Linux

I have a love/hate relationship with Linux.  I love the idea of it but I hate the reality.  Time and time again one thing recurs in my experience - how easy it is to break Linux.  Now I don't mean 'break' as in hacking or cracking I just mean it in the literal sense, as in to break it and make it unusable.

I have deleted xorg by accident, I have corrupted it by accident.  I have played around with the Synaptic Package Manager and removed certain things and added others.  There are various ways I have made it become unusable.  Unlike Windows however many of the distributions I listed don't have the same user-friendly recovery tools as Windows.

To date, I have tried:
Ark
Fedora
Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu
Mandriva
aLinux
Knoppix
OpenSUSE
Linux Mint
DEFT Linux

I am convinced there are others that I haven't listed but have tried, I have lost track of how many I have tried. The main gripe I have with Linux is that inevitably the terminal is inescapable.  Windows users will know this as the command prompt and while in the World of Windows you can quite happily exist without ever having to use it, you will sooner or later have to use it in Linux.

Linux has improved in recent years but simple tasks like installing Flash can be a headache.  Often you will find yourself Googling the answer then blindly copying and pasting commands from some random website you aren't even 100% sure you can trust.  Beyond flash, installing almost anything becomes equally as cumbersome.  You can't just download an 'exe' file and double click it.  You need to download package files, often with dependencies leading to other packages you need to download and install first.  The files themselves aren't always executable you have to make them executable which is counter intuitive, and again leads to the aforementioned Googling and blindly following instructions.

There is an xkcd comic strip 'workaround' and the quote:

However, I've learned an important lesson: if they say they've solved their problem, never ask how

This is my view of Linux.  I use Windows.  It works for me.  Linux is akin to the relative you encouraged to solve the problem themselves.  Their method seems convoluted and counter-intuitive.  I am slowly learning not to bother even asking.  I dip into Linux every now and then to see how it is progressing but I inevitably leave and return to Windows for one reason, it is built with abstraction, you do not need to know how it works, it just does.  I hear the Mac Fanbois scream at this comment and yes I accept this is Apple's phrase of choice but I would argue Linux, Windows and Mac form a scale.

Mac is designed for people with complete ignorance to the underlying technology in mind.  Linux is designed with complete understanding of the underlying technology in mind.  Windows is designed with the intention that no understanding is needed and the majority of users do fine without any understanding.  Windows makes the provisions for those who want to have a greater understanding and provides access to many advanced features for those who are knowledgeable on the platform.

The three platforms seem firmly routed in their places and it appears not one would like to move.  In my mind Linux will always be a Geek Operating System and it will remain that way.  The annoying people are those opinionated people who move from one to the other and try to convince everyone to move, oblivious to this scale.

This blog post is by no means any attempt to dissuade or move anyone from their platform of choice.  I am simply stating my reasons for not moving.  I am sure there are many out there on platforms other than Windows who would have a long list of complaints about Windows and reasons why their platform is 'better'.  To me you are the relative that has their own system, it works for you, but it's not for me.  That statement is by no means a statement of animosity as I am perfectly confident that you probably think of me in the same way.