“I don’t want to learn something new, therefore Windows is better.”
Wouldn’t that have been easier to type than all that filler?
If you’d actually read it, you’d see that I’m not a stranger to Linux. Being familiar with it doesn’t fix how unintuitive and unsupported it is.
I maybe booted up Linux three or four times over the years
I’m not a stranger to Linux
🤔
Which is more than 90% of people who’ve ever used a computer. I built the computer and set up the dual boot partition and installed both Linux and Windows, why I felt like I needed Linux I don’t know. I never used it because 100% of the software I use was exclusive to Windows. What few apps did run on Linux at the time were remarkably easier to install on Windows. I think the only reason I had it on there was when I built that computer I was learning to code, but stopped bothering with that shortly after.
Yeah, anybody who says Linux is easy to use has never spent four hours troubleshooting a printer driver, only to discover that the open source driver doesn’t actually support your specific model of printer and you’re going to be forced to boot into Windows to print anything.
Cross-compatibility is improving, but the “Linux is easy” crowd is really just overcompensating for how unintuitive it actually is. The problem with telling everyone “it’s easy” to get them to try it is that if it’s not easy then people immediately give up and go back to Windows as soon as they can’t figure something out. It’s falsely representing the reality of the situation, which is only self-sabotaging in the long term because it means fewer people will be willing to adopt and actually stick with it.
printer driver
Being that all printers are evil incarnate, that’s not a good example. You’re right on getting some things to work in Linux (although newer versions are much better than they used to be), but printers in Windows can be a nightmare too. The only two printers I never had issues with - an Okidata dot matrix printer for my C-64, and a HP 5P laser that I used with Win98 (remember when popping in a Win98 CD for drivers would fix almost everything?)
Obviously I disagree with your main point, but, considering I have been a Linux only user (in my personal life) for over a decade, it’s only natural that I would consider it easy to use and intuitive, as such, I won’t even try to argue against that assertion.
With that said, if you want to make a point against something just working, you may want to choose something other than printers as evidence of how bad Linux is. Printers are universally terrible on every OS.
Anecdotally, I have had far fewer issues with printers on Linux than I have had with printers on Windows. But, most of the “tech support” I do for printers is from people who are arguably tech illiterate and using Windows. So, I’d again consider that a wash that doesn’t really add weight to either side of the argument.
tl;dr: printers are universally terrible and we should all stop using them anyway
I don’t know what printer you have, but I’ve had the exact opposite experience. I don’t remember how I eventually got it working, but printing on windows was a lot more effort than transferring the files to mac or linux, which just worked out of the box.
It’s been like that for some other miscellaneous devices like a playstation 3 controller and this old usb floppy drive I once needed.
I help organizing events a few times a year. The administration needs a working printer hooked up to a laptop at each event. For more than a decade now, setting up the printer to work with a Windows laptop has always taken at least an hour, sometimes 2 or 3.
Yeah, printers are a pain. That’s as true on Linux as it is on Windows. I sometimes think that printer drivers are designed specifically to screw with customers on all OSes.
EDIT: Oh, forgot to mention the most “fun” part, when the printer mysteriously malfunctions mid event and needs to be urgently trouble-shooted.
