Hi everyone,
Today I want to talk a little bit about the UI in Linux and indicate how bad the experience for beginning as well as why Linux should improve a lots to approach general users. I have used Linux for 4 years now, and I just realize the reason why Linux is only have around 2, 3% of market share despite the fact that it is free, secure and really customizable.
Reason 1:
I saw a question on AskUbuntu today said that “Why it is so hard to install apps in Linux ?”, and the question has downvotes. People are trying to say how great package manager is, how can we can just type a line in the terminal and everything is done.
Well, it is.
And it is not.
Why?
OK let’s see the procedure how my sister install and uninstall apps in Windows and Mac and Linux
I will not talk about the software center here because all 3 have it and have the same problem that all 3 do not have all apps.
Windows: all she needs to know is executable file is .exe
Install: Go to browser download the program with .exe file, double click it and next, next, done.
Uninstall: Right click the app in the app list in start menu, click uninstall.
Mac: all she needs to know is executable file is .pkg
Install:Go to browser download the program with .pkg, double click and drag it to Applications folder.
Uninstall: drag the app to trash can.
She nearly don’t need to learn anything to do that.
Linux: She has to learn, a lots.
Install: The terminal. What is the terminal ? What distro are you use? Ubuntu ? You just sudo apt install “something”. What exactly “something”? You don’t know. You do apt search something.
It lists a very long text that she does not know what going on at all.
Finally install by .deb. It pretty the same with Windows and Mac. But the app she needs is not in .deb. It is in .tar.gz.
Some apps is in .sh and you have to open terminal and ./something.
Some apps is in .AppImage.
Uninstall: sudo apt remove something, right ?
NO. It is only remove 1 main package. 3000 dependency packages still there. And she have to “learn”. Also, sudo apt auto remove.
Even that, not all package can be uninstall within package manager. If you install by extract .tar.gz, or .sh you have to delete it manually.
Now you know what happen to Linux.
Package manager is fast, for experience user. But it is not user friendly. It is great, but it is also the worse way to install apps, depends on which type of users.
Reason 2:
She have to go to ask in some forum, and pretty sure that she got a downvote.
Reason 3:
Lack of hardware support.
If your laptop is just release with something new, it might not work in linux.
I have get through that with rtl8822be in 16.04.
Reason 4:
Lack of application. You can say that you can find alternatives. But people do not want. They want to use Adobe Photoshop, MS Office, play games, etc.
Reason 5:
If you are using Gnome on Xorg, I can sure that it is laggy. However, most of the great distro is using Gnome as default.
So the main reason I think is that install software experience is the major effect. If Linux can make the installation process as easy as Windows and Mac, It could be a turn.
Today I want to talk a little bit about the UI in Linux and indicate how bad the experience for beginning as well as why Linux should improve a lots to approach general users. I have used Linux for 4 years now, and I just realize the reason why Linux is only have around 2, 3% of market share despite the fact that it is free, secure and really customizable.
Reason 1:
I saw a question on AskUbuntu today said that “Why it is so hard to install apps in Linux ?”, and the question has downvotes. People are trying to say how great package manager is, how can we can just type a line in the terminal and everything is done.
Well, it is.
And it is not.
Why?
OK let’s see the procedure how my sister install and uninstall apps in Windows and Mac and Linux
I will not talk about the software center here because all 3 have it and have the same problem that all 3 do not have all apps.
Windows: all she needs to know is executable file is .exe
Install: Go to browser download the program with .exe file, double click it and next, next, done.
Uninstall: Right click the app in the app list in start menu, click uninstall.
Mac: all she needs to know is executable file is .pkg
Install:Go to browser download the program with .pkg, double click and drag it to Applications folder.
Uninstall: drag the app to trash can.
She nearly don’t need to learn anything to do that.
Linux: She has to learn, a lots.
Install: The terminal. What is the terminal ? What distro are you use? Ubuntu ? You just sudo apt install “something”. What exactly “something”? You don’t know. You do apt search something.
It lists a very long text that she does not know what going on at all.
Finally install by .deb. It pretty the same with Windows and Mac. But the app she needs is not in .deb. It is in .tar.gz.
Some apps is in .sh and you have to open terminal and ./something.
Some apps is in .AppImage.
Uninstall: sudo apt remove something, right ?
NO. It is only remove 1 main package. 3000 dependency packages still there. And she have to “learn”. Also, sudo apt auto remove.
Even that, not all package can be uninstall within package manager. If you install by extract .tar.gz, or .sh you have to delete it manually.
Now you know what happen to Linux.
Package manager is fast, for experience user. But it is not user friendly. It is great, but it is also the worse way to install apps, depends on which type of users.
Reason 2:
She have to go to ask in some forum, and pretty sure that she got a downvote.
Reason 3:
Lack of hardware support.
If your laptop is just release with something new, it might not work in linux.
I have get through that with rtl8822be in 16.04.
Reason 4:
Lack of application. You can say that you can find alternatives. But people do not want. They want to use Adobe Photoshop, MS Office, play games, etc.
Reason 5:
If you are using Gnome on Xorg, I can sure that it is laggy. However, most of the great distro is using Gnome as default.
So the main reason I think is that install software experience is the major effect. If Linux can make the installation process as easy as Windows and Mac, It could be a turn.
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