Why is Linux so hard?

I am sending this from Ubuntu 20.10 on my ThinkPad. I spent many frustrating hours today trying to install some different Linux distros to experiment with. I was really interested in one called helloBSD. I cant tell you how many different ways I tried to create a bootable USB drive so that I could test it. I couldn’t even get a working USB drive to boot. Then I moved on the MX Linux. The USB started up and even got to a boot screen. Once I hit the ENTER key to try and start the Live USB, my screen just went black and never came back. Had to do a hard reboot. Over and over again. It never worked.

In contrast, installing Ubuntu was as easy as a few mouse clicks. Canonical must really be way ahead of the rest of the pack on this. Ubuntu is as polished and as easy to install as macOS. At least from what I can see, most Linux distros simply frustrate the user, probably driving them back to Windows. If the Linux community wants broader adoption, its got to get simpler. But congratulations to Canonical for making the process as easy as it can be. Maybe I’ll just stay put and resist the urge to test other distros. Just too frustrating.

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As a point of information, “HelloBSD” is not a Linux distribution… But otherwise I feel your pain. In the past I’ve tried playing with Linux and always ended up going back to Windows. When Ubuntu came along, it was like a revelation! Everything installed and just WORKED. I haven’t looked back since. When Microsoft dropped XP and I saw the abomination known as Windows 8, I installed Linux Mint on my wife’s laptop, and applied the “Mint XP” theme. She’s as happy as can be and doesn’t care WHAT operating system she’s running as long as she can get things done.

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7 posts were split to a new topic: Non-Specific Problem

You know what! I second what Apollo 18’s comment, but add a few things. I agree that Ubuntu is one of the most polished and easy to install and use Linux distros today. Actually, it has always been one of the best, thats probably why so many other distro are based on Ubuntu. HOWEVER… there are still too many simple things that require too many steps to accomplish. My most recent annoyance is file sharing. OSX and Windows have everything built in a ready to go. But Linux still needs Samba and a bunch of terminal commands for it to work right. I like my Ubuntu box, but I don’t love it. Wine and Samba should be built-in features, and not a multi-step nerdgasm process.