The Linux user experience we have? It's not the one we deserve.

I wanted to take a moment and talk about Linux UX because, let’s face it… it sucks.

Actually, it’s worse than that. Much of Linux’s UX is technically correct and that makes it objectively wrong.

No. I don’t want Linux to be more Windows-like. But I do want the most common Linux desktops to behave in a way that PC-literate folks can wrap their mind around — and do so from minute zero.

  • neclimdul@lemmy.world
    1·
    20 hours ago

    I walked him through how things worked once

    And there’s why it worked.

    Ok, let’s dig in to it.

    Let’s say he was installing windows 20 years ago. First, you have to find it. you’ve got 20 versions of XP Home, Enterprise, Media Edition. You can’t really get most of them online legit so you’ll have to steal it or head to the store. Hopefully you end up with some version of XPSP2. You might not and SP1 was not great. Then hopefully your network drivers work or you’ve got the disc hanging around because none of your drivers are going to work. Otherwise you’re going to need another computer to find the drivers from the manufacturer if they even exist. Maybe one of the sketchy driver sites has it… And hopefully your video card works because that’s not a given, you might have to side load the drivers into the installer or figure out how to boot into safe mode and copy the drivers off a floppy. Then you’ve got to figure out all the random places to find slyour software and where your copy of office is.

    Contrasted with “yes mint will work. Yeah Belinda etcher. Yeah the hidden one is your hard drive the only option is the USB drive. Yes those formatting options are fine. Yes that’s the right time zone, our city isn’t directly selectable. Ok you’re done. Yeah everything is just working. Yeah no drivers. Open the software center. Yeah that’s it. No really it’s working. Yeah just type in steam there and install it. No really that’s it it’s really working.”