• Mechanismatic@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    “Okay, I switched to Linux, now I’m getting this error message: _______.”

    “Install ______.”

    “It gives me this error now: ______.”

    “You have to update the _____ library first.”

    “It won’t let me.”

    “You have to use sudo.”

    “It tells me to clone the git via the command line, but git says verifying login from command line isn’t supported any more.”

    “You’re following seven year old instructions.”

    “They’re the only instructions I can find.”

    “You should switch to this other flavor of Linux.”

    • I do not prefer apt-based systems, but I’ve installed variations of Ubuntu (e.g. Mint) on systems for geriatric (grand)parents in the past 5 years and have not yet needed to drop into shell to fix something.

      If the needs are basic (browsing, email, printing, documents), Linux hasn’t needed wizardry for years. This is mostly thanks to Gnome and KDE’s hard work on GUI admin tools, but if someone is going directly from Windows to i3, they’ve chosen a steep hill to climb.

  • Holyginz@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Switch to Linux and spend way more time making sure everything is updated and having to jump through hoops installing things.

    • Dnn@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      No idea what you mean. I just quickly wanted to update before calling it a night, got a grub update and now it neither boots the default nor the fallback image. I use Arch BTW.

    • nexussapphire@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Mostly just when you initially install like most OSes ; browsers, office suits, game launchers, etc… My mother doesn’t even notice fedora automatically installing updates when she turns her PC off. (I enabled automatic updates for her)

      Even with my arch Linux install with Hyprland, most of the time I just update before I turn it off. With a terminal command but even that is just paru and my password or flatpak update. If I had kde or gnome desktop, I could set it up to auto update too.

      Sometimes I don’t even bother and use the computer without updating it for a couple of months or it automatically updates when I install new software.

    • Whisper06@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      Yeah I’m not sure the last time you used Linux but it’s nothing like that these days. As long as you stick with a well established distribution you’ll be fine. I haven’t had to go in a “fix” an update in a while, even in some of the beta updates they’re fairly stable.

  • RCKLSSBNDN@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I remember I had a date with a girl back in the’10s. We hit it off and got back to her place. Wanted to show her a funny Internet video.

    She brought out an ancient laptop that refused to boot and said her Ex had tried to fix it with Linux.

    I got it pointed at the right dependencies, she fellated me as it updated.

    I think this is my only sexy story that includes Linux.

    Well, I guess there was this one time I loaned a lonely neighbor DOS 6 disks.

    But, that does not include Linux.

  • AnonymousLlama@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    About the same when you ask for a good GUI replacement for X and someone replies “just use the command line”, like cheers for that men, not what I’m asking for.

    • littlecolt@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      AMEN! I asked recently if there was a good Linux alternative to this program I used in Windows called “Bulk Rename Utility” and i was flooded by people telling me how easy it was to set up a script to do what I want.

      Turns out the best alternative is running BRU in Wine.

      • oatscoop@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        There almost always powerful existing utilities that can do what you want in linux.

        But you have to find them and they have a learning curve. Sometimes that “curve” is a cliff.

      • hellishharlot@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        This makes me wonder how powerful a repo platform like gitlab would be if it allowed people to suggest software ideas and have people make them. In this instance a simple GUI wrapper for bulk rename command line would be sufficient but I would bet there’s millions of things like that, not world changing software just nice qol stuff

    • dustojnikhummer@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I still don’t understand why there isn’t a terminal-gui (you know, those text but graphical utilities) for basic stuff like mounting a network share. Why do I still need to manually edit fstab?!?

    • sucksatusernames@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      “Why even use a DE? Try a WM like openbox”

      Well, because a lot of things are simplified with DE functionality, and not everyone has the same preferences…

    • Whisper06@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      I do have to vouch for sometimes the command line is easier, not with everything but sometimes. Like my VPN sometimes it’s a little slow on the uptake and finding a server all that nonsense but I can also just have a few taps away at the command line and bing bang boom it’s done.

      • ttmrichter@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Like wanting to hear “this is the Year of the Linux Desktop” and needing to hear “this is the 27th consecutive Year of the Linux Desktop that failed”?

          • ttmrichter@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            And yet people stay away from it in droves.

            Fancy that.

            Sounds like someone is hearing what he wants to hear, not what he needs to.

            • somedaysoon@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              And yet people stay away from it in droves.

              Ad Populum. I don’t consider the opinions of morons.

              Sounds like someone is hearing what he wants to hear, not what he needs to.

              Reaching now, huh? Swing and a miss.

  • ttmrichter@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    A non-technical end-user once had a problem with Windows. A technical friend said “SWITCH TO LINUX”. Now they have thousands of problems.

    I’ve been a non-stop user of Linux as my primary OS since before Ubuntu was a thing. I do not recommend Linux systems to my non-technical friends.

    • Aggravationstation@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      My Aunt bought a new laptop to run her eBay/Facebook selling business on. She’s not particularly techy but has used Windows machines for admin work for prob 20 years or so. Laptop had no office apps installed and she tracks everything in a spreadsheet. Original plan was to install Libreoffice but it was running some budget version of Windows 10 you can’t install anything on, can’t remember what it’s called. So I installed Fedora. Chromium and Libreoffice Calc open on login, her ancient HP printer works, she’s able to access her camera as USB mass storage when she lists items and unattended upgrades are enabled. That was 2 years ago, no problems since.

      • ttmrichter@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Cool story, bro. And for every such cool story you can bring up I can bring you a hundred, probably, of people who got set up on Linux and returned to Windows because it was a horror show from their perspective.

        Let me give you the clue: “The Year of the Linux Desktop” has been declared with monotonous regularity since the 1990s. It still hasn’t arrived. There’s a reason for this, and the quicker Linux (and other F/OSS) advocates grasp why this is, the quicker will the year actually arrive.

        Until then, Linux is a fringe OS for techies. (And there it excels. As I said, I’ve been a non-stop user of it for ages.)

  • Rentlar@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    50% of the time the Microsoft forum help solution for any Windows problem is “Have you tried Re-installing Windows?”

    • source, my ass
  • ColPanic@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    No, you don’t say “switch to Linux”. This is an opportunity to be free from the shackles of being the go-to IT support person! If they say they are having computer problems, ask “Is it Linux? No? Sorry, can’t help you”

  • Stillhart@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Okay, I’ll bite. I’ve been trying Linux every few years for the last few decades and it’s never been anywhere close to replacing Windows for me. I’m not a luddite; I was in tech for many years (MCSE certified) but there just… ALWAYS something that doesn’t work right. And there’s NEVER a simple fix. Linux for me ends up being more of a hobby than a tool and I haven’t had the time or patience to deal with it in the past.

    But I’m willing to try again,

    Anyone have any resources to get me pointed in the right direction? Which distro to try, how to install as a dual-boot on an exiting Windows machine without breaking it, how to get Steam/Nvidia drivers/games going, etc?

    EDIT - Apparently trying to dual boot with Windows on a machine with two physical drives is too much to ask (unless you have a CS degree). Maybe next time, Linux.

  • Cabrio@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Linux will only be the solution when it finally learns to adequately cater to a better class of idiots. Once Linux handles a fool as well as Windows, then we can talk.

    • shapis@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Pretty much. I’d absolutely love to run an idiot proof distro. If one existed.

        • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          Can I use Photoshop/lightroom and all the other software I need for work and play yet?

          • Radioactive Radio@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Can you use windows software on Mac or Android? It’s a different OS, tho wine and proton can make Photoshop and Lightroom work, it’s hit or miss tho. Most games work too save anti-cheat ones for some reason.

            • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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              1 year ago

              It wasn’t trying to be snarky, just genuinely asking because I’d love to switch to Linux and check in now and then but until I can safely work with heavy graphics processes on it reliably, I can’t switch. Main tools are DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop+LR, Blender, and Inkscape. For personal I make music with Bitwig (which has a Linux version I know that) and some other stuff, and I game on it now and then (drone simulator on Steam with a radio controller on usb, sometimes a bit of WoW), but these days I mostly game downstairs on the Xbox anyway.

  • dustyData@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The ones that make me laugh uncontrollably are those Windows disk encryption issues for which the solution is…wait for it… run Linux from a LiveISO, fix the disk with Linux, then reinstall Windows. Because Windows is incapable of fixing its own issues that it itself caused.