this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
440 points (99.3% liked)

Technology

74073 readers
2818 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] communism@lemmy.ml 33 points 22 hours ago (18 children)

I think the point about convenience is more about familiarity than Windows being inherently easier. Speaking as someone who switched from Linux to Windows previously, I found the change very difficult as a lot of the FOSS software I was using didn't have Windows versions. I had a nightmare trying to read one of my LUKS-encrypted drives on Windows. I was practically using WSL for everything. That's not that Windows is inherently harder than Linux; it's just that I was used to Linux and the FOSS ecosystem, just as some are used to Windows and their proprietary ecosystem.

If your hardware isn't working properly, you have to find drivers that run on Linux; if the developer never made Linux-compatible drivers, you have to figure something else out.

Most drivers come pre-installed with the Linux kernel or your distro—I never had to manually install any drivers for my current hardware. Compared to Windows where you will have to go out of your way to install graphics drivers for NVIDIA or AMD depending on your graphics card, if you want to make the most out of your card's capabilities.

Installers made for Windows don't need any special TLC; you double-click them and they work.

See, I think if you've used Linux for any length of time you'd quickly find the system of package managers way easier than the system of having to hunt down an .exe on the internet, guess whether or not it's a legit copy or if it's malware, and manually manage updates for all the different software you have installed.

I agree that people stay on Windows out of convenience, but it's not convenience as in Windows is inherently easier, but it's convenience as in you're used to the way things work on Windows. Because in my perspective, things do "just work" on Linux, and that's because I'm used to the way things work here.

[–] otacon239@lemmy.world 12 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

The first time I updated some 50 programs by running a single update command, I wondered why it hasn’t been the standard since the start.

[–] nekusoul@lemmy.nekusoul.de 7 points 18 hours ago

This, so much. Looking back, it's just insane that pretty much every program you don't regularly use will beg for updates on Windows. There are some bandaids like WinGet now that I appreciate, but it's still nowhere as seamless as when the OS and the whole ecosystem around it are designed with a package manager in mind.

A huge chunk of the time I have to spend on tinkering is probably already saved by me not having to wait for updates.

load more comments (16 replies)