Torn between Linux (popOS) & Windows

[GCandy77]

Hi, for the last 2/3 months Ive been forcing myself to try and get used to Linux (PopOS) as my daily driver after spending 95% of my life on the Windows os`s starting from 3.11 - Ive messed about with Mint Cinnamon 13 upwards in the past & knoppix for 1 day.

 

Tbh .. after quite a bit of confusion in the 1st few days as why certain basic things didn't work properly ( see old posts ) .. Things did settle down for me quite nicely as I could do all my usual stuff .. surfing the web, netflix, playing music and gaming via steam & this is fine for me for at least 80% of the time and I started to enjoy its use.

 

However im finding that once again getting some of my other activities to work on linux is a massive pain in the ass .. e.g I cannot get most buttons on my dj controller to work properly via "mixx" .. It does see it as far as I can tell as some buttons light up, but Ive had to enter the matrix ( use terminal ) to try to figure out wtf is going on - with no luck btw n have given up after 2/3 hrs of reading n applying with no luck, its confusion heaven in my brain.

 

Im not going to say that terminal is crap or pointless as I can tell that if you know how to use it properly you can fix just about anything, but for all us noobs, its either spending half ure free time trying to figure out which of the hundreds of commands can help your "current problem " or giving up and having the disappointing view that maybe Windows is better in certain lights.

 

Fixing Linux issues for noobs is like taking ure car to the garage for new brakes n the mechanic giving u the parts & a handbook n sending u on ure way to do it yourself  I doesn't feel that user friendly even thou Im aware that the OS(s) has made big steps in that direction ( I remember that 1 use of knoppix 11 yrs ago )

 

Linux is super fast on my quite old pc ( I5 2500, 120 SSD, 16gb 1600 ram R270x ), it has some great programs that kick the hell outta anything on windows, PULSE for example. I love the massive repository it has & the Gnome GUI is much more intuitive than windows imo, 98% of my games run & as said my every day activities pretty much work without a prob.

 

The issue with Linux for me is when I start to use other programs/devices that would just be - install drivers, install program, plug in device & run on windows.  In linux (to me) its - search the web to figure out how u can install the drivers & hope to find a sudo apt get (i think) command - either opening terminal to do the for mentioned or downloading a file and then figuring out how to install it - Then search pop shop/package manager/web for a the program u want to use & installing via a load of different methods - plug in device - Run - the either setup or search the web for hours again to figure out why it is not working ... Its a whole load more effort

 

It feels to me that linux has a mass load of ways to do the same things and whereas that can be handy, it can also overload the amount of concise, actually helpful information to people out there making it harder to figure out how to use it.

I`d like a Os that does it all & windows currently does that, which bums me out as I`d rather not go back to it

 

Im aware that I can install Windows via VM, but yet again in Linux im finding that if you try to do anything out of the social norm, it requires a bugger load of reading & a lot of setting up .. not just doing!

 

Perhaps Im using the wrong Distro? I only installed PopOs due to the fact it came pre-setup with steam n thought it would be a lot more hassle free, so all the other challenges that came after were quite annoying as I dont really enjoy reading endless suggestions of how to try and fix an issue for hours... I`d rather it just worked.  Any suggestions or is Pop prob best for me? ( im a gamer mainly )

 

Rant over

 

P.s ..... Sorry about the big gaps in txt but im dyslexic n i find it easier to type n read like that

[Sauron]

3 hours ago, GCandy77 said:

Fixing Linux issues for noobs is like taking ure car to the garage for new brakes n the mechanic giving u the parts & a handbook n sending u on ure way to do it yourself 

Would it feel better if the car, the brakes and the mechanic's opinion were free? ^^

3 hours ago, GCandy77 said:

Perhaps Im using the wrong Distro?

Nah, there are some differences in the usability of different distros for an experienced user but as far as plug and play operation goes PopOS is about as good as you're going to get. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) with Linux some assembly is often required to fully adapt your workflow; with experience everything tends to become much easier and, in time, you'll wonder how you ever tolerated Windows in the first place but the first few months can be a little rough.

 

If you want to learn to use the terminal to great effect my advice is simply to... just use it. Whenever you need to do a task that you think could be done in the terminal, try to figure out how and do it that way. You'll be proficient at it before you know it.