Modern Interface, and other stupid comments
Modern
What makes an interface, “modern”? Almost all interfaces are the same CDD (Click-Drag-Drop) interfaces we have had since the mouse was invented.
Whether one uses a 7-button mouse, a stylus, or a touchscreen, (or even a hand with a 3-D imaging camera), it is still a CDD interface. All that is being done is changing the appearance of WIPs (Windows-Icons-Pointers), and that does not make it any more or less modern.
When I look at an icon and wink at it, and it opens a window, —sounds modern, doesn't it— it is still CDD on a WIP. Put a mask on my face and a glove on my hand, some thing. We are still talking keyboards, mice, and screens. It is just as modern —or archaic, as the case may be— as every other interface over the last four decades.
Installing Apps
Tired of this stupid argument. One uses apps on Linux distros by going to the “App Store” equivalent, and clicking, "Install.” MS finally caught up with everyone else in that arena.
If the app is not is the Store, then download the install package and here click it. Same as in Windows or Mac. ?.exe, ?.MSI, ?.Deb, ?.RPM,… doesn't matter.
If there is no installer package, click on the executable. Snap packs, flat packs, flap jacks,… whatever.
No executable? Then, just as one will do it in the Windows world, one has the same thing in the Linux world; compile and install! …Except most Windows uses just don't know that that is an option, and say, “I wish there was an app to do such and such.”
They can find the app and install it just as we can, but they don't.
Incremental improvements
Yeah, like Windows or Mac has had any big, shiny, new things lately. Sure, every now and then, Windows changes to look of their interface, calls it new & better, half the people complain, the other half are wowed, and the world moves on. Linux distros hardly ever make the claim of, “all new and improved user experience!”
What they often claim is, “better stability, new technology complaint, bugs crushed, more secure, less resource intensive, improved HAL, more capable drivers,” and that is really all that an updated OS ought to bring.
Confusing Desktop Choices
The operative term there is, “choices.” When MS changes to Windows desktop, the end under doesn't really have a choice, (until enough of them complain and MS sends an update, allowing them to revert to the old desktop, then removes that choice in the next Widows major release). Most new users are not ‘offered’ a choice, but guess the distros default desktop. They can still choose to use any of the many desktops out there, by simply installing them.
Running GNOME but want to install A KDE app? No problem! Install the KDE app! It will install all of the KDE libraries in needs, so you don't have to worry. Running KDE But want to install a GAME app? …You got this! Install, and it works!
Back in the days of Windows 3.x to Windows XP/2000, one was able to choose ones desktop, (although MS did not make it clear that you cold). Remember the Packard Bell desktop anyone? I had used Lotus SmartSuite as my desktop at one time. Today, not possible, due to Secure Platform Initiative —or whatever it is called— from MS, preventing one from changing basic system configuration, allegedly to keep us safe.
Linux keeps us safe AND allows desktop choices, without “confusing us” with this or that option.
Doesn't Run On Linux
I am just about as tired of the Windows photographers who tell me that they cannot use Linux because it doesn't run Adobe CS, as I am with to ones who tell me they cannot use DarkTable because it doesn't run on Windows. If you are so need to an OS because it is all you learned in school, or need to an app because it is all you learned in college, then your education system needs rehabilitation.
If you have Linux, use DarkTable. If you have Windows, use Lightroom. What's the problem? “But I NEED Lightroom!” “But I NEED Windows!” I hold that both those statements are false, and won't get into it now, but if you think you need Windows, or any of its apps, use it and it's apps. No one is forcing you to change.
The argument that the Linux desktop is not ready for prime time because this or that Windows app does not run on Linux is a not-starter. Linux has enough apps for whatever one wants to do, that the Windows as are not required.
I feel the need to point out that many apps are “cross-platform” apps, —such as the acclaimed, SolidWorks— and can run on several different platforms, but such a statement would not help those who are adamant about the ‘faults’ of the Linux desktop.
Hardware Compatibility
With the exception of some printers and scanners, I have never had a piece of hardware which did not work on Linux, within the last ten years. …Except for my Harmony remote, but some frustrated programmer fixed that. It was totally Logitech's fault. To be sure, the Harmony remote is NOT a piece of computer hardware which did not work; it was a piece of TV hardware which came with a Windows application to program it.
This is not a Linux hardware Compatibility issue. Linux saw it just fine. Linux, like Windows, just had no clue of what to do with the hardware it saw.
As for scanners, most scanners do not work with Windows due to TWAIN. They all NEED special drivers to work, and it is usually up to the manufactures to provide those drivers. A similar, issue happens with some printers on Linux/Windows, where very specific drivers are required, and they do not work out of the box on Windows, either.
The scanners which work on Linux are either those whose manufacturers have provided drivers, just as they did for Windows, or those who work because the Linux community made them work, in site of the lazy manufacturers. But SANE outshines TWAIN, because it gives the same interface to all scanners, where the TWAIN interface varies from one maker to another.
There is no standard scanner protocol, but there are several standard printer protocols. If your printer uses any of them, it works on Linux. If it uses a non-standard, proprietary protocol, then it only works on Linux —or Windows, or Mac OS— if the manufacturer provided proprietary drivers, or if a frustrated programmer decides to do the simple task which the maker was too silly to do themself.
All other hardware just seems to work.
Some Other Nonsense
Not going there. It is nonsense. I have installed Linux on failed computers of several non-technical family members, and they all seemed to use it fine for all they do. The surf the web, they read email, they write reports, use spreadsheets, edit photos, and videos, make music,… all they desire.
Not one complaint, (except by a sister-in-law, who insisted that a web-based app she needed only worked on Internet Explorer on Windows, but it worked just fine on both Chrome and Chromium on Linux. We never checked Firefox).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
