LINUX vs WINDOWS: the graphical gap is still there

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#Windows #Linux #apps

00:00 Intro
00:42 Sponsor: Take back control of your internet connection
01:39 Managing Devices
04:20 Managing Services
06:15 Firewall Configuration
07:18 Device Security
08:41 Backup and Versioning
09:45 Advanced Configuration
11:15 Command line: not enough
12:53 Sponsor: Get a PC that runs Linux perfectly
13:55 Support the channel

Device manager lets you see all the components of your PC, and the devices plugged into it. It lets you check for drivers, fix various problems, set some options, and view some logs related to your devices.

On Linux, this thing has no equivalent. We do have a third party app called HardInfo, but it's not an actionable application. In KDE, you have the same thing, with the Info Center.

Device manager is an important tool on Windows, and it would have a LOT of uses on Linux as well. I wish we had something like that.

Linux runs services in the background, for printing, bluetooth, network, virtualization, the graphical server or compositor, and a lot more things, generally managed by systemd on most distros.

And almost no Linux desktop has a complete graphical user interface to manage these services, turn them on or off, enable one at startup or not, or view logs related to this service.

On GNOME, you have an extension called systemd-manager, but no way to configure them, or select options, or enable autostart. On KDE, you have a services page in the settings, but you can basically just start and stop them, no other action is available.

As far as I know, only OpenSUSE has a decent services manager, that is baked into YAST, their configuration tool.

On Windows, the services app might look like it's 20 years old, which it probably is, but it lets you start and stop services, select if you want to start them manually, or at boot, or completely disable them, and it lets you set policies for various services failures, like restarting the computer, restarting the service, or opening another program.

Another thing that is not entirely available in our desktop environments is a graphical tool to configure the firewall, and general system security.

KDE has a config module in their settings, so that's handled. And yet again, OpenSUSE has a firewall config tool in Yast, which works really well.

For GNOME, there are third party tools you can install, depending on the firewall the distro uses, like firewall-config for firewalld, but these are rarely provided by default.

Linux desktops also don't really have an equivalent to the Windows "security center". GNOME has the basics of such an implementation, with their device security page, but it's not actionable.

Anyway, we could add here some information depending on certain libraries, apps, and kernels we use, if vulnerabilities have been detected, we could have access to the firewall settings, apps that have incorrect permission...

And then we have backups. A lot of distros ships with a third party backup tool, like Déja Dup, or Timeshift, but they generally only ship one or the other. We sort of need a complete solution that works ideally for both.

What I'd want is to right click on a file in my file manager, and have a "versions" menu item. What I'd like is a system settings option, native to the desktop environment, that lets me configure a backup, and restore it.

The windows registry is a horrible, horrible thing. It's illegible, it's super messy, modifications can result in a horrendously broken system, and generally it's better left alone.
But it does surface a LOT of options for applications and the system. And not all Linux desktops have an equivalent.

GNOME has dconf, which has a lot of various settings you can tweak. KDE doesn't have that.
Yast has a bunch of additional configurations available graphically.

[mat_max]

I would also like to add that there's still no system monitor that comes even close to Task Manager's usefulness, power and accessibility. The mere fact that by default it groups processes by main task and gives them readable names/window names instead of just displaying the binary's filename is already enough to give it the crown over everything else on linux DEs. It's so easy to parse stuff in it

[Grant_S_M]

Since going to Mint, the only time I open the terminal is to grab a neofetch screenie :D HOWEVER, I totally agree with having an optional graphical way of doing things!

[mirage]

Having used Linux full time since last November, I have to agree. There's a serious lack of graphical tools for the the guts of the system. But this is also a great opportunity for the developers at Gnome, KDE and other DEs. An opportunity to look at how MacOS and Windows have done things, look at what works and what doesn't and make something new. Being last has the nice advantage of being able to see what the people who came first messed up.

[monabuu]

My biggest butt-ache with config files is the ones that start BLANK so you have to look up EVERY SINGLE option to check if it even exists and what magic chant you need to type in the config.

This is especially painful in:

MPV (where you have no other way of setting options and have to create the config files yourself);

SAMBA, where RTFM is not even a solution since the manpage is kilometers long;

SSH Client configuration since you get to write everything yourself in a file you created

[Sorro]

"Windows still has the edge" Well, technically yes, you can't uninstall Edge by normal means, so that statement is technically true

[Psychx_]

For KDE there is systemd-kcm. It's as powerful as YaST, when it comes to configuring systemd. Log viewing, config editing, slice management, all of that goodness, and more, is there. The "services" section in the systemsettings app explicitly refers to KDE-related user-services only.

[mat_max]

What i really like about dconf and dconf editor is that they're essentially a bunch of config files and an app that parses those config files and then represents its variables and entries as graphical widgets. You don't have to forsake the "everything is a file" philosophy, it can still be accesses through text editors and all while having graphical tooling that looks mostly like a regular settings app to view and edit all of it. It's basically the registry done right, although i still would prefer if many of its options were available in the gnome settings app itself

[Steph.]

As a new Linux user something I would also like to see is a "see in terminal" shortcut for these gui settings, would make learning where and what everything does a lot easier. For all I know it does exist in which case let me know

[JV-pukx]

He's making a to-do list for some developers with a lot more time and experience than I have. Create these tools and Linux will be more enticing to non-users, and maybe Windows will see some serious competition.

[KevinSanchez-rdum]

Hopefully as time goes on, the Linux community works on making your ideas real and usable.

[Krafting]

Totally agrees with you, also, no way at all to join an Active Directory or other directory server via the CLI, no way to enable login for AD users on a computer, without going to the CLI, we can't have mass adoption in the enterprise without this. And, while scripts are fun, they break.

[IncertusetNescio]

Thank you for bringing this up. My main three gripes with Linux are
- That I don't know where stuff is. This is learned over time but is a pain to start out with
- That they way I do stuff or tools I use are often missing with Linux. Task manager, device manager, and other tools like them are extremely helpful for me getting stuff figured or done at all or in a timely fashion. With Linux they often seem missing, frequently turning a timeline of 5-15 minutes into an hour or more of trudging through the forums for an answer I can try in the command line without knowing or understanding why (since command line stuff is both explicit and frequently poorly explained).
- after dealing with the above two, software. This has gotten better over the years, that said, being able to install and go with software I know of and know how to use would be great. Mainly talking about random utilities and the like here, but they are a bother to be unable to use or require the cmd line to install, configure, and use.

[HowdyFolksGaming]

Been using Linux on my gaming PC for about two years now. Would love to change the HDMI output from Full to Limited and vise-versa to increase compatibility with my various displays and capture cards. If I had an Nvidia GPU, even their less-than-stellar Linux implementation has a GUI toggle for this. But I have an AMD GPU. And the commands that I have found online to change this setting are outdated and don’t work with 6000/7000 series AMD GPUs.

Why can’t we just have a toggle.

[SilenyHobit]

As a note for the 6700xt problem - CoreCtrl is able to change profiles (and overclock/undervolt the card a bit). At least on my 6800xt. There's still the hassle of setting it up to autostart on login with the --minimize-systray option as it needs to run in order to work but it does a decent job as a GUI app. Using it mostly to adjust the fan curve.

[mu-sensei]

1000% agreed. The fact that you CAN rely on the commandline for everything advanced is good, the fact that you HAVE to rely on it for a quick tweak or a driver update is just awful.

[iodreamify]

Thumbs up, the gap is still huge. Thank you for talking about this, you seem to be the only one who notices or cares.

[MegaManNeo]

I wish both Linuses would make these points clear again.
openSuSE too has its issues but its nice to have something that keeps me further away from manually editing config files than most of the rest.

[bahadirm]

Please do everything said here, developers.
But I believe nothing will change with their infighting.

[CaseyHancockiluefire]

9:51 Group Policy Editor is the better tool to take inspiration from for doing things you might do in the registry editor. Especially when it comes to sys admin setting things for whole classes of users.

[jlwtrading]

Wow! An honest set of comments about Linux!
One more graphical gap - partitioning disks.
Nick: Keep up the great work!