How similar is the interface to windows?? Im mostly interested in how customizable it is. if theres more customization features (I lake to change the colors n fonts of stuff and all my themes are an eyesore on purpose uwu) then im sold.
Also the amount of fucking data lost on games/programa cus of forced updates…
ok it looks cool but all that code looks hella fuckin scary(･◠･;)
Do I gotta learn to code ALL THAT??? Do I even need to learn whatever tf that code stuff is to even change the settings/wallpaper??! Oh god now I know how Apple users feel when I ramble off about Android lets me Sideload apps that aren’t in the app store…
Im hoping to god I dont even have to touch whatever all that block of text is just to personalize my system
This is a choice as well. Some people like editing configuration files, while others prefer a gui.
The big desktop environments like gnome or kde of course offer changing themes and wallpapers in a gui.
Think about why you joined Lemmy. Reddit has been getting greedier and greedier, so you left to a place where the grass is greener. The same thing is true with Windows and Linux (and Linux is also much more big and mature than Lemmy). It attracts the same kind of people.
There are political, practical and aesthetic reasons to choose GNU/Linux as an operating system.
Political Reasons
The Linux kernel, various components from GNU, a large part of the software library etc. are released under Copyleft licenses such as the GNU Public License (GPL), which cannot be revoked. This prevents a lot of evil shit the corporate world likes to do with software. It also menas it can’t be taken away; My license to copy, examine, modify and redistribute the Linux source code is irrevocable.
The kernel and much of what goes into a Linux OS these days are largely developed by larger corporations (Red Hat is now owned by IBM) but a lot of the app ecosystem is community driven. A lot of applications in the Linux ecosystem exist because someone wanted the tool to exist, not because someone begrudgingly accomplished something to increase shareholder value.
Practical Reasons
The vast majority of Linux distros are provided free of charge.
The majority of Linux distros are lighter on system resources than Windows; Windows’ system requirements have forced a lot of perfectly functional hardware into retirement where they run just fine with Linux.
With a few notable exceptions the Linux ecosystem is free of the ads and spyware built into Windows these days.
Microsoft has a habit of rearranging their UI kind of for the hell of it, meaning constant retraining for users. In the Linux ecosystem, only Gnome is in the habit of making drastic unasked for design changes, and it’s very much not a user’s only choice.
Microsoft has a lot of monetary incentives to be user hostile. Not a lot of people use the Microsoft Store to search for software because much of the software the userbase wants competes with a Microsoft product, so they aren’t found in the store. For example, Edge is the only web browser found in the Microsoft Store. Microsoft will not distribute a product that competes with one of their own. A typical package manager on Linux is full of actual useful software and is the preferred way of managing software on Linux. In fact, Windows is basically the only platform that hasn’t managed to make a package manager or app store the default way of handling software.
Microsoft has been eroding the end user’s ability to control or even own their devices. Linux does not become unusable for several minutes due to updates the way Windows does. Linux doesn’t routinely take away features the way Windows has been doing lately.
Aesthetic Reasons
Windows is becoming less customizable as time goes on. Linux is only getting more impressive. It’s not difficult to make the experience YOU want on Linux. Windows doesn’t let you put the Taskbar on the side of the screen anymore. Get a load of this, I’m using Fedora KDE right now. By default there’s a thing that works very much like the Start button on Windows; icon in the lower-left corner that pops up a menu from which to launch applications. I can right click that, click “Show Alternatives” and I can have a full screen thing similar to the MacOS launcher, a smaller cascading menu type thing that works like the Windows 85 Start menu, or by default a two-pane thing that’s more typical of Linux systems. It’s just so much more flexible.
I drive Linux for a similar reason to why some people prefer driving manual transmission cars to automatics.
Automatic transmission cars are ideal for a certain kind of driver that has no interest in how the machine actually works, they just want the machine to do its job as smoothly as possible without them having to think about it. Not bothering with the details is the whole point.
For those of us who do have an interest in knowing how the vehicle works, automatics become kind of suffocating. They’re designed to only ever behave in certain specific ways. If there’s a weird niche thing that we know is possible for the machine to do with manual control, but the automatic system doesn’t support, you’re just SOL. You can’t. This starts coming up in all sorts of annoying little ways, increasing in frequency as your knowledge increases. Death of a thousand cuts. You start feeling like you’re not really driving this car, you’re being taken for a ride.
Windows is like the automatic. It is a black box designed to allow people who don’t care how the computer works to use the computer. To prevent morons from breaking the internal components, they put up barriers around everything and tell you to keep out.
Linux is like the manual. Yes, it does demand more finesse and active knowledge about how the computer works to drive properly. But you’re in maximum control of it. If you want to pop the hood and tinker with every facet of its innards for whatever reason, it does not attempt to stop you. It’s all open, laid bare for you to do whatever you want with it.
Linux has a lot of options available to make it more automatic like Windows, if you want it. The difference is that the automatic-ness is completely optional in Linux. Imagine a car that can be automatic most of the time when you don’t care, but can become manual at the drop of a hat when you need it. Linux can be that if you want it to be. Windows can’t.
There’s nothing special about it. Linux distros are one of the options, alongside windows and osx as desktop systems.
What there are are preferences, morals, affordability. Linux is generally free, has different approaches to how the system is structured, how software is installed, how much access to the system you have, and how much responsibility for setting it up you have.
This will also vary from distro to distro, but generally software is installed from the distribution’s repositories, not downloading files from various websites - and instead of having some different scheme for updating every program on your computer, you use a single command (or button in an app) to update your system and all your software. This is one of the main things I love about Linux - you get to update your stuff when you want, all at once.
I’ll tell you why I use it: to use open source software. I noticed whatever freemium program I used on Windows that was cool eventually got enshittified and became spyware. Like fucking clockwork, the author of uTorrent sold out and all the new versions became cancer
Linux has better support for a lot of open source software, you can use a package manager to download most of it, and flatpak for a bunch that’s not there
It’s just so much easier than trying to find the official site for the program you want.
Short Hipocrisy version, because people I also wrote books there:
Windows sucks your data and tries to put ads everywhere. Linux is a type of operating system, that is free and open source - everybody can make their version. Thus, there are no ads, and the moment they try to spy on you, community picks up the torches. So, people who know their stuff rally behind linux. HOWEVER. Linux isn’t windows - it doesn’t support the same programs and needs you to fight off command line anxiety.
Today linux is basically botherless to work with, but even then, I still had to boot up command line to install some old ass drivers or some shit.
Heck, what’s more - there’s only one/two version of active windows, but there’s many linux distributions (which are the “made by other folk” version I talked before), so you can pick the one that fits you. Most folks recommend Linux Mint as it’s the most Windows like experience, but if you like chromebooks there’s also Peppermint OS, and if you want full versatility there’s also Debian.
Most distributions have detailed instructions on their sites, like Linux Mint. But overall, it amounts to:
Choose disteibution
Download it’s installation image ( I recommend LiveUSB version - it will allow you to check if you like it first and most distributions have them )
Prepare bootable usb stick ( I recommend Rufus for that )
When done, reboot your computer choosing usb drive as boot
If LiveUSB version, check out whether you like what you see and if everything works. If you like it, there should be install app on desktop
Proceed with install process. For most linuxes, it’s 1:1 windows installation process, minus ads and forcing you into online stuff.
Enjoy linux ^^
Edit: Also, you can simply download distributions en masse and boot them up in VirtualBox or something to check them out without making USB each time. Allows bypassing requirement of LiveUSB too - you can just install it in its box. However not all distributions like being virtual boxxed
Linux is free open and hackable, Lemmy is free open and hackable
Also 50% of the population of Lemmy seems to be diehard communists, open source is a similar idea to communism and Microsoft is a pretty good representation of late stage capitalism
I’ve been bombarded with Shit about Linux ever since I signed up here.
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME THE CRAZE BEHIND THIS DAMN OPERATING SYSTEM?!!! I just dont fukin get it! Whats so special about it😭😭
Windows is a privacy nightmare. The OS is constantly sending data to Microsoft while being used.
Windows hogs resources. If you don’t shovel money out for new hardware every few years, your computer will run like shit.
Windows is full of ads.
The majority of malware is written for Windows. Not really a selling point for me, but it’s a bonus.
Linux is free.
Linux doesn’t force updates. You update when you want to, and it takes less than a minute to do.
Oooh… okey, noice noice…
How similar is the interface to windows?? Im mostly interested in how customizable it is. if theres more customization features (I lake to change the colors n fonts of stuff and all my themes are an eyesore on purpose uwu) then im sold.
Also the amount of fucking data lost on games/programa cus of forced updates…
There is no single desktop environment on linux. Your customization begins with choosing your desktop environment/window manager.
To get a feeling for the things people like to do, you could take a look at !unixporn@lemmy.ml or !unixporn@lemmy.world
ok it looks cool but all that code looks hella fuckin scary(･◠･;)
Do I gotta learn to code ALL THAT??? Do I even need to learn whatever tf that code stuff is to even change the settings/wallpaper??! Oh god now I know how Apple users feel when I ramble off about Android lets me Sideload apps that aren’t in the app store…
Im hoping to god I dont even have to touch whatever all that block of text is just to personalize my system
Yeah don’t worry, you’ll mostly be copying and pasting stuff from the Internet. Not much mental exercise, just follow instructions.
The Arch Wiki is an amazing resource, It contains tons of useful info that isn’t specific to only ArchLinux.
This is a choice as well. Some people like editing configuration files, while others prefer a gui. The big desktop environments like gnome or kde of course offer changing themes and wallpapers in a gui.
You can look at some themes for kde plasma on this site: https://store.kde.org/browse?cat=104
Oooh okey :3
Think about why you joined Lemmy. Reddit has been getting greedier and greedier, so you left to a place where the grass is greener. The same thing is true with Windows and Linux (and Linux is also much more big and mature than Lemmy). It attracts the same kind of people.
Oh- huh… I mean Im outta the loop as to what Windows is doing thats so awful as well as what makes Linux so amazing.
@Cock_Inspecting_Asexual Things like, for example, putting ads and tracking into an operating system you paid money for?
@SuperSpruce
OHH YEAAA
IS THAT WHAT THAT MCAFFEE SHIT IS ABOUT???
A lot of it you won’t even notice until you use Linux daily for a week or two. Then you’ll wonder how you ever lived with it.
I trust you internet computer-monkey
There are political, practical and aesthetic reasons to choose GNU/Linux as an operating system.
Political Reasons
The Linux kernel, various components from GNU, a large part of the software library etc. are released under Copyleft licenses such as the GNU Public License (GPL), which cannot be revoked. This prevents a lot of evil shit the corporate world likes to do with software. It also menas it can’t be taken away; My license to copy, examine, modify and redistribute the Linux source code is irrevocable.
The kernel and much of what goes into a Linux OS these days are largely developed by larger corporations (Red Hat is now owned by IBM) but a lot of the app ecosystem is community driven. A lot of applications in the Linux ecosystem exist because someone wanted the tool to exist, not because someone begrudgingly accomplished something to increase shareholder value.
Practical Reasons
The vast majority of Linux distros are provided free of charge.
The majority of Linux distros are lighter on system resources than Windows; Windows’ system requirements have forced a lot of perfectly functional hardware into retirement where they run just fine with Linux.
With a few notable exceptions the Linux ecosystem is free of the ads and spyware built into Windows these days.
Microsoft has a habit of rearranging their UI kind of for the hell of it, meaning constant retraining for users. In the Linux ecosystem, only Gnome is in the habit of making drastic unasked for design changes, and it’s very much not a user’s only choice.
Microsoft has a lot of monetary incentives to be user hostile. Not a lot of people use the Microsoft Store to search for software because much of the software the userbase wants competes with a Microsoft product, so they aren’t found in the store. For example, Edge is the only web browser found in the Microsoft Store. Microsoft will not distribute a product that competes with one of their own. A typical package manager on Linux is full of actual useful software and is the preferred way of managing software on Linux. In fact, Windows is basically the only platform that hasn’t managed to make a package manager or app store the default way of handling software.
Microsoft has been eroding the end user’s ability to control or even own their devices. Linux does not become unusable for several minutes due to updates the way Windows does. Linux doesn’t routinely take away features the way Windows has been doing lately.
Aesthetic Reasons
Windows is becoming less customizable as time goes on. Linux is only getting more impressive. It’s not difficult to make the experience YOU want on Linux. Windows doesn’t let you put the Taskbar on the side of the screen anymore. Get a load of this, I’m using Fedora KDE right now. By default there’s a thing that works very much like the Start button on Windows; icon in the lower-left corner that pops up a menu from which to launch applications. I can right click that, click “Show Alternatives” and I can have a full screen thing similar to the MacOS launcher, a smaller cascading menu type thing that works like the Windows 85 Start menu, or by default a two-pane thing that’s more typical of Linux systems. It’s just so much more flexible.
I LIKE YOUR FUNNY WORDS MAGIC MAN!!
Everything is free and 100% customizable if you want to put a little bit of effort in (I’m sure this varies wildly depending on technical abilities).
…and theres no Microsoft whoch is the best part
I drive Linux for a similar reason to why some people prefer driving manual transmission cars to automatics.
Automatic transmission cars are ideal for a certain kind of driver that has no interest in how the machine actually works, they just want the machine to do its job as smoothly as possible without them having to think about it. Not bothering with the details is the whole point.
For those of us who do have an interest in knowing how the vehicle works, automatics become kind of suffocating. They’re designed to only ever behave in certain specific ways. If there’s a weird niche thing that we know is possible for the machine to do with manual control, but the automatic system doesn’t support, you’re just SOL. You can’t. This starts coming up in all sorts of annoying little ways, increasing in frequency as your knowledge increases. Death of a thousand cuts. You start feeling like you’re not really driving this car, you’re being taken for a ride.
Windows is like the automatic. It is a black box designed to allow people who don’t care how the computer works to use the computer. To prevent morons from breaking the internal components, they put up barriers around everything and tell you to keep out.
Linux is like the manual. Yes, it does demand more finesse and active knowledge about how the computer works to drive properly. But you’re in maximum control of it. If you want to pop the hood and tinker with every facet of its innards for whatever reason, it does not attempt to stop you. It’s all open, laid bare for you to do whatever you want with it.
Linux has a lot of options available to make it more automatic like Windows, if you want it. The difference is that the automatic-ness is completely optional in Linux. Imagine a car that can be automatic most of the time when you don’t care, but can become manual at the drop of a hat when you need it. Linux can be that if you want it to be. Windows can’t.
So, you’re saying that people driving automatic cars crash more often than manual transmission drivers?
(Ignore the people that shift into reverse at 180km/h)
lord have mercy im gonna need that whole ass essay re-written in Layman’s terms. My dehydrated underfed self ain’t ready to process this
There’s nothing special about it. Linux distros are one of the options, alongside windows and osx as desktop systems.
What there are are preferences, morals, affordability. Linux is generally free, has different approaches to how the system is structured, how software is installed, how much access to the system you have, and how much responsibility for setting it up you have.
This will also vary from distro to distro, but generally software is installed from the distribution’s repositories, not downloading files from various websites - and instead of having some different scheme for updating every program on your computer, you use a single command (or button in an app) to update your system and all your software. This is one of the main things I love about Linux - you get to update your stuff when you want, all at once.
I’ll tell you why I use it: to use open source software. I noticed whatever freemium program I used on Windows that was cool eventually got enshittified and became spyware. Like fucking clockwork, the author of uTorrent sold out and all the new versions became cancer
Linux has better support for a lot of open source software, you can use a package manager to download most of it, and flatpak for a bunch that’s not there
It’s just so much easier than trying to find the official site for the program you want.
ShortHipocrisy version, becausepeopleI also wrote booksthere:Windows sucks your data and tries to put ads everywhere. Linux is a type of operating system, that is free and open source - everybody can make their version. Thus, there are no ads, and the moment they try to spy on you, community picks up the torches. So, people who know their stuff rally behind linux. HOWEVER. Linux isn’t windows - it doesn’t support the same programs and needs you to fight off command line anxiety.
Today linux is basically botherless to work with, but even then, I still had to boot up command line to install some old ass drivers or some shit.
Heck, what’s more - there’s only one/two version of active windows, but there’s many linux distributions (which are the “made by other folk” version I talked before), so you can pick the one that fits you. Most folks recommend Linux Mint as it’s the most Windows like experience, but if you like chromebooks there’s also Peppermint OS, and if you want full versatility there’s also Debian.
how do I even install Linux???
Most distributions have detailed instructions on their sites, like Linux Mint. But overall, it amounts to:
Edit: Also, you can simply download distributions en masse and boot them up in VirtualBox or something to check them out without making USB each time. Allows bypassing requirement of LiveUSB too - you can just install it in its box. However not all distributions like being virtual boxxed
We can’t tell you. It’s a secret.
https://youtu.be/tc4ROCJYbm0&t=297s
Mr. Kernighan explains it nicely I think.
Linux is free open and hackable, Lemmy is free open and hackable
Also 50% of the population of Lemmy seems to be diehard communists, open source is a similar idea to communism and Microsoft is a pretty good representation of late stage capitalism