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From 14 years old till 29, my experience with desktop Linux

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Re: From 14 years old till 29, my experience with desktop Linux

#21

Post by manofmanysmiles »

I really appreciate hearing the story that weaves all these computing choices together! Somehow that human element contains more actionable information than a dense data sheet, and I now I know I'll give Gnome and some of the apps mentioned a try!

Perhaps I'll try it in a VM on a M1 MacBook Pro, with Nix, to really have fun! I think personal computer software can be improved a lot with lessons from the Infrastructure as Code world, notably the ability to create reproducible, version controlled computing environments!

Re: From 14 years old till 29, my experience with desktop Linux

#22

Post by shiroiushi »

jwells89 wrote: post #13
bdw5204 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this would be extremely useful in increasing Linux desktop adoption. There's an enormous number of Windows users who hate Microsoft's changes to the Windows GUI and wish they could still run XP or 7. There's also a need to make sure it is stable enough that users never have to resort to the command line and that it runs "non-free" software out of the box, especially software originally developed for Windows.…

> There's an enormous number of Windows users who hate Microsoft's changes to the Windows GUI and wish they could still run XP or 7. The Windows 7 UI has aged pretty well too, even if the glossy visuals have become somewhat outdated (though personally I think they look better than modern flat stuff). I rigged up an old laptop of mine with 7 not too long ago and plugged into a modern monitor and it was striking how ni…

I think the "Aero" UI in Windows Vista was the high point for Windows UI. The OS ran poorly and its fundamentals (like all Windows versions) was junk, but the UI looked really nice. This modern flat stuff is crap.

Re: From 14 years old till 29, my experience with desktop Linux

#23

Post by shiroiushi »

Dalewyn wrote: post #16
bdw5204 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this would be extremely useful in increasing Linux desktop adoption. There's an enormous number of Windows users who hate Microsoft's changes to the Windows GUI and wish they could still run XP or 7. There's also a need to make sure it is stable enough that users never have to resort to the command line and that it runs "non-free" software out of the box, especially software originally developed for Windows.…

To paraphrase Abe: Linux is an ecosystem of the community by the community for the community. And I agree with you, the community (most of it) couldn't give a rat's arse what Joe Average wants. Heaven forbid you ask one of them how to do something that goes off of the One Linux Way(tm).

There is no One Linux Way: that's why there's so many different DEs and other various competing projects.

GNOME itself is an attempt to give Joe Average what he wants: the whole idea of modern GNOME is to take a tablet-oriented UI and put it on a desktop computer.

The problem is that the people behind projects like GNOME think they're the next Henry Ford, who famously said that what people really wanted was a faster horse, and instead made what he wanted people to have (i.e., motor cars that are in any color you like, as long as you like black).

Re: From 14 years old till 29, my experience with desktop Linux

#24

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

xattt wrote: post #8

In uni, I ran Ubuntu 7.04 for a summer on a Thinkpad R21. Similar to the author, I was obsessed in customizing in and making it look like OS X but without any direct experience with using a Mac. I even had a ding sound for completed downloads in Transmission-GTK and some form of grass wallpaper (but not the REAL grass wallpaper). I then had the realization that what I really wanted was a Mac. I was fortunate enough f…

Heh, I did the opposite - I did my best to copy OS X, until eventually I realized that what I really wanted was just GNU/Linux (ish), at which point I mostly stopped the theming and used the system for itself. And having since used real macOS for work... it does some nice things (the command key, mostly) but I'd take Debian over Darwin any day. To each their own:)

Re: From 14 years old till 29, my experience with desktop Linux

#25

Post by shiroiushi »

andrewstuart wrote: post #12

I've tried desktop Linux every few years for many years and the result is always the same - the user experience is inconsistent and flaky. It has surely got better but there is always the feeling that it is a "Frankenstein GUI". Windows is guilty of this too - what a mess of different user interface styles and a patchwork of stuff being stitched together. MacOS by comparison is a beautifully consistent GUI well thoug…

>The thing is - making a consistent, easy to use well thought out operating system experience is a gargantuan task and it must take gargantuan time money and effort to do it well.

Not really: Apple did it long before they were as large and rich as they are now. The key is forcing limitations on everyone, including independent software vendors, and mostly ignoring backwards compatibility. Apple has always controlled their environments to a large extent, and used that to push their vision of how a UI should work. And having a highly centralized company with a dictatorial and perfectionist CEO contributed to this. MS, by contrast, seems to have long been a company that more closely resembled an organized crime syndicate, with different factions constantly fighting or backstabbing each other, and the central leadership not strong enough (or perhaps not caring enough) to enforce a single vision unless it was about monopolizing the market and putting competitors out of business.

Re: From 14 years old till 29, my experience with desktop Linux

#26

Post by taeric »

nbk_2000 wrote: post #19
taeric wrote: post #6

Fun read. Is mind blowing that I haven't had a Windows machine in over 2 decades at this point. I have had some MacBooks, but mainly because that is what companies would buy for me. My personal machines have been Ubuntu or derivative for a long time now. To the point that I don't even know what I'm missing in alternatives, anymore. Used to be it was games, Steam has been a blessing there.

Just OOC, do you currently run a stock Ubuntu distro or a derivative? (and if so, may I ask which one?)

I bought a System76 machine a while back. So, their distro has been fine by me.

Re: From 14 years old till 29, my experience with desktop Linux

#27

Post by chazeon »

I roughly follow the same path Windows - Linux - macOS - Linux. But nowadays my Linux was mainly using VSCode as a frontend via a MacBook.

However, I spent significant amounts of time using Arch Linux. Compared to stable released Ubuntu etc., I like opportunity to jump on bugs in open source packages and fix them, they have taught me a lot. Using open source software but not its bleeding edge version is a missing opportunity I would say.

Re: From 14 years old till 29, my experience with desktop Linux

#28

Post by M95D »

shiroiushi wrote: post #22
jwells89 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's an enormous number of Windows users who hate Microsoft's changes to the Windows GUI and wish they could still run XP or 7. The Windows 7 UI has aged pretty well too, even if the glossy visuals have become somewhat outdated (though personally I think they look better than modern flat stuff). I rigged up an old laptop of mine with 7 not too long ago and plugged into a modern monitor and it was striking how ni…

I think the "Aero" UI in Windows Vista was the high point for Windows UI. The OS ran poorly and its fundamentals (like all Windows versions) was junk, but the UI looked really nice. This modern flat stuff is crap.

It all depends when you started using computers. To me, Win95 was the high point for Windows UI.

Re: From 14 years old till 29, my experience with desktop Linux

#29

Post by shiroiushi »

M95D wrote: post #28
shiroiushi wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the "Aero" UI in Windows Vista was the high point for Windows UI. The OS ran poorly and its fundamentals (like all Windows versions) was junk, but the UI looked really nice. This modern flat stuff is crap.

It all depends when you started using computers. To me, Win95 was the high point for Windows UI.

I started well before Win95. I can still see that Aero was MS's peak UI, even though I never seriously used the OS myself (my workplaces all seemed to skip Vista).
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