Not a lot of people like my take on Linux.
TLDR: Don't ask Linux users for opinions, you'd be better off gouging out your eyes. The Linux community can be great, but equally so, it can be hands down one of the most nonsensical and irrational community I've ever experienced.
Now, for the gluttons for punishment. I gush here. It's been a while since I've vent my linux frustrations.
When I first started using Linux (long before I fully committed as a daily driver some years ago), even the Linux community went on about how complicated and difficult Linux can be.
I'm unsure as to why the seeming majority of Linux Veterans treat new users as incompetent incapable goons that simply won't be able to comprehend operating Linux. They get so caught up over the dumbest crap that it's truly mind boggling sometimes. If you've never witnessed something like this before, call Linux a "desktop" and kick back with some popcorn to watch the thread blow up with veterans armed to the teeth with every explanation they can slap you with as to why Linux is NOT a desktop.
They're not wrong. Linux is a Kernel, not a desktop. BUT, getting caught up in semantics that most users will NEVER care about, even if they're using Linux as a daily driver is just down right goofy to me.
The only people that care about that kind of crap are the people who are actively working on projects that require a far more technical understanding than is required in simply daily computing.
There was a time that if you wanted to get into Linux, you were doing so because you either actively worked in the field (likely servers and production) and it just made more sense to do so. You had to be technical about it because the only people really developing on Linux were a bunch of VIM CLI junkies that believed you must save EVERY SINGLE KB OF RESOURCE you possibly can or you were being "inefficient"; logical thinking in production.
But over the past 10 years or so Desktop Environments for Linux like KDE and GNOME have had an absolute explosion in QoL development that truly makes end users simply using linux as a "desktop' a legitimate option outside of mac and windows.
Long gone are the days where you had to be well versed with the infrastructure of the system, be familiar with locations for dozens upon dozens of configuration files, and living like a blind hermit in the CLI 24/7. No, today, pretty much every single distro out there comes with a highly featured Desktop Environment that ultimately provides that "plug and play" experience a lot of people seek.
You'll find some of the most foolish of arguments out there, many of which I don't understand. My most prime example is the long standing distaste for NVIDIA.
You'll find that when using Linux there is a die hard FOSS freedom fighter group out there that will nearly burn you at the stake if you mention the use of ANY proprietary software. NVIDIA has a long history of being tight lipped, but if you tell someone you've never had an issue with NVIDIA proprietary drivers, you'll soon have a line of FOSS Freedom Fighters ready to string you up by the neck.
A large portion of the community would rather have basic users master every Linux fundamental and concept out there, forcing them to essentially become IT Guru's to earn their place in the community, so they'd rather have you run NVIDIA open source drivers, which in my experience absolutely need to be tinkered with every...single... time... but they'd rather you have to know how to do that than to simply use the Proprietary drivers that "just work" in my experience.
I'm not even kidding. I've got 3 different PC's in my house hold that all have AMD CPU's and NVIDIA GPU's. 2060s, 3080, and 4090 and while I've since learned to deeply configure my system (I'm a glutton for punishment and have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge) I still opt to just install the proprietary drivers simply because I can do so and forget about it rather than having to dig through configurations, tweak and modify to obtain stability.
Some of the cult like perceptions and beliefs in the linux community are so mind numbingly toxic and retarded that I typically try not to even discuss it. I tend to mind my own business, merely trying to help others where I know the linux community will typically ignore.
The linux community, mostly the long standing veterans, will down right tell you how dumb you're being if you're asking a question that has been asked 100000x before. Now while to an extent I'll be honest, I agree; I think responding to inquiry with "Hey stupid, a simple google search answers this". I'm of the mind that the same stupid google search would take me 5 seconds to find, hyperlink, and break down an explanation too in order to help a new user.
Yes, in defense of the community, new users should be willing to google things if they're going to get into Linux. It's inevitable so users otta make practice of it from the moment the commit linux to bare metal. That said, I'm a bit of an optimist in that I believe the more times you answer a question, the more the answers become readily available to future users actually searching the answer.
Think of it like this.
You're trying to resolve an issue and you're googling your tail off. And with the current way of life in Linux, you're struggling to find answers because every post you go to takes you to some douche telling some newcomer they're being lazy and ignorant and how they could just google the problem. Now you've just wasted time reading a pointless forum post simply because it's akin to the issue you're trying to resolve, getting nowhere.
In contrast, if these people would instead of insulting the user making inquiry, simply answer. Suddenly those willing to google go from having a vast amount of dead ends because the veterans have gotten lazy with the momontany of responding to the same questions over and over that they're directly contributing to their own frustrations.
I for one asked a LOT of basic questions when I first started using Linux. I did so much googling it was insane. But more often than not, I got so tired of trying to sift through the hatred and the gate keeping that I'd just hit a forum up and ask my question direct in hopes that someone like (now myself) would be willing to take the time to elaborate on the issue.
So now, when I contribute to inquiry. I just try to get to the damn point. I don't care how many times I've seen the inquiry. I don't care how obvious it is the lack of effort a user put into actually finding the answers themselves. Nope, I'm just going to answer the inquiry and trust that in doing so, there's just ONE more post out there that, ideally, provides a resolution to the issue and as a result, provide just one more possible resolution for those of the future who are actually willing to put in the work.
Not everybody can do as I do. Most don't even care too because well, your problems aren't their problems. Most of the OG Linux Veterans will gladly help out if they can see a user is clearly trying to find answers on their own. They're sharing logs, steps taken to resolve an issue, they're sharing information that proves they're clearly taking it upon themselves to learn it on their own and have been forced to post inquiry only after having exhausted their every option based on their current level of expertise.
Linux is an awesome system. A huge portion of the community is VERY good, and many are very kind. But until the old hats kick dust, and the new generation of IT is allowed to leave the confinements of the gate kept requirements, Linux won't really be able to reach it's "full potential" if you will.
As long as we have these old dudes farting dust screaming at the top of their lungs that you can't do this or that because it's a waste of resources like we're still operating on the desktop calculators of the 90s, and the new generation is able to fully embrase the ever growing reality that Linux is evolving into a BASIC operating system; thing's are going to be endlessly and needlessly dramatic.
I'll finish this aimless vent with this. When I joined, the Linux community overcomplicated EVERYTHING. To this day I still can't comprehend how people can so easily discourage users from using Linux. Arch linux is a prime example, my distro of choice for various reasons, but it took me a full year to build up the courage to use it because EVERYBODY said it was an "advanced" distro.
The best thing I ever did was to STOP listening to everything the community said, and stop asking opinions. I'll ask questions in hopes to find a resolution to a problem, but I wont ask for opinions because as far as I'm concerned; everybody is wrong. Arch linux took me all of maybe 2 weeks of study (prior to Archinstall) when everything had to be done manually from scratch. I didnt' use no automated installation scripts the community had built, I just built it myself. 2 weeks. After that, I had a system I was able to use for all of my "desktop" needs. From gaming, to documentation, content creation and more. Basic "desktop" stuff.
The icing on the cake is that I had 0.... ZERO IT experience. Prior to learning Linux, I turned on my Windows PC, I updated the system through Windows update, I browsed the web with firefox and I played games on Steam. That's it.
2 weeks..... and I was able to learn how to use Arch Linux. It's "too advanced for beginners" they'd say. Ugh, it's infuriating. Keep in mind I'm of the mind that all distro's are the same; because they are. Yes they all have their quirks and differences but at their foundation they are identical. Therefore, Arch linux is no more "advanced" than that of Linux Mint. And now with archinstall the entire process is automated with lazy man's convenience.
The only way to screw up an Arch Install is to have no idea what time zone your in or which hard drive you want to install the OS on. You'd practically have to be labotomized to fail an arch install at this point. No doubt there's some clown out there that will read this and think I'm sitting here saying "arch is the best" because that's traditionally what Arch users do. Personally I don't care about Arch, or any other distro. I use Arch because I like the Logo and I know how to build a minimal system with it, and it literally "just works".
It's a war between practicality and ideology, a foolish one at that.
Anyway, time to end this novel. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
