this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Linux users are self-selected for increased tech savvy, so they'll say, "Yes, it's the best," but really, the Linux community is still extremely forgiving of terrible user interface, and value things like FOSS over things like apps with robust, accessible feature sets. Linux users are happy to fix functionality holes with writing a shell script, and think nothing of it: it's not a lack in the OS, it's a testament to the power and flexibility of the OS!
I've used a few flavors of Linux, and their GUIs are almost uniformly terrible, only partially functional without using a terminal. For instance, they have various software and OS update apps located in semi-random menu locations, and none of them work as well as "sudo apt update / sudo apt upgrade / sudo apt full-upgrade / sudo apt autoremove". And there's a huge part of the Linux community that thinks this is great and not a problem at all.
Windows hides the ugly sausage-making from typical users, and forces IT folks and other developers to wrangle with it. Linux makes IT/dev lives easier while making typical users somewhat hamstrung if they're scared of a CLI. So, if that has meaning for you with regards to the question "Is Linux as good as we think it is?" then you may have your answer.
Yes.
I absolutely hated the feeling of helplessness when I found a problem somewhere, when using Windows.
On Linux, I am happy to give bug reports/ wishlist reports and follow through with them. Maybe even fix something, if I feel like I can. That (and the higher transparency in communication) makes me much more forgiving of problems I may find anywhere.
My experience has been filing a bug on a FOSS app, and having it almost immediately closed because it was a dupe of a bug reported ten years prior which remained open and unfixed. I'm not a programmer, so it's just, "Well, I guess I'm out of luck on this ever being fixed."
I've done a fair bit of UI/UX work in my career, so I have a lot of sympathy for naive users, and FOSS devs mainly do not. If there's some functionality that is only exposed with a command line parameter, well, that's good enough. Read the man page.
From what I have seen, KDE devs that I interacted with, had a higher tolerance for mistakes, than I would want to have for myself.
I once submitted a wish for Kate, which was also submitted multiple times before and marked as Won't Fix, because: a) low demand; b) nobody to do it.
But when I started trying to implement it, I as given more help than I should have asked for.
So, it's probably just about chance. Don't let a few rejections stop you. If you consider it useful, even if it gets rejected now, someone will see it eventually. And some programmer might find it worth implementing.