I have NOT had a stable Linux experience

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[DanEverest]

Linus desperately trying not to say "I know it's the right password because I use this password for everything!"

[jeffvoight]

"You shouldn't want to do that" is my new favorite phrase and I plan on using it every chance I get.

[jerryknudsen]

"I thought this was a finished product!".. I truly hope that was a gut punch to the "just use command line" community. The only reason I was excited about Linus using Linux was because I wanted a normal user to experience and publicize the issues that plague Linux and get dismissed by the power users who think if a bug can be worked around then it's not a bug.

[arimill]

"Use the command line" is a thing I do everyday, the command line working is no excuse for a DE not having the capability to take that command and map it to a click-and-drag event.

by definition its why the DE exists.

[ZeoWorks]

When a user has to jump through hoops, it's not user friendly. It's that simple.
I have much love for Linux but it seems that the community can be delusional at times as to what the standard user expects from the operating system.
It's amazing though that distros are becoming more and more user friendly as the years go on. I love Mint and PopOS!

[Aiello_]

i really love how Linus and Luke are sharing their first experience with Linux, with their platform they can shed some light in small issues that pile up over time for new/average users that devs can hopefully notice it and address it in more user friendly distros like Pop_OS

[humanbass]

It's profoundly ironic to have the Linux community saying such an appleish thing as "you shouldn't want that"

[BloodyIron]

Also, I agree with Linus, when Luke says "could have just done it through command line bro" and Linus just says "No". Something like that should be click and drag, period. That's Manjaro and related packages just straight up failing their userbase.

[imwyrmfood]

I switched to Linux after a life time of using windows. It's only been about 3.5 months, and I don't ever see myself going back. The thing is I went into it with the mindset of "ok this new thing is going to be completely different than what I've known my whole life, and I'm going to treat it like a digital puzzle to solve".

The normal user doesn't want to do this. They want to install it, and be able to hit the ground running. As much as I now realize the learning curve wasn't anywhere NEAR as bad as I thought it would be, there are still things you will be hit with right away that (as a windows user) are NOT intuitive. That's all there is to it.

The motto "it just works" while mostly true, needs to be altered to "It just works, provided you have some understanding of how it works beforehand". And this is the crux of the issue. If you want people who spent a lifetime on windows, to make the decision to switch to an entirely new operating system than that which they've used their entire lives, then it needs to be able to function in all the ways they would 'expect' it to.

I'm not asking to take ANYTHING away as far as how classic linux users are used to, like being able to use a terminal for everything. I'm asking for just a little bit MORE consideration to the people that have done it a certain way their entire lives. The zip program drag and drop from one window to another is completely valid. Now you CAN absolutely do that, but it depends on which distro you decided to pick. That's a problem. There is no good excuse as to why EVERY single zip program doesn't allow this most basic of functionality.

Someone might pick a distro, and love it, only to find out they can't just drag and drop a simple file from a zip into a folder. You might say "get another zip manager", but that's not the best solution, and it leaves the new user with the mindset of "this new operating system can't even handle a simple concept like dragging and dropping files, this feels completely unfinished and held together with string and scotch tape." And that's a completely fair thought to a new user.

TL;DR While I'm still new to Linux and wont be going back, there's no excuse for not making certain functions more intuitive for a life-time Windows users.

[THB]

I know what the password one is.
IIRC, Limus said he's using Manjaro. On Arch and Manjaro, the default configutation is that if you type your password wrong three times in a row, there's a ten-minute lockout period where you cannot type your password again. Just, no matter what you type, the system won't accept it. The problem is, some login prompts *don't tell you that.* This is actually a case of a distro doing something dumb.

[robertoaguiar]

"Everybody use linux, Android is linux!"
Me, Android user for decades, never typed a command line: Yea, that's not the same thing

[cyberlizardcouk]

There are a lot of Linux users who seem to feel that anyone who has issues with Linux is either incompetent or have the 'go and read the manual' mentality. This really has to change and it only pushes people further away, but I think they like it that way as it makes them feel somehow better than you.

[fernandodexterz]

"you could just use the command line bro!" the face Linus makes after hearing it make is priceless hahahahahahah

[TaswcmT]

"You shouldn't want to do that" is even worse than what often happens on any kind of forum where questions are asked: "Why do you want to do that?" or the evergreen variants of "You haven't asked the question in the right way".

[jelliott]

The problem with Linux is that there is still al lingering sense of gatekeeping around Unix that dates back to the mainframe vs PC days. Unix admins were far more skilled but found themselves being replaced by Windows servers and there was a lot of resentment, being able to use a terminal was like a dividing line in the wider war.

They saw Windows GUIs as crutches for unskilled admins and users and they never came around to see the Apple/Jobs way of putting the GUI and user first. That was literally pulling the rug out from under their jobs.

[GRZNGT]

"You shouldn't want that" oh yes, the magic phrase with which every fresh linux user is being greeted with. Will never go out of style

[Cybolic]

It really is a shame that Linus went with Manjaro. It's had a rocky development history, it does things differently enough from base Arch that it's often on its own in terms of how to accomplish things and it's one of the most unstable distributions I've ever tried in my 20+ years of running Linux. I'm sure it's great for some people, but it's somewhat of a terrible choice for dipping your toes.

[kataseiko]

For Windows, you do a sanity check on the software. In Linux, you need to run a sanity check on the developer.

[Blacklightsky]

Dude... They mentioned Forged Alliance and FAF, and my dedication to our hero Linus multiplied ten fold. Bless. Incredible, incredible game. Awesome topic to tackle.

[AlexWasTaken]

As a developer and a Linux user, here's what I have to say to the hardcore Linux community (and honestly many more): you're not the average user and you need to know your audience.

You'll never be the average user either and that's perfectly fine. We're a species that specialize and it's one of the things that got us this far.

If you're a dev, know who you're writing software for and actually write it for them, otherwise you're wasting your time. If you're an advanced user, the only smart move is to come to terms with the fact that not everybody is like you. Learn to put yourself in other people's shoes. If it's not for the average user, that's fine too, just don't "sell" it as such.

I want to see Linux desktops have a big market share one day, but that can't happen if the average user has a bad experience. Some distros have honestly become really good, but they (and desktop software) still have quite a few rough edges. Remember, you can't fix an issue by denying its existence.