• hddsx@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    Hi, I’m a programmer. Most of my classmates didn’t know how to use Linux.

    Now, I’ve realized that newer products are being developed via Visual Studio so……

    Linux and command line knowledge aren’t the same as being tech savvy

    • yoshisaur@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      linux can be used through mostly GUI now so i partly agree with you, but installing linux can be quite a hard task for those who aren’t tech savvy. i’m pretty sure being able to do the following can be considered tech savvy:

      1. change boot settings
      2. flash an ISO to a USB drive
      3. shrink windows partition into a new one for linux
      4. boot from USB
      5. actually install linux
      6. get used to linux

      Edit: the thing is… everyone is so used to things being pre-installed (ie windows/macOS/iOS), being able to download apps easily from the apple App Store. anything even slightly more complicated than that is too hard for them. i’ve had a graphic design class with some people a few years ago and some of them had to ask me for help for how to open a file, save, and export. if something isn’t completely, 100% automated for them, they can’t do it.

      • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        Can you not order Ubuntu on a DVD anymore? Also you’re explaining dual boot. You can just single boot linux

        • yoshisaur@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          i’m not sure. most people at my school use a laptop at their main computer, so they couldn’t use an ubuntu DVD anyways. i personally prefer dual boot over single boot

          • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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            2 months ago

            … did everyone remove the media drive off laptops? There are also external media drives.

            • pmc@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              2 months ago

              New laptops don’t have optical drives. I don’t think there’s a single manufacturer that still has them.

              Hell, most new computer cases (much to my chagrin) don’t even have 5 1/4" bays.

            • AlternateRoute@lemmy.ca
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              2 months ago

              I think it has been probably more than 5 years since I have seen an optical drive on a new laptop.

      • emax_gomax@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Well installing it. That alone requires a challenge most folks probably couldn’t overcome easily. People are accustomed to just getting a computer with a working os on it. Changing that os would be pretty hard for them.

        • doctortran@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          And let’s be real, you at least need a degree of tech savvy to deal with the inevitable issues that will come up. Even on the simplest distro.

          • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
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            2 months ago

            IDK, only times when I broke things on Debian were when I made the unwise decisions to do things I don’t fully understand (that doesn’t really happen now). And my elderly mom uses Mint with less problems than she did Windows.

        • piccolo@ani.social
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          2 months ago

          Depending on the distro, its generally no harder than windows… infact it probably easier since you dont have to go make an MS account.

          • emax_gomax@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I mean buying a usb, installing imaging software, not messing up the drive your try to create the installer on. That’s already a lot harder than most tech illiterate people that just need to buy a computer.

      • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        It’s a different paradigm for windows users. “Why won’t this exe/msi install on my computer?”

        But also, once you realize the unlimited potential to customize it’s pretty special. I, for one, hate using anything without a tiling windows manager.

          • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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            2 months ago

            Red hat based? Install the RPM. Debian based? Install the deb, generally? Install from the repository. You can also install from source if you’d like

              • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                You don’t generally download the file like you would an exe or MSI on windows. Rather you enter a command line that tells Linux to connect to the repository (like an app store) of that particular type of Linux, pull the latest installation file and install it.

                You can still download the file and install it directly, but it’s not a straightforward double click like on windows.

                  • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world
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                    2 months ago

                    There are GUI wrappers that issue the equivalent commands for you, but a lot of Linux users would just write something like this on the command line:

                    sudo apt install vlc

                    That’s how you would install VLC (media player) on Debian linux without any prior file download or browsing. It connects to the Debian repository for you, downloads and installs.

              • bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net
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                2 months ago

                Well yeah this is like asking an oboe player how they control pitch, and they respond “different embouchure is the universal way to do it, but adjusting the reed is the best way”

                Go look it up if you don’t know what the terms mean

              • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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                2 months ago

                Look in the OS provided “App Store” first - GUI or not, your choice.

                Can’t find what you’re looking for? Look for a TRUSTED alternative App Store source. Then check the App Store again.

                Still can’t find it? Look to see if there is a package available that your OS can recognize (different based on what flavor of Linux you’re running)

                Still can’t find it? See if you can find the code to build the dang thing yourself.

          • imecth@fedia.io
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            2 months ago

            Installing things on linux is generally the same as phones. There’s a shop-like GUI where you can look up your applications and get them, they’ll also update automatically.

            If the software isn’t in your distribution repository, that’s when it starts to be like windows, you need to hunt it down and either get an appimage or something like that, or build and compile it yourself.