...the ten step process to simply add an icon to the Ubuntu desktop to run a shell script are a bit of a buzz kill. Maybe it's better now, but in Windows it's been a drag and drop or a right-click since 1995.
it has always been good -- if you agree not to consider whatever weird choices ubuntu makes the 'standard linux desktop experience'
looking at https://www.xmodulo.com/create-desktop-shortcut-launcher-lin... , gnome is the only environment out of those surveyed that doesn't have the obvious right-click way of adding launchers to the desktop.
i tend to pick xfce when setting up boxes for casual users, it does a good job of maintaining an early-2000s desktop look and feel.
For some reason, every large distro installs Gnome by default and throws its users into their hostile and clean (of functionality) philosophy. It would be better if this was different.
I love Linux as a development environment. But the desktop experience has so many rough edges, it will be "The Year of Linux on the Desktop" for the next 100 years.
Did you feel similarly, when serial and parallel ports were removed from computers? Or floppy drives?
Seriously, desktop icons are a wart (and so is systray); removing them is a step forward.
And BTW, Ubuntu still allows icons on the desktop as default (unfortunately). So not sure what you did.
GNOME and Apple is form over function design.
Usually sh files you download are installers... And even then it's not the standard way of installing things (.deb/.rpm or flatpak files are).
You download, open your downloads folder, right click to make it executable, and double click it. Literally exact same workflow as Windows (because who on earth would download things to the desktop instead of downloads folder...).
But honestly, last time I downloaded an sh script that wasn't for a programming thing was years ago. Chrome, Steam, any game or consumer-type software is basically always a single click install or in the software centre.
Edit - also, there's always going to be non-standard Linux workflows. But if you just download Fedora or Ubuntu and keep things default, it's a very easy, straightforward experience.
Why: hit the Win key, type Spri and hit enter. I hope that is enough of a motivation.
Definitely motivation to avoid Windows... (and maybe Java too). The fact that that's the workflow is absurd to me.
Yes, that's a nice feature, but it's not a regular thing consumers need to do. Most Linux software is packaged much more nicely. For example, VSCode, Steam, Chrome are available as debs/rpms and when you install them, they all create their own launchers. Heck, VSCode and Steam are in Ubuntu's snap repo (that you can access from the Software store) by default. Chrome and Steam are in Fedora's 3rd party repos standard.
Needing to go through an extra step or two for a non-standard Java tool doesn't say much about Linux, especially for the average person. Last time I used Java, all the Eclipse add-ons were installable through the IDE.
What I did, is remove all rights to read/write to my Desktop folder. Everything still works, but I get the bonus of no icons appearing on it, and I cannot dump stuff on there either. My wallpaper is the only thing my desktop has and it stays beautifully uncluttered.
Until Windows 11, now you can't do that. Supposedly they're going to enable it later, I hope so.