this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025
1581 points (97.4% liked)

linuxmemes

23700 readers
3439 users here now

Hint: :q!


Sister communities:


Community rules (click to expand)

1. Follow the site-wide rules

2. Be civil
  • Understand the difference between a joke and an insult.
  • Do not harrass or attack users for any reason. This includes using blanket terms, like "every user of thing".
  • Don't get baited into back-and-forth insults. We are not animals.
  • Leave remarks of "peasantry" to the PCMR community. If you dislike an OS/service/application, attack the thing you dislike, not the individuals who use it. Some people may not have a choice.
  • Bigotry will not be tolerated.
  • 3. Post Linux-related content
  • Including Unix and BSD.
  • Non-Linux content is acceptable as long as it makes a reference to Linux. For example, the poorly made mockery of sudo in Windows.
  • No porn. Even if you watch it on a Linux machine.
  • 4. No recent reposts
  • Everybody uses Arch btw, can't quit Vim, <loves/tolerates/hates> systemd, and wants to interject for a moment. You can stop now.
  • 5. πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§ Language/язык/Sprache
  • This is primarily an English-speaking community. πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§πŸ‡¦πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ
  • Comments written in other languages are allowed.
  • The substance of a post should be comprehensible for people who only speak English.
  • Titles and post bodies written in other languages will be allowed, but only as long as the above rule is observed.
  • 6. (NEW!) Regarding public figuresWe all have our opinions, and certain public figures can be divisive. Keep in mind that this is a community for memes and light-hearted fun, not for airing grievances or leveling accusations.
  • Keep discussions polite and free of disparagement.
  • We are never in possession of all of the facts. Defamatory comments will not be tolerated.
  • Discussions that get too heated will be locked and offending comments removed.
  • Β 

    Please report posts and comments that break these rules!


    Important: never execute code or follow advice that you don't understand or can't verify, especially here. The word of the day is credibility. This is a meme community -- even the most helpful comments might just be shitposts that can damage your system. Be aware, be smart, don't remove France.

    founded 2 years ago
    MODERATORS
     
    you are viewing a single comment's thread
    view the rest of the comments
    [–] Ferus42@lemm.ee 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

    Looks fairly similar to what you would do on Linux. Change registry to config file (unless you're using Gnome, then it's both). You're right though, on Windows, people don't usually have paragraph long commands to paste into the terminal to fix some issue. Instead, on Windows you have Microsoft support posts where a "Microsoft Community Support" non-employee pastes non-helpful boilerplate tech support copypasta which are somewhat adjacent to the user's issue.

    [–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

    Linux at least gives us useful logging and the software packages have documentation that is accessible without paying for a Microsoft Support contract.

    The Linux community support can actually fix your problems without boilerplate copypasta and doesn't cost anything but you'll get the customer service that you pay for.

    [–] Alaknar@lemm.ee 1 points 46 minutes ago (1 children)

    Linux at least gives us useful logging

    Mate, don't take it the wrong way, but you're living in a fantasy world if you think an average user has any semblance of idea as to where logs are or how to read them.

    The Linux community support can actually fix your problems without boilerplate copypasta

    LOL, nice one! :D

    I've read "just recompile the kernel" together with "just switch to [distro_x]" more times than I can count to... :D

    [–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 1 points 17 minutes ago (1 children)

    I'm not talking about the average user. I'm talking about how the software is useful to me and other people like me.

    The average user needs to be coached on how to double click or to open a PDF. Holding a conversation about any software or technical topic from the point of view of an average user is a fools errand.

    I've read "just recompile the kernel" together with "just switch to [distro_x]" more times than I can count to... :D

    Sure, ignorant people exist. If someone posts about a Windows problem they get the same generic advice as well.

    The difference is that even given access to an expert, in Windows you're limited in how much information that you can get about the problem. If you're lucky you get an error message that matches an article in a knowledge base which will contain some rote process that allegedly solves the problem. You usually don't get logs and you have no ability to debug (because the source code is proprietary). If that fails you can open a support ticket and hope, eventually, that someone competent can solve your problem.

    Given access to an expert in Linux, you can trace the problem down to a specific line of code in a specific library and know the name and email of the person who wrote it.

    In both cases, if an average user was involved they'd immediately give up and post on Reddit about how their computer is dumb.

    [–] Alaknar@lemm.ee 1 points 8 minutes ago

    I’m not talking about the average user

    But... Everyone else is?

    The OP is about Linux replacing Windows. That means: "Linux for the masses". THAT means: average users having to deal with all the Linux shit.

    The average user needs to be coached on how to double click or to open a PDF. Holding a conversation about any software or technical topic from the point of view of an average user is a fools errand.

    Correct. Which is why the issues I listed in my comment make Linux impossible for the average user.

    The difference is that even given access to an expert

    THAT is also part of the problem. If I'm a noob but know someone who "works in IT" and "uses Windows", they'll be able to help me.

    If I'm a noob but know someone who "works in IT" and "uses Linux", I might get help, but I might be shit out of luck. Maybe my issues is unique to KDE and they use Gnome or Xfce? Maybe I have a problem with my Ubuntu, but they've been sitting on Fedora for the past 20 years?

    if an average user was involved they’d immediately give up and post on Reddit about how their computer is dumb.

    That's false. And, again, I'm saying this as someone who's worked in IT for the past 20 years - if you have a problem with Windows (nowadays - this is critical), 90% of the time rebooting fixes it.

    And sure, a lot of people post about how their computers are shit, because something happened, but the amount of people who can help in the case of Windows is just immeasurably larger than in the case of Linux - because of the massive fragmentation between DEs and distros.