To be fair (even though I also am both happy and relieved to see articles like this), just because you convert to Linux, that doesn't mean everyone else will. I have used so many guides to help debloat windows computers, and turn off nonsense I don't want (mostly so I can use proprietary software for work). My choice to not use windows in my personal life on my personal devices doesn't really change my situation with needing those guides to help others circumvent windows BS.

I wish we didn't have to live in interesting times and all that, but the guides are helpful.

Freeze? Nah, it'll keep chugging along 'til you reboot (or otherwise try to run a new program), and then won't be able to start.

You need to remark your files !! Just run sudo rm -Rf /

That’s like eating exactly one potato chip.

BREAKING: Man announces he runs Arch, btw

I got annoyed and stopped reading before that became apparent.

Content churn. Pussy-footing. Just get on with it! Heh.

Still, it's good to see more are jumping ship (to freedom), with how much M$ keeps making it worse (abusiveness).

TIL there's a name for this

As someone who tried it for a few months then switched back for several years before returning permanently two years ago: Linux has long had the problem that it's completely ready for different people at different times.

In 2017 it was in pretty good shape if you weren't a gamer, didn't mind tinkering a fair bit, were prepared to learn a completely different two ways of installing software, and didn't rely on proprietary apps (I couldn't get Netflix to work). I was only ready for the tinkering. Also I'd used Ubuntu and gnome just added more changes.

Five years later a lot had changed. I wasn't using Netflix (especially not in the app) for one. But Proton had come around and made gaming just work. My wifi drivers just worked unlike before. Years of mobile app stores and a few months of lemmy had prepared me for repos, even though it still took some getting the hang of to switch from just downloading and double clicking an exe file. But also the software options are increasingly available rather than having to learn to use old school wine while in the middle of a massive change. I still think I should switch away from garuda at some point as I dislike some of the choices it made (no flatpak support for one), but I love aspects of it. And all throughout that time that Linux was getting more accessible to someone like me who isn't a coder, but was tech nerd curious, windows was increasingly getting in my way and becoming anti user.

I think adoption will continue to increase as Linux continues to get easier for more people

it can be absolute pain for those expecting things to just work without any interest on why they experiencing issues.

I think that describes computers.

Windows does the same thing, only worse because it is harder to trouble shoot, and harder to fix if you find yourself at the point where a reinstall is the only way out.

I am dealing with a laptop like that now for someone else, and it would be simple if it was linux, but of course its a pain in the ass because its windows.

it can be absolute pain for those expecting things to just work

Linux Mint just worked.

I must say on mine laptop it took fewer tries to have Linux mint working. When I was installing the Nvidia drivers I was losing the WiFi ones and couldn’t do anything to fix without internet there

So after some reinstalls I learned I need to update mint first, than do the Nvidia update, this did the trick for me.

it can be absolute pain for those expecting things to just work

Which is like 95% of people.

Imagine if cars worked this way. Imagine you needed to be a mechanic to operate your vehicle. To start and drive your car, you first have to do automotive work, and know how to do automotive work.

A lot less people would drive themselves. A lot more Ubers.

expecting

There's the key flaw.

Maybe if we kept speaking of Free Software philosophy, people would not have these misplaced expectations they've been conditioned to as dis-empowered consumer cash-cows of the monopoly.

they removed the comment section now 😅

There's Mono. I don't know what portion of .NET compatibility issues that addresses in 2025.

I'm still going strong two years later! :D

Yes and that's ok, but the comment you tagged is about the people just shitting on linux without even trying it, they are kind of Windows hooligans.

You can learn how to use the terminal. You have demonstrated the ability to compose a coherent sentence, you can learn.

Every terminal command is a program. Typing a "command" into the terminal is just typing the name of a program. If you type firefox, Firefox launches. If it's installed, we'll come back to that. Anything else in the "command" like if you see letters or words after a dash, something like ls -a is an option, it's like ticking a box in a dialog window, but on the front end. I recommend spinning up a virtual machine or getting a Raspberry Pi or something you don't care about, and following some tutorials. Learn how to move around the file system, install software, run some utilities.

About that "if it's installed" part. You mentioned you run Zorin. Zorin is what I call a Trendy Distro Of The Month. I've been using Linux for twelve years now, this hasn't stopped yet. There's the mainstays like Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Red Hat, Fedora, Arch, OpenSuSe, there's the niche special purpose things like Kali and TAILS and Puppy and Tiny, and then there's the hundreds of quadrillions of "We took Ubuntu, put Steam on it by default, swapped SystemD for whatever.rs, swapped Firefox for Chromium and did a half-assed job at theming and extending Gnome that's going to break every time they push an update."

PeppermintOS, ZorinOS, ElementaryOS, Pop!_OS, Garuda, Nobara, Endeavor, Manjaro, Bazzite, Cachy, hundreds of others, are basically the same software in some slightly mutated permutation that most veterans aren't familiar with. Invariably the veterans first hear about them from noobs who went looking for a distro that is "good for gaming" or "easy for beginners" and because SEO they find the Trendy Distro Of The Month. Which always offers some little gimmick that ultimately doesn't matter. The process of getting a Bazzite ISO is taking a little Cosmo quiz about what you're going to do, but then the installer is really borked compared to Mint or even Fedora.

A lot of instructions are written with Ubuntu or sometimes Fedora in mind, and then you pick a distro that differs from those, and then bitch that instructions don't work.

Also, you need to upgrade your backup hardware if it takes 20 hours to image a drive. That should take minutes.

I hate it because I don't know how to do anything

Some examples of what you've been unable to accomplish might add clarity.

but I'm not smart enough to learn terminal

Bull. Shit. You're just not used to it and, even without picking up any knowledge of shell scripting, you're only a man somecommand away from understanding what specific command line programs do. somecommand --flag --another-flag /home/me/thing typically isn't much different from opening some GUI app on Windows, ticking two boxes, opening the file picker and selecting C:\users\me\thing then clicking a button.

All that said, now we really need examples because there's probably no need for you to be messing with the terminal to begin with. At least not if you aren't doing anything outside basic computing like web browsing, chat, productivity tasks and such. So what are you trying to do in the terminal that the OS failed to provide a GUI for?

Flatpaks... NOOOOO...

I haven't used Zorin but flatpaks are enabled by default if I understand. Yes, you can install them via the command line but it looks like you could just open the built in software center and search for whatever it is you want. The only exception I can imagine is if you're trying to install from a source other than whatever Zorin uses by default (Flathub, I would guess).

dependencies not found

With Flatpaks? Wat? With some other command? Context, please.

Anytime I have to use terminal I ALWAYS make a backup

You're competent enough to image and restore your drive but not stay out of trouble in your OS? You presumably had to learn whatever software, and the underlying concepts, you're using for that. Clonezilla, Rescuezilla, Macrium Reflect, etc all exist to make it easier but you've gotta know what an "image" is, what it means create it and subsequently write it onto a drive. How to identify the correct drive so you're not wiping out something unintentionally.

So, are you not spending even a few minutes to check if the code snippets you're pasting are applicable to your specific distribution? At least skimming the man page for the commands you try to run? Are you assuming "it's all just Linux, right?" and that there isn't nuance between distributions? Running shell commands you don't understand is like running whatever backup solution you're using without understanding it - just blindly clicking buttons and maybe you get a backup or maybe you format a drive and lose decades of family photos, your research paper draft, and whatever else. And if a fuckup costs me a literal day of my life in restoration time, I'm making it a point to use that time to figure out why so I hopefully don't repeat the process in the future.

There's little substance in your complaints and I'm left just so genuinely confused. In my head I'm imagining a walking talking XY Problem. Some specific examples of what you were trying to achieve or the snippets you were blindly pasting might shed some light but, left to guess, your actions sound akin to gamer kids running random batch scripts claiming to tweak power settings or whatever else in order to eke out a few extra FPS. Windows isn't going to protect anyone who treats it the same way you have seemingly treated Linux.

By the way you write I now you are smart enough to learn the terminal and you should not fear it, since you are starting with linux it is expected that you will make errors and that is ok. Linux is yours to do and undo.

One of the reasons why Mac was able to take some market share from Windows is that all their computers are the same regardless of the needs of the user, so trouble shooting is easy as all are the same.

Your full backup strategy is kinda overkill, also tells me your are more than capable of learning the terminal btw, you should just back up the critical data then reinstalling/fixing your installation will take the same amount of time for backing your full drive. There are forums to ask for help in linux and there are a lot of us that try to help brother/sister in need. Also timeshift might be easier faster than the usb thing.

I do not know Zorin OS but there are other flavors of Linux that might be better for you, maybe something atomic like Bazzite which is immutable so you can't fuck it up. One distro does not represent all.

About your Windows for the masses comment, every one of us linux users started with Windows because that's what the computers came with, Microsoft paid a lot for that to happen, and the users got used to Windows and got used to its quirks. That is in itself technical knowledge, so there are no computer users "without technical knowledge"

About the restarting the computer to solve issues comment. That's just not true, my work Windows computer started blue screening with no reason, no amount of restarting fixed that.

Now to the trolls, they are trolls, your are giving a proper argument for your use case and I respect you for that because you are giving linux a try. The trolls im referring to are the ones shitting on linux without even trying it or just calling people names because they dare to try something different.

About your comment for living with issues with my setup forever as a non-techy user reminded me of the 10s of toolbars my aunt had in her computer and complained when I removed them because she had gotten so used to them.

Do not fear the terminal even Windows was once DOS, install and try all the distros you can they are FREE, there are a lot of flavors for different needs.

That command terminal thing is so real. When it works, its magic. When it doesn't work, you just messed with forces you didn't understand and are already forced into chancing a repair and maybe make the problem worst or getting back to the original one! (Very discouraging if you are just trying to get work done, especially for non techies)

I think the problem with linux users is that they can't imagine that the appeal for most people who want to use an OS is to make something happen in the "real world" with a top level piece of software, like you want to draw a cute cat on the screen not learn how the compositor draws the pixels to multiple different screen resolutions WHEN the monitor model is a use case supported scenario.

The objective is to use the computer as a tool NOW for a SPECIFIC thing without diving into the inner guts of the machine for some people, and that's honestly fine.

I'm using KRdp for the first time in several years today and am BLOWN AWAY by the quality of the connection. It is in virtually every regard as good as Windows' RDP.

GeForce app for some cloud gaming on Anti-cheat and that's a wrap. I don't need anything else now.

I still like Cinnamon better. To quote Jeremy Clarkson, "This is brilliant, but I like this."

If we had fast windowing systems back then, why is modern KDE slower than XP?

Having to install powetoys on top of the OS makes it DOA for many on corporate environments. You get stuck on approval limbo or if someone else went through the pain, you discover it breaks every once in a while due to missing .net dependencies that you don't have the right to install. I've seen this for both development (w10 w/ extended support) and thin clients (w11).

Unfortunately our clients all use Windows development machines, so we are stuck on the same to be able to write the guides and documentation. Most of our scripts now rely on Got bash since we know that's available. MS environments are hostile to proper scripting and automation.

Oh yeah? Can you pin windows? Can you have windows always under the others or above them? Can you manage the buttons in the top ribbon? And dont even start with custom layout or the magnetic attach of windows in KDE.

I didn't download powertoys for fun. I needed a feature the windows did not have build in. After using KDE, even powertoys look basic to me.

Edit: Just remembered windows opacity, custom windows rules for almost everything and many more settings.

in 2 decades of using KDE from time to time, the biggest flaw (besides how they released KDE4 way too early and distros picked it up), is how it's never perfect. fix one bug, add another. add a new feature, break an old feature. always feels like there's just one little irk hiding somewhere.