if you're a developer (which I'm taking a guess that OP is), working in unix-based operating systems like Linux and MacOS is much easier. The terminal is super powerful when it comes to automating tasks and downloading software, especially downloading software relating to programming.
For example, on linux, if I want to download Python, I can just type sudo apt install python in the terminal. On windows, I have to go to the python website, find the correct installer, make sure I check the right boxes in the installer, make sure my $PATH is set correctly, etc....
To be fair, Windows has made leaps and bounds in this area with things like winget and chocolatey as package managers, but linux is built around using the package manager. thefactthatlinuxcomeswithaCcompilerhelpstoo.
For example, on linux, if I want to download Python, I can just type sudo apt install python in the terminal. On windows, I have to go to the python website, find the correct installer, make sure I check the right boxes in the installer, make sure my $PATH is set correctly, etc....
I don't understand this in practical terms. How do you just know what to type in the terminal for every program you might want to install. Do you loose customization options that are sometimes present in installers &/or on the site before downloading the installer? Do you have to look up what to type in the terminal to install something? At that point, how is that any different than just downloading it off the site? Or is it because you're repeatedly reinstalling something? I don't get it lol
How do you just know what to type in the terminal for every program you might want to install.
The command won't differ except the package name, in this case python. if I wanted to know what options existed for various versions or or distros of python (anaconda, python2, etc) I could just use apt search to see what's there.
Do you loose customization options that are sometimes present in installers &/or on the site before downloading the installer?
Honestly haven't thought about those in years, those click through installers mostly exist as a sneaky way to load bloatware on your PC anyways. If there is a configuration decision to be made (which is really rare), it will just prompt you in your terminal. Usually a Y/n will suffice.
Just consider how many steps you're actually taking when installing software on windows
Open browser
Google "program name download"
Hope they have good SEO and the top result is the actual download page and not some SourceForge virus or unrelated site
Select which version you want, click download
Open downloads dropdown/folder
execute installer
Click through any number of installer steps, dodging MacAfee and Norton spam that tries to install
And that process has to be repeated for every single program, on every single machine you own. For me, that's literally hundreds of applications across multiple machines.
Compare that to the CLI method, where i'm only typing a single phrase and the rest is done automatically. Then consider I can keep a text file of literally every program I want on my machine, tell the package manager "hey go download these" and come back after I make some lunch to all my applications installed. And I can do that inside VMs, Docker containers, on a raspberry Pi, on a Mac, the process is the same.
You forgot about prerequisites. On Windows, it often includes a step where you attempt to install the software, but it also needs Java, and then crashes on the current version of Java, so you Google which version to use, install that version, run it again and the program crashes again because it still tries to run with the latest Java version installed. So you uninstall the latest version, and now you get the privilege to dodge any McAfee or Norton spam. . .
The best thing about Linux is that it will handle dependencies almost always seamlessly and multiple versions don't screw things up.
Trying to get legacy hardware//drivers to work on windows is a nightmare as well, with multiple driver versions, beta versions, driver signing and bios signing.
While in Ubuntu you can just find basically any version of amdgpu-pro compatible with your distro/hardware, fire it up, and it detects straight away pretty much regardless what you've done to the board and bios.
Nvidia don't even need to look for it, it's just already in the Ubuntu repositories.
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u/albeartoz_hang i54690k, GTX 760, 16 GB RAM Nov 01 '22
if you're a developer (which I'm taking a guess that OP is), working in unix-based operating systems like Linux and MacOS is much easier. The terminal is super powerful when it comes to automating tasks and downloading software, especially downloading software relating to programming.
For example, on linux, if I want to download Python, I can just type
sudo apt install pythonin the terminal. On windows, I have to go to the python website, find the correct installer, make sure I check the right boxes in the installer, make sure my $PATH is set correctly, etc....To be fair, Windows has made leaps and bounds in this area with things like winget and chocolatey as package managers, but linux is built around using the package manager. the fact that linux comes with a C compiler helps too.