Anything using the terminal... I once tried to do something on Linux because a friend told me it was great. I gave it another go when it came up on my Chromebook and tried to teach myself. I just don't get it.
I'm not a programmer at all, so anything that involves typing commands is going to baffle me!
One thing i had to learn when i started to understand how big techs really work, of what that would imply (see chat control) and get passionate about free software, free operative systems and freedom of customization is that freedom itself almost always requires work, the question is: is that a work you’re willing to do? for me the answer is a strong YES.
But I was just giving my perspective as an outsider who stumbled across this post because messing about with the terminal had the opposite affect on me as someone who appreciates the concept of Linux but doesn't really have the level of passion to learn programming for it.
YES! I fucking hate it. I shouldn’t have to enter code in order to install a program. I want to go to a website and download the software, click install, and have it actually just work.
I’ve used mint for several years now but it will never be a primary OS die my household because it’s such a hassle to work with.
Yeah I keep seeing people mention having to use the terminal to install software, and I wonder what distro they’re using and what software they’re trying to install.
Most distros use flatpak, so when opening GNOME Software/Discover you can install Discord, Spotify, Web browsers, text editors, Steam, etc all through it. And even Ubuntu which doesn’t use flatpak by default, all of those apps are in its Snap store as well. Hell, Ubuntu even has software drivers through a GUI in one central place which is very nice.
I’m on Fedora Kinoite right now which really encourages you to use Flatpaks, and the only software I’ve installed through the CLI are dev tools which would be disingenuous to say in this situation stops casual Windows users since they are very unlikely to need Rust, Neovim, various C/C++ libs, etc…
On many popular distros there are graphical apps preinstalled for that. The distribution maintainers have repositories with common packages to make it so that you can open an app store and install programs from one place rather than going to different websites and downloading installers.
Honestly, I’d rather use terminals to install software. Most of the time, it’s actually far fewer steps than just clicking through several screen on top of having to find the application installation file you downloaded.
The last time I tried to make a USB dual-boot Linux on a laptop I ended up breaking the laptop. It would turn on but show nothing but a black screen. Makes me really hesitant to try again on an old laptop that I would still like to be able to use if I fuck it up.
Understanding what different distros offer and being able to make a educated decision about it. I looked around for a week or so until I found a arch distro that worked, took away the manual installation process as a complete noob, and wasn't all red flags straight away (the example is that a lot of ppl advised against manjaro). I ended up with garuda (which some ppl aren't a fan of because of chaotic-aur, but we have to start somewhere, haven't we) atm which works fine until I am confident enough to do a complete base arch installation the next time.
Also, if it came pre-installed, one would assume all the hardware was properly supported. A big pain point with Linux is that sometimes things just don’t work right, and there’s nobody to turn to for help except Google. It’s been a while since I attempted to run Linux on a laptop, but when I did I struggled a lot getting good battery life, good trackpad support, and a sleep mode that worked correctly.
Reputations live on for decades after they are earned. Perhaps all of my laptop problems are ancient history, but I have no way to know without trying, and it’s too much effort.
I have an example: a little whole ago I put Arch on my 2-in-1 laptop just because I prefer open-source philosophy, and although a lot of things worked out-of-the-box, my biggest problem was the actual 2-in-1 function. I know that, like Windows, I’d have to do a little digging to get it working (except Windows would involve drivers, Linux required settings) and I got a makeshift solution working: KDE has its own screen-rotating feature, and I made 2 shell commands on the desktop that, when pressed, disable/enable the keyboard/trackpad. Turns out it only works on Xorg, and Wayland requires a way more complicated setup to work, so I just gave up using Wayland on it. Something to do with udev rules or something
Or… They just want their monitor to work. Instead of refusing to display a picture after a simple minor kernel update that causes a bug that is extremely hard to track down even when you know shit about Linux… That’s also an option.
If it’s true that the app needs to be connected to the internet for reconfiguring your controller, that’s really stupid. Hopefully they’re just saying that you need to be connected to the internet to download the app.
Though honestly, I wish Microsoft would just cut down the proprietary aspect of game controllers and make it all open source. I’d love for a Gullikit equivalent to the series controller with Hall effect thumbsticks. Then game developers would just have to put limits on what inputs are capable in competitive games to prevent custom modded controllers from breaking games.
It’s Microsoft. They actively fight against anything that even comes close to free software. The only way to fix this shit is to buy different products.
Nope I don’t need to download any app, I have everything needed installed, this error code appeared only after I disconnected my Microsoft account and after I closed 2 login screen for the Microsoft account, prompted by the Accessories app.
Maybe, if I have time, I’m gonna reverse engineer the usb packets from the pc to the controller and make a new configurator for it.
That would be me: My hardware at the time was crap so I couldn’t use the usual mint, ubuntu, etc and I was gonna use debian but I couldn’t find the x86 download button, so after a bunch of messing about with distros like puppy and #!++, I settled on alpine for a bit. I now have decent hardware and use fedora.
At this point, my biggest dream is that these ‘new user’ distros used only Wayland, Pipewire, Systemd and Flatpaks simply to simplify things. Hopefully we’re less than 2024 away from NoVideo Wayland support.
Also as soon as XFCE releases their Wayland support, that soon it’ll become the most famous DE choice of Mint.
What I am really happy is to see how well supported Pipewire already is. Pipewire has never showed any problem in the new installs for me.
That’s what I’m using now, and it’s what I’d recommend for most desktop users. I’ve been using Linux systems on-and-off since before kernel version 1.0: Slackware, then Debian, then Ubuntu, then Mint, then Pop.
(Admittedly, my use cases are pretty simple: a terminal, a browser, Signal, VLC, and Steam.)
Yes, that pop os. As luck would have it, Linus installed it during a very brief period where the steam package in their repo was broken. This is not a common occurrence, and I have never heard of it happening before or since.
The problem with that is most major distros market themselves as “new user” distros to some extent though. Noob-friendly, out-of-the-box, easy, etc are all distro-marketing buzz-words that mean nothing.
You can’t expect them to only use Wayland, Pipewire, Systemd, and Flatpaks because that dream requires every distro to use Wayland, Pipewire, Systemd, and Flatpaks, which will never be reality.
Most distros will probably eventually adopt these tools, but there won’t be a sudden shift. It will be gradual.
Well, for Pipewire it’s the apps which needs to adjust at this point. Only thing missing currently is the Wayland but it’s coming. Making Linux less fragmented (read: confusing), the more new users will give a try.
Fridge art. Fuck, they MAYBE have nfsroot working. MAYBE. After a decade of fucking around, when it was available for ages. The number of bags on the side of lennart’s piece of crap, just to reinvent the wheels we had before, is absolutely ridiculous.
and Flatpaks
… break single source of truth for as-built information and current software manifest. This kills validation, which dissolves certainty on consistency, then repeatability. And given the state of the software load exported to management tools is NOT the flatpak source of truth, you now have a false negative on the ‘installation’ of a flatpak resource when checking it via management.
Gonna be honest with you I’m an intermediate user and understood jack shit of what you just said. A beginner and average user would have probably been scared off by Linux by this point rewding this.
If I understood the funny words magic man correctly, he is complaining that flatpaks don’t come from a single trusted source and may become a vector for malware, unlike official distro repositories. Still, that was a very technobabble way of saying it.
pipewire seems ready for primetime but I’m more dubious about Wayland. For instance KDE appears to still be a bit flaky and sway still works poorly under Nvidia and will never have proper mixed DPI for xwayland apps. Still seems like a tradeoff vs X which doesn’t require a compromise. XFCE is roughly 10% of Mint users. Mint users are unlikely to switch because of wayland support
So you want them to provide answers by using magic? If you seek support for any software, open source or otherwise, you’ll need to tell them version, build number etc. Why do you think Linux will be any different?
Because people can already barely provide this level of information for a Windows device. Most of these words look like technobabble to non-tech-enthusiasts
Of course the words will be different. They aren’t hard words. And they can be answered very easily. In fact, most forums ask to include an output of something like inxi -Fazy with every question, thus eliminating the need for all of these things.
For more niche problems, people might ask for more specific information. But most of the time, they’ll tell you exactly what to run to get that information.
You know what’s the Windows alternative for this? Most of the time, nothing. You need to reinstall Windows. Mac is similar, except you need to have it replaced. You actually CAN repair Linux. That’s the difference.
Doing tech support, I encountered this attitude. People like that are nearly impossible to help. “Why can’t you just fix it!” The true answer never given is that your problem is probably something stupid you are doing, like trying to make a phone call by physically shoving the phone entirely up your asshole, and until I run through some common problems and ask some questions, I won’t be able to tell you to have your significant other get the salad tongs and pull it out of your rear and then go over “dialing.”
People mostly need to be willing to gather detailed system info with Inxi and share it.
No. That’s the support job to figure out the problem of the user. It is not the user’s job to figure out the support problems.
I work in support, so I know what I’m talking about. Unfortunately most computer guys are elitist assholes who can’t understand a user doesn’t have their knowledge or even the will to understand why this shitty tech is not working.
Free open source software projects you don’t pay for don’t have paid support. If you talk to a fellow user it IS your job to figure out your problem. if you don’t have the will to understand anything you ought to buy a support contract.
I don’t disagree with you, but to answer OP’s question, I think this right here is the problem. I love Linux for the same reason I love building my own PCs and working on my own car. For most people that don’t want to tinker, though, they’re looking for something that “just works” and can be fixed by someone else when it breaks.
It’s such a privileged attitude, though. One CAN get paid support, but they don’t need it if they’re just a bit patient and willing to follow instructions. If you don’t want to pay, don’t expect someone else to deal with your bullshit.
(I’m not saying this to you, but to anyone who has this attitude.)
It case the subject wasn’t entirely clear in my prior post I agree with you, and that is exactly what I was trying to say. You the user of a foss project, aren’t a customer unless you give someone money. It IS your job to figure out your own issues. If you ask for help from your fellow users and they graciously provide you help then this is a gift you should appreciate. Because the person isn’t an expert on that topic in the employ of the creator, they might not know everything, nor do they have the infinite patience imparted by being paid by the hour to provide you help. They have their own shit to do. Treating them with entitlement and contempt like people treat support will burn these sorts of folks out, and they are far from an infinite resource. If you want a paid support relationship instead of treating the open source community as free help whose time you are entitled to, you ought to actually pay someone to do that job.
Why don’t you magically have a magic button that magically fixes everything with no effort of my own? That’s stupid, I think I will go on social media and repeatedly tell everyone that Linux is bad actually
Nvidia. Within two weeks, their shitty drivers broke my system twice. If I didn’t already know about that beforehand, I would’ve probably quit linux for good after that experience.
Out of curiosity, did you download the nvidia drivers with the distro’s package manager or did you go to nvidia’s website and do there installer thing? When I had an nvidia card I had plenty of problems over the years but I specifically remember that using the installer from nvidia’s site caused all kinds of hell to break loose haha
Lack of patience and/or unwillingness to learn are what I see as the primary challenges to Linux adoption, and it can be addressed by leaving those kind of people to their own devices.
I’m a new user. How do I disable being prompted for a password every time I want change/install anything? I just want password requirement at logon and not when logged on.
Kind of, but to be fair UAC doesn’t prompt you for the account password unless you’re not an Administrator on the PC (in which case you have to enter the password of someone who is). If you’re on a single user PC, you’ll be an admin and it’ll only be a “Yes / No” prompt.
Now macOS on the other hand does require the password, unless you have an Apple Watch (if I heard correctly) in which you can confirm it by pressing a button on it. Or, using the fingerprint reader on the Macs with a TouchID sensor.
You will want to modify the sudoers file. In a terminal sudo nano /etc/sudoers. You will want to go down to the line %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL and comment it out by adding # in front of it. A few lines down should be a similar line # %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL. You will want to uncomment this by deleting the # at the beginning of the line. With nano, you can save by hitting ctrl+O then hitting ENTER to confirm. Hit ctrl+X to exit nano.
Thanks, I tried that before and I think it only worked until I re-logged (?). I’ll try that again, this time will use something else than vi editor to be sure.
vi is definitely different being a modal editor. If you are new to Linux, I would suggest nano. It is much easier to understand, even if it isnt as fast as vi can be. Many distros have it installed, and pretty much all of them should have it in their repos.
The program that asks for password graphically is polkit. As far as I’ve searched online it only supports bypassing password prompts if you’re admin on the system. It does not have a password less prompt like in Windows. I’m using this and this as source in case you want to disable it all together. I’m not a mint user my self so I cannot validate this without spinning up virtual machine. I would recommend the community just look at whatever I wrote for 24h and mention some issues that might occur. I’ll update it if someone points out any issues.
Open any terminal (sorry) and copy one line at a time into the terminal and hit enter. After the first line you’ll be asked to enter the password. For the consecutive commands password will not be asked. On the last command you’ll open a graphical text editor and make sure certain text is present.
You should now see a text editor appear with a file opened. Copy this and paste it in the file at the bottom. Then save, close and reboot.
<pre style="background-color:#ffffff;">
<span style="color:#323232;">/*
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> * https://lemmy.world/comment/1396602
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> * Allow members of the wheel group to execute any actions
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> * without password authentication, similar to "sudo NOPASSWD:"
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> */
</span><span style="color:#323232;">polkit.addRule(function(action, subject) {
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> if (subject.isInGroup("wheel")) {
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> return polkit.Result.YES;
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> }
</span><span style="color:#323232;">});
</span>
This is a security risk as you might understand, but it’s your computer and you can do whatever you want. If you have any issues just post them here and maybe we’ll figure something out.
It depends on your distro but there is a NOPASSWORD option in some that you can add to a sudoers file. Without knowing your system its probably best to use your search engine of choice to look for answers to that but be warned that it is a security risk.
To me, the big problem is still updates breaking things.
Everybody needs to update their system from time to time, but if doing so leaves your system in an unusable (for the average person, not a linux terminal guru) state, users aren't going to stay.
I think immutable/atomic OSes like Silverblue, VanillaOS and SteamOS are heading in the right direction to solve this issue. Particularly if they allow users to easily rollback a bad update. Otherwise maybe there is some way to detect and warn about potential compatibility issues before people update.
I imagine it’s because someone commented on it so it shows activity. Dunno how the first commenter found it though. Probably just scrolled all the way back lol.
No you’re thinking of ‘active’, which surfaces posts with recent comments. Just scroll a bit on ‘hot’ and you’ll see it dredges up some old posts, even without recent comments
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