Comment by WarmWash
8 hours ago
Linux is stuck because it's made and maintained by people who love linux.
Look at popular unix based OS's - Android, MacOS, iOS..
Whats the first thing they do? Take the command line out back and shoot it. Whereas for linux users, their is this l33t h4cker festishization of only using a keyboard to do everything. All these distros have an extremely robust CLI under the hood, and an afterthought quasi GUI on the surface. Just good enough for grandma to check her email and watch youtube.
Good. I'm sure this is a controversial take in our brave new world, but not everything has to be aimed at the lowest common denominator. It's refreshing to have something that isn't dumbed down for "the average user" and forces people to actually learn how to do something for a change.
I hope Linux never succumbs to the lowest common denominator and people who actually enjoy tinkering will always have somewhere to go and something to learn. If that's being stuck, I hope it stays stuck.
Why do folks act like windows isn't full of cli commands? First thing on any windows box is running debloat in powershell. Installing apps from a gui in Linux has been solved for a long time.
Having an excellent CLI doesn't preclude having an excellent GUI. No reason we can't have both.
Also I hate linux repos with a passion, because they are optimized for CLI usuage, and (like the whole OS) the GUI parts are a total unoptimized afterthought. Never mind that they are a dumping ground for whatever code anyone shits out, with virtually zero management or curation. With a CLI you don't see this, with a GUI it's a total mess.
I'm fine with app stores, but they need to be actively managed and curated. If not, I far far prefer just downloading .exe's from the source.
> whatever code anyone shits out
downloading an exe is "whatever code anyone shits out" cause that's exactly what built binaries are
A lot of the programs you use on Windows are actually the exact same ones on Linux be it VLC or Chrome. If you want to download binaries directly "from the source" and run those.... well that was always allowed. But remember the entire stack delivering the entire internet to you at any time is open source code that "anyone shits out".
distros are catering to server installs most of the time. if you want a gui you install that entire stack but for most classic distros like debian the GUI is not the main thing. if you want a GUI from start to finish go with Fedora or the new KDE distro.
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MacOS has a good CLI if you need to use it. There are CLI equivalents for a lot of the system setting/administration stuff.
> Whereas for linux users
My wife has used Linux for many years successfully and has never used the CLI once.
So has my grandma
I have had Bazzite on my gaming PC for a while now, never have to mess with the terminal much. It has come a long, long way. Even gentoo has become more accessible than ever. While some of this holds true, you most certainly do not need to live in the command line with some of these distros. Especially if you are just trying to play some games and browse the web, etc.
>Just good enough for grandma to check her email and watch youtube.
Which is 90% of the use of a computer. And Steam is taking care of the other 10%.