User2288
There's plenty of problems with linux, most notably it is quite poor in terms of security compared to Windows, MacOS and especially GOS. However, I disagree with most of the points you mentioned:

1: Gnome has this, it just isn't an annoying popup like window and sits in the corner of the files app.
2: Ubuntu LTS handles this just fine.
3: I'm not sure what you mean by this exactly, I have remote drives mounted permanently on my Linux install. Secondary storage drives will also auto mount. Do you mean you have partitioned your main drive into two separate storage partitions and are having trouble getting them both to auto mount at boot?
4: Gufw works just fine
5: Both Mullvad and Proton have GUI clients, as well as many other providers. Which provider are you having this problem with?
6: Fstrim works just fine, and systemd should automate this.
7: This is admittedly a bit of a headache, as doing this will break dist upgrades, and most online tutorials, especially video ones, are severely outdated. If you know what your doing and understand the consequences, it can be done on almost any distro. I'm not sure why you'd need to do this however, the guided install works for pretty much all hardware now a days.
8: Yeah Linux uses swap partitions instead of a page file. It isn't dynamically sized and so it takes up a bit of extra hard drive space, so what?
9: Why do you want to do this? You can use symbolic links to bin if you really want to have the executable somewhere else, but it doesn't make much sense to me. It's going to be accessible to the rest of the system regardless of where it's stored. Portable Linux apps exist, and can be run in any directory if you give it execute permissions, and app images are happy to run anywhere.
10: This most commonly happens when users follow outdated or bad tutorials. It's a real problem for the Linux community, because only users who don't need the tutorials can recognize why they shouldn't follow them. Super valid complaint.
11: Pretty much the same as above. It's a new os, it takes time to learn. It's not helped by how fractured the distributions are. Many things just won't work the same as your workflow for Mac or Windows, and it's a real ordeal to try and force it to. In time, you'll learn the 'optimal' way of doing things in your preferred distro. It would be similar to switching between windows and Mac if you've been using one for ages, but with the added ability to totally break your entire OS with a few simple commands.
12: I disagree but to each their own :)
13 & 14: I don't really do any customization as I just want to open my computer and start working, but my understanding is there is lot's of UI customization you can do on most distros, though I believe gnome is a little lacking in that department.

User2288 Example:
when you copy a file, there is no popup window showing a progress bar of "file Copy"... apparently that's too tall an ask for linux.

Yes there is. Its not a garish stupid popup, but a progress icon at the top of the file manager (which is actually doing the copy). If you click on it, it expands to show you a breakdown of all of the different copy operations in progress.

Display scaling. Most distro's don't even have display scaling or have very blurry ones. Limitation of linux. Imagine that in 2022. Only a few distro's have a half decent option (Ubuntu, Zorin, Mint, POPos).

Set the resolution correctly and you won't need to scale.

mounting a partition permanently and having it show up in the right place. Good luck.

fstab file.

finding an app that gives you control over network traffic that is not command line.

Control over specific network traffic is a sensitive operation that should only be worked on by people who know what they're doing, which means that there is not ANY USE for a gui that does this. There is control for network interfaces and basic settings in every linux UI.

Most VPN clients are command line. You wanna change a servers? good luck. Command line.

You mean except if you actually install the UI for them?

Wanna optimize your SSD for trim? good luck.

fstab file.

Wanna setup a custom partition scheme and not go with default installation partitioning... good luck.

If you want to use custom partition scheme, you need to first understand how the filesystem works and what basics are expected. Once you get this figured out, its pretty trivial to set it up in the installer however is actually needed.

Wanna not use a swap partition and use a swap file instead? well... good luck.

fstab file.

want to install a software in a custom location? ..If you find out how let me know too.

If you install from your package manager, obviously it will install in the predetermined location. For everything else, just extract the archive wherever you like. For example, I have Android Studio located at /home/{my user name}/Programs/android-studio/

God forbid something breaks down. Good luck getting the support or finding the article to fix it.

If you want support, maybe you should PAY FOR A SUPPORT PACKAGE, like from Red Hat -- they sell support.

Every issue is a multiple hour or multiple day ordeal, before you can learn the solution.

And with windoze, after the better part of a week, you usually find out that there is NO solution.

General menu designs: bad

Hell of a lot better than the alternatives.

Despite the claims that "linux is Sooo customizable"... this is not so. Unless you wanna delve into config files that require programming level understanding.

You don't need programming level understanding to make changes in a documented configuration file. You need programming level understanding to WRITE THE PROGRAM. If you can't handle a little text file, then I'd suggest that you aren't qualified to make those changes at all, even with pretty buttons.

Wanna customize your start menu? You can't.

Lots of plugins for gnome to alter the way the menus are displayed. Note "Start" is only in windoze.

The list just goes on and on.

You can write a list as long as you like and it doesn't matter if its full of only nonsense.

a month later

Guys I don't wanna to go point by point and argue with you about any of this. I am well aware of most of the things you mentioned already.

Are you telling me that somehow "I didn't have a bad experience"? You really want to "disagree" with me that "I had a bad experience that made me just walk away"? ....Really?

Just FYI. I am a technical user and hardware technician, meaning, while I am not a sys admin, there is almost nothing I don't know how to do in windows. I have a deep understanding of how things work and where things are. I learned computers in DOS days, when there was no windows. So am quite comfortable with both command prompt and powershell.
I am also a programming student and know how to write code, and have actually received formal education in software as well as interface design (UI/UX).

So when I say menu and interface designs are "crap"in linux, I do know what I'm talking about. To explain why, I would need to write a 5000 word essay and do a full analysis to make my points. Which I'm not gonna do. I don't have the time to write that, and you don't have the time to read it. and I'm not here to argue.

I am not a linux fanboy nor am I a linux hater. I wholeheartedly ALWAYS recommend and push people to try to move to linux. The fact is we HAVE to do it if we want to be free from the corporate spy world. There simply isn't any other option at the moment. So I am not intending to push people away from linux, but I don't like it when fanboys give newcomers this impression that linux is "great" and it "just works". No it doesn't and you're in for some pain if moving to linux. You know what works? Windows and Mac. You should still do it (move to and learn linux), but know whats coming.

There are many MANY people out there who feel exactly as I do (bad experience moving to linux).
Basically if you are a totally nontechnical person who uses your computer for really basic things like just browser use, emails, looking at your photos., then you'll be just fine with linux.
But if you are a person that is somewhere in the range of slightly technical, intermidiate, or advanced user, you will have a terrible time moving to linux. It just can't be done quickly. you have to first learn how to do all the advanced things you need and find all alternative software (which takes a LOT of time, years) then you can move to linux.

To tell you about all my horror stories would take all day. But anyway.
My message to new comers: Learn linux, take the time, and expect a hard time.

Linux can be real pretty, but the beauty is only skin deep.

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    • Edited

    User2288 Are you telling me that somehow "I didn't have a bad experience"? You really want to "disagree" with me that "I had a bad experience that made me just walk away"? ....Really?

    Kindly notice that noone is arguing about your personal experience, but rather with your claims which are simply faulty and/ or factically wrong.

    So when I say menu and interface designs are "crap"in linux, I do know what I'm talking about.

    And this is exactly one of the few things when you are confusing fact with your opinion.

    When you say "there is 32 degrees outside" it can be a fact.
    When you say "it is shitty weather outside", it is an opinion.

    Please do not take it personaly (and don't mix experience with facts), this is just a discuss forum...

      [deleted]
      It is a fact that most non-beginner users switching to linux have a pretty bad time and have to move back to windows.
      Its also a fact that they are misled into this by linux promoters. I sure was.
      Don't take it personally. This is a discussion forum. And don't mix a discussion forum with a scientific "proof" forum and fact establishment authority.

        [deleted] Well ofcourse my friend! a statement such as "linux menu design is crap" is clearly an opinion and not a fact!

        I'm not saying any of what I said to argue or prove anything to anyone. Im just sharing my experience in case its helpful to someone else. I have no insistence that a single person should believe me. Don't believe me? np probpem just install linux and have go yourself.

        Obviously my list wasn't a complete and well written exposition. It was just a "off the top of my head" random list of pain points that pained me enough. The same thing might not pain someone else at all! So!

        My respects.

        My 2 cents: I am a technical person, working in IT industry all my life, and deal with Windows and Linux on daily basis.

        Whilst I am not a Linux guru, I was dealing with Linux since 2010, playing with different distros, both personal and corporate (Red Hat).

        Whilst Linux has a great concept and is, truly, an amazing operating system for specific needs, I feel it is still not polished well enough and not ready for majority of non-technical users, for home use (and I am sure, it will never be, unless industry big players will be interested in this).

        I always encourage people to try it themselves as everyone's standards are different, so please go ahead and try it - its a great OS and you might like it! Its fun to browse different distros and trying things for a change!

        However, my own personal opinion and experience is that Linux cannot compete with Windows in its functionality, user friendliness, experience and software availability. Yes, its far more private but privacy alone is not enough as a good OS should also be user friendly and offer great hardware support as well as industry-standard software packages at the very least.

        If you want to do basic things, like browsing websites or using basic apps installed from package manager, it might actually do the trick.

        But you will certainly face lots of issues if something stop working suddenly or if you try to do anything beyond using default config and apps, sometimes spending hours and hours in digging for a solution that ultimately might not work properly. Linux is not for a person who wants things to "just work" - it is for people who consistently spend their time in fixing, troubleshooting and fine tuning things. Its free but you pay with your time.

        Windows is much, much more better in almost all key areas for everyday use.

        For example, lets take a Linux file server. You can only configure 1 owner and 1 group access at a time. Which makes it impossible to, for example. grant Group A read and write permissions and Group B read-only permissions to a file. Its a very basic feature that still not available. In Windows file server you can create 10 different groups and assign different permissions to each file or folder.

        For personal use - no Microsoft Office (remember, if we care about privacy, then we should avoid online Office 365 at all costs but even online Office 365 is far less functional than the desktop app). LibreOffice and co. are far, far behind MS Office which is an industry standard.

        Adobe suite - no Photoshop, Illustrator and other essential tools. Gimp, Krita and others are far less productive vs their corporate competitors.

        For games - majority of AAA games are still not available, Linux does not utilize nVidia graphic cards properly.

        For music production - nothing to replace FL Studio, Cubase, Audition, etc. Audacity doens't even come close to Audition feature-wise.

        The list goes on and on.

        The software that is available for both Linux and Windows often lacks extra features in Linux version, etc.

        No proper font rendering, issues with nVidia drivers, Wayland and X11, Lots of hardware not supported properly or lacks functionality vs drivers on Windows.

        There is a very good article about current Linux flows, worth reading: https://itvision.altervista.org/why.linux.is.not.ready.for.the.desktop.current.html

        The other (major) issue is the community: unfortunately, most of the Linux community is quite toxic and often starts mocking people when they ask questions. Most community members have no in-depth knowledge about Linux themselves but yet do not hesitate to mock people who are asking questions as if they know better.

        Another issues with Linux community is that most Linux supporters refuse to admit any Linux flaws, idolizing the OS and going aggressive when someone criticizes the OS. They are good at mocking Windows and MacOS but never admit a single Linux flaw which is not rational to say the least as nothing is perfect and one cannot improve things if they don't want to see the flaws. Linux community does have that cult-like approach on things, unfortunately.

        The common excuses are: "Its not the OS, its nVidia that doesn't produce drivers. Its not the OS, its the hardware manufacturer that doesn't bother to write drivers for Linux, its not the OS, its the software vendor that is lazy to produce software for Linux, its not the OS, its the user who is dumb and doesn't want to spend 100s of hours digging and troubleshooting" and so on. All these funny arguments and mostly aggressive approach makes it very hard for new starters to jump in and start asking questions.

        Another major issue is that Linux development is a huge chaos. Linus Torvalds doesn't care about anything else but the kernel whilst each Linux community is focused on their own distro. As a result we have 100s of different distros, desktop environments, package managers, etc and each of them have their own issues.

        IMHO Linux community needs to come together and work on one single OS. In this case there will be a huge chance that all ongoing issues will be fixed and we will have an amazing OS, fully ready to replace Windows and MacOS for home users.

        Exactly.
        Exactly.
        Exactly.
        Exactly.
        Exactly.
        Exactly.
        Exactly.
        Exactly.

        Specially the chaos, and unpolished-ness, and the 100s of hours thing.

        See I didn't want to write a multi page essay. You've said everything I had to say.

        Not to mention, achieving privacy, app isolation, and security in linux I found quite more difficult than windows.

        I last tried switching to Linux years ago - never again. I agree with most Linux shortcomings that were mentioned here and I absolutely HATE the community - arrogant and very rarely helpful.
        Here is how switching to Linux works for most standard users without any admin or unix background:

        User: yeah, I'm going to ditch this summonabitch Windozzze! Yeah! FU bill gates!!! Welcome Linux!
        5 weeks later after trying to install 55 different distros - hmm, I need help
        goes to forums: guys, how do I ....do this or that or the other
        Forums: you moron, why do you need to this? this is not windozz
        user: but I need ....
        Forums: are you dumb? that's not how it's done! You open config subsystem then go sys/bin/space/galaxy then you insert with cat or v+ then you scale that file into oblivion with stretchy admin tools, then you compile for your architecture and done! All you have left is re-configure supporting packages that you can find in installation manager configuration of which is in another config file for this architecture but if you use multiple disks then you need to pre-partition and install symbolic links indicating led lights flashing in unison. Dont forget if you find instructions for v 0.0.3.1.1234.343 then you need skip the last paragraph of instructions but if version is 35.21.303.00.1343 then those instructions are good, you just need to replace second and third step with instructions for version 0.3334.145313.134123 - see! all easy clearly explained in tons of freely available information

        2 months later: user installs Windows back on and all is back to where it was but if user mentions anywhere that he had "bad experience", he will be "corrected" that he actually didnt and it's not "factual"

          [deleted] Kindly notice that noone is arguing about your personal experience, but rather with your claims which are simply faulty and/ or factically wrong

          HA HA HA HA this!!! Exactly this!

          [deleted] And this is exactly one of the few things when you are confusing fact with your opinion

          LOL

          User2288 It is a fact that most non-beginner users switching to linux have a pretty bad time and have to move back to windows.
          Its also a fact that they are misled into this by linux promoters. I sure was.
          Don't take it personally. This is a discussion forum. And don't mix a discussion forum with a scientific "proof" forum and fact establishment authority.

          No, it is most definitely NOT a "fact" that people switching to linux have a bad time. What is a fact is that it is a very different experience, and human psychology resists change.

            abcZ No, it is most definitely NOT a "fact" that people switching to linux have a bad time

            It is definitely a fact - I tried, did not like it, went back to windows - that's a fact as in factual as it did happen. I also know many friends who share the same fact. That is also a fact - they are my friends, I know them, they are real (LOL), they had bad experience with Linux, they went back to Windows - that's a fact. Whether my psychology resists a change or have a hard on most morning might also be facts or not, and they might even be related or contributing to my Linux experience similarly to alignment of the stars, or sun's intensity, or weather, or my health, or stock market performance but the fact remains - I and many of my friends had bad Linux experience.

            And this is the attitude I was referring to in my post LOL

              User2288 It is a fact that most non-beginner users switching to linux have a pretty bad time and have to move back to windows.

              I can see how it may seem like a fact that "most" are having the same experience as you. But you CANNOT know this. You cannot survey the entirety of linux users past and present to make that assessment.

              There is a huge selection bias for negative experience versus positive experience. When you post a negative experience, it's easy to get "confirmation" that your experience is the most common because of how people respond in forum comments. People with positive experiences, like me, have no incentive to respond. They are just seen as contrarian and argumentative, furthering the perception of a bad experience.

              It looks like I may have to step in here. This is a kind reminder to please keep things civil and friendly.

              Let's ask ourselves whether arguing about Linux, of all things, is worth any grief!

              If we cannot keep the conversation civil, I'll have to close the thread.