This popped up on my work laptop yesterday. Very annoying.

  • Flying Squid
    link
    English
    18 months ago

    making the switch is easy for the most people

    That is nonsense. I am not an IT professional by any means, but I am savvy enough to make my way through an OS and I still had a hard time getting Mint to work the way I needed it to without looking up a bunch of tutorials and entering in a bunch of terminal commands, something that most people would find a huge challenge.

    And that doesn’t even go into the problems I had installing it in the first place. And Mint is supposed to be the easiest one.

    I like Linux, but suggesting it’s so easy anyone can use it is ridiculous. My 82-year-old mother would not be able to figure it out very easily, nor would my 13-year-old daughter. Could they figure it out? Potentially. But easy? Definitely not.

    I don’t think you realize that the average computer user doesn’t know much beyond how to go to their favorite websites, write email, play a few games, etc. An OS with a learning curve is not something they would find easy.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      08 months ago

      i guess you’re right about the “average” user. i forgot the nanny.

      integrating every aspect of the customization to os itself is tricky but i think distros in general already have pretty good customization settings natively. you can do themes, icons etc.

      you should explain the word “customization” a bit more.

      • Flying Squid
        link
        English
        18 months ago

        Customization = getting it to do what you want, which can be a pain in the ass even for basic functions. Here’s an example I had to deal with: hot corners in both Windows and MacOS let you turn off the display so you can do things like play a YouTube video at night to listen to as you fall asleep, but also not lock the screen or put the machine to sleep entirely. I had to look up how to make it do what is a simple thing to achieve in the other two big OSes.

        There really should not be a learning curve for “if you put your cursor here, the display turns off.”

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          -18 months ago

          yeah, i get it, but it´s the same thing if you´re switching from windows to macos or the other way around. you loose searching capability [which is cmd + space] if you switch to windows, and you need a seperate app for window tiling in macos. lots of people agree that linux is the most customizable os in the market compared to macos and windows, they even have a seperate subreddit in reddit just for “ricing” which means customizing linux, you can look them in r/unixporn. btw, you have the option to run a command while using hot corners, it´s directly in the system settings. here´s a screenshot that i took just now.

          • Flying Squid
            link
            English
            18 months ago

            I know you can run a command in hot corners. That was the problem. I had to look up the command I needed. That’s the sort of learning curve that is a barrier to many people.