I’ve been using various distros for the past 6 months trying to find the right fit for my work. I do remote desktop support of many windows based enterprises.
I use Linux desktop every single day for 8 hours. I also play games of all sorts.
KDE neon was what I had when I started out and it was great. Zero problems. There’s no reason you’d ever need CLI in plasma desktop that I can see.
Fedora/plasma is a no go. Too complex with selinux and you really do need to know what you’re doing. Still quite usable for 90% of day to day
For the past month I’ve been on mint 21 and have had zero issues and zero CLI time.
Been enjoying baldurs gate 3 out of the box, using outlook, teams, various browsers and whatnot. Not going to give a comprehensive list here, but everything works perfectly and almost everything has been installed straight from the software manager.
I think you’re right. For the average desktop user, it’s more about being able to use the software they need, without a terminal.
I think that desktop in linux has advanced a lot in the last few years, and now I’m running my games on a KDE desktop, too! But I keep having to go to the terminal to do stuff I took for granted on other systems, like OS security updates.
The linux developers have done an awesome job and linux has come so far it’s amazing. But for the vast majority of computer users they don’t even know what a terminal is, period, and linux is useless to them unless a Linux user sets it up for them for a very specific use case and that’s all they ever do with it.
If all they want is an email and web appliance, a typical computer ignorant user can use linux if it is given to them by someone else.
Yet an ignorant computer user can go and buy a Mac or a windows machine from a retailer and get the job done without having to know anything at all other than they want a computer for x y or z.
Its like the linux developers can’t fathom a PC experience without the terminal as a vital participant.
Its like the linux developers can’t fathom a PC experience without the terminal as a vital participant.
That’s not wrong. I’m now struggling to do things on Windows without the terminal. Thinking in terms of commands and processes and files is a great way to do computing. Learning all that stuff has a payoff and it genuinely is difficult to imagine trying to get by without knowing it. Once you do know it you reach for it all the time.
My mom is in her 70s, never has been techy, and has been using Linux as her daily driver for a solid eight years now. I have to do less troubleshooting for her now that she’s on Linux than I ever did when she used Windows. “You have to use the command line” is an extremely outdated criticism of desktop Linux.
I’ve installed ZorinOS on a non tech savvy friends computer so she could get more life out of her old laptop and she was fine without using any terminal
The average Linux distro doesn’t need to use command line for anything. Literally just click on Firefox or google chrome and you’re done lol.
As for gamers, if you take 5 hours to mod games but cant learn to use CLI for 5 minutes then idk what to tell you chief. Though right now it won’t be mainstream because devs don’t want to update their anti cheats for Linux, not because of compatibility
The whole “waste time, value freedom” super duper complexity shit is just propaganda regurgitated by people who heard about Linux through a game of telephone, Hollywood, and YouTube videos. That’s not to say the Linux community is very good at marketing or giving troubleshooting suggestions for tech illiterate people
GUI alternatives are constantly improving and becoming more visually pleasing throughout distros, and besides, there’s real scenarios where normal people HAVE to use Powershell or CMD to get stuff done on Windows. This is becoming less and less of a hurdle.
I think an issue is that people tend to think of Linux as meaning “all distributions.” So if something is compatible with X distro version yy.zz, the general idea is “it’s compatible with Linux.” This, in my experience, is one of the things that leads to mandatory command-line usage — it definitely is possible to get it to work under a different flavor of Linux, but it’s not necessarily easy if you’re uncomfortable with a command line.
Another is drivers — if it’s mainlined, it will Just Work, but if it’s not…well, it may work, but you might have to jump through hoops and get busy with the command line.
In short: if you view your distro the same way you view a particular Windows release, then I really don’t think you need the command line for desktop Linux. But you need to accept that some software isn’t “compatible,” in the above, user-friendly sense of the word.
Agreed. Also from a Tech support POV, there is no “standard” OS and troubleshooting the vast different environments would be a pain. With Windows, you have a standard layout, with couple different versions - Home / Pro / Enterprise. With linux, you have different syntax, differnt DE’s, etc. Still use Linux at home / work but i am interested in it. Got to have that motivation to do so.
Same thing with moving to Lemmy, gotta have that motivation to make the change.
Imagine having to do family tech support on the phone while driving with Linux. Especially if everyone in the family decided to use their freedom and now everyone runs a totally different distro.
m$ pc will vanish. the kids that do socialmedia where i work do it all on iphone. record, cut, make audio. or some other apple device.
while there are enough boomers to explain active directory to them, they aint listening as they are sure to never touch windows unless they are into hardcore gaming and casemodding. other than that windows is dead.
Yall miss the point. Im guessing willfully. No average desktop user wants to be forced to use command line to do anything.
Linux will never see mainstream desktop usage.
I’ve been using various distros for the past 6 months trying to find the right fit for my work. I do remote desktop support of many windows based enterprises.
I use Linux desktop every single day for 8 hours. I also play games of all sorts.
KDE neon was what I had when I started out and it was great. Zero problems. There’s no reason you’d ever need CLI in plasma desktop that I can see. Fedora/plasma is a no go. Too complex with selinux and you really do need to know what you’re doing. Still quite usable for 90% of day to day
For the past month I’ve been on mint 21 and have had zero issues and zero CLI time. Been enjoying baldurs gate 3 out of the box, using outlook, teams, various browsers and whatnot. Not going to give a comprehensive list here, but everything works perfectly and almost everything has been installed straight from the software manager.
I think you’re right. For the average desktop user, it’s more about being able to use the software they need, without a terminal.
I think that desktop in linux has advanced a lot in the last few years, and now I’m running my games on a KDE desktop, too! But I keep having to go to the terminal to do stuff I took for granted on other systems, like OS security updates.
The linux developers have done an awesome job and linux has come so far it’s amazing. But for the vast majority of computer users they don’t even know what a terminal is, period, and linux is useless to them unless a Linux user sets it up for them for a very specific use case and that’s all they ever do with it.
If all they want is an email and web appliance, a typical computer ignorant user can use linux if it is given to them by someone else.
Yet an ignorant computer user can go and buy a Mac or a windows machine from a retailer and get the job done without having to know anything at all other than they want a computer for x y or z.
Its like the linux developers can’t fathom a PC experience without the terminal as a vital participant.
That’s not wrong. I’m now struggling to do things on Windows without the terminal. Thinking in terms of commands and processes and files is a great way to do computing. Learning all that stuff has a payoff and it genuinely is difficult to imagine trying to get by without knowing it. Once you do know it you reach for it all the time.
What OS security updates are you doing from the terminal?
noob
My mom is in her 70s, never has been techy, and has been using Linux as her daily driver for a solid eight years now. I have to do less troubleshooting for her now that she’s on Linux than I ever did when she used Windows. “You have to use the command line” is an extremely outdated criticism of desktop Linux.
Yup. I got relatives started on Mint dual booted with Windows. They don’t use Windows as Linux just works.
I’ve installed ZorinOS on a non tech savvy friends computer so she could get more life out of her old laptop and she was fine without using any terminal
The average Linux distro doesn’t need to use command line for anything. Literally just click on Firefox or google chrome and you’re done lol.
As for gamers, if you take 5 hours to mod games but cant learn to use CLI for 5 minutes then idk what to tell you chief. Though right now it won’t be mainstream because devs don’t want to update their anti cheats for Linux, not because of compatibility
The whole “waste time, value freedom” super duper complexity shit is just propaganda regurgitated by people who heard about Linux through a game of telephone, Hollywood, and YouTube videos. That’s not to say the Linux community is very good at marketing or giving troubleshooting suggestions for tech illiterate people
U dont need command line on most just works distros for average use ! My brother and my mom use linux mint and ubuntu on their PCs and it just works !
You can use Ubuntu and Zorin just fine without the terminal.
You can do this with many distros today. It must have been many years since this person tried Linux.
Yeah, it’s painfully obvious that’s the case.
Until you try to use a flash drive and nothing can see the default mount point. You can web browse and that’s about all
I’m guessing the last time you tried Linux was over 15 years ago
GUI alternatives are constantly improving and becoming more visually pleasing throughout distros, and besides, there’s real scenarios where normal people HAVE to use Powershell or CMD to get stuff done on Windows. This is becoming less and less of a hurdle.
As soon as a distro has a control panel equivalent that has stuff like a driver manager and event log it’s all over
They do
You might be surprised to learn that multiple distros have control panel equivalent of driver managers and event logs.
I think an issue is that people tend to think of Linux as meaning “all distributions.” So if something is compatible with X distro version yy.zz, the general idea is “it’s compatible with Linux.” This, in my experience, is one of the things that leads to mandatory command-line usage — it definitely is possible to get it to work under a different flavor of Linux, but it’s not necessarily easy if you’re uncomfortable with a command line.
Another is drivers — if it’s mainlined, it will Just Work, but if it’s not…well, it may work, but you might have to jump through hoops and get busy with the command line.
In short: if you view your distro the same way you view a particular Windows release, then I really don’t think you need the command line for desktop Linux. But you need to accept that some software isn’t “compatible,” in the above, user-friendly sense of the word.
Agreed. Also from a Tech support POV, there is no “standard” OS and troubleshooting the vast different environments would be a pain. With Windows, you have a standard layout, with couple different versions - Home / Pro / Enterprise. With linux, you have different syntax, differnt DE’s, etc. Still use Linux at home / work but i am interested in it. Got to have that motivation to do so.
Same thing with moving to Lemmy, gotta have that motivation to make the change.
Imagine having to do family tech support on the phone while driving with Linux. Especially if everyone in the family decided to use their freedom and now everyone runs a totally different distro.
Linux doesn’t force you to use the command line for anything. It’s optional.
I could see ChromeOS killing off Windows somehow. It’s already huge.
I tend to agree, but more because I think that Linux needs a killer feature to convince people to switch and privacy aint it for most people.
wrong.
m$ pc will vanish. the kids that do socialmedia where i work do it all on iphone. record, cut, make audio. or some other apple device. while there are enough boomers to explain active directory to them, they aint listening as they are sure to never touch windows unless they are into hardcore gaming and casemodding. other than that windows is dead.