So, I’m not that understanding of linux. But I guess I can’t call myself “new” anymore. I’ve been using linux since December. Although to be fair, I’m barely ever home. “Using” linux at this point mostly consists of opening firefox, and watching youtube.
I know “sudo” is “super user” “apt” is some kind of repository command, and then you type “install (program)”
But I’ve really taken to flatpack. I hate hate HATE the terminal. All I ever do is screw things up in there. I don’t know what I’m doing. I just follow commands. “Just copy/paste this exact set of text”. And then I have an error.
It’s kind of like knowing 4x4=16. And all you do is memorize that line, as opposed to knowing that 4x4 is the same as 4+4+4+4. And knowing what 4 is. If you memorized 4x4=16, but get presented with 4x4-2, and you don’t understand the core concept of numbers, you wouldn’t know how to adjust 16 to 14, and know WHY it’s 14. I’m just copy/pasting someone elses instructions.
sudo apt get firefox && -z, -r, -☆, -$, randop, redo, up.
That’s probably complete jibberish in terminal, but it helps you (the experienced linux user) understand how terminal feels/looks to me. If I had a problem, and troubleshooting told me to copy/paste that to solve my problem, I would. That to me looks as legitimate as any other jibberish that would actually work.
Ok. Rant aside, lets start a civil war in here! I’ve been using ZorinOS, and I kind of like it. HOWEVER, I did spend a considerable amount of time tweaking it. It’s finally how I want it, so I’m not messing with it. So I’ve never experienced KDE. I’ve only experienced GNOME. And quite honestly I don’t know what that means. I know it has to do with the desktop environment…but I don’t know what would be different if I used another desktop environment.
But that brings me to a question I was told you just can’t ask the linux community without blood being shed.
What’s better? KDE? Or GNOME?
I’m keying off your terminal comment.
I think Linux is to the point where you can almost use it entirely without the CLI, if your pick the right distro.
If there’s ever going to be a “year of Linux,” users should be ankle to use it without ever having to open a terminal. Some of us prefer it, and live in it, but most people don’t have any interest in it; it should be optional.
The word “almost” is doing some heavy lifting there. Linux is still a “terminal culture”.
I spent 6 hours last night trying to figure out how to make a usb boot drive from ZorinOS.
Step 1 ‐ install BalenaEtcher.
I never figured out step 1. It’s not in the software store.
I downloaded the zip, and then had no idea what to do with it.
I watched a youtube video on what to do with the zip, and in his video he had one file in the zip. I had about 20 files, and a couple folders. And I didn’t have the file he used.
Eventually I found an APPimg file, and it installed Balena Etcher. But it wouldn’t launch after being installed.
Then I heard of some other way, starting with a Z. You can put multiple ISOs on it, and choose at boot.
So I downloaded ReactOS, 3 different versions of Mint, pop_os, and zaphrite os. The only one that booted was pop_os. Which I didn’t much care for, but at least it booted.
Spent 5 hours on that, and still have no idea how to use ZorinOS to make a usb boot disk that actually works.
In windows, you download an exe file for balena etcher, click it, probably go through 12 different screens of install, but then it works.
FWIW, perhaps you should reconsider if you should even use balenaEtcher.
Unfortunately, this does happen at times. Therefore, it’s a good idea to be aware of alternatives. One such example would be Fedora Media Writer that you may install as a flatpak. Though, the most popular is probably Ventoy.
Unfortunately, AppImages aren’t as reliable as one might expect. Assuming that your distro supports it OOTB, you’re still often required to explicitly allow it to be run as an executable. Which is a good thing for the sake of secure defaults*. Granting it is simply done by:
FWIW, the aforementioned Ventoy does just that.