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Comment by ldp01 | Hacker News Reader

Desktop Linux is great but I don't expect anyone who's uncomfortable with a terminal to use it.

For someone like myself who is fine with a slightly more technical desktop experience, using Linux gives me a setup I can shape to fit my requirements and then never have to think about ever again. It's very relaxing compared to using Windows because I don't have to deal with all the little annoyances e.g: Constantly forcing me to install updates; big UI changes between versions; vast quantities of bloatware.

However for the people who are strictly averse to the technical aspects of Linux (most people), I would never bother trying get them to switch. It's a pointless uphill battle which ends in frustration.

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Absolutely false. Desktop Linux is all except great. As they already highlighted in this thread there are plenty of annoyances and it is on the whole a subpar experience compared to Windows and Mac OS X. In windows and Mac you can use the same terminal if you want, but you are not forced to use it. There is no way for me to switch to Linux, Mac OS X gives me exactly the experience that I want, without headache. I don't care if people don't use Mac OS X and so I'm pretty annoyed when there are people that try to push others to switch to Linux, like in this article. Enjoy your Linux, but please don't write untrue absolutes like "Desktop Linux is great".

In what way was I pushing others to switch to Linux? I literally said I do not bother trying to make others switch.

I simply gave the reasons I prefer desktop Linux to Windows and yes I believe desktop Linux is "great". In my experience it is certainly not "subpar" compared to Windows, hence why I use it.

Where did I say that you were pushing others to switch to Linux? I clearly said that the article was doing that. You instead stated an absolute truth that Desktop Linux is great, that is simply untrue by all means.

Well, fair enough then. I plead guilty as charged. Linux is definitely not great.

It's not untrue. It just depends on what you want and like. My laptop Linux setup is exactly how I want it to be and it's indeed great. If you don't like it, that doesn't affect me at all.

A great desktop operating system works just out of the box without any ridiculous quirk and doesn't force the user to spend time to find a solution. I might call it broken, but for sure not great.

Well, it would be nice if there was an operating system that worked as I wanted it to out of the box. But there's no such thing, so I'm okay with "great after initial configuration". My Linux setup, for me, is much greater than any other I've ever used.

> please don't write untrue absolutes like "Desktop Linux is great".

> [Linux] is on the whole a subpar experience compared to Windows and Mac OS X.

Well done.

Where is the falseness here?

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