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> nothing I do with Linux is vital to my life. It's more of a hobby > I, as a near prototypical Linux user, These two (consecutive) statements are near parado

> nothing I do with Linux is vital to my life. It's more of a hobby > I, as a near prototypical Linux user, These two (consecutive) statements are near paradoxical. Going above, I read age old complaints like "spend half a day figuring out how to get my sound card working, or adjust my fan profile,", which suggests you haven't really used today's Desktop Linux. I'm a prototypical Linux user: My Desktop is Linux, all the applications I use run on Linux, all my devices (phone, routers, servers) are Linux. I have been using Linux for only six years now. Never had a need to figure out how to get my sound card working (but I have certainly tweaked pulseaudio parameters and tried out crazy modules, to my choice; it was never a necessity). I never had to adjust my fan profile, my OS did that for me (until I decided to build my own distro, that is). Ubuntu doesn't require user intervention to update softwares, so your "or upgrade a piece of software or whatever" complaint is also near outdated. That the car I own allows me to change its oil doesn't mean it requires me to change its oil. If a car did that, don't use it! If some hardware you have doesn't run Linux well (looking at you Nvidia, and 2011's Dell Inspirons), don't run Linux on it! But please don't go around saying all Linux requires hacks.

jplayer01 10y ago
There's always apologists that bring up "but modern Linux is simple and easy to use". And I'd agree to a certain amount that us is easy to use, but even today's Linux is so incredibly error-prone and fraught with obscure corner cases that aren't simple to the average computer user. Things where you are forced to tinker with obscure, oddly documented settings files that only a nerd with lots of time to burn can parse, understand and do anything with. Linux does require hacks, all the time and I wonder if Linux people just outright don't realize it or they willfully ignore it because it doesn't suit the narrative of "Linux is awesome and better than everything else".

jplayer01 10y ago

There's always apologists that bring up "but modern Linux is simple and easy to use". And I'd agree to a certain amount that us is easy to use, but even today's Linux is so incredibly error-prone and fraught with obscure corner cases that aren't simple to the average computer user. Things where you are forced to tinker with obscure, oddly documented settings files that only a nerd with lots of time to burn can parse, understand and do anything with. Linux does require hacks, all the time and I wonder if Linux people just outright don't realize it or they willfully ignore it because it doesn't suit the narrative of "Linux is awesome and better than everything else".