating itself. It has to check online for updates every time it launches and then ask you to download and install it then. Package managers are much more convenient. It may take a minute to get used to, but it's better once you do.

Yeah. People new to computers in general have an easier time using Linux than Windows power users, because the latter expects the same experience as Windows when they are using an entirely different OS.

Then, when something Windows-esque doesn't work (like downloading software from a website), they blame Linux instead of their method.

You're right. It's not that difficult of a concept and luckily Linux works just like that. I will admit that Linux wasn't always user friendly but it's made leaps and bounds in that department. A bit less than a year ago, I decided one day to wipe my SSD completely and install Linux and I've been using it ever since. I'm doing everything I was doing for. Obviously this is going to depend on your specific needs but for me it's been just fine.

No it doesn't.

My last attempt was six months ago. Still had a few key programs in a tarball. Dow

Then there's always the random hardware incompatibility. This last attempt it decided to flip the screen upside down on my laptop screen. Fun times...

It's come a long way, but for the average user, it's not anywhere near polished enough.

What kind of software do you use? I have never needed to install a tarball. Flipping the screen upside down seems like a very easily fixable problem compared to some of the stuff windows throws at you

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This is the problem with Windows. People that know how to use a PC and are not tech illiterate still can’t use it very well.

That's not a problem with windows it's a feature. Even the barely tech literate people can use it to bumble their way through to get the job done, eventually.

They don't use it well but they still use it. They also rarely break it anymore.

Those of us who worked with these people with win 98 and XP... Shudder. They ways they screwed up the system was truly remarkable at times.

I’m extremely technically literate, build my own PCs and write my own software tools.

I don’t use Linux at home because I don’t want to fiddle. I want to sit down, open steam, and play a game.

I use Linux for many things, but my personal computer uses windows because it just works all the time.

I'm sorry all of the Linux fan boys don't like your comment. My main is Windows and my other PC is a Linux box.

Pointing out significant flaws that are holding the systems adoption rate back is never popular. Most of them are very techy and don't have a clue what the average user needs. It's a great way to get them all riled up.

I spent a few years as a process flow and bug finder for some programmers building a proprietary internal system. Then I trained non-tech savvy people on how to use the system. One of the most difficult jobs I have ever done. Bridging the gap between the two of them was brutal.

This place is a massive echo chamber. Votes don’t matter

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One of us! One of us! One of us!

There are dozens of us, dozens!

Twitter sent me to Mastodon. Reddit sent me to Lemmy. Windows has sent me to Linux. These things are basically promoting the better versions of themselves by becoming shittier versions of themselves.

Same here. But I had always been on Linux since I was a kid because Ubuntu (Gnome 2 days) was very pretty compared to Windows XP to me.

How much searching did you have to do? Be honest. Ever try to mount a network share permanently yet?

network share

Built-in to dolphin file manager 😜

I didn't realize that was in every distro

Literally every distro has dolphin in the repos

I was like wait they aren't all already installed by default, then I realized you confirmed it.

It's not automatically installed on gnome, because gnome sucks. But any KDE distro will have it, and any distro ever will have it in the repos

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As someone on Manjaro for over a year, I did have a few searches, but they were rare and mostly related to obscure things I needed.

Not even close to the "search a fix every 10 minutes" experience I was promised.

No searching at all. I got a new computer last month.

  1. Install open-ssh server on the old computer
  2. Copy the IP address of the old computer
  3. Paste it into Dolphin
  4. Copy paste everything

And how would a new user know to find this specific app in the repo? Have you ever actually searched "how to permanently mount a network dive in Linux"? I didn't see a single one saying dolphin.

I don't know how to mount a network drive in Windows. So what's your point?

btw I just searched how to do it in KDE. First result is a Reddit thread explaining how to do it in Dolphin.

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I did, and it was fairly straightforward according to the documentation I found. This was a couple of years ago but I’m pretty sure I needed to figure out how to use nano, then type some magic words into fstab along with the IP and password, and I haven’t had to mess with it ever since.

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