To be frank I went away from Gentoo for much the same reason. And the constant compilation. I only used it once after that for a small project where I needed to minimise what actually lands in the OS.
Just the little things, really. App compatibility, xbps not having too many packages, issues with Musl, GRUB not loading on the LiveUSB, desktop/WM selection, and also I don’t like the way Runit works. I could make it work if I needed to, but overall it just seems like too much effort.
As an Arch User who keeps hearing about OpenSUSE being a more stable rolling release…mind going into it a bit more? I’m happy on my system, mind, but idk, could be I’m missing out on something big for not making the jump. If nothing else, I’ll know my options
I haven’t owned a Windows machine in over a decade. If someone wants help, this is my response because I have not kept up with the changes, for lack of any need or desire to do so.
“Can you help me with my computer?”
“If it is running Linux or BSD, or you want it to, sure. If not, I’m not the guy for the job.”
IDK. I’m to the point where I don’t touch anyone’s phone or computer, because if I glance at it from a speeding car, I’m suddenly responsible for everything that suddenly “now doesn’t work” in their entire house, probably including the dishwasher.
My wife was telling me that she saw an article about Microsoft supposedly planning to add a “small” banner for advertisements to the desktop on Windows and the essence of this meme was my precise response.
My daughter wanted to do something trivial with windows, but did not know how. Online help referred to a button that did not exist in the application. I know at least three ways to accomplish the same action on Linux, and I know they just work.
In an effort to relieve her PC of constantly deluge of virus and malware, I switched my Mom over to Ubuntu in the 2000’s. She lasted a month.
The experiment ended when she called me in tears because of her silent 4 week struggle with the OS.
She couldn’t get her scanner to work reliably, and none of her “print shop” software was compatible.
I know more now than I did then, and the distros have come a long way since, but I don’t have the time to retrain her and at 70 years old, I just want her to use what she’s comfortable with, even if that means I have to occasionally scrub her PC.
Wow this article perfectly captures the early 2000s experience of trying to teach parents how to use the internet. Internet access wasn’t very widespread in Australia yet, and my parents weren’t really interested in it and thought it was too difficult to use.
Things from that article that really stuck out to me:
Not being able to type searches directly into the address bar. This confused me as a child, and I was really excited when browsers started to incorporate the feature
Mentioning the use of a pager
Knowing that all the photos in the article are of real people and not AI because it’s from 2002
The difference is that with Linux, it’s possible to become smart enough to fix all the issues. Windows is designed in such a way that there usually isn’t a way to fix its problems to avoid format and reinstalls no matter how much you know.
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