Linux

Well, despite the fact that I’ve heard more than once that Elementary “looks like Mac” it’s really only the fact of having a dock on the bottom and a status bar on top. And the dock that ships with Elementary does not even zoom (it’s disabled due to some license issue). So I really don’t see it as resembling Mac except maybe to someone who has only ever seen Windows and Mac and only the one style. Thinks resemble other things in some ways sometimes. But it behaves nothing like Mac. I do find some of their choices rather disturbing like how there’s no minimize button. Immediately fixed by installing tweaks. That’s one of many great aspects of Linux: you can change what you don’t like.

Anyway, I usually recommend it because of its simplicity and elegance. You can just dive right in and use it, and likely accomplish whatever your ordinary work entails, and you don’t ever really have to fuss about with anything. The only reason I don’t use it myself is because I customize the shit out of all my tech. I have many widgets and such things to enhance efficiency and the variety of tools I use. So that’s why I’m on KDE Plasma. But if not for my customization I would honestly enjoy using ElementaryOS.

I also have a few touch-screens one on a hybrid notebook and one a Tpad. I have Pop!OS on the hybrid and a slightly older Ubuntu on the tpad. Gnome is a really good DE for touch interface. I really wish something truly touch would arrive, but I think because Android is so successful, nobody wants to try tackling that with straight up Linux. I can understand it, especially given the limited demographic I mean how many people would really make serious use of a touch Linux system? Too few to make it worthwhile. But the Tpad I use is a very slow device, relatively, and yet Ubuntu works quite smoothly on it. It’s prompt and responsive and does what I need out of it without any problem or noticeable latency.

I am quite happy with my main laptop which is a fairly new ASUS Zenbook. I’m running Kubuntu but I think pretty soon I may be changing over to plain ol' Debian which is my favorite by far. I just need to be certain that all my hardware will function and it should, as it’s no longer brand new. But when I first got it, literally only the latest build of Ubuntu was properly seeing my audio device. Even 22.04 would not, it had to be 23 or 24 which had just come out.

Anyway, I’ve rambled on quite a bit. I think if builds like Elementary were more popular, it would be easier for newbies to take a stab at using Linux and it would be easier for folks like us to encourage others. I hate when someone I know has problem after problem with WinBlow$ 11 or 10, and I know that Linux would be just perfect. But they are scared of new and different. Even customization could be really offered and appealing if it were done with templates rather than so many little elements.

But, that being said, I’m happy that for the most part, when I interact with another Linux user, I can usually assume they’re savvy and understand what I’m talking about. I am glad that there’s no completely dumb-friendly distro, and I don’t think there should be. But simplicity is appealing to even the most clever of users if all they need to do is use and expect reliability. For shits sake Windoze just does a million things you never asked it to, because it serves a master other than you. It’s worth getting away from it for pretty much anything.