Now we need a windows compatibility program called "com-plain"

Simplified communication, components, compatibility, whatever makes the backronym work

It helps but it's too expensive to distribute to everyone.

Using Wine directly is a bit of a pita.

Hence why there are things like Bottles.

I read that as "I use arch by the waaaaaaaaaaaaayy..!"

I bet that, like most Arch users, that one kept on thinking "So far, so good" all the way down.

On a serious note, having used Linux on and off since the 90s (aah, Slackware, how I miss installing you from floppies ... not), Linux has, IMHO, actually been desktop ready for ages (though definitelly not in the days of Slackware when configuring X was seriously interesting for a geek and pretty much an impossible barrier for everybody else).

The problem have always been applications not having Linux builds, only Windows builds, not the actual desktop Linux distros being an inferior desktop experience than Windows (well, not once Gnome and KDE emerged and made things like configuring your machine possible via GUIs - the age of the RTFF and editing text files in the command line before that wasn't exactly friendly for non-techies).

In other words, from maybe the late 00s onwards the problem were mainly the "networks effects" (in a business sense of "apps are made for Windows because that's were users are, users go for Windows because that's were the apps are) rather than the "desktop" experience.

The almost unassailable advantage of Windows thanks to pretty much just network effects, was something most of us Linux fans were aware since way back.

What happened in the meanwhile to make Linux more appealing "in the Desktop" was mainly on the app availabilty side - OpenOffice (later LibreOffice and derivatives) providing an Office-style suit in Linux, the movement from locally hosted apps to web-hosted apps meaning that a lot of PC usage was really just browser usage, Wine improving by leaps and bounds and making more and more Windows applications run in Linux (most notably and also thanks to DXVK, Games) and so on.

Personally I think Linux has been a superior experience on the server side since the late 90s and, aside for the lack of Linux versions of most commonly used non-OS applications, a superior experience in the desktop since the 00s.

"I'm a busy person with a jobbity job and kids and a mortgage on an iPhone 18 Ultra Plus Air and stuff.

If I have to READ to make anything work, it's not customer ready, and this new thing should take no time at all to completely understand on my part.

It needs to be a perfect 'free Windows clone' before I'll even consider switching from the mega-corporate ecosystem I was coerced into dependency on from the start. If there's one thing I hate more than reading, it's asking anybody for help. Especially my friends. The operating system is the problem."

EDIT (clarity): Just making sure it's clear this is a hyperbolic hypothetical quote based on real things I've read/heard. Trying to be funny. Not my thoughts lol.

To make a long post short, windows is shitty but its setup bullshit is very straight forward and clear to deal with, linux is great when it works but its setup bullshit is byzantine as all hell. I got Linux working with only light bullshit on a laptop but just gave up entierly after 3 days of trying to get different distros at different advice working on my desktop.

it was in 2012

That same user, Oh I need MacOS so I can edit pictures of my kids. I'll have to buy all new hardware, $2000 dollars for a MacBook no problem. When they try Linux, What the heck, everything works except my cheap Wifi card. This is unacceptable, all of Linux has failed and is completely unusable by 100% of the computing world. Buying a 20 dollar USB dongle that is Linux compatible is completely out of the question for them.

It's great that there is overlap in hardware support between the three Oses, but lets not lose perspective. Imagine a Windows user complaining that MacOS had failed because MacOS doesn't have full support for all the hardware in their Windows machine. Or vice versa.

Yup, fella left Windows through the pain of installing Arch

There's a Linux app for that but the buttons are in different places

You jest but the pain is real. Developing a Windows only software for work in a Windows only environment.

I:

A) Try Wine. No? Ok..

B) Hello windows using friend or relative, can I borrow your PC for 30 min? No? Ok..

C) Hey work IT man, so, I know this is dumb but I need to run a program called pkhex. Yeah it's a hex editor specifically for pokemon hex files. Yeah I can get you anything on your cart. I can get you a legit Mew, even change your OT name from whatever you thought was cool in 1998. Ok so I need admin to download that real fast because I run Fedora, you bring your cart tomorrow and we can do this on lunch.

Typically option B is enough lol.

“I need quickbooks.” Use the web version. “Yea but that one sucks.” They all suck. Use something else. “There is nothing else. My account says quickbooks is all there is.” He’s wrong. “Well what am I supposed to do? People with money use quick books.” No, people spend money to use quickbooks. You have an accountant. He can use quick books. You can use whatever you want. -continues to bitch about expensive things he hates, dismisses anything free as hippy crap-

We had a quip in the bug tracker at a company I worked at:

Man developed speech because of his deep need to complain.

A few hiccups here and there, but I think of it like growing pains that will eventually go away.

Yeah, once you learn the Linux way of doing things or the KDE way of doing something, after some time, it'll just be old hat. Just like how it was learning the Windows or MacOS way of doing things.

I only tried Linux once, about 15 years ago, and got scared off because it was all command. When I blow the dust off my laptop I might try it again now that its all user friendly.

So I agree with you, kinda. it shouldn’t be something scary. It just needs to be understood. The command line is very literal. With a graphical environment, there are design elements that can kind of nudge you towards one way or another of doing or saying something to the computer. A command line is blindly speaking to something. Is incredibly efficient at doing exactly what you already know exactly how to do. The GUI is more assistive.

That's just the ones who don't use Arch.

well not everyone can, there's a lot of corners not well covered by Linux yet or any of its related projects (wayland, etc) some of these being accessibility problems others being compatibility problems, some being at the intersection of both... I am in the process of moving over to Linux (I can already work to a great extent after a week or so)

You complain when you hope it will get better. You switch when you realize it won't. Just like relationships.

This is not how you attract new users.