Everytime I try Linux, I don't last a day.

[Mushkins]

This doesn't even make sense.

Makes perfect sense really. It's the same situation as Adobe Acrobat. 99% of people using it are using it to make minor edits to PDFs as if it was Microsoft Word for PDFs(remove a page, reformat some text, add a page, change a picture, etc). Nevermind the fact that it's a $400 license for an industry standard publishing and design program with a massive feature list, they just want to fix a typo in a PDF someone sent them.

For the work the tool was designed for, it's an amazing piece of software, for the average consumer user you're giving them a 100 tool gold plated multitool when all they want or need is a flathead screwdriver.

 

[Mushkins]

Actually, I think than Linux greatest strength is also the greatest weakness: The total freedom of choice. Because you can achieve the same or similar results in a multitude of different ways (Packages, configuration, scripts, etc), there is no standarized procedures. You don't really know pro and cons, or what makes than that -usually complex- way is better when people suggest it. This means that EVERYTIME you want to do something, you get literally bombarded by info that you need to decode before understanding what it is, and how to use it in YOUR particular scenario, which demands much more knowledge than most Windows standarized procedures. Usually you can pull out ahead if you google because the vast majority of simple things are already pretty well documented, but when you try to do something that is not (Or don't hit the keywords for good google results) and that's where the issues begins.


Also, the holy grail of Operating Systems is having the best of both worlds. Linux, besides that most distributions are free, is usually more powerful than Windows and potentially more stable and secure because malware doesn't usually target it, but Windows is still king of games and most popular applications, meaning you can't really fully replace it for most normal people everday usage.
Wine for running Windows programs on Linux doesn't cut it, it is dependant on developers constantly adding support as new things comes out and they will always lag behind on support and bugs. Dual Boot sucks due to downtime and lazyness, as I consider that if I can do something on both Linux and Windows, and I am in Windows, I'm not going to reboot. However, you can get the most out of both OS via virtualization, so you totally kill Dual Boot. With a Hypervisor that supports VGA Passthrough (Requires VT-d or AMD-Vi) like Xen on top of a Linux distribution, you can make a Windows VM that is gaming capable and in my experience has been pretty much as compatible as running the real thing, and supposedly if well tweaked it can offer near-native performance. Simultaneously, you can run other Windows/Linux VMs.

To me, the problem with Linux usability for the average user was summed up on the very first page of this thread. The terminology is 100% user unfriendly and very technical minded. With windows if you want to change system settings, you poke around in Control Panel, with clearly labeled menus like Devices and Programs and Features. In Linux, you're telling people to navigate to things like /dev/smdc and sudo xyz and talking about "static fstab mounts." I've got more than a healthy tech background and at first glance I can't decipher what "fstab" stands for. It's got a long way to go before Joe User will have even the first clue where to look when he has an issue.

 

[theevilsharpie]

Makes perfect sense really. It's the same situation as Adobe Acrobat. 99% of people using it are using it to make minor edits to PDFs as if it was Microsoft Word for PDFs(remove a page, reformat some text, add a page, change a picture, etc). Nevermind the fact that it's a $400 license for an industry standard publishing and design program with a massive feature list, they just want to fix a typo in a PDF someone sent them.

For the work the tool was designed for, it's an amazing piece of software, for the average consumer user you're giving them a 100 tool gold plated multitool when all they want or need is a flathead screwdriver.

I get what you're saying, but the problem with your comparison is that Linux is not a monolithic one-size-fits-all platform.

There are platforms that are designed to be very easy to use, even if it mean sacrificing functionality (Android, and SteamOS will likely fit in this category), there are platforms that are meant to be reasonably accessible while still offering a broad selection of software and configurability for power users (most Fedora- and Debian-based distros), there are platforms that eschew ease-of-use in favor of maximum flexibility (Gentoo, Arch), and there are platforms that are configured for use in very specific applications (ClearOS, Vyatta, Kali). Within all these projects, you can choose applications that are very easy to use and/or have few options to tweak (GNOME, Pinta, Nano), or you can use software that gives the user more flexibility (KDE Plasma Desktop, GIMP, vim).

And before you respond back with a rebuttal on how this proves your point about Linux being equivalent to a confusing multitool, Windows is the exact same way.

 

[theevilsharpie]

To me, the problem with Linux usability for the average user was summed up on the very first page of this thread. The terminology is 100% user unfriendly and very technical minded. With windows if you want to change system settings, you poke around in Control Panel, with clearly labeled menus like Devices and Programs and Features. In Linux, you're telling people to navigate to things like /dev/smdc and sudo xyz and talking about "static fstab mounts."

Linux instructions are often given for the command line because they're convenient to copy and paste, and these types of instructions are generally compatible with most distributions. If you want a graphical configuration interface, your desktop environment will have one available.

I've got more than a healthy tech background and at first glance I can't decipher what "fstab" stands for.

fstab is the file system table, and is the text file that Linux looks at for its default mount points.

For future reference, most Linux commands and many configuration have manuals available that can be accessed using the 'man' command. For example, to read on what the fstab file is and and what its contents mean, type in 'man fstab'.

It's got a long way to go before Joe User will have even the first clue where to look when he has an issue.

Joe User already doesn't have any clue where to look when he has an issue.

 

[poofyhairguy]

To me, the problem with Linux usability for the average user was summed up on the very first page of this thread. The terminology is 100% user unfriendly and very technical minded.

The terminology is not unfriendly, it is just specific to an environment that is not Windows. For many OSX problems you can also use command line commands that means nothing to a Windows user, but OSX is probably the easiest desktop OS.

It is a good learning experience to learn about OSes. Windows sticks everything in one pile, the "Windows" pile, and the solution is finding where MS buried a setting. But in the worst cases you are doing things like clearing registry values to fix something, which is not a Joe Average task anyway.

On Linux each level of the pile is something different. Linux is the kernel. The X server is what you see graphically. The window manager is what the graphics look like, etc. You learn a lot about OSes when you play with Linux because you can see the lines between the parts.

The primary benefit, unlike Windows, is problems never hide from you. I have never had to reload my OS in Linux because something broke and I don't know how to fix it, but that is a right of passage in Windows. In Linux I go to the layer that is broken- my Xserver, my window manager, my fstab, etc.- and fix that layer. Some bad driver or malware gets into your Windows install and blowing it all up is often the easiest fix, like tearing down a building because the bathroom on one floor is broken but that is your only option because the entire floor is locked because MS never exposed a door in the control panel. With Linux and the command line I have access to everything.

Huge difference in philosophies that increases the sharpness of the learning curve.