Just. Look at yourself. Who are you lying to? No, I don’t mean about whether or not your dad used Mint for 60 years, I mean if you think most people can use Linux for everything. Or do you live as a recluse in your dad’s basement and he’s the only adult you’ve ever seen have to use a computer for a lot of different things? Eff off with the defensive disingenuousness, yeah?

I ended up giving up on it after first spending 2 hours trying to learn to set up ProtonVPN (it turned out the info I was missing was that there is missing an actual download button on their site, had to accidentally find a download for ProtonVPN via a Reddit where someone else complained, then use command line a few times to actually get it working. This after how-to videos and other message boards led me nowhere). Then spending a few more trying to learn things about my NAS I couldn’t figure out, so I could try to connect it to Kubuntu and have it mount automatically. It was overwhelming, I gave up pretty fast. Nobody has time for this. I’m probably done with Linux forever. Kubuntu’s not half bad though, but Linux sure is.

Oh, thank god. Plasma looks good for me. Easy to look at and professional. Assuming I understand how it works, which popular distros can use Plasma? Update: After some quick research, I think I want to use Kubuntu? Does that sound like a good idea?

I had Pop OS installed for an hour just now and I gave up. Once again, dozens of ridiculous problems, too many to remember. The nail in the coffin was I changed the icon sets between defaults-- from Adwaita to HIcolor-- in Gnome Tweaks, and it just crashed. Cursor moves, nothing else did anything. I didn’t do any command line, I didn’t edit any text, I didn’t do anything weird. Fresh install, had it for an hour. In contrast, I have not crashed Windows in over a decade, ever since I adopted 10 almost immediately. Except when I was undervolting. I don’t have time for this shit, I have things to do, it’s not the client’s job to fix Linux’s crap.

Also it turns out there is zero support for three-finger taps. I literally don’t have middle-click on my laptop. At all. Wonderful.

Linux “just works” as well as Bethesda does, and it hasn’t changed since I was trying out Ubuntu 14. I hate it, I hate the fanbase, I hate the cult, I’m done. Also, holy shit is it hard to find and learn to install full and proper light themes. Why the hell can I use a light theme on any distro and it still make the docks and title bars brown, black, or dark grey? That’s all I was trying to fix, because it hurt to look at.

Done with Linux forever, because this keeps happening. The messy and confusing installation, the lack of basic features, the ridiculous amount of research and learning curve to accomplish anything, the crashing, the ugly and unpolished interfaces, everything. Bye.

Update: Going to try again, but for the sake of my health not take Linux seriously. Nobody should take Linux seriously.

Update #2: I gave up forever again. Proton VPN forgot to provide download links for Linux, I had to find them on a message board. Then it’s a nightmare to auto-mount my NAS drives. I worked on Linux for many hours today and didn’t make much progress. I don’t have time for this.

I see. I’ll look into it, thanks.

That’s all fair advice. It doesn’t change that installation instructions should have been a lot more thorough though. Once I get a third (or bigger primary) SSD, I’ll dual-boot Mint. I still want to try it. Regardless of my issues with it, I do know Linux is getting better. And we can see how ready I am for it now (and that’s partially up to the software).

Cool, but didn’t everyone tell me I should use Mint, for a bunch of reasons including “it’s arguably the most beginner-friendly”?

Like, who are you trying to lie to? All the people who’ve installed Windows?

No, actually, you’re trying to say this doesn’t exist: https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

It told me to verify my download. It gave me instructions on how to do it. I needed command line. The instructions were actually more confusing than they should have been, too. I searched for an easier way to verify. There was a verifying program. The instructions for that told me to use command line to verify the verifying program, so I said “eff it, I’m not verifying”.

Then it turned out I couldn’t make a bootable of Linux because my flash drive was too big. I had to find a 32gb one instead. Then it turned out I couldn’t make the bootable because it was the wrong format. And Windows couldn’t create that format. I had to use a third tool. Then the media creator somehow turned that flash drive into smaller and smaller partitions and Windows couldn’t fix it, either. I don’t remember how I solved that one. I also almost bricked my flash drive due to the formatting pop-up that Windows created when I was creating the Linux install media, but luckily the media tool could fix it when Windows couldn’t. I had to do research to discover and fix all these things, and none of it was stuff I knew about.

The guide didn’t tell me the difference between GRUB and the other bootloader. I tried to research it. I found nothing. I wanted a bootloader that looked nice, and GRUB wasn’t it. But I didn’t know if the other one was it either. Furthermore, the Multi-Boot page for Mint installation guide only had two topics: Install Windows first, and what to do if Windows overrides your bootloader. Nothing else. So I had no idea what to do, and I wasn’t going to break it. I was done attempting to install Linux. Windows installation works, no bullshit.

If you want to say “well duh, you should have done this”, then eff off. Because you’re not allowed to lord your non-obvious knowledge over people who don’t have that knowledge even after attempting research, and then say “it’s so easy, so it’s the year of Linux on the desktop”!

And you know what happened last time I had Linux on one of my machines? It was Ubuntu, on my mainstream hardware, and I had it for weeks. I literally could never get sound working, at all. Not a peep.

What does that mean. What does “the year of the Linux desktop” mean, really? And why is it different than last year?

Well maybe if desktop Linux didn’t require forums and command line and tinkering and file-verifiers to get Mint installed safely, and sound and printers and other hardware and software working, maybe it would become mainstream. And remember, folks, “mainstream” means everyone. Or at least everyone who already uses Windows, capiche? Your grandma too.

An adult friend made me watch that as a kid. I do not like thrillers, and I have cardiophobia (I can’t look at, listen to, or be too aware of biological hearts), which is very relevant to that movie. Also I was too young and wide-eyed to appreciate those kinds of systemic issues. So that was not a fun time, and I won’t forget it.

This is the best pun I’ve ever seen in my life.

Whazzat

What is this from.

You’re misinterpreting what I said. Why would I think the government and corporations aren’t in cahoots at least a little? But if it were that black-and-white, we’d have no regulations, recalls, lawsuits, or OSHA. This is getting off-topic though.

Either way, your attitude is stupid and I’m blocking you.

The Architect lacks morals, but I will take an intelligent and not-specifically-malicious (nor greedy) being like that over Zuckerberg. Because of who he was and his aims, the Architect could be reasoned with.

You’re a good parent.

They are among the top five richest corporations in the world and the leading employer in the world, last I checked. You going to dissolve that power? No? They have money and power, they will make the rules. You have to either find a way to dissolve them (good luck with that!), or you have to have another big power structure to keep them in check. That’s how it works.

I did not expect to see this famous clip in the comments, but thank you so much for the pleasant surprise.