Is Linux Really An Alternative To Windows...?

This was exactly my problem, and I consider myself reasonably far along the tech-savvy spectrum.

Every few years I load up some flavour of Linux and proceed to spend a couple of days bashing my brains against its labyrinthine architecture and bottomless, self-referencing alien-speak "man" documents largely written by autistic people, only to finally admit defeat and come away feeling very small and very stupid indeed, humbly returning to Microsoft's waiting arms.

-Usually because there's one or two small things I want to achieve which don't fall within the scope of what normal people want. Like making a stylus work with pressure. When you have to spend hours spinning in circles and looking up meaningless tech words which are only explained by using another two similarly meaningless tech words, just trying to figure out what the driver even looks like, where it is supposed to go and how to gain permission to copy it there... You know you're too dense to survive.

And worse... You get to thinking that the folks who talk up Linux and wonder why everybody isn't using it, might just be overlooking the obvious; It's effing complicated and un-intuitive! Heck, even one of the main text editors functions on an ancient, out-moded logic system harkening back to the days where you programmed computers with probes and punch cards, so that doing something as simple as trying to use the arrow keys can totally mess up the regular user.

 

...and right in the middle of implementing the guide you stumble upon something that doesn't work as expected for no apparent reason, or at all - because it was changed in later releases, rendering the guide outdated and pretty much useless - yet this guide (and tons of other outdated junk) is still there in top search results for your problem, eager to waste your time and effort.

 

... And so in desperation you ask for help on the main forum for that brand of Linux and the only response you get consists of command lines that look like they might do it, but they will completely hose your installation. (Yup, happened to me.)

The attitude is that if you fall for it, you don't deserve to be running Linux.

 

<<...yet this guide (and tons of other outdated junk) is still there in top search results for your problem...>>

...Tried looking up a Windows 10 process lately? Your experience would be the same!

However, back to the topic. You're absolutely right. Open source sounds good, but without configuration control, it's Linux! And documentation really is hard to write; I do it occasionally, and I always end up praying for it to be over. I've seen autocoders that work... better than one would expect. But what we really need are auto-documenters and a wiki that stays synchronized with a controlled version of the code...

 

Yeah, I really wish that Literate Programming were more popular:

http://literateprogramming.com/

and that the programmers doing the writing understood better the need to document at a higher level --- while _TeX: The Program_ is cool and all, what was really needed was for _The TeXBook_ to be a literate version of tex.web and for the macros used to write _The Art of Computer Programming_ have a similar level of documentation.

 

But if everybody could understand it, what would be so unique about being a coder. Knowledge is Power!

 

Exactly my story.

 

The only reasons you would use Linux is you want privacy and you are the kind of computer user that is just like those guys who build hotted up cars at home and take them to car shows on weekends.

Wintell these days is essentially spyware. They are selling everything you do to who ever wants to buy it, and that data they sell isn't ever going away. I moved from Windows 7 when I learnt about the spying, bounced around some Linux distros before settling on a BSD.

Whenever I go back to Windows I kick it around aimlessly for a few minutes, think yuck, then return to my highly customized BSD. It has hardly any GUI which means it looks nice and clean, the controls are keyboard combos and I move around in it really fast. No system is as nice or fast as the one you build for yourself. Of course it takes a lot of time to learn how to do that.

 

Yup...same here. I tried for several years to get Linux to work on my tablets. Getting the prototype versions of Windows to work was always easier. With Linux there is always a level of 'fuss' you need to do to make whatever you want to work. This article kinda-sorta validates that it is pretty much unchanged after all these years.

 

Some advice I saw from a big name in the Linux world, he said when he was trying a distro, if he couldn't get it installed and everything working in 20 minutes, he'd drop it and move on to the next distro.

The thing with Linux distros is there are hundreds, and each reflects the interests of the community that surrounds it. So if you can't find a community that likes tablet PCs you are out of luck.

https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=popularity

The main stumbling block is the unusual hardware of tablet PCs are not supported, so perhaps some enterprising person could make a little business out of supporting slate tablets in Linux or even better BSD. I know it is possible to make a business out of distros, since similar is already being done here:

https://elementary.io/

How many would pay a small amount to get their tablet PC working properly on a Linux or BSD? I know I would.