this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2024
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In my experience basic stuff like browsing files, editing documents, launching apps, installing apps, and obviously a million things using a web browser, are all easy and snappy in a fresh out of the box install of Linux Mint.
That's cool. That's not been my experience at all. Nor has it many many other people. It's like the number 1 complaint, and the number of delusional people who try to pretend like it doesn't exist is insane.
is it a pita because you expect it to function like windows or are there specific roadblocks youve encountered?
It's a PITA because there are a dozen different installation methods, and if anything at all is not functioning perfectly, the only advice you'll get is typing random commands into the terminal that report back some generic error that you have no idea what to do with.
i dont mean this in a judgemental way but that sounds like you dont understand or just dislike the process and conflate that with difficulty. the commands aren't random, you just don't know them. people who have learned how to use the OS (granted, not everyone has the time for that) generally know what commands do before they paste them in. I have a much easier time running a single command rather than navigating through layers of GUI but not everyone will share that preference
LOL and what exactly else would you call that? They're random to me. I don't know them, I don't want to know them, I just want it to work like every other sensible OS where I can figure out how to complete basic tasks without needing a computer science degree. That's what most people want and it's why Linux will remain a niche OS by nerds and for nerds, because that's the way they like it, which is fine, but let's not try to gaslight people into believing there's no reason people might want something else.
I'd call it baby duck syndrome. I hate hunting for exes online to install the most basic software and how there's no way to update all of my apps with a single click but I understand the way I'm used to isn't the same as the best way.
What are your talking about? You don't need to "hunt" for anything. You just type it into a search engine the same way you would on Linux...?
...have you just never heard of the Microsoft store? You wanna take a guess at what that is?
That's not how you install stuff on Linux normally. For users like you who refuse to learn new methods, you should use you app store. That might be called Discover on your distro or maybe something else, but it's probably there. You then search for the application and you're done. It's the same concept as Android (because they're both Linux and sensible and are using a package manager).
Alternatively you can use the terminal to search using the package manager and have it install it from there. I find that faster and easier than using a GUI, but the GUI option is there and dead simple and easy for people who can't be asked to learn how to use the most basic tools on their computer.
It's not how you "normally" install stuff on Windows or Mac either. But often times the software you need isn't available in a package manager. If everything was available as a flatpak I would take it all back, but that doesn't even remotely resemble reality.
It is neither of those things. Objectively.
The phrase you're looking for is "can't be arsed" but you're wrong anyway. The problem is not that we "can't be arsed", the problem is that it's an unnecessarily convoluted and unintuitive process.
Objectively, huh? This is beside the point that was being made, but you're just trying to be obstinate. I can have a package installed by the terminal before Discover (the GUI for installing packages) even opens because it takes so long. Objectively it is faster. Subjectivity it's easier for me.
You may be right, but it appears that both are common and people aren't sure of the origin, and "can't be asked" is potentially the original.
And going to a website to download an executable to install a specific piece of software, which you need to give permission when executing to get through the firewall because (to your system) it's just some random executable, isn't? Then having that executable check for updates when launched and sending you to the website to download a new installer. Are you serious? Do you have Stockholm syndrome? Is Microsoft paying you?
Yes huh
Just lying again. You'd have to go and search what words to type in first.
I don't know what you aren't understanding about this. All 3 OSs have package managers that function similarly. What I'm talking about is when the software is not available in the package manager....
You've really never used Windows before, have you? That's once again not how it works. Maybe give it a go and come back after you've got some experience.
You could make an argument for such a thing insofar as time is money. And like they say "Linux is free so long as your time is worth nothing."
Lol. No. If I know the name of the package/application, then for me it's just "sudo packman -S [name]
There is a package manager for Windows (WinGet I believe), it just isn't commonly used, and definitely not by casual users.
How do you know it?
Yes, that's what I said.
LOL it's just called Microsoft store, my dude.
Microsoft store is not a package manager, it's a marketplace. Those are different things.
They're functionally indifferent, for purposes of this conversation.
i literally said it's up to preference, and I don't have a CS degree, I did in fact figure it out
That's not what the title of the OP says. That's my point.