My first night on Linux was rough. Getting all my apps installed and set up was exhausting, especially because I had no experience using the command line. For those who haven’t stared into the dark void of a Linux terminal before, it’s where most system management happens — installing apps, running updates, and the like. It’s an unavoidable part of the Linux experience
Bullshit. And fuck you for
propagatingperpetuating this notion, yet again.Edit: fixed to the correct word.
Depends on your distro. Maybe on Ubuntu or Mint, sure. I’m running EndeavourOS, and it’s terminal or nothing. I’m fine with that, but YMMV.
Even on Ubuntu I had to use the terminal pretty frequently. Older games especially are a big PITA to get working sometimes.
I am running EndeavourOS and it’s possible to function without terminal. I use it because I love it but no need at least not for app installing having Discover.
Anyway can’t compare an arch based distro to Fedora or Ubuntu
I use it because I love it but no need at least not for app installing having Discover.
Didn’t you have to install that via the terminal? Discover store is not installed on EndeavourOS by default. You must have installed it and forgot.
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Anyway can’t compare an arch based distro to Fedora or Ubuntu
Why not?
Because Fedora and Ubuntu (Debian) have been around for forever? In my experience Arch also feels more like a your on your own kind of Distro which I liked back in the day (build one myself with an online guide), but now I just want my machine to run and function unattended besides the updates.
They are both built for stability, Arch is built to be bleeding edge.
None is superior to the other, that depends on the user, but an arch-based distro will require the terminal sooner than later, while you don’t need to touch it in Ubuntu.
I came across this the other day but haven’t had a chance to use it. Hopefully this saves someone a lot of time installing programs.
Huh ninite for Linux. That’s neat
Awesome!
Na sorry, hes right.
For someone who doesn’t spend every moment on their pc, its daunting and takes energy to learn and remember all of this just to make your pc run.
Keep in mind that changes are coming even if you stay on Windows or Mac or Android or iOS. AI in particular is going to require everyone to relearn everything in non-deterministic ways, so you end up begging the system to do what you want in new creative ways. Also, the UI will be radically reworked over and over. There’s really no way to avoid learning new ways to do things on an invention that’s less than 50 years old.
Yes, it’s work that we don’t usually have the energy for, especially now, but the best we can do is look for a community to support each other through it all.
That is true and a large part of why I do love how linux mostly has stayed the same for 20 years in its basic form. I was able to apply a lot of the things I had remembered from years ago when I used it briefly.
You dont have to. But honestly its worth the time to get over the fear of the terminal. Understanding how they work and being comfortable using them has many advantages. So many things do not require a bloated GUI application. Like again its not necessary but its a bandaid that I think is worth it to rip off.
I really take issue with the author suggesting that you need to. You do not need to, and it is a myth that needs to go away. Particularly when they said it was “exhausting” installing applications. Linux is miles ahead on that front: you look through a list of what you like, or search for them, and click on the ones you want.
Also for system management, there is no need for the terminal either and the author says “It’s an unavoidable part of the Linux experience”. That one in particular really doesn’t sit well with me.
Now can you? Yes. Should you? Also yes, because it is the easiest way to convey and execute an idea. But you do not have to.
And they fail to mention that windows does this too, for almost every task for system maintenance is done this way: press run+r, now type “whatever -command”.
Anyways a moderately mainstream article and they are going to scare people away over something they did not need to do. Which after a year you would think they would have figured that out.
I agree for the most part. It depends a lot on what distro youre using, what DE, so on. But you can easily get by on gnome without having to use the terminal much if at all.
KDE as well. It is astounding how easy it is to use a modern KDE distro: everything has tips and hints get you to the setting you want. Even mounting shares is just click and mount.
Personally I enjoy typing stuff in the konsole
The one I’m on has a very functional “search and install” app, but I still find myself habitually opening up terminal for installation out of “fastness”. Maybe it’s a poor impulse I should correct.
Probably the biggest thing driving terminal use is opening and configuring system files. You can do that with the file explorer and an elevated text editor, but a lot of guides aiming for conciseness will give you some command to wget a long file online, then insert content into a text file by path in one line.
Why do you neckbeards constantly lie so aggressively about this? That post exactly describes every single Linux migration I’ve ever done. You WILL end up in the terminal at some point, and you will find apps and games that just don’t work well in Linux.
Oh for fucks sake, so much neckbeard energy here dismissing this guys personal experience.
When you’re a new user and don’t know what the hell the native app store application is, which doesn’t have all the programs a person would want to use and install there, and when a new user goes to find their old windows apps that have Linux install instructions, what’s the first thing that they have there? Guess. It’s always find your flavor of Linux and the first steps shown are always terminal commands with sudo apt get or sudo dnf.
That’s everyone first time with Linux until they learn more about it so get off your high horse and condescending gatekeeping attitude.
Gatekeeping, I hate that word. So useless. In this scenario the author is gate keeping saying all the linux system management is the command line. Its “exhausting”. Well bullshit. Let me say it again: BULLSHIT.
It is perpetuating a myth. This is not true. They are gatekeeping the users who don’t want to because they are saying it has to be this way.
Look, I like the command line, I get why sharing information is so much easier by providing a command rather than a wall of screen shots.
Yet at the same time, my travel laptop over here, two years in, has never had to have “system administration” and package installation from a command line. Depending on the distro it simply is not necessary.
The user has choice.
Buddy, they literally do not know that choice exists, and you’re getting angry and calling them a liar instead of growing the community by teaching.
The Linux community has a reputation for being filled with condescending dickheads, and that’s part of the reason why people are turned off from even trying.
Buddy, they literally do not know that choice exists
Yeah, because people like this author keep repeating it.
The Linux community has a reputation for being filled with condescending dickheads
Yet another annoying myth. Look, I am saying it with a bit of vitrol here, but its basically to the universe as the author (as far as I know) isn’t here.
Could I be a bit nicer? I suppose, but they were so wrong, and using strong words like “exhausting” to describe a practice they don’t even have to do is annoying. Read what they wrote, they said all admin tasks are command line. Nonsense of course. If they had said, I started out this way, or it was what I had learned, with just a tiny bit of journalistic effort they would know there are a variety of ways.
I have gone back and read forums, from 10 to 15 years ago, just because I keep hearing: linux is so condescending and rude, and it wasn’t the way I remembered it, so I went to see. And guess what? Nothing but nice and friendly people trying to help each other.
It gets old fast.
When the day comes that Linux runs all of my games, I will give the dual-boot the boot. :)
Stop playing games that won’t play on Linux.
Just throw away the money you spent, and the social groups that use those games as hangouts!
Mostly online multiplayer with cheat protections specific only for Windoze.
So far in my friend group it’s just CoD, Destiny…forget the others. I don’t play those but literally every game I do wanna play just works for the last few years. 🤷♂️
Holy shit there’s still Destiny 2 players…?
Which specific don’t work. Every online multivitamin game I played works. I don’t play COD or those modern “AAA” slops.
That will most likely never happen, so stop lying to yourself.
The only games that don’t run nowadays I think are the ones that require installing kernel malware so you might reconsider playing them regardless of your OS.
Even some of those work, Helldivers 2 for instance. I usually check protondb.com to make sure if I can run the game if it does not have a native build.
Step one: download bazzite Step two: install Step three: ??? Step four: Fuck windows
I would caution against fucking Windows - you’ll likely end up with a nasty virus
That’s why you use a firewall and open a port to insert your ramdisk
Hey, just because I preach harm reduction, doesn’t mean I’m gonna kink shame
terms and conditions apply, your situation may vary with Nvidia hardware
I kinda get there’s some common meme about Nvidia being Linux’s kryptonite, but everything’s been okay for me on CachyOS. This after some issues earlier in the year on Mint and even Bazzite.
Yeah, the Linux community has done a shitload of work to bring Linux up to as good as windows (in the technical sense) and better than windows (regarding the often hostile user experience).
Microsoft is now helping with the marketing by making the windows experience even worse, driving more people to “take the plunge” only for them to realize there isn’t a place where the floor suddenly drops away and you’re left helpless, and that that actually is a better description for using windows outside of the rails MS wants.
If you use an AMD gpu, there’s actually fewer steps to go from empty disk to playing a game, assuming that game isn’t trying to do things with the kernel or is one of the rare games that aren’t compatible for reasons other than anti-cheat (I’ve seen one game like that so far, forget the name of it but a logistics game that needed some dotnet library or something and I ended up giving up and refunding it rather than troubleshooting it until it worked, though others on protondb did say they got it working).
The days where windows gives an easier or better experience are gone, even ignoring all the next level enshitification of win 11. I’ve been on Linux for about a year now but wish I had switched sooner.
If you use an AMD gpu, there’s actually fewer steps to go from empty disk to playing a game
That’s the theory, assuming that the Amd Gpu works with Linux. It might also just crash your system, which is a know problem of the driver, which hasn’t been fixed. You have to semi-randomly pass parameters to the kernel, hoping to find something that works.
A lot of misinformation and people going about things wrong in the comments.
Do y’all not do research before buying a house, buying a car, or applying to a new job?
Y’all need to go back and learn critical thinking.
Enlightening
I did the same but I cannot replace it. Half of my devices are not working.
What kind of exotic hardware do you have? Pretty much any of the old and new hardware I keep throwing at it has worked, do you have specialized equipment?
My partner has a bog standard Weseary headset and the knobs don’t work on Linux. Setting up his gaming mouse from Logitech was also a nightmare. Linux needs to work on it’s plug and play for normies, as much as I love it.
If it is a wireless one Solaar has been my go to program to manage Logitech mouses, so maybe that will also help you?
It took several hours to set that up.
Hmm odd it should not take that long, especially with the flatpack. My install picked up the unified receiver near instant, it was only setting up the keys that took a few minutes for the MX Master 3s.
Does it all work now?
Yes, he had some macros to set up and is totally new to Linux, however he ended up temporarly back on Windows as he has an Nvidia card (5000 series) and their Linux drivers have not caught up yet with the new tech. Once they do he is switching back.
Some pen display, graphic tablets, and audio pheriperials are not always fully supported on Linux. Even new hardware does not guarantee a full support.
Hell, even common stuff like the Elgato Stream Deck either doesnt work, works very poorly, or can’t replicate all of the functionality.
Honestly. I had my issues With windows already. I used another harddrive for Linux. I only Boot Windows fornspecific Games meanwhile.
At Work its all Windows and … the experience is worse before getting used to Linux. I dunno and orobslby don’t want to know, how Microslop was able to fuck Up an OS that terribly over time.
Been using linux exclusively for personal computing since 2019 and don’ miss windows either.
Not exclusively but almost exclusively since 2004 here, the time when there was a thing similar to wine for printer drivers
Would be nice to be able to read the article. This hiding shit behind an account just guarantees I’ll never read it on your site.
I think this is a result of much site traffic being AI search agents or crawlers nowadays, which doesn’t generate any ad income for sites. So they don’t really have a choice
Yeah, that makes sense. I get it, I just despise it, lol.
Here you go:
Thanks!
So I’ve gone back to linux for my daily but holy hell the driver support is very much still not there, especially for gaming.
The wifi driver is flakey and drops connection requiring a disable/re-enable every so often, power management doesn’t work quite right with sleep mode locking up the system every so often, keyboard no use of most of the advanced features, same for the mouse and never mind about the other various nits that I end up finding that honestly don’t have much info because there’s no official driver support from the companies, just mostly wonderful people who are making things work but don’t have that industrial knowledge and limited time.
Still, absolutely no regrets in moving back to Linux because Windows has been just horrible since 7 and 11, which I still have to use at work, is just absolute crap.
I’m not sure what distro you’re using or what hardware you have. But you must either have bad luck or choose bad cheap hardware.
I’ve been using wifi on Linux since the ndiswrapper days. I haven’t had a wifi issue in many many years using Lenovo, Dell, Panasonic laptops and various self built servers (but they tend to be wired)
the wifi driver
Holy fuck, really? The lack of working wifi or gpu drivers is why I never stayed with Linux for daily use outside of my media server box. And the last time I tried using it for my main gaming PC was over 10 years ago.
GPU drivers, at least on AMD’s side, have been solid and Nvidia has been generally decent and getting a lot better with the new process they’re doing for the newer cards. But my scenario might be more unique to the MB implementation of the wifi chipset since when I posted on other boards, others with different MB’s/cards using the same driver aren’t seeing the same issues.
And of course the other downside is that the wifi 7 driver for that chip is not available for windows 10 and is windows 11 only and I do not want to use that as my daily even if the driver is solid and honestly I’m not a huge perpetual online gamer so it’s not impacting my ability to use and enjoy my Bazzite instance.
Standby with nvidia gpus is broken still, but everything external I’ve plugged into my system works first time.
Is it? Got a 3080 and my pc goes to sleep and wakes up without issues. Or do you mean a specific mode? I just use whatever cachy with KDE uses as standard.
2080S currently, though I’ve had others before, can’t wake up from standby with the power button or USB. On the other hand, once it’s in standby, it’ll turn itself back on after 30 minutes or so. The firmware on nvidia cards has always played badly though. I had an 8800 that I’d have to turn on several times each day before it would POST.
Nvidia works fine on my end, just installed the latest drivers and been running fine since I switched (~1.5yrs)
Dunno about this wifi driver stuff. The only issue I had with my own was the flakey hardware on an old box and it didn’t work in windows or Linux so I can’t fault Linux for that. Anyways got a new box, so far everything has been working so far so good.
At this point, the remaining voluntary (as in: not forced by work) windows users are one giant ass Stockholm syndrome victim group/
Almost everything in Linux is easier to set up than on Windows, and thanks to the command line and basic architecture not changing, 10-15 year old tips are still valid today more often than not. Unlike Windows.
And Windows users who would fail to set up Linux from scratch & read online references to fill their knowledge gaps have most definitely never set up a Windows machine themselves, and are instead using preinstalled OSes, and buy a new computer when they need to upgrade to a newer OS version, as well as take their computer to an IT service person when something breaks.
I’ve been running debian as my main and my home-server OS for a couple years now. And I’m really happy for it.
But it hasn’t been smooth sailing. I’m even on fully AMD systems. There’s a bunch of stuff, biometrics and otherwise, that just doesn’t work without random workarounds or even not at all.
And this elitist approach and tone is what turns a lot of folks away from even trying linux. Also, sure CLI might be great for a lot of devs, but regular users do need a GUI. And that is not fully there yet.
And this elitist approach and tone is what turns a lot of folks away from even trying linux. Also, sure CLI might be great for a lot of devs, but regular users do need a GUI. And that is not fully there yet.
Regular users who “need a GUI” would be completely unable to install Windows at all, because the setup including activation (or workarounds) is way too complex for them. They might be able to install Linux from scratch though, because various distributions have good GUI installers and/or live images.
The average user doesn’t install windows though. They buy the pc/laptop with Windows on it already, and use it till it’s in the ground.
And I cannot just install ubuntu/mint on a laptop for someone and walk away either, cause if/when anything breaks, the fix isn’t approachable. And trying to tell someone to use the CLI when they’re not tech savvy is not user friendly.
The average user doesn’t install windows though. They buy the pc/laptop with Windows on it already, and use it till it’s in the ground.
Thanks for confirming my point. Windows isn’t easier to operate, it just comes preinstalled.
[…] cause if/when anything breaks, the fix isn’t approachable
Nor is it likely to be manageable for that user to fix issues on Windows
“Almost everything on Linux is easier to set up than on windows” has me rolling. This shit is exactly why people dismiss Linux as an option - linux enthusiasts refuse to accept the flaws in the OS, and that means those flaws never get addressed. God, or they’ve never had to deal with a driver incompatibility before, maybe they’re just leading a charmed life…
And this is from someone that’s daily driven Linux for well over a decade. Like it’s a better option than windows, but it’s not so great that there’s not aspects that need to be improved.
It appears you have not installed any Windows from scratch in a long time, or tried to harden it, or solve a driver problem there. That’s why you get confused. I was not saying Linux is always easy, I was saying it has overtaken Windows in almost every aspect, also because on Windows things have become more complex.
Waiting patiently for commercial software to be ported to Linux:
- creative suites, I think Canva is working on Affinity for Linux but they want to release their iPad version first. Wine is working right now but there are a few things I’m getting tired of (navigating folders and trying to print). I know, Gimp, Inkscape and Krita.
- 3D modeling software for engineers, like solidworks or NX. I’m trying Blender add-ons for CAD but it’s not as capable. Don’t you dare suggest FreeCAD.
- Music production software, esp. Ableton.
Solidworks and NX works on Linux?
Not for me. I wish it did.
I looked more into it, apparently NX used to.
Affinity Suite for Linux would be a game changer.
Don’t you dare suggest FreeCAD.
I have a Hope/Hate relationship with FreeCAD. Sometimes I can get it to do something useful and I get hopeful. Then I try to do something simple and ruin the entire design and have to start from scratch and I curse the developers lineage for all of time. I want it to be great, and it is closer than it has ever been. But it isn’t a replacement for professional design suites.
I just tried it after probably 5 years and it’s much better than what it used to be. The workflow is close to what I’m used to in NX, so far at least.
Might be worth looking at BricsCAD (but honestly as an engineer who has professionally used a number of different CAD packages, FreeCAD honestly isn’t that bad and I happily use it at home, it just has a different workflow)
I just tried freeCAD and it’s night and day compared to what it used to be. I can actually design simple parts.
Thanks for having me check my opinion haha.
No worries at all!
Seems like someone posted a update or extension or something for Freecad that changed the interface and made it more familiar. I don’t mind it the way it is, but apparently others like the change. Might be worth searching for.
And drivers too. Yeah, we’ve got the big stuff covered, Intel, AMD, NVidia all release Linux drivers. But peripherals manufacturers mostly target Windows, maybe macOS, but leave Linux drivers to be developed by the community.
i’m just dreaming of a good after effects clone (or port) for linux (preferably open source). left-angle autograph kicked the bucket, and pikimov is just a bit too limited. at least fusion360 can be streamed in a browser now, but freecad seems to be getting quite good as of lately.
i pretty much only use windows at school now for ae/cad work.
I wish I could just go in and use freecad but it just doesn’t make sense to me. the software I’ve tried before I could just go in and make something by winging it but freecad that seems impossible
The alternative to FreeCAD on Linux is OnShape running in the browser.
I’ve used onshape and it is indeed way more intuitive but it’s one of those on the cloud only you don’t own your files in any way platforms, but it does the job in a pinch and I’ve used it to make 3d printed replacement parts for random broken crap at my old job
You can always export stl or dxf files and use them with other software.
- Music production software, esp. Ableton.
For what it’s worth, REAPER works great on Linux. Ik it doesn’t fill quite the same niche as Ableton but it is very capable, especially paired with yabridge for using VSTs via WINE.
Not my experience, sorry. I have bought Reaper years ago and the Windows experience was flawless. In order to even get audio, I need to launch Reaper via terminal using “pw-jack reaper” otherwise I have either garbage audio or too much latency.
My VST plugins (iZotope RX 11, iZotope VEA, Arturia Keylab, Bias FX) wouldn’t run via yabridge, haven’t figured out why yet.
I assume it has something to do with activating licenses or whatever crap like that. The entire “pro audio” industry and their overbearing licensing and “security” schemes can go suck a duck. For real.
When you get deep into niche stuff like this, Linux is such a pain in the ass. I like it for casual use and even some gaming but I’m not going to lie, a lot of hobbyist stuff is just so much easier on Mac or Windows. Which makes sense since Linux isn’t in widespread use by normies and also isn’t a desktop-first OS.
and if you’re into a tracker-like workflow, renoise works really well on linux (assuming you can set up jack/pipewire properly or undo the horrror upon linux audio servers that is p*lseaudio. i feel this applies to most daws on linux)
But remembered to write a shitty article about it
To me it was like, oh, you made it different and that makes so much more sense, why are they not doing it like that in Windows? Or just during university; there is a tool for that format? And it is already installed? Nice.
I switched months ago after some full screen pop up for Windows 11 took over my whole screen in the middle of me doing stuff. In a blind rage, i plugged my usb in and downloaded Pop. Did a full clean install and never looked back. There have been some hiccups, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed right away.
