Is Linux (dumb)user friendly yet?

elxeno , 54 minutes ago

Mint should be pretty easy to get used to, solid choice IMO, as for the programs

Word, Excel, ect(I’m fine with alternatives)

If you’re fine with libreoffice, no problems

Spotify

Don’t know.

Gimp (would have been a make or break, so I’m glad it’s supported)

No problems

Brave browser (browser is a browser)

Not sure if there’s a flatpak, U might need to add a PPA, but it’s just a one time copy/paste a few commands.

Steam

Works fine, but some games might not run or require some tinkering, check games u play on protondb.com

Discord

It’s a bit annoying because they require u to have the latest version all the time, it won’t auto update, and the package might take a while to update, so u either download and update manually every time (it will be a different install than the flatpak package) or use the web version, peraonally i just run a script to download and extract the tar.gz version when there’s an update.

wuphysics87 , 40 minutes ago

Could you share that script with op?

elxeno , 31 minutes ago

Sure

<span style="color:#323232;">#!/bin/bash
</span><span style="color:#323232;">DIRNAME=$(dirname -- "$( readlink -f -- "$0"; )");
</span><span style="color:#323232;">cd "$DIRNAME"
</span><span style="color:#323232;">wget -O discord.tar.gz 'https://discord.com/api/download/stable?platform=linux&format=tar.gz' && tar xvf discord.tar.gz && rm discord.tar.gz
</span>

Edit: DIRNAME is just to find the script location and download/extract there, in case u call the script from somewhere else

red , 9 minutes ago

brave has flatpack , and you don’t really have to do all that to update discord just go to software store and click update?

elxeno , 1 minute ago

I don’t use flatpak but i assume there’s a delay between discord and flatpak updates, or even if there is no delay

just go to software store and click update?

This would update everything, right? That’s usually not what i want when i’m opening discord.

Manzas , 54 minutes ago

I would say dual boot so you can use windows when you can’t figure something out

Zorsith , 1 hour ago

I actually tried linux (Fedora) this past weekend; I had fewer issues installing and using it as a day to day computer, than I did with Windows. Tried out Gnome and KDE both, preferred gnome but UI scaling (for my shit vision) was simpler out-of-the-box on KDE (about 125-150% was comfortable for me.) I found KDE a bit overwhelmingly customizable to start out with, and maybe a bit bloated.

The caveat to this was Gaming, in my case I did not have a good time with gaming (probably because I am trying to run at 4k and play a game dependant on Ubisoft DRM, as well as an older MMO that doesnt handle high DPI screens and ui scaling). Very frame-y at 4K, a decent amount of tinkering is/was required. YMMV, check ProtonDB as it is heavily dependent on what games you play, and heavily dependent on Steam. If you want to multi-box (without software, just alt-tab through windows) an MMO, I found functionally no information on how to open multiple instances of the same game to do so (which is why I mentioned the dependency on steam, which only seems to let you have one game launched at any given time)

Moving back to windows for gaming felt like a major downgrade as far as general computer work goes. Inside of an hour I had a fully functional, up to date, linux machine. Windows 11 took 1-2 hours to install and update itself, then another hour to install drivers, then longer to de-bloat and start disabling all the stupid shit from Microsoft. I’m sure I’ll be doing that continuously for the next few weeks.

captain_aggravated , 21 minutes ago

I found KDE a bit overwhelmingly customizable to start out with, and maybe a bit bloated.

I’ve said this kind of thing before; Gnome feels like it’s trying to appeal to Apple users, “Look how simple it is, look how few settings menus there are, you use it the way we designed it to be used and only that way, nothing else works.” They like their empty blank windows. The ideal Gnome utility app is a blank window with a single button in the title bar that says “Cancel.” Featurelessness is their goal.

KDE always felt like the polar opposite of that to me. Every feature under the sun, sometimes twice. Nothing is consistent, nothing aligns quite right, they love their cluttered windows. The ideal KDE utility app is a window crammed edge to edge with text boxes, drop downs, radio buttons and check boxes that never opens quite big enough for all the elements in it. This one little utility app can do basically everything even remotely related to the task it’s made for plus several other adjacent tasks, to the point it takes you a long time to find the one option you ever actually need in a sea of settings menus.

Cinnamon felt somewhere in between. Except where Gnome apps crept in with their hamburger menus and top bar UI, Cinnamon felt consistent and good looking without being an iPhone commercial, and their included utilities tended to have the functionality you needed and nothing you didn’t.

I just recently built a PC, and to get the most out of an AMD GPU I’m using Fedora KDE instead of my long time favorite Mint Cinnamon, and I’ve already had to boot up my old computer once to use a Mint utility because I couldn’t seem to get the job done in KDE. You know that USB stick formatter tool in Mint? Why doesn’t every OS have that?

ninjaturtle , 1 hour ago (edited 1 hour ago)

You should be fine doing what you want on Linux. Just make sure everything works before installing completely. There is a liveUSB mode that let’s you try it before you install.

Mint and PoP os are good ones to try.

Can also check out Zorin os which is pretty good too but doesn’t update as often.

scytale , 3 hours ago

The only barrier to entry is creating a usb installer. Once you’re past that, there’s nothing more than basic computer knowledge to do what you need to do. By basic, I mean knowing how to use a computer, so you should be good. Just choose a user friendly distro like Mint and you won’t need to open the terminal at all unless something really bad happens.

captain_aggravated , 4 hours ago

In the last four years I’ve built three gaming PCs and installed Linux on two and Windows on one.

If you can install Windows on a PC, you can install Linux on a PC. The process of getting the ISO, writing it to a thumb drive, using the BIOS to boot to the thumb drive is the same. The Windows installer is kind of its own environment, but most Linux distros will boot to a “Live environment” that gives you a full desktop you can try out and use before installing, and the installer runs like any other program. Some automatically launch it, some give you an icon to click on the desktop. The installer will ask you the same basic things, though Windows asks you more stuff about their proprietary garbage.

The last time I installed Windows, (Win 10 about a year, year and a half ago) it started up with a fallback video driver and 800x600 resolution, and I had to use Edge to download the GPU driver from AMD’s website. I’ve never had to do that on Linux; AMD drivers are supported directly by the Linux kernel and work out of the box.

I have an unusual speaker system that makes a loud popping sound when the sound chip in the computer turns on and off, so I have to disable a power saving feature by putting a line in a config file. That line I copied and pasted from a forum. It’s entirely because I have this weird old sound system of mine; the vast majority of folks won’t have to do that.

I’ll note that I also choose hardware specifically for Linux compatibility. I use AMD GPUs, I make sure to use Intel wireless chips, I have desktop peripherals that don’t require those goofy dashboard apps to configure. Generally go with as normal as you can.

If you’re coming from Windows, I would suggest trying the Cinnamon or KDE desktops, in the look and feel department they’re probably going to be closer to what you’re used to with robust graphical tools.

Standard disclaimer: Linux is not Windows. You will have some learning and adjusting to do as you get used to a new ecosystem. I don’t think Windows or Linux are free of “troubleshooting.” Stuff goes wrong on Windows too. Thing is, with Linux you can…learn how to fix it?

IronKrill , 4 hours ago (edited 4 hours ago)

Depends what you use and how you use it. With how I use my computer, I have issues on Windows that require terminal input to solve and are more confusing than many of the Linux issues I face, but the way I use Linux also requires terminal. Some applications just work better or only on terminal whether you’re on Windows or Linux and some debugging steps will inevitably take you down the dark road of decade old menus and terminal commands.

Day to day basic tasks though? It shouldn’t need any special knowledge, provided that you don’t follow the wrong online tutorials like I did when starting out. For example, Firefox was out of date so I looked up how to update Firefox. The package manager did not have a new version and I didn’t think to manually go into settings and refresh the repository (stores auto update, right? Well, no actually…). Basically I ended up trying to install via a .deb package from their website… it didn’t work and I felt Linux was dumb. What I should have done was update my OS and package manager first or simply sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade (yes this is terminal, sorry). My point is, sometimes you have to realise the question you are asking is flawed and not the system.

savvywolf , 4 hours ago

I think user friendly distros (like Mint) are very user friendly if you’re just doing simple things like web browsing or using Steam. Mint (and other distros) have a realy nice software centre that can install a lot of software with a single click from flathub.org , which removes a lot of headaches that there used to be with installing software.

However, when things go wrong (which they do sometimes because computers are complicated), you may have to troubleshoot and play around with the command line.

… But that’s honestly happened a lot with Windows in my experience as well. Only with less command line and more running esoteric exes.

Honestly, given that most Linux distros are free anyway, you may as well try it out and see if everything works. Worst comes to worst, you find something doesn’t work and end up installing Windows over the top of it.

the16bitgamer , 4 hours ago

Depends on the distro.

I found Linux Mint good enough for 99% of things, and most problems can be solved without a terminal.

Problem is you’d still need to know enough about Linux (just like with windows) to troubleshoot. For example, the files app was causing an error when plugging in drives, I need to figure out that the files app wasn’t call files, but nemo, it’s config lived in a hidden folder called .config in my home folder, and in .config I could delete my configuration to fix my issue.

In my view Linux is about Windows XP or 7 in terms of usability, a bit of a learning curve, but one worth learning.

A few modern improvements which makes using Linux easier.

Use Flatpaks where possible, it’s platform agnostic and usually supported by the actual devs.

AppImages (think portable exe for windows), are another option, but to “install” them you’d need an app called Gear Lever.

Check with an apps developer before installing, flatpaks can be packaged by anyone, and they might loose support (steam for example is installable via Deb not flatpak).

RoyaltyInTraining , 5 hours ago

I bet the others already gave a lot of good advice, but there is one thing I wand to emphasize. The way in which you install software matters more on Linux than on any other operating system. You are meant to install it through your distros package manager, which you will most likely use through the software management GUI of your distro. Do not download any executables from websites directly, unless you are absolutely sure that:

• They are made to work on your distro
• They come from a trustworthy source
• You have complete and up to date instructions on how to install them

Sometimes you might need to add additional repositories to your package manager, the same rules apply there. You might also run into things called Flatpaks and Snaps, these are universal package formats and another great option for installing software. Flatpaks work out of the box in a lot of distros. Number one rule there is to stick to things that are marked as verified, unless you have a good reason to trust them. These universal formats might be integrated in the GUI software manager too, this varies across distros.

If you follow those rules and keep your system updated, I don’t expect you will have much trouble with Linux.

eugenia , 5 hours ago

If the PC you’re building has the latest and greatest hardware in it, you might find that Linux might not support that stuff yet. You might get lucky, but you might not either. It usually takes a little while to get new hardware supported. So it might be a better idea to install Linux on your older computer, then there’s no reason to buy a new PC anyway. Linux uses about half the RAM that Windows uses, for example, so it’s like you did an upgrade anyway. As long as you have over 4 GB of RAM, you’re fine for desktop usage. Windows requires 8 to run as well that Linux does at 4. You’d only need to upgrade if you’re after extreme gaming support.

just_another_person , 5 hours ago

I’m downvoting every to comment in this thread because you’re doing exactly what I said you’d do in my original comment. 🤦

Brahvim , 4 hours ago

…???

bitwolf , 5 hours ago

You can absolutely get by by, and have a great experience with GNOME + the app store.

Its a reason its default on so many distros.

teawrecks , 6 hours ago

It’s better to ask which distro is dummy proof. Some are made for noobs and windows users, others are not, and they’re all based on “Linux”.

Mint, Debian, and Fedora are all good starter options, and all are made to get stuff done without having to use the command line.

Brahvim , 4 hours ago

Debian without the CLI?

…What?

c0smokram3r , 6 hours ago (edited 5 hours ago)

Linux Mint LMDE is always my recommendation to friends & fam who are leaving Win & Mac environments. LMDE bc ease of use/install & stability.

Slight learning curve, but that goes with anything new to a person when it comes to tech. Linux Mint forums are also legit for quick answers.

Good luck regardless of what you choose! Don’t let the negative feedback get you down! 🍀

-sent from an old MacBook running LMDE

Revan343 , 6 hours ago

I’ve been curious about LMDE, I use the Xfce version of regular Mint, but am comfortable in Debian (at least, server Debian). How does LMDE compare?

c0smokram3r , 5 hours ago

They’re both great starters, imo! Xfce or LMDE is a solid choice for Linux beginners.

Xfce was a little too minimal for me & iirc it’s canonical-based. I chose lmde specifically bc I prefer Debian. I can’t recall if I had any major issues setting up either of them. I think it also just comes down to visual/aesthetic preferences. They’re both highly customizable so either way you’re good!

I’m gonna set up xfce for my dad on an old Dell desktop & i’m sure he’ll appreciate how close it is to windows right out of the box. 📦

Revan343 , 5 hours ago

I specifically like Xfce or LxQt, because I generally run older hardware; I suppose my biggest question is how easily I could use either (not overly picky about which). I’m not sure which desktop environment LMDE defaults to, but both Gnome and KDE are deal-breakers for me, unless it’s easily changeable.

I don’t have that problem on my actual Debian machines, because they’re headless anyways, there is no desktop environment at all

c0smokram3r , 4 hours ago

Ooh, I gotcha! LMDE doesn’t default to gnome or kde. LMDE installs w cinnamon.

Not sure I’ve seen much of lxqt. Will def give that a once over our if curiosity!