I didn’t realise just how much better it would be. Like holy shit everything works. I have had very few problems that weren’t very easily fixed.
Everything that windows did, this thing can usually do better. And the things it can’t do better, it can do just as good.
Things I’ve noticed:
Mint and Linux in general use a logic that gels with me way more than modern Windows. Even though Mint is technically a very simple distro, it’s still waaaay better than what I was used to. Terminal commands are easy to learn and the way Mint is organised is great for example (how do I word this?) if I want to do something I don’t have to guess which submenu the OS is hiding it behind like in Windows. Like if I want to look at the health of my disc, it’s right there under “discs” and it tells me everything about it from the temperature to how many bad partitions it has. If I want to flash something to a USB its a fucking built in option when you right click, something I had to download a program for in Windows. If I want to use a printer, Mint just connects and prints, on windows HP or whatever company will ask you to download their personal software suite and do it that way. There are soooo many unnecessary programs companies push on Windows owners.
What brought this home is recently I bought my parents a new mouse as a gift because they complained theirs wasn’t working well anymore. I got them a blutooth Logitech mouse, nothing crazy, and I try to connect it to their laptop for them. Windows makes you go though a couple of menus to do this but whatever it’s not too bad. A popup comes up after like 10 minutes after I was about to walk away because this is a slow old computer. Logitech wants me to download and log into their software suite for a fucking mouse. Lmao. So anyway, after week I get a call from the parent that owns the laptop, the mouse isn’t working anymore. I take a look at it next time I visit and sure enough it doesn’t work. I take out my laptop. I right click the Bluetooth icon and click search. It finds the mouse, I tell it to connect. It works fine.
Now I disconnect it from my Bluetooth try to reconnect it to the parents Windows laptop, no Bluetooth icon in the system tray, weird. Also if you hover over the system tray Windows now slides up a bunch of clickbait articles for some reason, lol. I go into settings, look for blutooth, it’s not there. Remember that Windows 10 hides its blutooth shit under a devices submenu. Go to that submenu. It says the mouse is connected and the little tab to turn on or off Bluetooth is missing. I restart the computer. No change. I look up if anyone else has had this problem. I find a Reddit post complaining about the same thing. For some reason the solution is restart the laptop with its actual power chord unplugged. Confusing, but I try it. It works for some reason. I am suddenly way more thankful than ever that I no longer use Windows. When something goes wrong on Linux, it makes sense, as opposed to this where I have no idea what Windows did to cause this.
I’m just so surprised at how much better Linux is. It absolutely destroys the idea that profit motive makes for better products, or that the richest companies are rich and popular because they’re better. Here this thing is, funded by collaboration and donations, and it’s leagues better than something produced by one of the richest companies in the world that has near infinite funding.
There is no way in hell am ever going back.
Glad it’s working.
Linux has a really bad rep because people discount how frustrating windows is as “that’s just how computers are”, and since they’ve spent years learning windows it’s not apparent why the effort to learn a different OS and software ecosystem is worth anything.
The major distros have put in so much work to make things user friendly. Most people will never need to venture beyond the integrated "app store"s of whatever DE they ship with.
I use arch btw
I have been making an effort to learn how to use terminal so I’m not completely a lazy fake Linux fan, but honestly Mint does everything I need from it so I just haven’t felt the need to change distros. It’s comfy.
Maybe one day I’ll brave arch. When I have enough money that I’m not afraid to brick a laptop (through my own incompetence) lol.
Arch is as easy as anything else if you use archinstall. If not it’s not much harder as there is a wonderfully doxumented step by step on the wiki.
I found it very useful for learning what the components of a linux system actually were.
Anyway no such thing as a fake user. It’s just a tool, if it’s useful use it. If not find something that works.
Hell yeah!
Printing
Yeah it’s actually kind of weird how good printing on Linux is? It’s been this way since at least 2008. I don’t think it’s just Windows being dogshit either, since Macs also sometimes shit themselves when you print.
Terminal
You’re still a real Linux user even if you never use the terminal. Can be pretty handy though.
PS: Have you tried bulk renaming files in the file manager? It’s so powerful compared to the Windows way, I love it.
it really is a shock. or it was for me. i rarely need to reboot, and when I do it’s like 40 seconds.
my windoze PC is always downloading updates and doing weird shit claimed to be critical, it takes forever, and it always needs a restart which takes fucking forever to get back to a usable state.
my work PC is hella locked down and they forced us onto windows 11. it is an incredible engineering achievement that they have made something even worse and more unpleasant to use than Windows 10.
The clusterfuck of the Settings app and Control Panel and whatever else feels like it is deliberately designed to strip users of any agency. Half the things are impossible to figure out without googling. I encountered this recently when I wanted to change the DNS provider.
Yessssss, another new Linux user who suddenly realises with meticulous detail the insanity and consequent opaqueness that Windows regularly subjects you to for basic shit. You’ve seen the world outside the Matrix, now you can (and likely will sometimes have to) use Windows again, but it’ll never be the same.
Welcome to the fold
ONE OF USI was at my sisters house yesterday and needed to leave a little note on their computer for next time they use it. They had windows 11. I opened up notepad and a fucking ad showed up for grammerly IN NOTEPAD! It was obnoxious and overlaid on top of the app like some shitty early 2000’s malware.
Windows allows this kind of “functionality” now and people still use it. Just embarrassing.
It’s amazing what people will put up with if it’s sold to them as the popular option that everyone is using. The peer pressure is real. I’ve been made to feel weird for not having an Apple phone lol
Honestly one of the reasons i prefer iPhone to Android is I can use it without being marketed heavily to. Android always has tons of ads just everywhere.
? I don’t ever see any ads.
Your apps are loaded with them more than iOS apps are. Your App Store has far more scams than apples. Significant feature and security upgrades are withheld on most Android phones to encourage the purchase of another one, though to be fair that’s not true across every model anymore.
Hell, look at what Samsung is doing with their fucking lockscreens. Android could have been great. It should have been great. But it’s totally enshittified now.
I don’t see how your inability to not download shitty adware is android’s fault. Do you just search random things in the play store and click on the shiniest result like a child? Almost every app I use regularly is FOSS and from f-droid anyway.
You don’t need every shiny new feature and Samsung has guaranteed security updates for 7 years, longer than Apple’s average of 6 years with no guarantee. The only thing on my lock screen is a picture of my dog so I have no idea what you’re going on about.
