I’ve been using Linux since ~1996; I used to wonder about this a lot.
The tl;dr answer is, it’s too much effort only to solve the problem of making life easier for new users, and it can be a disservice to users in the long run.
As others have pointed out, there are limited GUI tools for common administration roles.
Power users are much, much faster at doing things via CLI. Most administrative tasks involve text file management and the UNIX userland is exceptional at processing text files.
A graphical tool would have to deal with evolving system software and APIs, meaning the GUI tool would be on constant outpatient care; this is counter to the UNIX philosophy which is to make software simple and well-defined such that it can be considered “done” and remain versatile and flexible enough to live for decades virtually unchanged.
It wouldn’t be that much easier for things like network rules unless a truly incredible UI was designed, and that would be a risk since the way that’s implemented at the system level is subject to change at any point. It’s hard enough keeping CLI userland tools in sync with the kernel as it is.
It would need to be adaptable to the ways different distributions do things. Administration on CentOS is not always the same as it is on Debian.
And ultimately, the longer a user spends depending on GUI tools, the longer it will take them to learn and become proficient with the CLI, which will always be a far more useful skill to have. You’ll never learn the innards of containers or VPS’ if you only know how to do things from the GUI.
I think that’s a lot about personal preference. Do you enjoy your machine? That you can’t repair it? That you can’t easily take your OS with you one to a machine from another manufacture? Maybe you don’t care. I do. I think Linux gives you a lot of freedom, but if you don’t need or want it, I don’t think there is a reason to change. I mean, apart from the whole Apple-being-a-big-coorporation-that-actively-hinders-reparability issue that one might care about from a societal and environmental perspective.
Maybe you could get all the same stuff you need for development in Linux, and a lot more freedom to boot.
I apologize that this comes off a bit hostile. I am a bit hostile. I am also sorry for it!
Little late to the party, but I’ll chime in. I have a 3080, and for the most part, Wayland works, but there are a few problems that keep me from using it as a daily driver. G-Sync doesn’t work at all, and when I put my PC to sleep, upon wake I end up needing to do a full reboot because of severe graphical issues. When it is running though, it’s pretty smooth, with only a few graphical issues here and there. I still daily drive X11 though until the major bugs are fixed.
That is exactly why I choose to use FOSS including Linux. As much as I want to standby this principle, I have come to a breaking point after dealing with its issues, issues we have all experienced. I believe it is hands down the best choice for server use, but for work and productivity, I need something more matured that is going to work out of the box. I am glad that the community here took this criticism well but I think it’s important to discuss and understand that there are still some strides to be made. But at the end of the day, I’m just some guy ranting and who knows, maybe I’ll be installing a Linux distro after a month of using Mac OS.
This summer I use Linux on my desktop for 25 years. What do you think the first years looked like? My first laptop took me 3 weeks to get it properly installed with Suse back in 1998. For the last 10 years installing and configuring whatever distro is a piece of cake. Ofcourse soms things are not as you want them to be: the good thing is you can change everything in FOSS, and if it does not excist you can create it. People complaining at Linux Desktop are realy complaining on their own limitations. Don’t complain! Not about yourself. Not about the Linux Desktop. Never ever give up! Make your list of whats not working for you. And than work and change until your list is history. Keep your head up strong. You’ll never walk alone!
Same story, same tips, but I started with SuSE Linux 4.3 in 1996. Just try stuff, read the error messages, read docs and ask. A lot of peaople who know stuff are happy to help out of altruism or the chance to show off. ;-)
Has this place officially become a true Linux community? Did we just have the first X vs Wayland thread?!
That said, I use Wayland on all my machines, but I don’t have Nvidia hardware. I suggest just using X11 until Nvidia manages to do the needful. Personally I enjoy using wayland, things run so smoothly, I have zero issues with games and the only application I used that broke was Barrier, but I just used it for my Steam Deck and that problem is solved with SSH.
You can kinda make it bend a bit to your whim. While it is technically immutable if you don’t mess with it, it does have everything necessary for using pacman. It just all reverts next time steamos updates. Anything you install directly through the discover portal is permanent, but it does technically have access to anything in the pacman repos as well.
I unlocked mine long enough to download neofetch and take the screenshot for this. It’ll revert back soon, but I only needed it temporarily for imaginary internet points. :)
X11 is deprecated, it’s been removed from RHEL, and hasn’t had dedicated maintainers for years. You might as well switch to Wayland (and xwayland if needed) now, it’s not really the case that you have an option.
I imagine you’re talking about stability issues and not the numerous security flaws with X11 that are baked in to the protocol. Wayland is an improvement for many reasons, not just stability and the fact that it is actively developed unlike X11.
Oh, I’ve followed this stuff for years and years. I’ve been using Linux pretty much exclusively for a quarter of a century. People love to harp on the security issues, but from what I’ve seen that’s pretty much theoretical. The only real compelling argument is that developers are leaning toward Wayland, so that’s the way it will go. I’m sure some day I’ll go to update and it’ll be time to make that change.
I’m not a developer. I wasn’t super happy with the change to systemd, but it’s not like I was the one that had to deal with the init v issues, so when it changed, I went along. I’m sure the same will happen with Wayland. The last time I tried it, a lot of my decades of cruft didn’t work, shortcuts and workflow issues. Sure, I should probably clean up all that crap anyway, but like I said, it’ll happen when it happens. Until then, I’m completely happy with X11.
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