OP on r*ddit here
the best part is that if you want it too look this sweet it's all through gui menus and simple interfaces. You download themes through theme browsers in settings. It literally couldn't be easier imo.
everytime i try to switch to linux i run in to some dumb shit like not being able to change my monitor's refresh rate or my videos tearing or some shit and i get upset and give up
So Kubuntu not Ubuntu, right? I'm not a big fan of GNOME myself but maybe try Ubuntu out... or you can give KDE another try but this time look for support from the community if you run into any problems. There is a KDE Telegram group where you can find help. There are also Matrix rooms. Actually come to think of it I hear Wayland fixes screen tearing and GNOME completely supports Wayland... to comrades passing by, this isn't a common problem so don't make it stop you from giving linux a shot.
And I've seen the holy exclusive :i-use-arch-btw: club on r/linuxmasterrace get mad about it lmao
Nothing against arch, but parts of the community seem to like it just because it's niche
I absolutely HATE the quickbar navigation system so much
What Linux version has a start menu that you can pin shit to?
The last Linux I used was Ubuntu 10.04, so it's been a minute.
XFCE can be configured to use the "whisker menu" which is basically the start menu. It's what I used before switching to i3 and Rofi
honestly most desktops on linux feature pinning to a start menu (except gnome because I don't think gnome has a start menu, it has a launchpad) I'd suggest giving linux another shot, kde if you want familiar windows/macOS style with customization or gnome if you're willing to try something new and simple.
My issue with Linux (Aside from it being Mac for nerds) has always been the file system, unfortunately. I've got 20+ years of drive categorised cruft and I'm not changing all that over to a Root system.
You can just have all these files on one partition and leave them as they are.
Piling a delicate categorisation system that uses the partition name to define the subject into a single undifferentiated heap is kind of what I'm trying to avoid.
You can have as many partitions as you want and name them too. I suggest you make a post about thi.
Try Zorin, it has Windows style menus and layout. It's a reskin of stable Ubuntu so you get all your favorite Ubuntu stuff
nah that's a thing, I ran it for a bit before, it looks pretty good too.
yeah that was what the op was going for, you can make it look like anything
imo I think that this doesn't looks too much like MacOS outside of the dock/menubar combo, which if you're going to have a dock at all you have to have something like a menubar. Most people lean towards a mac style than a windows style but end up doing what they want with it, like this. The thing with linux and especially with kde is that whatever you don't like about this setup you can change to your liking.
KDE/GNOME/etc are pretty customizable but the best you'll ever be able to get on Linux is "shitty macOS" due to fundamental problems with the Linux ecosystem due to fragmentation (both software components and the community itself), lack of interest, and lack of resources (the only people actually getting paid to work on linux UX are basically catering exclusively to thinkpad using neckbeards at redhat). The only two reasons to use Linux as a desktop operating system are because the alternatives are out of your budget or youre ideologically committed to only using free software which is why Desktop Linux market share continues to plummet. I used to be excited about the prospect of the Linux Desktop but at this point I think the basic structure of both Linux as a software ecosystem and the community itself make it impossible to get something above barely usable.
the only people actually getting paid to work on linux UX are basically catering exclusively to thinkpad using neckbeards at redhat
I actually agree with that, but I think on the desktops themselves it's been getting better recently with KDE 5.21 and GNOME 40. Applications are getting better looking as well, GTK 3 and 4 have been really good looking for the most part and while KDE and qt apps in general have leaned more towards the classic and dense design style, newer efforts towards convergence with the Kirigami framework and the (imo much better looking)MauiKit framework have been pushing KDE and it's apps toward a more modern and clean look and feel.
Somewhat seperate of all that though, there's been a lot of development on linux in china to help avoid dependency on windows and american services in general. Because of this a lot of new projects have popped up that aim towards a more general audience. Some of the most notable (and ones I enjoy the most) are Deepin which started out with a more MacOS look and feel but has found it's own style and it's pretty unique and really good looking right now. There's also Ubuntu Kylin and the UKUI desktop environment (unfortunately I can't access the websites for some reason) which is very inspired by windows but like Deepin it has somewhat branched off in it's own way. Lastly there's JingOS which has a lot of potential as a mobile linux desktop/distribution. It even has it's own device coming out in china at some point, but at the moment the system itself is still very early on and rough so we'll have to wait and see for that. Because these are all developed for normal people they are more simple and specifically avoid reliance on the command line for normal things.
I agree that linux has some trouble letting go of the past, but it is slowly doing it. Linux has a lot of potential still and linux gaming, which has been one of the biggest reasons people don't/can't switch over, is also steadily improving. The future of linux is bright. It's customizable, its secure, it supports more hardware than any other system ever, it can be as simple or brain crushingly complex as you like, it can be as stable or as bleeding edge as you like and best of all it's libre software so you can do anything you want to it, anyone can do anything they want to it, and you stand only to gain from that.
My biggest issue with Desktop Linux is the constant relatively minor bugs and missing basic features. Most are minor but there are so many it adds up to being more trouble than it's worth. GNOME 40 looks ok, but do I still need to download an extension to prevent the dock from hiding, an extension that is poorly integrated with the rest of the desktop (drag and drop doesn't work properly) and completely breaks after your first reboot if you use wayland? Have they managed to get rid of all the stuttering in every animation? Does KDE 5.21 finally fix the bug that has existed for at least 5 years where you have to go edit a random config file for it to work properly if your display runs at anything other than 60 Hz? Do mouse sensitivity settings work consistently on ANY Linux desktop environment yet or do I still need to dig around config files (different ones depending on the gui server). Can I use GTK apps in KDE without window corners and shadows looking like crap? How about vice versa?
My guess is that the answer to most of these question is "no" and will continue to be "no" and even if any of these things do get fixed there are hundreds more. Unfortunately I think this is a largely unsolvable problem because every linux distro or desktop environment is made up of scores of different projects which are in turn made of thousands of different components, most of which are all maintained by different groups with little or no communication between them. You do have cool projects like systemd that are unifying big chunks of the linux ecosystem under a more unified design, but that project also resulted in a gigantic backlash which has resulted in further fragmentation with many very smart people spending all their development time in ghettos like "debian but without systemd".
This (lack of) centralized planning and structure has also resulted in a lot of what makes linux cool and interesting, but I don't think a community organized in this way is capable of producing a desktop experience that can compete with what big companies like Microsoft and Apple are producing, there are just too many moving parts. Maybe some of these Chinese projects will eventually mature into what I'm looking for but Deepin was still pretty rough last time I tried it.
You can make it look more like macos or you can make it look like Windows 10. This is just what OP wants.
I don’t know much about Linux. What about it makes it free from NSA slimeguys
Well, it's the most important open source software so a very huge number of eyes are on it. Linux is quite important because the whole internet runs on it so it isn't in anyway something niche.
When you say the whole internet runs on it, what about it makes it invulnerable to like, source code changes or attacks or something that would affect things globally? I’m sure there are quite a few puzzle pieces I’m missing here
Depends on the distribution. Some distribution don't care about freedom. Some distributions, Debian as example, follow the "free software" philosophy. Free meaning freedom, libre, not free beer.
The free software philosophy guarantees the user four essential freedoms:
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The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
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The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1).
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The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).
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The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3).
The default installation/configuration of Debian contains no software that does not meet these standards. You can read all the source code. You can modify the source code. You can redistribute the software and your changes.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html
https://www.debian.org/social_contract
Thanks for this insight. Slightly different note but is the Web 3.0 a framework that’s generally trying to bring these four freedoms to the core of digital communications?
The "Berne Convention of 1886" established that creative works are protected by copyright upon creation. No-license source code or software is in a default "all rights reserved" state that legally prevents people from redistributing or modifying the software. A software license is a list of permissions and/or restrictions for the users of the software. The four freedoms are permitted by the software developer by using a software license.
I honestly have no idea what your post means, so I'm going to say no. The four freedoms are permitted by the developer of the software by using a software license. The free software philosophy purists generally are not happy with the web stuff because of javascript. Richard Stallman, the creator of the four freedoms, is very concerned with accidentally executing unfree javascript.
The four freedoms are about allowing the user to have complete control over the software. Stallman likes to say that if the user does not control the software, then the software controls the user.
https://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html https://www.gnu.org/software/librejs/index.html
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Windows is proprietary, if (honestly if is too kind) the nsa put backdoors or anything else they want in it, they can do whatever they want and there's no way you can do anything about it, or even know it's there. With linux it's open source and like @Pirate said it's got a lot of eyes on it since the internet runs on it.
