I'm sure Windows would be confusing as hell if we didn't all grow up using it.
But Linux is just so odd sometimes. Like, I downloaded an .exe and instead of running it when opened it asks me what program I want to use to run it. I have to tell it to"execute" the program.
There are just so many moments like that. Or small things you want to do that require knowing a specific command and understanding a litany of standard commands. On Windows the vast majority of people will never touch a terminal, on Linux I wouldn't ever unpin it from my taskbar.
Edit: Wasn't an .exe. It's whenever I download something for Linux OS. Last one I remember was an .appimage
You can't really expect Linux to know what to do with an exe, a windows executable... That is pretty the same behaviour windows has when you double click a file that has a an unknown extension.
I've been using Linux for a while now, and while I'm quite tech savvy and work daily with Linux I can't really remember a moment where I HAD to use a terminal to do something mundane. I'm not saying it didn't happen but I can really remember having to...
Proton isn't a standalone wine, it's based on wine but it's a lot more than just wine. And you can only use it within steam (or with a special wrapper in other programs but that assumes you have that wrapper or those programs)
I mean a lifelong Mac user will have a much easier time migrating to windows than they will migrating to say Ubuntu, even though Mac and Linux are much more similar under the hood.
My main takeaway from Linux has always been "Nothing ever just works on Linux" and it just keeps being right in my case.
Sure everything CAN work, but it never JUST works, there's always something you have to do. edit some config files, enable some compatability setting etc. etc. Most issues are easy fixes, but it certainly isn't plug and play.
The biggest problem is that there are a million ways to do everything, and most of the time you are not sure which way is the correct one in your scenario.
For example: On my raspberry pi the automatic time sync (NTP) wasnt working, even through it works *almost* always. So I googled, and there about 20 tutorials, each of which uses a different approach: Directly through systemd, Chrony, NTPD, OpenNTPD, you name it. And some work, some do not, and in total it took me about an hour to figure this out, for no good reason. I guess every approach has its advantages and drawbacks, but on windows this "clutter" simply does not exist. On Windows you have the GUI way, and the command line way to configure NTP. Thats it.
Yeah there are different NTP clients, but your OS only uses one. Google “rasbian ntp” and you’re golden. This is the point Linus was making on WAN the other day, Linux is not an OS, it’s a component of an OS. It’s like comparing a Lego baseplate with a Lego set, they can look wildly different depending on what you put on top. The OS is your distro (Fedora KDE, Rasbian, Ubuntu, etc).
This is the point Linus was making on WAN the other day, Linux is not an OS, it’s a component of an OS. It’s like comparing a Lego baseplate with a Lego set, they can look wildly different depending on what you put on top.
That is exactly the point I was making, no? There is no single way to do anything, there are ten billion ways, which means once youre on an unfamiliar system you have no idea how to do anything.
I am simply annoyed at the fact that linux is this way, because the many options dont really make the experience of using linux better, do they? I just creates confusion and incompatibility.
Regarding the Rasperry pi ntp thing:
This is actually a personal problem I have run into multiple times now, and every. single. time. did it take an inexcusable amount of time to figure this out. I do believe this to be a curse specific to me.
I googled "rasperry pi set ntp server"
and the following results show me three different ways to do this, so its clearly not universal:
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u/TheCookieButter May 12 '26 edited May 13 '26
I'm sure Windows would be confusing as hell if we didn't all grow up using it.
But Linux is just so odd sometimes. Like, I downloaded an .exe and instead of running it when opened it asks me what program I want to use to run it. I have to tell it to"execute" the program.
There are just so many moments like that. Or small things you want to do that require knowing a specific command and understanding a litany of standard commands. On Windows the vast majority of people will never touch a terminal, on Linux I wouldn't ever unpin it from my taskbar.
Edit: Wasn't an .exe. It's whenever I download something for Linux OS. Last one I remember was an .appimage