I never do any of that. I’m sure a lot of non IT people don’t either. At best they’d get an app to do specialised tasks for them. Sadly too many gatekeepers tell people considering Linux, they must use the command line. But I never use it. So that’s clearly not true for normal users.
People do use it differently. I never use the CLI on Windows or Linux. I’m not in IT. I just do everyday user things. Many of which don’t even have a CLI command.
Yes it is possible. I never need the terminal. If you are interested, you can usually find a GUI way if you look for one. Some people just don’t look, then tell people there is no GUI for it. Not very helpful for newbies.
For those not into usability, different people work in different ways. Visual workers are not the same as text workers. So for some, CLI has poor usability and productivity. For lots of things I do, there isn’t a CLI anyway.
I use Kubuntu these days. It could be better.
It’s in our interest to have good usability to encourage Linux use for a broader range of people. Mounting needs to be discoverable, and done in a few clicks. Command line, and typing magic words into fstab is a definite no-no for people who never work that way for everything else they do.
The strange thing is, why did KDE miss this critical step for backups?
I’m looking for a solution that non IT users can easily do.They will not discover that, or know exactly what to type in. This is something that should be very easy for people. It really needs a setting or command in a Dolphin menu.
Plasma apps don’t navigate to network shares. So backup sync is not possible for non IT people. Even though Dolphin can easily access those shares. No backup is quite a showstopper. There is no easy way to permanently mount shares either.
I just bought a new laptop that presumably had Win 11 on it. I just booted onto a USB stick and installed Linux (Kubuntu) over it. Next is to use Gparted to wipe any recovery partition and get the wasted space back.
Just for historical info: This has been available in Gimp for a very long time. It was there for several years before Adobe copied it, and added it to Photoshop. This sort of thing tends to get forgotten.
Many will already have a running Windows system. And running an app is an every day task for people not experienced in IT matters. Setting up and booting into a live image involves several steps completely foreign to many people. Maybe not to you. But there is a massive difference. These things matter if you’ve never done it before. Barriers like that are putting people off installing Linux.
WUBI did it really well. It got a lot of people on to Linux.
It has been done before despite reasons.
Not for those who are not sure about Linux. Installing an app and launching it, is a familiar task and quick to do, to take a look. No need get a usb stick and do unfamiliar steps right just then.
Then if Linux looks good, and you want to keep it, now you have the motivation to sort out how to install it. It’s a different task.
Many people don’t do that, because they dont know what Linux looks and feels like. So they won’t install it.
WUBI did a good job of that.
Middle paste, like many features, can be used to increase productivity. It’s normal. A better question would be why doesn’t Windows have it? It makes no sense to dumb down Linux to the level of Windows, just when people are leaving Windows because the user experience is so bad. Sure, make it an option in Settings. So people can continue to use it if they want. But there are many things worth utilising to save clicks on both Windows and Linux. Get to know them, if you want to get on with things.
Yes I have no interest in having a browser in the way. But 2 things. Firstly CATIA in a browser is just the same CATIA running on a remote PC somewhere. It’s the same program. And secondly, as longvas the UI looks and works the same, with no delays, then it’ll be fine. Sure you can’t use it when your wifi or Internet is down or slow, or the provider has power or Internet issues. And your customer is not a military or super secrecy case. But its clearly expecting to find a market.
I use commercial CAD. CATIA for car bodies. There is no FOSS alternative that comes close for my work. But the light at the end of the tunnel is, many CAD systems, including CATIA, are going web based. So users just need a browser on any OS. And the back end can be what it wants.
Its nice to hear about even more ways that Gimp is better than Photoshop.
Constructive criticism is good. I hope you reported bugs. Just saying you hate it, or it sucks, says more about you than the software.
Because Linux had a choice of desktop environments to try out. What a playground.
My first peek was with Wubi. >2008 ish? Then Knoppix had a live boot. Then all the other live boots followed. Very important easy first step.
I’m now on Plasma, tweaked to suit me.
I too am very cautious of getting stuck with Linux. I try to be sure I’m not doing things the hard way. I have found easy distros and easy ways to do most things in Linux despite many people suggesting I do it the IT pro way that they do. Usually because they haven’t investigated easy ways for non IT users. They mean well, but don’t know about usability or if there us an easy way.
So the requirement is to display information, such in the examples I gave. Where you can create new, edit existing ones, organise them in your preferred structure, and actively share them. All without doing unnecessary IT operations. All in one UI environment.
I need a good DE for launching apps and switching tasks. As a mouse user I found Gnome poor in launching apps. Huge mouse movements needed, and hard to lay out the launcher apps as I need them compared to Plasma. Id consider Gnome if I found a suitable replacement launcher. It would need favourites, category navigation and search.