psipsy

At this point I've probably already made clear my disdain for Windows 10 and how they're trying to push "Windows as a service" and that's really just another way of saying "we want to push ads to your computer". Alternatives? Well, there's Apple, but they're so far up their own ass with some sociopathic idea of what "courage" is. Standard headphone jack? Extra USB ports? The ability to upgrade components or do any kind of physical repair? Forget it. Hence, Apple is dead to me. Well, there is Linux.

That said, Linux isn't exactly perfect either. The biggest problem I'm having with Linux is with its most powerful tool, which is the Terminal. The problem isn't that Terminal exists, it's the over-reliance on it that's a drawback and I believe is what's keeping Linux from really going mainstream. Currently, Linux is on less than 3% of desktop computers out in the wild. That's because of Mr. Magoo. You see, real life is full of people who are as proficient with computers as Mr. Magoo. Computer users like him just want the computer to do whatever with as little hassle as possible. He wants to run a program with just a few mouse clicks, and he wants to install things with a few mouse clicks.

If Mr. Magoo is using Windows or Apple, he'll never have to type commands. He might never know that option exists. All he has to do is click on shortcuts and installers. The only time he has to type anything is when he's writing an email, a document, or doing a search for something, or maybe renaming a file. That sort of thing.

"But Linux is much more stable and secure!" Yes, this is true. I suspect much of that is because so much needs done through Terminal, and so many of the commands use "sudo" to do anything, which then requires typing in the password. There are also a variety of switch commands. A lot of utilities require being run directly from Terminal; there aren't any shortcuts or icons to double-click on. That keeps it out of Mr. Magoo's reach, but doesn't make it easier for him. If you tell him to use the Terminal, that's going to be an alien world to him. He won't know what the hell you're talking about. That won't do you any good either: By the time you explain what Terminal is and does, you've pegged yourself as That Computer Expert and he's going to be asking for your help constantly. You do not want that. Even worse is if Mr. Magoo decides to try using Terminal by himself. Hello, OS reinstall! If you're lucky! It'll be a miracle if the computer doesn't physically catch on fire as a result.

When Microsoft came out with Windows 95, it was a drastic change. Before, Windows operated within DOS. With W95, DOS operated within Windows. That's because they figured out that if they wanted to reach out to a wider audience, including Mr. Magoo, they had to follow Apple and ditch the idea of typing commands to do all but the most critical and obscure tasks. This seems to be what the Linux community hasn't figured out yet.

Fast forward to today, and the only Windows-based program I use that still has a command line interface would be TestDisk, and that's a 3rd party application. Everything else baked into Windows has a graphical user interface, even all of the sensitive "one wrong click and your system is toast" utilities. (Even my Amiga 2000 has point-and-click for almost everything! And that's almost 30 years old!)

FunFact: Google's Android OS is based on Linux. I'm on my second Android phone, and my next one will also be Android. That said, Android has a much bigger share of phones than Linux has of computers because Android was developed with the resources of a multi-billion dollar tech company that made that development a priority.

Linux Mint 18 is considered to be on the current short list of most user-friendly Linux distros. Can it do web browsing? Email? Word processing? Image manipulation? Play video and music? Yes, and without any fuss, too. But once past the basics, all hell breaks loose. I've had a hell of a time trying to make it work with my wifi network (I gave up and used an ethernet cable), and getting any Windows-only programs to run in WINE puts me in a seat at the roulette table. I've had to use Terminal almost every time I used Linux. I can see how many power users don't have a problem with that. Not everyone is a power user; in fact, most aren't.

Let's think of it like this, with the ever-useful car analogy. Imagine you have a car that usually starts and runs, but half the time, you need to open the hood, tweak a few things, adjust the timing, wiggle some fuses or relays, fiddle with the carburetor, and so on to KEEP it running. If something legitimately breaks, support is nonexistent. That's to be somewhat expected if the car in question is from the 70s or 80s. It's horribly unacceptable if it's brand new. Except for demented hipsters who thrive on that kind of nonsense, very few would want a car like that (even if it is free). The current version of Mint isn't as fiddly as a Linux distro from 10 years ago, but it's still more fiddly than it needs to be.

Or you can drop some coin and get something that will start and run, and you only have to open the hood to change any fluids. The only thing you have to worry about is now you have a car that can be broken into a lot easier than before.

I want to like Linux, I really do. It has a lot of potential. But outside the basics, there's a lot of unfinished business going on. It has the vibe of something not so much "assembled at gunpoint", more like "I don't feel like working today". I'll keep plugging away at it, trying different distros, and eventually I'll start to overcome the initially-steep learning curve. Also, when I get the home server project up and running, that's going to either run FreeNAS or a server version of Linux. So I'm forcing myself to learn.

On the plus side: It's free, so I could try however many different versions as I want. The initial install was one of the smoothest I'd ever seen. Linux Mint didn't need any additional drivers for the SAS card. Same with the PCI SCSI card from almost 20 years ago. (Windows Vista and newer don't have any real support for older SCSI cards anymore.)

So now the question becomes, would Linux fare better if it went with GUIs for everything, or should it stay the way it is? Is it better to have an OS where everything works but spies on you, or an OS that doesn't spy but has a lot of rough edges? Mr. Magoo can decide for himself on this one.

Further reading:
SCSI is alive and well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Attached_SCSI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Magoo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Mint