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" Here sweetie. Play with this nice green round toy and don’t worry anymore. "
OP’s joke sadly isn’t completely wrong. Some of these are actual pain points on Linux:
Theming is a mess on Linux the moment you mix QT and GTK (and that is pretty common as not everything exists for each toolkit).
File explorers are notoriously shit compared to the Windows Explorer which works well and intuitively for most users (including me). I use PCManFM-Qt now. But I tried a lot before finding this rough gem. And it still does crash once per quarter and often switches to the root folder collapsing the tree when sub folder content changes.
The freedom of choice is indeed bought with the burden of choice on Linux. There are usually multiple choices when searching for a new application. Usually most of them are crap. Some are barely usable. And one or two are actually somewhat production ready. When you’re new to the ecosystem, it’s impossible to know what to look for. Inexperienced users better describe their use case to AI and have it generate a nice overview of options with pros and cons because traditional web search is pretty dead by now.
I play on Gentoo btw.
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As much as people hate on Windows, Microsoft very clearly put their software in front of people to learn where the pain points are and fix them. Maybe Linux desktops should do likewise because some of them are a usability joke and it hurts uptake. I was playing around with Ubuntu 26.x with KDE last night and there is so much noise and grit in the UI I wonder what is going on with it.
They put it in front of kids in schools to get them used to it so they could sell more copies of windows. Don’t act like it’s some sort of altruism.
Microsoft put their software in front of people who want to use it to do stuff. They ask them to copy a file, launch a program, select something and copy/paste etc. and they observe their reactions, how long it takes them to find & do the thing. Then they focus on where the people had issues and try to simplify the flow, rinse and repeat.
I would never say Microsoft puts in as much effort to UX as Apple, they still put a fuck tonne more in than any Linux dist. Even GNOME. And the KDE desktop is a dog’s dinner despite basically copying Windows and trying to play the same tune without understanding the notes.
Unpopular opinion but KDE is a usability nightmare. Mate, Cinnamon or XFCE are much better in this regard.
The best I can say about KDE is they’re not as bad as they once were. But even today the KDE human interface guidelines essentially say “do not hide options or move them to advanced dialogs”. It’s no wonder that KDE Plasma is dogshit from a usability standpoint even when it mimics Windows. There is nobody at the wheel controlling it and it shows.
Had the same experience when installing Win 11 from USB boot medium. Wifi and ethernet didn’t work. About 8 drivers missing. Never had that with any Linux distro. The difference is that normally MS users get their systems preinstalled.
They don’t even know about the MS driver issues. And the admins installing It are saying no big difference in general, depends on hardware chosen.
If you want Linux you first have to learn how to install an OS like an admin and how to get rid of the damn MS Anti-Linux boot prevention, which is always hidden in different menus on every fucking mainboard.
Sorry, Linux used to be so easy to install a few years ago. You still can be quite lucky if you buy a PC without any OS installed, than the UEFI settings are most of the time quite friendly.
Or buy a preinstalled Linux machine like most MS fanboys do. Or what about an install party at the local Linux User Group?
I use Debian, Cachy and Parabola BTW
I’m pretty sure laptops without an OS or with Linux pre-installed aren’t available in most countries
Interesting question. Dell and Lenovo are shipping to many Countries.
I don’t know about Framework, System 76, Tuxedo, Purism, Nova. Yes could be an issue, would be interesting to research some statistics about this, but I have no time.
Then the users really would have to learn installing and changing UEFI settings by themselves. Organizing in local Linux User Groups is I think the best idea. Or why not MS User Groups but I don’t plan to join these.
Did none of the commenters read the sixth point?
Sooo many commenters missed the last line apparently. It’s wild.
That’s why negative news sells so well.
You just have to have a good rage bait title and can write literally anything under it and the discussion will be about fantasies manifested in peoples heads based on the title.
Really looks like that haha
Most probably just read the title, saw the list and thought that’s too much reading
How is that possible? Is that a fake post, never posted to r/linuxsucks101 or has the mod there not read to paint 6 either?
had us in the first half ngl
Windows’ “app store” is a joke but that’s a good thing.
Winget and scoop are adequate, but those are probably catering to 1% of Windows users.
Only 1% of users should be using something else.
(Add chocolatey to your list)
Someone didn’t read the wiki
Someone didn’t read the post
Q: How do I solve this problem in Windows?
A: Oh, I have no problem, have you tried reinstalling?
Q: How do I solve this problem in <distro> Linux?
A: I use <otherdistro> Linux, why not use that?
My Ubuntu mini PC still doesn’t play videos with hardware acceleration from Firefox. Absolutely given up with it. Probably something to do with Snaps which can go and fuck themselves.
Don’t use ubuntu. That said - on debian it’d probably be a non-free codecs package? VLC also comes with a good set of additional codecs IIRC.
Debian is much more friendly today
To be fair I have done all of those to Linux PCs. Who here has never blown up a Linux install? Ubuntu is not even immune to tinkering.
I just rebased my install of Aurora to Kinonite, which I had rebased from Kinonite this morning. Simply because I had nothing better to do while waiting for my first cup of tea, and it seemed like a fun idea.
So, suck it Linux! I do want I want!
To be fair, I’ve 100% had issues with #1,#3, and #4 with Linux as well.
I know this is satire but Arch is like the worst distro for a newbie…
Not for a newbie who wants to learn. Arch is actually not difficult at all, just time consuming. If you do a manual install, you have to read about every step and make choices.
Thats how you learn your system. After install, you know exactly what files you modified and where they are if you want to make further changes.
I think it’s a beautiful system. Its not for people who just want a windows replacement though. It’s for people who wants to know their system.
People don’t realize the power that comes from actually knowing how your system works. It’s the same as learning any skill. It gives a feeling of confidence and comfort.
I just bought a laptop with windows 11 on it and I’m currently working my way through installing arch. I’ve been using Bazzite for a while on my desktop now but I still don’t really understand a lot of the systems so I’m wanting to really dig in to it and understand why things are installed and where they are and stuff.
It’s so much fun. Arch wiki is amazing.
Not for a newbie who wants to learn. Arch is actually not difficult at all, just time consuming.
Yeah but that is an issue. It’s perfectly legitimate to want stuff to just work and get to what I want to do.
You kinda implying I have a character defect for “not wanting to learn” lol. Humanity actually needs an easy to use open operating system.
Also I assume most of the reasons for why an OS does the things they way it does is tech debt lol.
No I didn’t mean it that way. Ok, I’ll put it in other words. Certain people have an interest in specific things. I am interested in how Linux works, but I dont care how my car works, or how politics works. It’s just a personal instinct what we like.
And I meant that for people with my interest, arch is great. Its absolutely wrong for more than 99% of humans. But some likes it.
Humanity actually needs an easy to use open operating system.
Humanity already has Linux, and it’s taken over pretty much every computing sector.
Does it have to be “easy”? I think that’s a matter for the desktop interfaces and whoever is choosing to support them, not Linux itself.
An OS is serious business and requires a certain level of savvy from its contributors. And conversely people who are not contributors should not shape its development.
Besides, people who aren’t computer-savvy aren’t going to turn savvy just because of an easy installer. If you cater to the lowest common denominator you’d just be dragging the whole thing down.
If you don’t care about desktop adoption and the synergy effect on the overall desktop software, then no, it doesn’t have to be easy lol. All right then, keep your secrets.
I do think certain “elitist” attitudes bleed into the technical decision making. Programmers tend to see the beauty in the system architecture and it becomes it’s own value.
Be that as it may, FOSS tends to be a meritocracy and it takes some skill to contribute to it. Contributors are driven by seeking solutions to their own problems. There’s no incentive to cater to any particular user demographic. There’s a big gap between those programmers in their ivory towers and any practical application.
That gap is filled by commercial interests. And in this particular market, the PC desktop, there’s a company called Microsoft with huge resources and a vested interest in not allowing any competition. For 20 years now nobody has managed to break their stranglehold on the PC desktop. Companies like Apple and Google managed to bypass the problem by creating completely new, alternative platforms.
The elitism of a handful of nerds is the least of the issues preventing Linux on the desktop.
Yes and architects tends to see beauty in buildings, gardeners in gardens, chefs in cooking.
It depends.
in-VM test drive? By all means, yes. Have fun
as main OS? Detecting multiple leviathan class lifeforms in the region. Are you certain whatever you’re doing is worth it?
Yes it’s worth it many times over. I learned Linux on arch like 15 years ago. :) Its been paying off enormously during my career and private hobby life. Last windows I ran at home was windows 7.
Glad to know. Still, it’s not something I’d recommend to someone who hasn’t tried Linux before.
No I agree, unless they are interested in learning.
Literally 1984 (sorry, had to)
I’ve gotten this comment 10 times over the last year or so. :)
Depends on the newbie, if the person has some terminal experience it’s ok. If it’s an ipad kid, it’s going to be tough, there’s a lot of new abstraction to understand at every step.
It’s not just ipad kids. Those who just want to work and not mess with the system are better off with Mint or Zorin. If you have to google how to install VLC then an OS has already lost for productivity.
But that’s how you learn though, and the ability to know how to type shit in a box is a good skill to have if you have a computer.
And ironically, AI fixes almost all these problems. Just pull up Deep Seek, drop in whatever the console throws at you and you can get back the answer free of charge. These days the hardest part of bash is remembering that Ctrl+V should be Shift+Ctrl+V.
Don’t, under any circumstances, do that. This is an anti-advice.
Depends what kind of newbie. To the right kind of nerd a well-organized technical installer is not a deterrent, on the contrary.
I don’t think people realise that most Linux distros had arcane install processes not unlike Arch until around 2000, when a few of them started introducing simplified graphical installers (Corel, Caldera and Red Hat’s Anaconda I think were most popular). Debian for instance only switched to graphical in 2006 with Etch beta 3 (although tbf they did have a text-mode UI before that).
Mint and Zorin have been flawless for me.
Installing Mint on my laptop actually fixed a longstanding issue with the speakers. They were working fine for ages on Wibdows, then some reason they just stopped working. Windows could not detect any speakers. It was to a point that I assumed hardware failure, and opened the laptop and traced the audio output to identify a blown sm cap or something, then gave up. It wasn’t until I installed Mint and it made a startup noise that I was like “wtf” because I thought it would never speak again. Turns out windows was just borked.
Installing Zorin on an old thinkcentre desktop just worked perfectly, despite my deep suspicion. I got it set up to meet my workflow perfectly in less time than I would have spent reinstalling windows and getting it dialed in just the way I like.
Is Arch “better”? Maybe, to some people. Could I make it work? It’s possible? Instead of tweaking arch to meet my requirements, could I rather spend my free time gardening or patting the cat? Absolutely.
Worse than NixOS?
Nah. Arch is not noob friendly per se but with CachyOS installing and getting most of what you need to run is very easy. Experience with Steam and Proton is painless. Things can get harder when you are starting to dig deeper.
My experience with Nixos was 90% editing config files, 10% trying to play any game and failing.
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I don’t get it, how do they use explorer without the risk of it freezing or crashing on every directory load.
Very, very carefully.
The only reason I open explorer is for the visual of my remaining drive space and it’s still a pain in the ass.
/r/linuxsucks101
This is the most deranged Linux sub in existence. I got banned there for trying to straighten up misinformation.
It’s the worst of the worst
You get banned for not posting hate posts there. Pretty fascinating hate echo chamber.
