Linux Desktop Usability

I think Linux Desktop users have become blinded to how much easier it is for the average person (not developer, command-line enthusiasts) to use Mac or Windows than Linux.I have Mac, Windows, and Linux machines that I use for different purposes. None of them has been perfect, but the amount of time I’ve lost fighting driver issues, weird upgrade quirks, software incompatibility problems, and other little loose ends over the users has been a magnitude worse on the Linux machines than anything

Well I'll take you at your word that you're interested and 'not doubting' my story. But can you at least see why that isn't the impression I got from reading your comment? You even said you thought people were swayed by bouncing animations and fancy docks! [Edit: and that very dismissive status symbol comment - believe me, you'd laugh at that if you saw me in my crude rainforest shack, with nothing resembling a developer's office within 100 miles] FWIW, which i

All I can say as a person using Linux exclusively for the last 10 years:- You're using the wrong Linux distribution- You're using the wrong Linux kernel version- You have the wrong hardware- You're using Linux incorrectly- You're asking for too much- Go debug or fix it yourself.Edit: This is sarcasm by the way. These bullets come from the article.In all seriousness though. I think another poster had the right idea. Linux requires a mindset shift. You m

I had the same issue on my Surface, but Windows 10 basically fixed it. Of course, that was a year after I bought it.I've heard here and talked to a number of professionals that do not use Linux because they want something that "just works". But if I really sit down and catalog my issues, Linux can be a headache to set up, but once it's working I rarely have issues. Part of that is researching the right hardware, so I guess it's not the plug and play of proprietary pla

Every time I try to use Linux, I come to the conclusion that the user experience makes it not worth the effort it would take to be a daily driver. I always feel like I just don't have the knowledge to get things done in a reasonably efficient manner... And the OS needs more polish.There's always some annoying little problems that take a mountain of effort to properly diagnose and solve. Things like dual monitor support not working properly when the monitors have different resolution

Anecdote: I recently purchased a laptop which came preinstalled with Windows 10. After trying 6 different Linux distributions -- Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, Manjaro, Suse, MX Linux -- and none of them working (issues ranging from the installer not working to being totally unable to boot after the install to frequent freezing), I gave up and have gone back to Windows. I think I could've made Gentoo work with enough effort, but I don't have the patience for Gentoo that I used to.I mean, may

Throughout using Linux here and there for like two decades or so, my only issues were Ubuntu forcing some very Microsoft-ish decisions on me, which I did not like. Plus, this very very stable very stable Debian breaking upon version upgrades (I have no idea why, I keep running mostly default Debian since forever). These days I mostly use Arch and Fedora (on those shared computers I don’t bother to config to my liking), and they were mostly flawless for like years. I have some things I don’t like

Linux isn't for everyone. It's not that us happy-linux-users don't have any of the problems you describe, but rather that we are capable of fixing them and preventing their future appearance. If that doesn't sound like something you would enjoy or be willing to do - then it might not be for you.

I'll reinforce what the parent is saying: for most users, Windows just works. Although I don't like Macs too much, they also just work.I'm a Linux fan, but I can get myself productive in a new Windows install with no grief. For Linux, I always need to go online to remember "that config change" I had to make to get things working for me - and even then, from time to time I still have to tweak and work around a problem or two as I add more stuff to my comp

You think that's bad? I'm using Linux at work on a laptop specifically designed for Linux and it's been a nightmare to get even basic functions to work right. The computer immediately resumes after going to sleep, it took several days to get hibernation working, the nvidia driver keeps locking up the system, external monitors aren't automatically detected, after an apt upgrade, hibernation stops working because my EFI loader file gets overwritten and I can't figure out