The Year of the Linux dissatisfaction

Discussion in 'all things UNIX' started by Mrkvonic, Oct 12, 2020.

  1. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    To be or not to be, happy. Here's an article explaining my recent negativity and dissatisfaction with the Linux distribution testing, focusing on the state of the wider Linux desktop ecosystem, my requirements for home and work, my present and past usage of Linux, my testing rigor, missing or inadequate capabilities like graphics support, Samba sharing, media playback, filesystem hierarchy and support, battery life, killer apps, backward compatibility, consistency, fonts, documentation, and QA process, project vs product, dire need for consolidation, standardization and major shift toward support, critical fun factor, and more. Take a look.

    https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-year-of-dissatisfaction.html


    Cheers,
    Mrk
     
  2. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    Gnu/Linux is FOSS and it makes sense to not have exclusive killer "apps". It would be hypocrisy to do that on purpose. Anyway for me Darktable is a killer program that have not had Windows versions until 2018 IIRC. I wouldn't call it was exclusive, because it had macOS version too.
    I have known Gimp for over a decade, but I was never into serious graphics work and hated to run Gimp with all these options related to image editing when I just wanted to crop image or scale it.
    I also never understood why so many people like IrfanView. It's image viewer but I find it slow for high-resolution images. I don't think that navigation inside Irfan makes it easy to pick which images I want to see. It has some options such as cropping, but it does not allow for fixing aspect ratio of that feature. You must know in advance width or height of a crop, so it will calculate other dimension length for you, but usually this is not a case.
    With Darktable I can easily do basic things that I want to do with my images including rotation, selecting area for crop with fixed aspect ratio then scale it to desired resolution and export to selected image file compression format.
    I think that Darktable is underrated while IrfanView is overrated and Gimp is not meant for average person not into serious image editing.

    When it comes to Samba I just don't use it. I usually use cloud or pendrive for sharing files, but if I had to share files frequently on LAN I would set up an SFTP server using OpenSSH software.
     
  3. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    And how many people can set up an sftp server using openssh software?
    Mrk
     
  4. xxJackxx

    xxJackxx Registered Member

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    3. :D
     
  5. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    Every professional Linux and *BSD admin and a lot of amateurs. Actually OpenSSH is now part of Windows 10, so probably some Windows administrators also can do that. OpenSSH is really common software.
    I really don't care about that, especially that average, young Joe will use OneDrive or Google Drive or whatever Apple has for file sharing instead of SMB. I know I can use it, because I have configured SFTP for fun in the past.
     
  6. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    Your expertise does not preclude the lack of expertise of millions. For that matter, if you were a rally driver, you wouldn't say only people who can sling mud sideways deserve to drive? But that's exactly why Linux desktop isn't making it, it's the high bar & impossible expectations for common tasks.
    Mrk
     
  7. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    Nowadays there are many ways to share files. USB flash drive and external hard drives. Cloud file sharing such as OneDrive, Dropbox. You can buy NAS for your local network.
    SMB is just one particular way of sharing files, that was developed by Microsoft (maybe not, but newer versions were developed by Microsoft), not by FOSS community. FOSS community had to reverse engineer it to any implementation. I don't get why you insist on using SMB when there are so many other options.
     
  8. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    And it's available in 100% Windows machines and does not require anything special other than two or more systems being on the same network.
    Mrk
     
  9. Gringo95

    Gringo95 Registered Member

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    I too have used both Linux and Windows for longer than I like to think about. I always objected to having to pay for software just to make Windows look good but it was my daily driver until time and again issues with Windows 7 updates cost me hours of frustration to sort out. Windows 10 is better but it still costs $ to make it look decent and despite improved security there’s still that ‘think before you click’ nag that never goes away. Now I just can’t be bothered with it and use Linux full time. I run two businesses from home, help out in other areas plus all the usual herd mentality stuff and Linux copes with all this just fine. So where is the cut off point? At what level does Linux NOT perform adequately by comparison and how many users does this impact? I would suggest not that many.

    I’ve always suggested there is too much choice within the Linux world that when coupled with a proliferation of click-bait ‘best distro’ reviews often leads potential new users to an inevitable dead end.

    With recent world events making economic conditions difficult for everyone my preferred sources are struggling to maintain development so I’ve recently switched to ALT Linux which appears to be more capable of withstanding the fallout. The base system is well constructed and also reliably consistent across the desktop choices offered. A range of full versions and ‘starter kits’ (lite) are on offer and also a one off Xfce based ‘Simply Linux’ that folks I’ve introduced this to just love. My preferred choice is the KWorkstation 9. I honestly can’t see the majority of home users not finding a perfect Windows replacement somewhere among this selection.

    https://getalt.org/en/
     
  10. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    You have to click few times to share your folders and both computers must by turned on at the same time. With cloud or even usb flash drive only one have to be turned on.
    I.e. Dropbox can be installed on any Windows 7 or newer system, macOS, Android 6 or newer, Gnu/Linux systems with meet requirements. It can also be accessed by web browser, so literally modern OS nowadays can access it, because any modern OS has some web browser.
     
  11. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    And if you want to have a setup between two home machines without cloud or manual intervention?
    Mrk
     
  12. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    Point is there is always some manual intervention - turning PC on/waking it up from sleep, clicking to share a folder. Not to mention sharing from Windows to Android device requires probably more intervention than installing Dropbox.
    Doing things via SMB is so 2005 way of doing things. The year is 2020, average Joe uses cloud.
     
  13. NGRhodes

    NGRhodes Registered Member

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    Can't disagree with Mrk as these are his experiences with his hardware being used to his requirements, choices appear to have been made reasonably pragmatically. Unless his ideologies weight heavily towards a specific OS, why should he not run the OS that runs the software he needs and runs best on his hardware ?
     
  14. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    He often says "average Joe can't do that" as an argument even though he is an Linux Systems Expert. I perceive that he pretends to write articles targeted at average Joe, but at the same time often ignores how average Joe uses computing nowadays. Average Joe does use cloud is some way or another. Cloud-/web-apps are real tools to accomplish things and are available for Gnu/Linux users. Ignoring them in 2020? Yes, you can, if you dislike them, but stop using "average Joe" argument, because average Joe does not ignore them.
     
  15. xxJackxx

    xxJackxx Registered Member

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    Yes, but they use it on Windows. Or maybe a smartphone. They aren't using it on Linux.
     
  16. reasonablePrivacy

    reasonablePrivacy Registered Member

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    Yes, but they can. For webapps everything you need is web browser. Vivaldi, Chrome, Firefox - they are all available on Gnu/Linux. Webapps don't care about your OS.
    Dropbox has webapp version and another native version you can install in Gnu/Linux.
    Document sharing is probably the best example of cloud usage by average Joe. Limiting, narrowing every article about document/file sharing to doing so via SMB protocol is making a disservice to Gnu/Linux, because there are lots and lots of ways to share files for Gnu/Linux users that are ignored in the process.
     
  17. xxJackxx

    xxJackxx Registered Member

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    I guess I want to make sure your point is understood. Is it that it is indifferent to use Linux vs. something else because you can use things like Dropbox and web based apps to do simple tasks and that there should be no distinction between doing this on Linux, Windows, or whatever? If so then I can agree that in an ideal situation that would be fine. However, when something goes wrong, you are limited to your experience and those around you. If something breaks that nobody knows how to fix that is when the trouble begins. And doesn't end until you find someone knowledgeable enough to help. If I have misunderstood please clarify.
     
  18. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    @reasonablePrivacy, I'm not ignoring the reality. Saying you can use cloud - instead of having a good Samba stack is avoiding the problem. Nothing wrong with the cloud, BUT the Samba stack is broken in Linux. So if you want to use it - you don't have parity with Windows. The solution isn't X doesn't work, use Y - the solution is fix X.
    Mrk
     
  19. chrisretusn

    chrisretusn Registered Member

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    For my uses Linux fits. I really don't understand why some say Linux lacks a Desktop. The one I'm using suits me fine.
     
  20. Gringo95

    Gringo95 Registered Member

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    I remember when they 'fixed' XP and gave us Vista. :)
     
  21. chrisretusn

    chrisretusn Registered Member

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    Thankfully I never went down that road. Somehow I missed all the favorite Windows flavors, like ME, Vista and 8. :shifty:
     
  22. Joxx

    Joxx Registered Member

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    For my use Linux lacks, and I'm sure there are much more users under my circumstances than under yours.
    To summarize: Linux is an alternative but...
     
  23. chrisretusn

    chrisretusn Registered Member

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    Lacks what? I don't see anything I can't do with my KDE Plasma Desktop that I can do with Windows 10's desktop. What am I missing?
     
  24. Gringo95

    Gringo95 Registered Member

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    Me neither. I run two businesses from home plus all the usual stuff and never need to use Windows. IMO posts without detail count for nothing.
     
  25. longshots

    longshots Registered Member

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    And there are often many situations that even experienced Linux users have to scratch their head.

    Not sure why you didn't post "Is Albert going to be your loyal app assistant?" here - if you have I must have missed it - but the most telling piece of the article was this paragraph.

    If you're having problems what chance does the average punter have.
    When you're used to just clicking an .exe file to install a programme this sort of stuff is a nightmare.
    And when basic items that should be in a Software Manager are missing how many Linux newbies would even know about Synaptic Package Manager.

    PS: it's a shame you didn't do a howto for the setup.
     
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