Just to get it out of the way - Linux is great if you are a grandma or linux junkie. It sucks for everyone in between, especially for those who come from Windows or MacOS.
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This is the fundamental problem with the terminal, it is extremely powerful when you are intimately familiar with using it. And it's unsurprising that people building distros and maintaining linux fall into that camp.
What they are completely blind to is how incredibly user hostile the environment for people from a GUI complete background. What is the first thing every mainstream Unix based OS does? They take the terminal and hide it. They make menus and menus of GUI elements that cover 80-90% of the things you would typically use the terminal for aside from the 5% of ultra power users.
My gripe is primarily that Linux is _desparetly_ needed now more than ever as an escape from windows. But the people who are working on linux distros are so lost in their egos that they are arrogantly trapped in this idea that everyone needs to be driving stick shift in 2024 because look at how much more control you have compared to an automatic, if that analogy makes sense.
> My gripe is primarily that Linux is _desparetly_ needed now more than ever as an escape from windows.
If all you see Linux as is a crappy free clone of Windows with less user abuse, you'll certainly be left disappointed when it doesn't deliver.
For all their faults, Microsoft pours a ton of money into Windows's usablity and backwards compatibility. If anything, it's impressive Linux DE's come close with a fraction of the funding and organizational structure compared to a literal tech giant.
> But the people who are working on linux distros are so lost in their egos that they are arrogantly trapped in this idea that everyone needs to be driving stick shift in 2024 because look at how much more control you have compared to an automatic, if that analogy makes sense.
Is it really "ego" if the people working on these distros simply like it better this way? Are they wrong for developing the program (oftentimes in their free time) to accomodate the way they, and most people who contribute to the project, enjoy using it?
Sure, it would be great if we could accommodate everyone. But as most FOSS projects are chronically understaffed and underfunded, people prioritize creating a product they can enjoy using.
>Is it really "ego" if the people working on these distros simply like it better this way? Are they wrong for developing the program (oftentimes in their free time) to accomodate the way they, and most people who contribute to the project, enjoy using it?
From Ubuntu's missions statement:
>We believe that bringing free software to the widest audience will empower individuals and communities to innovate, experiment and grow.
I'd say they have been failing catastrophically at that for the last 20 years. And so do the statistics.
If they could just dedicate two releases to snuffing out as much terminal use as possible, they could probably double their market share in a month.
This is a silly thread, beginners don’t even know the terminal exists, and 99% don’t need to.
The situation is the same in Windows, though they might have a few more duplicated GUIs, they don’t solve the long tail of troubleshooting. You can also use a Mac Keyboard with Linux.
It doesn’t make any sense to remove terminals either, when available and tiny in resource use. Use an OS modeled on the original Mac OS if you want to be prevented from seeing a terminal.
Utopia never existed in the computing world. But the war on general purpose computing sure has. Soon there will be no place to turn for an experienced user who is not a slave to bigcorp interests. Unfortunately the bondage you recommend leads here, they are now coupled.
To extend, this issue affects an incredibly small number of computer users. The 1% that knows it exists, divided by the large fraction that is too busy (or lazy?) to work around it:
The reason it falls between the cracks is because it doesn't affect enough people, especially normal folks. But let's not kid ourselves that integrating one of the existing fixes would affect the industry significantly.
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This is the fundamental problem with the terminal, it is extremely powerful when you are intimately familiar with using it. And it's unsurprising that people building distros and maintaining linux fall into that camp.
What they are completely blind to is how incredibly user hostile the environment for people from a GUI complete background. What is the first thing every mainstream Unix based OS does? They take the terminal and hide it. They make menus and menus of GUI elements that cover 80-90% of the things you would typically use the terminal for aside from the 5% of ultra power users.
My gripe is primarily that Linux is _desparetly_ needed now more than ever as an escape from windows. But the people who are working on linux distros are so lost in their egos that they are arrogantly trapped in this idea that everyone needs to be driving stick shift in 2024 because look at how much more control you have compared to an automatic, if that analogy makes sense.