You need a degree in "Alternative Operating Systems and Their Applications" before being able to use Linux effectively.
 

Debian Gnome. Every time I felt I was coming close to winning with it, something else would come up. Whether it be MP4 files not being supported; the tiny UI on certain apps; the Top-Bar and the Dash flickering out of view at times when trying to select them, rendering them un-selectable; bizarre scroll-speed issues; etc. etc.; there was always a new splinter in my foot with it.

And then switching Desktop-Environments, or even Distributions, fixes some problems but shoots other holes in the hull.

Be real please--becoming familiar enough with Linux so that it works like your customary OS probably takes months if not YEARS of study. More than half of the commands I find online for problems I enter into the Terminal and they just don't work, and it looks like to understand those commands properly in order to know what-on-earth they mean will take hundreds of hours.

Yes Windows is a mess. But at least pretty-much any problem on there can be fixed with a Clean-Install, and at least it doesn't take weeks of fiddling after a Clean-Install to get it to a place where it works very nicely again--a day at most--and if you don't mess around with the deeper System-Files and settings then you probably won't need to Clean-Install very often honestly; in comparison to the days I've sunk so far into trying to personalise and optimise my Gnome set-up.

I was initially scared away from Windows because the Samsung T7 portable-SSD model, of which I have two units, is bugged on manufacture in such a way that on both Mac and Windows you cannot Safely-Eject it because the OS 'locks' it into deep System-Processes. But there's a work-around of just shutting-down the PC and then unplugging the SSD, and supposedly you can just unplug USB-Drives now without Ejection anyway so long as they're not being written to. And then also File Explorer was crashing, which made me fear for data-corruption, but I think Windows just has difficulty when you are tabbing back-and-forth between two windows of File Explorer constantly, rapidly searching through and comparing Directories, for a long period of time--I can just restart the PC every ten minutes or so when using it intensively like that, before a crash occurs, to avoid this crashing problem probably.

The question should be asked of anyone thinking of coming to Linux: are you prepared to basically learn a new coding-language from the ground-up? for which language any previous coding-knowledge you have will be of little to no use to you, because this isn't really a coding-language as such, it's a different beast altogether. That's how demanding it is, it's like learning to code from scratch. It's like learning to code, but harder, honestly, because there's so little support for it: which is no-one's fault, it's just because the user-base is so small by comparison with Windows; with most coding obstacles it doesn't usually take more than a few googles to find the answer, and failing that there's even a tutor website called codementor.io where you can pay for expert help; whereas with Linux, and seemingly especially with anything that isn't Linux Mint, Ubuntu or Arch, pretty much your only chance for real-time help is here where it seems the rate at which questions get answered is comparatively low compared with elsewhere on the internet, or else on the Stack Exchange hell where you'll be lucky to even be granted a permit to ask your question in the first-place. There's a veritable wealth of support for Windows online, on the other hand, as well as in-shop experts and technicians dotted around the country, with necessary recourse to Stack Exchange being very minimal.

Windows may be unstable, and it may even corrupt some of my data at some point down the line. But I keep THREE different updated copies of all my data, with one being kept with MEGA.nz, and two on brand-new portable SSD's that are very securely kept and for which I may even get a fire-box, and I live in the middle of nowhere in Wales so the odds of theft are extremely low; if ALL THREE versions of any of my data somehow get simultaneously corrupted, then it will be because the universe intended for it to happen.

In the meantime, Windows is very nice and easy to use and enables me to do all my writing and coding and drawing and image-and-video-editing very efficiently,; besides a couple of bugs in GIMP--which may even be evaporated with a re-install--it all otherwise works very very well.

I don't doubt that with enough study and application, Linux can be tamed to be very very nice. But I just don't have that sort of time on my hands right now; bar Windows actually almost deleting ALL of my back-ups as above (it won't ever manage completely such a deed on it's own, there's no way; if it ever does it will only be with the aid of a malicious paranormal demon), and bar Windows imposing an Adobe-esque tithe-subscription on the OS, I probably won't actually ever have the time to learn Linux, with so many other things to do.

I'm basically just journalling here, at this point, for the sake of therapy--to mentally unwind with a long vent after all that effort of trying to migrate here.

Yes I'm sure Linux is great once you know it, but it seems to me a pretty heavy time-price is required for that.

If your focus in life is making things that are not themsleves computers, but nonetheless are made with the essential utility of computers, I think in this day and age you're probably doing to have to settle with a fairly imperfect computer to do that with, and then to just pray.

Peace.

The premise in the subject is just wrong so I did not read the essay. All one needs is a willingness to learn just like the willingness you had to use Windows the first time.

This forum is for people who need advice or have something to contribute — if you need to vent, try social media.

You say it takes a long time to learn Linux. How long did it take you to learn Windows? It didn't take me long to learn Linux, but that's probably because I came from QDOS at home and MSDOS at work rather than from Windows. Of course, it might just be a case of superior intelligence, although the fact that Linux is used in schools in many countries suggests one would need a pretty low level to be unable to cope. Using it is certainly nothing like coding — and I've done that in the past, even using things like APL and assembly language.

So my advice is for you to stick to Windows — and stop wasting our time here.

You just chose the wrong distro! ;)

I switched way back in 1999, got rid of all Microsoft, & have never regretted it. :)

You weren't born knowing how to use Windows, so why do you think Linux should be any different!

Try MX Linux, they have lots of info, created by the people who put the distro together, & there are lots of tutorials & videos. :D

Be real? Good advice...why don't you?? This is fairly standard troll/flame stuff here, and it always boils down to the same premise:

"I know Windows because I used it for years, and have conveniently forgotten all the problems I had learning. Now I have to learn something new and can't, so therefore it's the WORST THING EVER".

No one spends 'weeks' fiddling with things; a clean Linux install takes no more than 15 minutes, 30 at most. And if you're complaining that you now have a CHOICE in desktop environments (and with that choice comes differences in how they work), you need to adjust your expectations. Linux isn't Windows, and chances are very high you'd complain about having to use a Mac as well. Your entire post comes off as nothing more than you not wanting to learn something new.

Want to know why MP4's aren't supported??? Because the codecs aren't fully open source and you actually have to *TAKE ONE STEP* to make them work...for free. Sorry if that's too much of a burden for you. Your other post:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...pi-4175735532/

...is a good indication of this. You have tried Gnome, and are also using a KDE app (Kate). Did you try another GUI, like KDE??? Because I can right-click the desktop and pick the clearly-labeled "Configure Display Settings" option, and *AMAZINGLY*, there's an option to do global zooming. Windows certainly doesn't do per-app scaling based on the DPI of the monitor...but you CAN go into apps and change fonts easily. But again, that requires effort on your part.

Agree with DavidMcCann...go use Windows. You aren't going to hurt our feelings or cost anyone any money, if you aren't able to learn something new.

What you seem to forget is that many Linux users never even touch the Terminal. All they want is to have a reliable operating system and be able to use the internet and send/receive emails.

I have umpteen elderly clients in exactly this situation and I don’t hear a peep out of them, except when an updated version of Linux Mint is required.

Nonsense. Pure utter nonsense.

Only degrees payed attention to in my area is current desert temperatures.

GED count?

That's all I got. Being a motorcycle mech.

That surprises me because elderly people are much more likely to be terminal-savvy. We are the generation that had to use the command line in whatever OS our offices used, because there weren't any graphical interfaces then.

The people who never use the terminal are more likely to be millennials.

I received a third of my IT education between 1969 and 1974. Another third starting in 1984 ending in a degree in CS. That education started before Microsoft existed, and included multiple hardware platforms (many no longer in use) and operating systems and languages over a WIDE spectrum! When I encountered Linux I was an HP-UX and AIX System Administrator and DB2 DBA using Windows servers and desktop machines for the office end of Steel production (With OpenVMS for the production protection end) with a lot of Oracle. Linux shocked me by being easier, faster, more intuitive, and more powerful than I would ever have expected. I installed a toy and discovered a production miracle!

That was when Red Hat Linux 5 was new. Not Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the original free RH Linux from before there was Fedora or RHEL! Everything Linux has gotten better since then except two things: 1. RH is now a tool of IBM, and 2. systemd.

There are some operating systems out there that are seriously difficult to understand by nature, but it is unlikely you would recognize their names. There are also proprietary ones that make themselves difficult to understand and troubleshoot ON PURPOSE, and I bet you DO know those names.

The easiest thing to "understand" is generally the first thing you learn. You learn Windows first, that seems intuitive to you ever after. The reality is that NONE of them are intuitive because humans are not machines and have no instincts for running machines: that stuff is ALL learned. Linux is not harder to learn than Windows, or OS10, or VMS, or CP/M, of KolibriOS, or AIX, or HP-UX, or MS-DOS, or FreeDOS, or any of a dozen others I have used. Linux is easier. Linux is quicker to learn. Linux is quicker to RUN. Linux is quicker and easier to develop for, and your code is more likely to port easier to other platforms!

IF you are arriving from knowing and using something other than Linux, there will be a learning curve. That part is painless. It is the Unlearning curve where you trip over things you are USED to doing in that OTHER OS that do something totally different (or nothing at all) under Linux that is painful.

That is not on Linux. And that is not on you, although you are the only one that can fix it. That is just they way it is.

If it makes you feel better, the more operating systems you learn the easier it get to pick up anther. Your brain does adapt to learning more, and it gets easier.

But Linux is definitely easier for people who have used text terminals on mainframe computers, regardless of what specific OS they ran. My first Linux was Red Hat 6 (so a wee bit later than yours!) and it looked pretty familiar after VMS/DCL. Certain concepts such as file ownership and permissions were already part of my mental furniture. I had plenty to learn but much less to forget than a modern newbie.

Yes.

I got sick of ungumming my familie's Windows computers, so now, as much as I hate Apple, I stear them to Apple because I know they won't be able to do Linux, especially the older members. Hazel, you worked in IT if I'm not mistaken so that is different.

Keep in mind Linux came from Unix, and was mainly a multi-user system for use by grad students in universities, or workers in business. Distros like Ubuntu have gone a long way to make Linux more "desktop and end-user friendly" but it's still not plug-and-play like a Windows 11 or Mac OSX system is. I'm OK with that. The question becomes: do you want to do what's needed to learn it? Finally, information technology is a fast moving target. Especially in the Linux world, new things are popping up all the time.

Older people do use Linux regularly, (I'm 74, & my sister is 77)! :D

(Agreed, I started back before I used it full time since 1999 - RedHat 4.2 & 5.0, plus Debian 2.1, but first contact was with Zipslack 8.0.)

Delete "Linux" substitute "systemd", and I might concur with OP. Slackware is pretty simple, unless you are illiterate.

I simply think that there's not much value to this "rant," even though valid points were raised.

Windows, and MacOS (OS/X), do "do things very differently," because they give you one "choice. And, they have sold millions of copies, so they must be doing something right. But, when I read this "rant," I also realize that the writer was also doing various things "wrong." And wanted to blame it all on "Linux."

Maybe the single most-interesting thing about Linux is that you actually do "have a choice." For instance: "GUI environments." There are at least a dozen. And you can easily run and use them even on "remote, web" computers that don't even have a graphics card. But this is a very familiar "field," and I sincerely think that all of them have "plowed them well." There are a plethora of similar examples.

Still – this is not everyone's "cup of tea." And if it isn't, then by gawd there is Windows, and there is MacOS (Unix®). Buy one of them, and "be happy, un-frustrated, and productive." Because, in the end, that is always what it's all about. The computer, and its "operating system," is simply a tool to get work done. If you think that "the computer is getting in the way," fix the problem however you think best.