I have no degrees, no qualifications whatsoever. Unfortunately I only became interested in computing at the age of 57, in 2002. Fortunately, I only spent 2 years with Windows before I "discovered" Linux. So I didn't get indoctrinated into the Windows way of doing things. I'm not an expert, I'm a casual/lazy learner. I can read - that's the only qualification I need. If you can't get out of your Windows mindset, stick with Windows. I couldn't care less.

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All depends. My dad (83 years old) is 'not' terminal savvy. But took to Linux no problem... True, he only uses the Chromium browser, a little libreOffice, views pictures, plays a few card games, and prints a few things but the transition was easy.... And a bonus for me, he 'rarely' needs my help on anything. Just runs on his laptop. Once in awhile, when visiting I'll update it for him, but that's it. It's been great!!! (KUbuntu, latest LTS).

As for needing a degree for alternate OSs ... Alternate to what? . One thing 'nice' about Linux is you dive as 'deep' as you want ... or as my dad, just use, and don't care about anything else as long as it works (and it does). Even compile the whole thing from scratch if you desire. Not much is proprietary, so modify anything you like. I am in the middle myself. I no longer care about the 'workings' of the Kernel. As long as I can run the applications I need, I am golden. Windows free for a lot of years now and no regrets, or miss anything in that world. Freedom to choose what I want to run is like the 1920's talk, "the cat's meow".

Like anything though (CPM, DOS, Windows, Apple OS, OS/2, Unix), you do have to have the willingness to learn and not be spoon fed all the time.

Oh and if your having problems with the Gnome DE, try KDE, or Cinnamon, or LXDE, or ... Choices. Revel in it, enjoy it. There is some DE for everyone out there that works with your work flow.

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It appears to me that OP thinks that "different" and "difficult" are synonyms.

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My first home computer was an i286, it had MS-DOS 6.x and Win 3.1. I found myself using DOS more than Windows 3.1. So I suppose that's where I got my love for the command line (as limited as it was).
Eventually I moved onto Win 95/98 then XP

My first Linux experience was Red Hat 6.0. I had no issues getting the OS installed, but my lack of experience made it difficult to use for anything meaningful. Over the years, I occasionally tried other versions/distros, eventually switching to Debian (Sarge) from XP as my main OS.

Fast forward about 18 years later, I find it difficult to use Windows, due to my lack of familiarity with newer versions.

When I started my Linux journey back in the early 2000s around 2002-2003 I had to teach myself quite a bit about how to do stuff like unfailing configuration files and yes I was at first constantly annoyed. I then learned that through my personal annoyances that if I stuck with it long enough I'd come out all o the smarter. I didn't take the traditional path to becoming an experienced Linux users, I started by purchasing a copy of pre-IBM Red Hat Linux and jumped straight in head first and started by configuring a local file and print server for my families lan.

So I find the OPs rant extremely offensive and also a huge desire not to embrace the process of personal growth as well as incandescence and rigidity in thought.

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http://OSboxes.org/debian would allow you to leave M$Win running & 'play' Linux like a game (which you're fighting/hating/wanting)!

Lone dissenting voice here.

I post this not to bury this newbie, but praise him.
The foul of an unfamiliar operating system can linger bitterly.
Hath a guru told thee that the transition to linux would be a smooth one?

I can relate to OP's frustrations, cross-over to the world of linux is not easy, any guru saying otherwise is being deceptive. To those transitioning to linux expect lots of studying, patience, takes years to learn, and if you have a busy schedule and need to get things done fast out-of-the-box like windows then forget-about-it, keep Windows until you are ready (if ever) because the transition is going to ultra slow for you (exceptions apply see below). There may be some application windows just does better (difficult pill to swallow for some).

Linux may never be right for some. Linux is not what it's cracked up to be. It's not for everyone, ignore those who say it is. This forum is not for everyone either though I would say its a better forum than Stack Exchange. One mistake following well intended directions here on LQ and you could easily lose all your data on linux or ruin your computer - with you left holding the bag. The gurus try to make it out like it's smooth sailing it's not - how dare they.

To the OP, notice a lot of the usual suspects here have computer science backgrounds, or were acclimatized in MS Dos (terminal command line) world prior to transitioning to linux or come from technical fields, or got to use linux type systems at work every day, naturally it would be easy for them to slip into the world of linux. I would have given you a 'like' but the button was not available for your post#1. The title of your thread is correct learning linux is akin to taking a degree.

This is my 8th year on this forum and I would still categorize myself as a beginner in linux. Think about that for a moment - 8 years, still a beginner. "Too slow to learn?" "Then its your fault", the one's in-the-know will say. There was a recent thread started by someone not long ago, this person has been a member of this forum for over a decade with only a handful of posts and who still had not wrapped their head around linux, yet a snarky remark was made against this person for it.

I apologize on behalf of all honorable linux users on this forum if any anyone who posted in this thread has trespassed against thee or beguiled you in the past about the transition from windows to linux being 'easy-peasy'.

I've never seen anyone here (or for that matter at my old hangout Linux Forums RIP) give instructions that would bork someone's system. However there is plenty of advice of that sort available on YouTube. It's pretty standard for us to have to try to pick up the pieces for some unfortunate newbie who followed a dud video, and then came here for help after the event. Sadly we often find that the only advice we can give them is to reinstall and not do it again.

How you use your computer is very personal to yourself. There is no "one size fits all". That's true even within the Linux community. But we can accommodate a lot of personal preferences with different desktops and different packaging systems, cutting-edge versus stable distros and so on. There remain plenty of options for those who don't like using Linux: Windows and Mac OSX for laptops, also tablets, phones, etc.

Back in the period 1993 to 2001 it took me years to learn Windows and relearn it (new releases). And it took effort to be above average competent at it too, like solving problems, and doing non-standard things with it. Some people I know even took extensive courses to learn things like Microsoft Word and Excel, or the office suite.

If you're a click-to-do user who can't handle anything more than that, you're probably not competent enough to use a computer. But even alot of our grandparents were able to overcome that, and although their skills and abilities with computers were terrible, they managed to be competent enough to use a computer. But hey, they didn't set it up themselves, in many cases they had friends and family who could help them set the system up and teach them how to use it (for the few basic things they wanted to use it for).

I remember how appalled I was when I first saw and tried Windows. I couldn't control the mouse pointer and I couldn't understand what all the icons meant. I mean, how were you supposed to remember all that?

This is one of the main issues.. Alot of people took the effort to learn Windows, and then they say GNU/Linux is difficult just because it is different. But it's no more difficult for them to learn it than it was to learn Windows when they did that.

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In the glory-days of BYTE Magazine (RIP ...), there was a regular feature named: "Taking a Sip From the Fire Hose."

When, one day, I picked up a magazine at the newsstand which had an actual CD-ROM of an early Red Hat Linux in it, I realized that I had a "spare" computer which was still moldering away with the copy of "Windows 95" that it had been sold with. I was already very experienced with operating systems: I'd worked with IBM's mainframe "MVS" and "VM" – hell, I had even done assembly-language programming on a highly-modified "VM/XA" which was being used as an architecture simulator for a (defunct ...) Silicon Valley computer manufacturer. (And that manufacturer also sold a proprietary version of Unix®, which I had been exposed to.) "How hard could this be?"

Cue: "The Fire-Hose," stage left."

It turned out to be much harder than I dreamed, to begin to "get the hang of Linux." There was no LQ then – "the Internet" as we now know it basically didn't exist yet. But I knew to: be patient, keep a "captain's log" of my daily journey, and persevere.

And about that "captain's log." I've been keeping one – now in various ways – for many decades. Each day, I write down what I've done, and any questions, future plans, "to-do's" and so on. And I never, ever delete those journals. (I still have shelves full of them ... very interesting reading.) During a project, there have been many times when I "needed to quickly remember what I used to know." Exactly what was that command-sequence, and how did I arrive at it? (Flip! Flip! Flip!) Oh, there it is.

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Ya know, I think the OP could probably have substituted "Windows" for "Linux" if they started out on Macs, or vice versa. Me, I cut my teeth on CP/M way back in the day, and worked my way through MS-DOS, AppleDOS (on Apple //+, //e, etc), and others. Learning a new OS and its quirks is always a little hairy, especially if you (1) are in a hurry, and/or (2) are inflexible in your thinking.

The main problem I have with Linux (other than the uber-weird problem I have going on right now), is that it often takes some time and effort to find good ways to connect printers, cameras, and other peripherals, etc., that do not natively connect with anything other than Windows or Mac. Sure, usually I can, but it can take some time.

But there were books. Linux Bible, Red Hat Linux, etc. So there was and still is hard copy resources . In fact that was our resources for anything... either a manual or books! No silly internet to lead you by the nose with a youtube video or a search engine to find a solution...

Note that I think a simple desktop is a no brainer to setup by any-one. But where you start learning is now I need to talk to a Windows Box with SAMBA, or to a server with NFS, or need an NTP server, or setup a static IP, or formatting a drive, or drop to the command line and use vi, nano to edit a config file, permissions, etc. ... Then the learning begins .

As for printers, cameras, it was true a few years ago it took some maybe even a lot of work. Now my KUbuntu platforms recognized my printers out of the gate, no drivers to install. It was a simple as connecting printer to network, and there they were ready for use. I don't use the usb cameras much, but the one I have was again working out of the box. I have a work IPhone, my wife has an Android. Both connected so we could download pictures off of them. The Iphone is a bit finicky, but still worked. Linux has come a long way since those first years...

Running Linux. That was my bible. I wonder if it's still in print.
Did you ever try editing with the original Microsoft editor edlin? It was insanely difficult to use because you had to work blindfold. You could only ever see the curent line. If you wanted a new current line, you had to select it by absolute or relative line number, which means effectively by guesswork, as you could't see the text.