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Comment by andrewstuart | Hacker News Reader

Desktop Linux is in my personal opinion unusable compared to Windows and MacOS. I acknowledge there are those who feel otherwise.

Every time I try desktop Linux I get rid of it when it does not even have copy and paste consistently implemented and compatible with Mac/Windows copy paste. This is the absolute most basic minimal thing a desktop needs to implement because it’s what users do every 60 seconds. I’m not pressing three keys to copy, sorry.

Copy and paste was invented at Xerox PARC in the 1970s, and desktop Linux still hasn’t worked it out.

And then there’s the visual and look and feel sense that it was made by Dr Frankenstein. Windows suffers from this too but not like Linux which is awful.

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Unusable is definitely the wrong word to use.

It does require a much larger time investment if you have specific needs.

The thing I most like about Linux is that most things, including the GUI, can stay unchanged if you wish so.

Windows and macOS are always moving targets, and while I found that exciting when I was young because new capabilities were leaps and bounds better than what came before, nowadays most changes are aesthetic and tiresome.

Too bothersome to be worth the hassle, for me personally. The only way Linux “wins” on the desktop is if Windows becomes even more bothersome than Linux. Not a positive outlook.

And this is not something a DE can fix, because the main problems are (a) the GUI app ecosystem is too heterogeneous on Linux and (b) laptop hardware-related issues like sleep, screen and camera control, trackpad and other input device drivers, and battery usage. To a lesser extent also peripheral support like printers and scanners.

I don't think it requires a larger time investment. It is really hard to remember how much time you've spent learning windows. Windows is easy not because it is so user friendly, but because you are so used to it.

A modern gnome these days is very user friendly and a lot of what you've learned can be applied there too. Things generally are quite straightforward, more so than on windows, at least on the happy path.

>Copy and paste was invented at Xerox PARC in the 1970s, and desktop Linux still hasn’t worked it out.

Not sure what you mean? In most app you can copy-paste with C-C C-V as on windows. Am I missing something?

I think their issue is that in standard Unix terminal you have to use Ctrl-Shift-C, since Ctrl-C is exit.

This isn’t an issue in Mac because you use the Cmd key instead of Ctrl for copy, so there is no overlap

Been feeling the same way for the past 15 years. Desktop Linux has certainly gotten better, but its not even at a Windows XP level of usability and feels remarkably stagnant.

After trying Linux on and off for 20 years, only to go back to Windows after a day or so, I feel it's finally usable enough that I ditched Windows a few months ago after using it for 25 years. Linux has come a long way and I'd argue it's much more usable than XP now.

Hah, Linux zealots downvoting I guess? Do not worry. Acually, I feel the same. Ive been tried serveral Linux desktop distros and always there is something annoying there, pissing me off. Im still on Win2003. For now im buying my time using very very nice Linux distro called AntiX. I run it as VM and browse shitty^Wmainstream webpages from it thro Xserver installed on Win2003. Not bad experience. If only mainstream webpages would not be so bloated. (Eating 2 cores and 3GB RAM).

As for Desktop Linux. I found only AntiX as only usefull distro for now.

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