this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2024
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Just a heads up, it's not out of your skill set if you can operate Windows. If anything, it's usually easier if you don't want to do anything particularly technical. It requires relearning things (which you had to do for Windows too, and will again in the future), but if you don't understand something you search online or ask for help, like you're doing here. It turns out, you can't do everything you want with Windows, but you've grown accustomed to it. That's the difference. You have to grow to get used to anything new, even if it's "better" or "easier."
Turning off updates likely requires editing registries, which is far more technical than anything you'll need to do on Linux.
Last time I tried as trivial as changing a theme on linux, it broke my taskbar(idk what you call it in linux) and wouldn't respond at all. I looked for solutions online and couldn't find the solution as the forum threads keep closing before they arrive on a fix.
So I tried to fix it myself and changed to another theme. This theme doesn't have the same issue but somehow it breaks the only game I play which used to run just fine before.
And that's the last nail in the coffin for linux for me.
I don't know what went wrong for you, but personally when I last used Windows my taskbar (still called that on Linux BTW), crashed probably at least once a month, and I'd have to restart my computer to do anything because so much was connected together for no reason.
No operating system is perfect. I will always argue that Windows isn't easier though, you're just used to dealing with it's horrible issues. If you could learn to deal with Windows you can learn to deal with Linux. It's annoying having to learn something new, but I promise you it's worth it once you get settled. You can't go into it expecting it to be Windows, because it isn't, but if you go in with an open mind and a willingness to learn, it'll treat you better than Windows does.
The thing with windows is that you have gui for everything and can find video solutions on YT easily which often work.
With Linux, you can't get those as the user base is split in many different distros, DEs etc and much of the stuff you do is in terminal. Most of the time whenever I faced an issue, I would try to fix it with a solution I find which it would require another application and running that application causes another issue. I had this many times and only rarely fixed the issues I faced.
I had issues with starting with display colour calibration, speaker sound and any application that isn't Linux native even if I got it from the Package Manager/Appcenter.
There is not a GUI for everything on Windows. There is for a lot of it though, for better or worse. There usually a GUI on most Linux DEs as well, but the answer you'll see online often involves the console because it's easily shared and you can just copy/paste it and it's universal usually. The GUI option requires long tutorials with images telling you where to click. It's not an improvement. You're just following a guide not understanding it either way, but the console option is much faster. A GUI is good for applications you understand, but just solving a problem you don't understand a GUI is cumbersome.
And yeah, having people split has its issues, but that's what happens when people get a choice. There's a similar problem between Windows versions too, but Windows 10 has been dominant for a while now so all answers are for that.
You will run into issues, but you have to learn where to look for answers. You've had this with Windows too (like the OP here). You just view the issues you've had with Windows differently. You've learned to deal with it gradually over time, where switching to Linux you'll have it largely all at once at first as you set things up for the first time and get used to the change. It's a big change, but you can handle it. You've dealt with worse already.
Also, don't be afraid of the console. It isn't particularly scary, except you just haven't used something like it before I guess. It just requires using a keyboard. You use "man [package name]" for the manual. There's also a fantastic package called TLDR that is similar to man but much shorter and only contains the things you'll frequently be looking for. I highly recommend it if you try Linux again. It may help.