The problem with Linux is fundamental, and no distro is going to solve it.
It’s made by devs and for devs. The reliance on the CLI is it’s death knell. It will never be usable for normies until this problem is solved but nobody wants to solve it because it’s “so great”. Even when there is a simple solution, if you search for it, the only thing you will get is CLI solutions.
#1 is compounded by the variety of distros. Meaning often when you do attempt those CLI fixes, they simply don’t work and return some sort of generic error with no hint as to what the actual problem is.
Things like changing the default power profile, adding fractional scaling, or changing the default audio device, all things that are super simple on any other OS, are ridiculously convoluted.
At least for me, the whole “made by devs for devs” isn’t really the major downfall. It’s the fact that it can’t be trusted to remain functional in a dynamic environment. I like using the command line, but sometimes that’s just not enough.
If I need a specific software package, I can download the source, compile it, along with the 100 of libraries that they chose not to include in the .tar.gz file, and eventually get it running.
However, when I do an “apt update” and it changes enough, then the binary I compiled earlier is going to stop working. Then I spend hours trying to recompile it along with it’s dependencies, only to find that it doesn’t support some obscure sub-version of a package that got installed along with the latest security updates.
In a static environment, where I will never change settings or install software (like my NAS), it’s perfect. On my desktop PC, I just want it to work well enough so I can tinker with other things. I don’t want to have to troubleshoot why Gnome or KDE isn’t working with my video drivers when all I want to do is launch remote desktop so I can tinker with stuff on a server that I actually want to tinker with.
The problem with Linux is fundamental, and no distro is going to solve it.
It’s made by devs and for devs. The reliance on the CLI is it’s death knell. It will never be usable for normies until this problem is solved but nobody wants to solve it because it’s “so great”. Even when there is a simple solution, if you search for it, the only thing you will get is CLI solutions.
#1 is compounded by the variety of distros. Meaning often when you do attempt those CLI fixes, they simply don’t work and return some sort of generic error with no hint as to what the actual problem is.
Things like changing the default power profile, adding fractional scaling, or changing the default audio device, all things that are super simple on any other OS, are ridiculously convoluted.
Most of those CLI instances I had to do on week one.
Since then… Hardly ever. (On Pop_OS!)
At least for me, the whole “made by devs for devs” isn’t really the major downfall. It’s the fact that it can’t be trusted to remain functional in a dynamic environment. I like using the command line, but sometimes that’s just not enough.
If I need a specific software package, I can download the source, compile it, along with the 100 of libraries that they chose not to include in the .tar.gz file, and eventually get it running.
However, when I do an “apt update” and it changes enough, then the binary I compiled earlier is going to stop working. Then I spend hours trying to recompile it along with it’s dependencies, only to find that it doesn’t support some obscure sub-version of a package that got installed along with the latest security updates.
In a static environment, where I will never change settings or install software (like my NAS), it’s perfect. On my desktop PC, I just want it to work well enough so I can tinker with other things. I don’t want to have to troubleshoot why Gnome or KDE isn’t working with my video drivers when all I want to do is launch remote desktop so I can tinker with stuff on a server that I actually want to tinker with.