undefined | Better HN

0 pointsnottheengineer2y ago0 comments

This is a big part of what made me start using linux. On windows, there's a new way to do basic stuff all the time and they screw around with menus that work perfectly well just to have something new.

That means that any tutorials will quickly get outdated and you can spend half your mental capacity just keeping up with this crap. The amount of times I googled how to do something in MS office, clicked an article from half a year ago and found that one of the options it mentions doesn't exist anymore is too damn high.

Things are nice on linux, especially the CLI world. You learn a little program once and use it for decades without thinking about it.

0 comments

mvdtnz2y ago

As always with Linux it depends on which distribution you're on but that hasn't been my experience at all with distributions like Ubuntu and Mint. I used Ubuntu back when the close, maximise and minimise buttons were on the top right and they moved them right from under me. I've tried to adjust to using flat packs but struggled with their very serious limitations while programs I rely on are no longer available in other package types. I have seen them see-saw between the horrible global menu and window menus, make wholesale changes to areas of the settings screen like display settings and mouse and trackpad settings. And I don't even know how many wildly different iterations of that horrible main menu application selector UI I have had to suffer through.

gnramires2y ago

I use MATE, an old desktop environment descendant from GNOME 2. If I apply the principle of "It should last at least about as long as it's been around...", I can hopefully use it in peace :) (It'll probably look the same in another 20 years!)

I really don't see the benefit of almost anything else that came later (I did add an app launch shortcut that I rarely use). I also autohide most of the UI by default (bars and menus), so it's just there to do its basic function and allow me to focus. Performance is excellent.

That said, I think the main difference is mostly from community-focused development, it tends to bring out genuine usability concerns (which is why I think most *nix DEs work fine).

flukus2y ago

I've been through all the ups and downs around Ubuntu and gnome, but at least those changes generally happen at a time of my choosing too. I don't go to a commonly used app one day to do something quick only to find the entire UI was updated overnight.

Of course even the cli world has had it's changes though, systemd alone made decades of documentation obsolete.

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK2y ago

As an older person, CLI is unusable. It is impossible to memorize all the switches, need to consult chatgpt at every step. I paid my dues to the CLI gods in my miniVAX days.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse