Folks, I’m in tears…
I have written a short story about me trying to switch to Linux:
OK, so I wanted to give Linux a try. Just like I do every 2-3 years.
And for the last 20 years there was always “something”.
And this “something” wasn’t even that big of a problem… but the solution was overwhelming. Like a punch in the face. Tons of configs, fiddling with terminal, dependencies, things like “if you have this and that, then do this and that…” things like “in line /usr/bin/blahblah.something change line 34 from wineuserconf=21424.21521 to wineuserconf=111.124”… you go to /user/bin and there’s no file like blahblah.something or there is no line 34 (should I add it?) or there is no “wineuserconf=” but there is “winexuserconfig=” and well - is it the same?
No one knows because neither of the options works.
This. Is. Linux.
Back in the days, SUSE 6 or 7 times - you had to mount the CD-ROM in order to open. Wow. Such user friendliness! You have to use the terminal in order to do ANYTHING.
Years passed on, new distros came, some quite solid. For everyday tasks like web browsing or word processor - OK, usable. You can even set window behavior and other petty things. WOW.
BUT it’s not just web browsing or opening Figma in the browser window…
I generally need, at this point, some 2-3 pieces of software that I really can’t find replacements for. Or don’t want to. One of them is Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher - the freshest version is the “v3” - Affinity Studio.
Tried OpenSUSE because I always liked this distro. No way. My nVidia GPU, after initially being able to work in 165Hz, after the UPDATE OF DRIVERS (!) stopped allowing this. Stuck at 60Hz.
The forums? Well… it IS a problem, there doesn’t seem to be a solution, really. Blah blah… maybe Linux is not for you - haha! Thank you for helping me!
Someone mentioned they even changed the GPU to Intel hahaha : ) and I thought I could GAME on this distro!
And you know what? IMHO it should work just like that! Out of the box.
Does Linux want to be “for the people” or not?
OK, tried CachyOS and I remember half a year ago it worked. Dropped the distro because I wanted to open an encrypted PDF from my bank. A pretty normal job, right? You tend to get those encrypted PDF with e.g. card data.
The amount of work in the terminal (and it never works like it should!) was astounding. I just didn’t have patience. And simply - I didn’t want to have patience.
Does Linux want to be “for the people” or not?
Zorin 17 last year - no luck, don’t even think about running Affinity on it.
Zorin 18.1 this year, fresh install… there’s a dedicated script that does “everything”. Well… Zorin is among those distros that aren’t compatible with it. Zorin, the fresh and popular so-called “best Windows replacement”… haha…
OK, the other way - Lutris.
Installed this, that, downloaded this, that.
Winetricks is too old.
Github again. 2 pages of terminal commands - if you have this, then that, if you have this, then that, etc.
Here is winetricks: just download and install.
YEAH, SURE.
The alternative involves checking files, configurations, blah blah… tears came to my eyes while reading all this.
And I think I even got to the point when I actually started an update command or installed fresh winetricks which I thought would be the freshest version but still it downloaded something from 2025!
OK, I go to github to the winetricks project. There it is (latest winetricks)! The script opens in my browser window… but how do I install it? Oh… wait a minute - there it is! But what is an asc file?
It turns out it’s an encrypted file (WHY???). There’s even the password given next to it.
How to open it? Kgpg.
Installed Kgpg. How to run it? Clicking on the icon doesn’t work.
Oh, the internet says there’s a bug - you have to run it from the terminal with some additional parameters.
You get me? A program that has an icon in the system and is a typical GUI program that you have to run from the terminal.
OK, ran it.
But what next? Drag and drop of the asc file does nothing.
(I thought it would be THAT easy hahaha)
The web mentions importing the key? But where, how? Where is a + button or and “import” button… and how to use it later?
Why I can’t just right mouse button click on the file and choose “decrypt with Kgpg” or something?
I still don’t know how to decrypt the file.
Stuck and nearly in tears… this is the time of writing this text here.
And on the forums?
Oh, don’t tell me what is happening on the forums.
They eat you alive if you question the genius of their lovable distro…
Linux is not for me, I am a Windows fanboy, I don’t have the necessary skills blah blah… yeah, sure.
I understand Linux, know how to use this and that, the terminal, know about dependencies, definitely something like a mid-level user but also for sure higher than anyone who came fresh from Windows.
But wait… doesn’t Linux want to be more popular? More - for the people?
And I just wanted to install one popular graphic design program and I wanted to decrypt a PDF from my bank! I didn’t want to create magic, just wanted pretty much basic, every day stuff!
Holy crap Linux… get your sh** together.
