Let’s not cherrypick scenarios to try and pretend Linux is easier than Windows. Most normal people are nervous interacting with a GUI pop-up that gives them two options, never mind putting them into a terminal window where they could seriously fuck up their machine. What about clicking the download link on a webpage, clicking next a few times and having them software on your machine, compared to having to build something from GitHub (how many people here have never had to do that?).
somepackage requires otherpackage version >10.1.79
otherpackage is already at latest version
Have fun compiling it yourself and messing up what is managed by the package manager and what's not. And don't forget that the update might break some other package along the way
Been using Linux off and on since 2003-ish. I remember the days of having to compile applications and having to download various dependencies. Linux now is so streamlined and easy. Minus gentoo.
I don't know about all the arguing and snark, but... I've been using Ubuntu (laugh it up) on my work laptop for the last 3ish years, and the vast majority of the time it really is "click install updates. wait 2 minutes. ok every program on your computer is up to date, just don't forget to restart Firefox". Can't think of a time where updating sucked. Sometimes I even go through the terminal just because it makes me feel cool to be a hackerman.
I dread updating my windows pc at home. Cuts into my WoW time too much.
IDK, but I more often had issues with installing apps to Linux than to Windows, usually dependency-hell related ones, but once I had trouble enabling snap on Linux Mint.
I don't like windows either, but updating with Winget in terminal works pretty good. Not as good as with Linux, but better than downloading every app via browser.
Chocolatey is the best option I've found for this on Windows:
Chocolatey was created by Rob Reynolds in 2011 with the simple goal of offering a universal package manager for Windows. Chocolatey is an open source project that provides developers and admins alike a better way to manage Windows software.
You can install & uninstall software from the command line and update everything installed through it with one command.
It's not a real package manager of course. It can't update the operating system, and Windows applications aren't built for modularity and shared libraries the way Linux applications are. But it does automate application management like nothing else. I highly recommend this if you use Windows.
I've been a Linux user on and off since 1996, and there are still times when I give up trying to install software because of cryptic error messages.
Yes, I had my parents using Linux Mint for about 5 years, but eventually my brother who lived near them switched them to Windows because if there was a problem with Linux he couldn't help.
Don't worry, this is definitely the year of the Linux desktop.
Windows side of things is getting better though, thanks to winget. Not perfect and it f's up with certain packages but already a lot better than updating by hand.
I think mixing app and system dependencies is not the best idea, and Linux desktop is still fighting its impact.
When all the apps on a consumer laptop is expected to depend on the same dependencies, the system likely run into dependency hell, which means many apps needs to be downgraded in order to keep older apps working.
This mixture of system dependency and app dependency also prevents users to use the the latest version of an app on a hyper stable base system.
Flatpak basically aim to solve this problem, where each app chooses their own dependencies, so you don't need to downgrade all your app just because one app depends on python 2.7.
I'm preparing for a new computer build and I have some questions. I'm feeling really scorned by Windows 11 and its incompatibility with my current hardware as well as the overall sense of that my privacy is being invaded. I'm not super familiar with linux, but I have messed around with various distros.
The build I'm planning to put together will likely use an AMD processor, but I'm uncertain about the GPU (definitely AMD or Nvidia). With my current build, RX 480 and i5-6500 I have found that in recent years I get massive artifacts in relatively old games such as Planetside 2 and Path of Exile (I also play Magic Arena quite a bit, but haven't experienced any issues there). I even get screen tearing when watching youtube or amazon prime. It's possible that my card is just dying, but considering that I don't consistently see these issues across multiple applications I feel like it might be a driver issue.
I'd really like feedback and to know more about Linux gaming (especially with the games mentioned) as well as experience with AMD, Nvidia, and Intel hardware.
One thing that no one can argue is better on windows is app updates.
On Linux, my apps update through the app store or a terminal command.
On Windows, the app has to create its own auto-updater that usually means it bugs you for permission (sometimes if it's something like Adobe or Office it'll keep an update-checker service running!). Otherwise your app is just stagnant forever.
It's not impossible for Windows to fix, there's chocolatey and winget but they're always going to be a niche alternative to the shitty systems Windows gives by default.