Why? What would I want to have the folder for? I never had it with any OS I ran. It’s either in the documents, or I’d create my own directory with the name I want. I have different types of projects, so I’d prefer organising my directories myself.

I wasn’t sure the fuck this directory keeps appearing in my home, kept removing it over and over again. Can I disable that?

No worries! I’m happy I’ve got some feedback, as I’m not sure what to do. After I completely switched to Linux (from macOS, fwiw), I am pretty sure Linux can replace a home system for most people. Except some having very unique very niche software. Some of which can be easily run either with Wine or even a VM, if it’s needed occasionally and the hardware allows. Or dual-boot, if the hardware doesn’t allow a VM. I know it’s not really useful to dual boot, as that’s how I tried to migrate to Linux 20 years ago. Back then, though, I had pretty long periods of not booting Windows.

Today, one of the teachers asked me about Krita being installed, whether that’s some default Linux app. I told him I downloaded it. (Pretty randomly, they don’t need it there at the school.) He does some photo editing after hours, so he knows Photoshop. He was impressed it’s very similar in its interface and functionality too.

I mean, I’m very sure most of the workflows are good with Linux, and it’s just superior, aesthetically wise too, which wasn’t the case for many years, unless you’d want to theme it heavily. But it looks like either there’s a more efficient strategy, or each case must be targeted individually. Say, if I’d hire people to do some office-type job with the computers, they’d have no say in their OS. It would either be Linux, or macOS if they’d need any special software unavailable with Linux. Eg graphic design, I’m not sure Linux is good enough here. However, I’m doing my best to try doing it with Linux. Not as bad as I expected it to be, by the way. If there’s a workflow with Windows, like 3D something or CAD, I’m not sure. I’d try to force Linux, but theoretically, I’d allow that person to have Windows for that. I remember I worked at one advertising agency almost two decades ago, and everyone had Macs, and only one 3D guy had a beefy PC with 3Ds Max. He was mostly chilling while waiting for his renders.

Saying that, not every situation is alike, and I see no proper way of people switching to Linux, unless they are interested themselves. Or they are forced and have no say in this.

Thanks, I think I may try again some other time, when I’d explore theming. I have never tried (and needed) my system to look like Windows, as even when I used Windows itself, I was making it a mix of the best things from macOS and Linux. Here, I surely made a mistake of not hiding the attempt and showing them the modern Gnome, which is pretty simple for a newcomer. A non-techie friend installed Fedora Workstation (to be precise, Silverblue) once, and in general was very positive about his impressions.

Also, an interesting thing about tech support: I’m much more qualified with Linux than they are with Windows. And I’m able to help them adapt, by investing inadequate time (like an hour or two a day, if needed), asking nothing in return. Yet, people are not willing to try, perhaps they are afraid, or have some stereotypes of Linux maybe.

What if that’s they don’t care, as they’re the evil empire.

It reminded me that scene in Andor (2022) in the first season, episode 9, ‘nobody’s listening’ the protagonist says they’re not listening to prisoners as they don’t care, so much they don’t believe they can lose their domination. You have to be in the context of the show (which I highly recommend, if you like the Star Wars universe) to get the reference. But I think that could be the case here.

Microsoft may not care, not because they know something, but rather the opposite. Them being pedo oligarchs not really caring much. Perhaps they’re still into the illusion Linux is some very niche thing for dorks.

I have an interesting story about it (I’d write it in my blog, it’s somewhat long). If in a few words, at my kid’s school, they (a few teachers) have a very old PC that struggles with Windows (also, It’s HDD there), so I reinstalled Linux there. Prior, I asked what they use. ‘Not much really’ was the reply, and so I explored, and diagnosed it’s just browser (which was obsolete and couldn’t be updated), Word, and Explorer (files manager). Not much else.

Sure thing, Linux can do all of them many times better!

I picked Fedora Silverblue (that’s the atomic version with Gnome) thinking it’s so much better than the KDE version, as it’s simpler. It’s not more complex than Chrome OS. My mistake, even advertising it as a macOS (good, right?) clone did not help, they were terrified. The very next day I rebased it to KDE, and applied some Windows 11 theme. It was very similar in its looks. They said ‘OK, we’d try to use it’ but the very next day they asked me to bring their system back. (I never erased it, just swapped their HDD with my SSD.)

I gave up, perhaps quite quickly, but I have no resources to push them at the moment. For you to understand, their computer switched from being very noisy to being so silent I was asking (every day while it was with Linux, like 3 or 4 days in total) whether it’s on or not. Back to Windows, and it’s super noisy back again. The difference was night and day. Right now, the machine boots within like 5 minutes. A couple of minutes to desktop, and a few minutes for it to become usable. With the SSD and Linux, half a minute tops. And when it’s booted, it’s pretty much instant.

• browser is the same, but updated
• Word is Libre Office Writer, which is simpler. They don’t use it heavily, so it should work for them. I set it to save the files as docx. The icon is from MS Word.
• file manager is many times simpler visually, yet million times more advanced. A Linux user would surely know the difference, especially given Microslop did theirs in Electron, lol.

Yet, they were afraid of Linux. Perhaps, my mistake was stressing that. Maybe I should have Only Office installed (is it more alike? Haven’t used it for many years), and invest some time into tuning the theme to be identical, it had some minor difference. And tell them that’s Windows 11, and I just updated their system. I don’t know. Their concern was they didn’t know how to work with it, not even trying. I explicitly offered to babysit them for a few days, to help them adapt, but they refused.

Perhaps, I should have tried Zorin, if it’s more similar visually. But I have no experience of it, so I’m not sure.

Apart from that, I believe Linux is more than ready to be a desktop OS, it has everything needed, or almost everything. Only some software is lacking, I’d say.

Pimp it is then!

Oh yeah, it does help indeed. After I got used to Gimp, I don’t think I’d ever want to open Photoshop. For my personal tasks that’s 100%.

Why not just do a sticker there? What an inefficient approach!

Thanks for letting us know. I was thinking of getting a used Galaxy S9 or S10 for a degoogled Lineage OS phone. Now, it looks like the Pixels are the only modern phones that are compatible with this. That’s a pretty sad state of affairs, I’d say.

The less options, the better for a new person to jump in. Modern Gnome is a DE I can recommend everyone. ‘It’s like Mac but simpler,’ I advertise it. I like it even as a pro user, though. But even if we, the pro users, couldn’t work with it, that’s okay. Many pro users hate modern Gnome, and use other environments. But having one with limited options and an opinionated design hurts nobody, and helps a lot. I can install it for an elderly parent or a friend, and they can use it without much assistance, as it’s not very far from their tablet or smartphone.

My bet is that there’s some weirdly complex things that become too niche edge cases that are difficult to transfer.

My opinion is when your logic becomes too complicated, maybe you want to have some sort of custom software. But, on the other hand, I understand that if it works already, there’s no need to break it either.

And I’d say that was an interesting read, as someone who’s long in the game, so I cannot install the thing for the first time again. I hope your post would inspire someone else to try waters too.

I second this. When I came to the world of Linux almost 20 years ago, it was different. Games were mostly non-existent, interfaces were mostly super ugly (but tolerable), and things did not work quite often. To solve these issues, I developed a pretty solid base of knowledge that helps me in my day to day work, and life too. I just understand things much better, I guess. All that thanks to Linux. These days Linux, I’d say it just works. I run Fedora at home, and apart from some inconveniences, it was rock solid and very easy. A cherry on top, our shared home computer is mostly HTPC serving media to the huge screen, running Kodi on top of Gnome. And it has no keyboard attached! Which is fine, Gnome is quite manageable with just a mouse. I bet it would manageable the other way around, with just a keyboard.