@randomizer
Yup, linux is not for me for the reasons I stated, and I don't use it indeed, I'm much happier with windows and it's innumerable GUIs where I actually get to do the tasks I have to do in minutes without the need to read a forum teaching dozens of non intuitive commands.
It depends how you define "intuitive." If I am a system administrator and I'm wanting to perform a range of administrative tasks, such as altering file permissions, I do not want to be typing "changefilepermissions -arguments filename" every time. "chmod" (change mode) is alot quicker. If you look at the Windows alternative "Icacls" you could argue that it is not intuitive either. Do you know what it means without Googling it? Of course you could simply go into the file's properties via Explorer and change the file permissions, but that's going to take you a long time if you want to do the same for 300 files and directories. Calling a GUI intuitive and a command line not intuitive depends on what you're familiar with primarily, and secondary to that what you plan to do. User-friendliness and intuitiveness are terms used incorrectly. What is intuitive for you may not be intuitive for me. Familiarity is not intuitiveness but most people consider them the same thing subconsciously. If something is different to what I am used to that doesn't make it unintuitive, it makes it different.
Familiarity is one reason why computer illiterates may actually find Linux easier to use than Windows "power users." They don't have an old way of doing thing that they keep trying but failing at. It's arguably just as difficult to learn Windows as it is Linux. Neither OS is without its issues, but both do some things similarly and some things differently.
Funny how linux users love to think they're superior to other users. Just cause I prefer windows it doesn't make me computer illiterate, just makes me want to make a better use of my time instead of learning/typing crazy commands on the terminal. My above post is another proof of it, it had -2 points because you linux lovers are so desperate to feel superior, and the post doesn't even lie, it's a fact that linux lacks GUIs for a lot of tasks and doesn't run AAA games.
FWIW, I'm a Windows user, not a Linux user (although I dabble in it, but not much). However I am not a closed-minded Windows user and I understand the benefits of each. If you think you are making better use of your time by potentially doing something inefficient then by all means continue to think that. There is always a learning curve when doing something different, and therefore a period of "downtime," but that's why you need to weigh up the benefits of learning a new way of doing things against doing things the same way. Your productivity may be higher when you grasp new concepts, but it may not. There is no one size fits all.
About how customizable linux is and windows isn't, really I don't have the time or even the need to customize an OS, I couldn't care less for the OS, what I need is that it works, that it gives me fast access to options that suit my needs
Then Linux is probably not for you as you've already said. There's no point using it for the sake of using it or hoping for a "better Windows." There are a couple of distros where customisation is not so necessary (Linux Mint, Ubuntu to name some and PCLinuxOS lets you customise most superficial things via the GUI), while others are built specifically so that they
are customisable for the people that want this (Gentoo, Arch etc).
...that it auto-updates in a safe and quiet way (even though windows sometimes fail here and asks for reboot, it's still better than linux where I had to google for a solution on a auto update error that caused a lot of things to stop working, it was ubuntu btw), (back on track)the OS doesn't matter, it's the other software that I use that I care and it doesn't make a difference if I run it in windows or linux, I just want it to work.
Of course you had of Google the error. You've probably never seen it before. The first time I see Windows Update error 80070002 I'd need to Google it as well (a real error, not that I've seen it, but if I did the first thing I'd do would be to hit up Google). Think of someone who has never used Windows before. Will they know what this error means without using Google? Then you've got updates which can completely break your installation, which is an issue on any operating system where the hardware varies alot (so less likely to happen on OSX
😉).
The day people responsible for developing linux learn what users want
They already have. Linux is the most used operating system on web servers and supercomputers, as well as mobile phones, DVD players and netbooks. Or aren't these users? "Users" is a broad term and you're using it too generally. There are different distributions for different purposes. There is only one Windows and therefore its usefulness is limited to the average joe. But the average joe is not all users.
linux will become more popular but they're so afraid of copying windows in what windows did successfully that this day might never come, just create GUIs for the large number of tasks and name them apropriately so that new users don't have to figure out gimp is a pic viewer, kate is a text editor and so forth (yes I know windows doesn't have perfect software names too, but compare the control panel for windows to the one on linux and see the difference.)
I've already criticised the naming of software, but the "people responsible for developing Linux" (which if we incorrectly generalise to include kernel developers as well as distribution maintainers) do not have jurisdiction over what some guy does in his spare time. Personally I don't think "Firefox," while at least a catchy name, rings a bell as meaning "web browser" but it's still doing well.
Take this post as constructive criticism, if you hate the words here, it's because you don't want or don't care if linux is popular, and don't criticize windows users for their choice of ease to use and simplicity, if linux was at least intuitive to use it would be much better.
I have no reason to hate what you're saying. You are at least formulating an argument rather than simply saying "linux sucks because I can't do it!"
However, I still need to point out that you're simplifying the issue far too much so that it only represents you and not everyone and therefore your argument is flawed (as is mine most likely, but that's what debate is for is it not?).
Your toy comparison is interesting, how linux is like lego and windows is a ready toy car, but I think it's not correct, the real comparison is saying that linux users have to buy a car (a real one) and be a motor engineer to make the engine work, while anyone else can drive windows and keep their daily jobs, you know, cause there are a lot of professions out there that don't require people to be computer "experts".
Well your analogy may work for something like Linux From Scratch or Gentoo, and maybe Arch (I'd say "motoring enthusiast" would be good enough for that) but those distributions aren't even close to simplified ones like Mint and Ubuntu. Once again you can't generalise too much because one of the primary differences between Windows and Linux is choice, something you don't get on Windows. As I said before, there is only one Windows. You can argue XP vs Vista/Win 7 but as far as the user is concerned (excluding application developers) the differences do not go much deeper than the GUI and the number of drivers that come out-of-the-box. The OSs are philosophically the same and are built for the same purposes.
Now look what you've done. I've spent half my day typing on a forum
😀
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram