Linux User Problems

A linux user sent me a letter saying he was having TONs of problems. .

[Centomila]

To prevent breaking Linux, it's quite simple: refrain from copying and pasting everything you find online if you're unsure of what the command accomplishes.

[TurntableTV]

If Brodie Robertson, Distrotube, The Linux Cast or Chris Titus says "This is the best distro ever and I'm staying on it" take it with a grain of salt. It might work for them or it might work for them for a while but it might not work for you.

[ChimeraGilbert]

I understand where he’s coming from. I’ve been using Linux for a couple years now and I’m by no means an expert, but I’ve had many issues that have almost broke my system. There’s less of the abstraction windows provides. You have to jump through a few extra hurdles but honestly it’s worth it knowing I actually own my computer and operating system

[louisfifteen]

In the EU Microsoft is forced to make apps removeable. Nice move....

[leonidas]

Don't make "switching to linux" the goal. Find an old computer you don't care about in addition to your windows computer and experiment with it, learn the distros' strengths and weaknesses, and how to tweak it to your liking.
Some things are done easier on windows, and there's nothing wrong with using both.

[stephenriggs]

I tried it for a month. For media consumption, ie, Facebook and YouTube, it was great. A lot of times, I forgot which OS I was running. But all the desktop apps I tried were inferior. I never even got around to trying games, because I was so busy troubleshooting other things. Finally, I asked myself why I was doing this. It wasn't to save money or enhance my privacy. And I never found a Linux-only killer app that made it worth the effort. So I set it aside with no regrets.

[johnvanwinkle]

While Linux is not for everyone, neither is Windows or MacOS. What I am thankful for as a user is choice.

[KeyTch]

I mean, imagine buying a Steam Handheld/Console, and then it breaks every now and then due to "Linux" issues. I think Valve has done a great job in ensuring the stability of its gaming focused OS. Now we just need other distros to do what it does

[MrDowntemp]

I completely agree with your assesment of SteamOS. I've done some silly stuff to mine, and yet haven't broken it, whereas any of my other distro installs wouldn't have survived my tinkering. But it is still kind of annoying to tinker with because of that. But for certain, the immutable/containerized space of linux is really coming up with some interesting stuff, and in some way the future of the OS is there.

[coladict]

Yeah, that stable distro that just works is just around the corner 🤣
Any year now they'll come up with the golden egg where everyone agrees that this is the standard directory layout and this is where all the dynamic libraries will be and this is where all the compile headers will be, and it will have one packaging system bla di bla di bla.
I've worked with Linux for the past 8 years. I knew nothing when I started and was forced to become an expert at it in the first few months just to keep it running.
A common problem I ran into is that everyone who documents things for it expects you to know the terminology for that particular piece of software to such a degree that you wouldn't need a manual if you did. It's always "just configure this file with your own settings" and you're left to wonder what the majority of those do if you even find an example configuration to start with.

[abbbb]

I have had the same experience you noted at the begininning of your video: I was looking for a distro stable that does not require too much admin and allow me to program and focus my stuff instead of focusing on the OS. I installed many versions (not all mof course) but finally opted for a dual Linux: debian 12 XFCE and LMDE6 (both stable and reliable enoug for what I am doing)
I really love XFCE because the interface is simple and stright forward wihout many feature you go stright to the point and LMDE because Mint interface is really smooth.

[MaS-chid]

Thanks to the many linux channels and Chris here, I plunged into Linux, and after a unstable Fedora 38+KDE+Wayland experience - OpenSuse Tumbleweed with KDE and Wayland is rock solid for me, no bugs I found aside Firefox once crashing, and I got everything working. Installing from ventoy stick though added an unwanted kernel start parameter which I had to delete in order to boot after installing, but hey, it works. So hang in there :) And Chris, thanks for the motivation.

[MrSedeyn]

I understand his frustrations. Having the same problems in the beginnings
but after some time playing arround with linux on and off. distro hopping too.
I'm now almost 1 year fultime debian testing and gaming on it. no more windows here.

[devincurrie]

I have distributed hop for about 6 months after getting a Steam Deck and finally settle using MX Linux KDE. Seems to be working well so far for the last 3-4 months except that I sometime couldn’t boot into systemd option. Not sure why but overall it seems to be working fine on my two computers. Love the KDE’s “Workspace” feature instead of using the virtual desktop.

[ringo]

I feel for new Linux users because as I said in a comment to one of DT's videos: the community can sometimes not be friendly to beginners. Yes, it's true that newbies should experiment for themselves and learn to read man pages before asking questions online. HOWEVER, seasoned Linux users need to be patient with beginners and remember what it was like when *they* were beginners. It can be tough to jump to a new OS.

[WolfiiDog]

How I manage to never break Linux: I just run everything as it is provided by the distro, and all my apps are flatpaks. That's it, I never try to do crazy stuff that would mess up the kernel or drivers, or the bootloader. That's why immutable distros are the future, you need to have a reliable base system that totally prevents the end user from messing up, users are messy, they always do crazy stuff they see on youtube or read on a forum.

[woswasdenni]

the main issue i see is less the breaking stuff, its more of a broken user expierience. alone copy and paste - that doesnt work in every app, in the same way etc ...
there so many many many little things that are annoying, break flow of work or need some tinkering. many small tools that are for some user a must have dont exist.
to many foss projects that started doing something, then got abandoned never finished.
all the attitude, do it on the command like (which is by default more prone to error no matter how good you are, and are blockers for regular users) and the lack of standardisation

the later blocks it from commercial use. if you cant have full control over all your desktops via policys and management tools then its unuseable for commercials in bigger rollouts.
maac realized this problem and now offers such a thing because they had to. macs are still a niche thing in enterprises because it was unmangeable.

but to make this work all distros need to come to a common ground, how to manage their system services, their configs and so on. instead distros drifting furter away. even if one distro had somelike like group policies the risk is simply to high that youre forced to move distros in a couple of years to another one that doesnt have it simply because of technical requirements.

distros also dont care as much about having a fully finished product. its all raw alpha and beta kind of thing, unpolished with rough edges. for experts its doable (even tough often annoying) but these are blockers that would need support for a regular user

[ansxor]

Fedora Silverblue is pretty close to what you're talking about, especially with the uBlue images that exist. There's Bazzite, for instance, that exists as a SteamOS alternative.

[anotheryoutubeuser]

The thing I dislike about Linux is that it is far too common to not have proper drivers. The sound on my Linux Mint installation is so quiet that I regularly have to use earphones. It's so tempting to go back to Windows where everything works fine.

[poggybitz]

I always recommend pop os or ubuntu to new user. I use pop us on my work machine, never hard problems because all I do is use it with i3 and write the stuff I need to do in it. I use my own distro in my hobby machine that I broke like 10 minutes ago trying to random automatic wallpapers from net. I think expecting to customize and also not expecting things to break is kinda stupid. I break windows, mac and any os if I am tinkering with the kernel and UI. Windows literally breaks on its own, compared to that most linux distros are quite stable.