That was…stupidly easy lol Thank you so much!

Took ya that long? As soon as they went “That’s right fuckface.”, it was over lol. I knew whatever was gonna follow would be some unhinged shit…and it was, save for that one nugget of wisdom that was thrown in there about shutting up and using what you wanted (that of course, they wouldn’t follow. If they did this wouldn’t exist in the first place)

So basically, “they’re trashing KDE, Gnome, SystemD, etc, so I’m gonna trash XFCE/MATE/GRUB/anything that isn’t the latest bleeding edge stuff?”

Cuz that’s what i get outta that whole, article…that and that you really, really like to swear.

This so much. It’s like, you’d think when you shell out cash to pay for a license (or well, I did anyways. But tbf, most PCs you buy come with a valid license), you’d at least be entitled to do as you will with your copy of the OS (within reason, i mean. Yeah, less than legal stuff, go off Microsoft, but stuff like settings and such?) But, well…Microsoft just loves telling you “you opted out, but what you REALLY meant was to opt in. Source: because we say so” with basic settings, not surprising the do it for an OS…of course they would. My bud said it best at the time: they don’t care how you gain it, they just want everone to be on Windows 10

Two things made me leave. Both having to do with Windows.

1. Microsoft themselves.

2. My Windows install was just…bad. I’m not sure how else to describe a Windows that frequently crashed and just gave up and Blue Screen. Sure, both probably happen to any normal Windows install (well, the 1st thing. If you get the second, yeah that’s a problem)–but not at the frequency it happened with mine, I’m sure. Besides that, it was slow for no reason (AFAIA, anyways) and doing anything took a while. Yeah, I eventually reinstalled it after some hassle, and after that it was just slow, but then i made the fatal mistake of trying Windows 11 and was like “if this is what I’m eventually ganna have do deal with…no thanks.” Tbf, Microsoft was promting it, so i assumed it was an upgrade to Windows 10, not a wannabe chromebook with some baffling “lets fix what isn’t broken and works great as is” choices.

Well, thinking about it, there was a third reason i ususally neglect to mention:

3. I had a choice. I like looking at all my available options and choosing what to go with instead of having something chosen for me. I’m a big boy and can make my own choices for myself, thank you (looking right at you there, Bill). As soon as i heard “there’s something else besides this or an Apple Product. And it’s much better than some people like to give it credit for” i researched a bit on the differences, the requirements, and a good place to start, and well, here I am.

As for what I am, IDK. I’m a happy Linux user, but i also get some people are perfectly happy Windows users (or aren’t, but are locked into the ecosystem regardless) and hey, as long as we agree that both OS’s have their quirks, you let me keep my penguins, and I’ll let ya keep your…erm, Windows (does Windows have a mascot? I doubt it, but you never know)

Oh I know it can be installed, but after the headache I got re-installing 10 once before and then trying to get 11 running on…anything, really, i just decided “you know what? What will be will be at this point. I’m not gonna need it for much anyways.” when i finally got 11 to accept and install into a random external drive that i never really used (it didn’t like the one i had inside my PC reserved specifically for it. Somehow…).

(Note: this was a while back, so installation could be a helluva lot better now and i have upgraded a bit since then but, shrug. Already got Windows ready to go on a drive, and only have it because I might need it moreso than me actually wanting to have it, so meh)

That is…true, actually. The longer I use Linux, the more I’m like “…but what if, man, what if I ditch Arch for Fedora or NixOS or give Pop_OS! another chance (and i very well might when Cosmic launches)?” And sometimes I do…and then always come crawling back.

Going back to Windows full time ain’t even crossed my mind for a hot minute. Partly because i have a spare driver running it for emergencies (that i barely use anyways, only because Windows literally runs one important app that I need, that I can’t run on Linux), and partly because going back means being stuck with Windows 11 again, and I really dislike Windows 11’s design choices, personally (and Microsoft in general, but i digress).

Arch + XFCE on my desktop. Have been for a while now, and everytime i try something else, I always come back to it. For my laptop, I’ve been using Gnome + extensions (Arch as well. That way I don’t gotta switch gears and remember two different sets of commands) before i had to take it in for repairs. Was pretty good because of the mousepad gestures IMO.

Ditto. I’ve just never found the use for workspaces myself (like, i understand why they’re there but they never really worked for me). I tried them, didn’t like the flow of it, so i just ignored them (and Gnome for the most part, save Pop_OS, but I’ve a love/hate relationship with it cuz it’s always caused me problems when i try it out. Hopefully the Cosmic Desktop they’re making will run better on my systems) in favor of the windows philosophy myself

Agreed on Vanilla/stock XFCE being rough (and i love XFCE), and vanilla Gnome being divisive, but i’m the opposite of you and love to tinker with my stuff–even KDE, which lools good OOTB i can’t just leave it alone lol

Yes. The question was “why Arch?”, but specifically the question was asked because Arch demands some level of competance from the user when it comes to fixing and maintaing their own system by nature of it being a rolling release. So yeah, expierence is relevant here.

That’s cool and all, but this person is (I’m assuming) new-ish to Linux and hasn’t developed their opinion on “what distro/DE/way of doing things works for me” and “what do I want/don’t want in my system”, which IMO is extremely important because…it’s their system, and what works for you (Gnome + Arch) might not jive well with em. That’s the beauty of Linux: it’s up to the user to do as they will. Maybe let them get their feet wet first before throwing something that needs to be babysat and occasionally maintained at them as a better option, just saying.

Also, that Arch has “the superior package management system” is an opinion, not a hard fact.

Could be just them sharing the wiki with em (which is a great companion to ANY Linux Distro. Arch or non-Arch, a lotta the stuff there can be very helpful), but…feel like it’s a bit early to be doing that IMO. “Start em young” and all that, sure, but also let them learn, fail, and get into messes themselves first, ya know

1. welcome to Linux. yer a Penguin now, Harry! Yeah, I remember the whole “kid in a candy shop” feeling I got when I first started lol

2. hope you have better luck with your Dell than i did. Treated mine like a baby, and suddenly? The shell around the screen and board cracked. Ya think repairing it would be easy/cheap, but alas, somehow…(not trying scare you just, becareful with it, cheap or no)

IDK, if both my very-much-not-so tech savy siblings, mother, and even an idiot like myself can all pick up and use it with very few, if any, hiccups, then “user expierence” on Linux is…

Not hard. Or, well, in general as well. The more I hear people go “Learning Linux is hard” and hear them out, the more I’ve come to realize they’re actually trying to say “Unlearning Windows is hard”. Which is absolutely true, considering 95% of people use Windows basically out the womb…and then they keep using it/put up with it no matter what unless you’re like one of my old professors who didn’t “need windows” for his work (and used Mac all the way), or like me and several others who got tired of Windows constantly messing up on me–or being invasive of your privacy, bloated, all of the above. Take your pick–enough where I just said “you know what, no. I have options besides basically throwing dice at the wall with this. They can’t be that bad.” (spoiler alert: they weren’t bad at all).

And again, unless you’re throwing yourself off the Linux deep end from second one and trying to build the system from scratch or compile Gentoo by yourself, learning it isn’t this grueling, impossible task. Plus there’s free resourses that can make it even simpler for you if you want to more than learn as you go. There’s growing pains, yeah, but no different than learning anything new in life

Gotta disagree. Even with following a handful Linux groups on here, there’s several other topics and discussions that quickly dominate my feed, from games, to music, books and comics, to pets doing adorable things, to anime, and TTRPG stuff (…and Star Trek. Now that’s something i can’t seem to escape on The Fediverse and makes me feel just a tiny bit left out because I’m not really into lol). Then again, it’s up to you what you see since the user is in full control of what they allow or block in thier feed.

So curate until you barely see any Linux, if that’s what ya fancy.

If you don’t mind me asking, was it because of the vanilla look, the customization being based on extensions (which may or may be updated for a while when a new version releases–if at all), or was it the Gnome philosophy of “One Window per workspace”?

Just curious really, I’m more of an XFCE and KDE user myself, and i can see the appeal of Gnome (and I’m NGL, it looks nice IMHO), but yeah…not a big fan of extensions breaking every version update and the “throw unused Windows in a new workspace” thing

I kinda getcha. Design-wise, you could get a very close copy (but I don’t think 1:1. Never tried it tbf), but if we take the workflow into account, yeah it won’t be 100% the same (also, QT apps can be a turnoff depending on the person)

I mean, can’t you just make KDE plasma have the Gnome look, or…basically any look you want?

Yeah, before I knew that it’s better to just use Proton over the Native Linux game, it threw me for a loop too NGL

Did you enable Proton in your account settings? If not, you’re only going to be able to play native Steam games (which are both meh, and are at the mercy of how much the devs maintained it, or are incomplete like the Binding of Isaac one not having an Afterbirth DLC linux version so without Proton, you wouldn’t be able to access it).

If you haven’t and are still on Linux, go to your account, find the compatability tab, and check “Enable Steam Play for all titles”. Steam will ask to restart, and after a restart, you’ll be good