Windows has an entirely different set of objectives.

I never thought of it this way. My first reaction was “What do you mean ‘different objectives’, they’re both operating systems!” But Windows is an operating system with the objective of making profit for Microsoft. Linux is an operating system with the goal of… being an operating system.

It really puts it in perspective. Windows (and Mac) can and will only use useful to the consumer up to a point.

I’m surprised to hear you don’t like Fedora. I recently tried Kinoite and I wish I’d discovered it sooner. I’ve never had a Linux distro that felt so detail-oriented and complete. I’d be curious to hear your reasoning!

Ignore everyone here saying fix Ubuntu and try Fedora Kinoite (or Silverblue). Bazzite is probably great too if you are gaming but I haven’t tried it.

I finally tried Fedora Kinoite after years of Ubuntu (and related distros) and I genuinely wish I had tried it sooner. Everything just works. I cannot reccomend it enough. It’s what I always wanted Linux to be.

Any modern distro.

I don’t suppose you could give the name of a distro that achieves full functionality purely in the GUI?

I’m using GNOME thanks that link looks helpful

A bash script is like a shell script in Windows. It is a text file that runs multiple commands in order. As if you opened the terminal and typed them in yourself.

Udev rules I need to learn about but based on context I have to assume it’s a tool for running scripts when specific events happen (like a monitor being plugged in)

Thanks. I know my way around bash scripts but I guess it’s time to learn Udev rules. Are you aware of any examples I can find online?

I see. For me, the step of memorization is time-consuming, especially for a program I only need on rare occasions and for simple tasks.

Right, and they only demonstrated limited functionality.

There are apps that can do it, but require the terminal to install.

Also in every distro I’ve tried, config files will open read-only, not with the authentication pop-up.

In your opinion what makes a terminal program “more useful” than a GUI program with the exact same functionality? Genuinely curious because it’s a perspective I cannot wrap my brain around lol

In other words, I can successfully install things like a windows user, I just have to go the extra step to open the file’s properties and make it executable with the GUI first.

Some programs can be installed this way, but it’s extremely far from universal.

Config files can be edited in the GUI text editor

Not without opening them as root, which in every distro I know of, requires the terminal.

To test my claim and prove your third point, this link is the repository for a samba GUI

The install directions for that program involve the terminal.

Strong disagree lol but I understand your logic. I am a visual learner and it is a lot easier for me to understand what the structure and options are in a given program when I have a GUI.

To me the terminal feels like a scalpel. It’s a precise instrument, but only you need to know exactly what you’re slicing into.

And apt is just the beginning of it. It’s not that uncommon for apt to not work either.

So many comments here saying you don’t need the terminal for full functionality… What Distro are you people using??? How do you install programs not in the “software center” and how do you edit config files? How do you configure a network share? I don’t really think you guys are thinking this through.

For any use-cases beyond a very limited chromebook-like functionality, Linux is absolutely not fully usable without access to the terminal.

Eh, you really can’t. Linux without the terminal only enables about 5% of the functionality available the user.

Linux geeks like to imagine a hypothetical “average user” who never needs to adjust settings or install anything beyond a web browser. But a person looking for that limited of functionality while also knowing how to install an operating system is not an average user.

Oh my gosh I can’t believe after 56 comments from so called “experts” you bring up such a simple solution. Thank you!

The shaders are the single best reason to prefer RA over standalone. But I agree with everything you’ve said. I’ve used RetroArch for like five years now and I still regularly run into issues where I thought I had it set up “good” but then something doesn’t work. So confusing.

These are all great, but they are all workarounds, not solutions.

I asked this a while back and was told I am an idiot for asking and it is astonishing I am able to even use a computer, which I clearly am not responsible enough to use.

Just kidding (not really) but consensus was “not very easily”. I tried a few methods which were complicated and didn’t manage to work. Yes, Windows and MacOS do this seamlessly, but nobody has yet taken the time to add a similar functionality to Linux.