Software Design

[Old_Farmer]

My voice to the following statements is unemotional and stated with a matter of fact voice. Any anger you assume is your own.

I've been using Linux since version 2 of Red Hat. I just bought a tower that has the largest AMD CPU and AMD video card. The company that built the computer suggested I use Linux Mint, I am past the age of building computers. For the past 15 or so years I have been using Debian. It is felt by the builders that Linux Mint would have better drivers. The Mate DE was used at install.

This is the problem I see. There are many features about Linux Mint I like. There are some strong negatives built into the software, granted many are coming from Gnome. I don't mind climbing under the hood to configure things, except it can take hours to find some of them. I get things adjusted the way I need them and double check to make sure the changes are saved. Then the next time I boot, everything is back the way that it was, yet the parameters are the ones I set when I again look to see if my changes were saved.

There are basic adjustments that most folk like to make themselves, such as scrollbar width, I myself need the arrows back. The way I think any software should be designed is that there is a gui setup that will allow for making changes easily without going under the hood. Then each software program will have a similar feature that will allow for system, or custom settings, in the preferences. All with the ability to return to a default setting. What I am currently seeing is an attitude similar to what Microsoft did when they dropped the XP DE for a new design that few liked and wanted to go back to the old XP DE. We know it would not have been any problem to offer the choice to users, but they didn't.

Can I live with 4 pixel scrollbars on a 4K screen? Yes.
Can I live without scroll pointers? Yes.
Can a live with some text the size of roadside billboards and others smaller than the small print in contracts? Yes.

But, every little inconvenience slows down the work that I do. This is all in Linux Mint without opening a program.

Years ago, I tried Apple Snow Leopard and wondered how anyone got any work done. I was one of the fasted users for my age group and I was still faster using an old Windows 95 machine.

So I gave up and came back to Linux.

Now I am seeing this Apple Think sneaking into Linux. This makes my work take longer.
So if you are using an Apple Computer to write code, please stop. The Apple mind think is creeping into Linux.

I primarily use KDEnlive for video editing and Audacity for audio editing. KDEnlive is behaving like Final Cut. In Audacity, no matter which version I use, I cannot load the downloaded features that I have used for 20 years and is part of the extras that come with Audacity but each user decides which effect to load.

I am using these as examples how new release or update is getting worse.
Linux is supposed to make it easier to do our work. But lately it's just the opposite.

I gave only two examples out many that I could state. Everything is fighting worse then that old iMac with Snow Leopard.

So by setting up some simple features on a preference window, it saves trying to find where it is hidden in the code and can make Linux easier to use and more flexible. Yes, I have followed the instructions for making changes and they do not work in many cases. It is not unusual to find that the file that I must make the changes is not where it should be, this with a ppa install.

As for the speed I am working at, it is about the speed of when I used Snow Leopard.

Just by reading the postings, what I am saying is true for others.

And to be perfectly honest, the more I am using Linux Mint, the more I don't like the decisions made as the defaults.

I may have to bite the bullet and go back to Debian by doing a complete wipe and a total re-install. Because the way it is now. I might as well be using an old 8088.

Thank you for your time.

[karlchen]

<mod> Moved thread from "Software & Applications" to "Chat about Linux Mint", because no help is requested. </mod>

[cliffcoggin]

I may have to bite the bullet and go back to Debian by doing a complete wipe and a total re-install. Because the way it is now. I might as well be using an old 8088.

I have no idea what an old 8088 is, or much of the rest of your post, but if you are unhappy with Linux Mint by all means try something else. There is no point in persevering with a computer you dislike.

[MurphCID]

I may have to bite the bullet and go back to Debian by doing a complete wipe and a total re-install. Because the way it is now. I might as well be using an old 8088.

I have no idea what an old 8088 is, or much of the rest of your post, but if you are unhappy with Linux Mint by all means try something else. There is no point in persevering with a computer you dislike.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_8088

I had one in a Zenith Z-150 system later "upgraded" with a NEC V-20 chip. 8 bit processor.

[legacypowers]

granted many are coming from Gnome.

GNOME 2 was bliss, it was my favorite DE, but the path that the developers choose, made an unusable aberration for me, seriously in name of "lets get rid of clutter" they hidden almost everything from me, it is equivalent of what Microsoft did on Control Panel on Windows 10.
Not to mention this

Two of those windows are breaking the consistency of window decoration, and it is recurrent on some distros that it get those mixed up applications, and it looks and feel bad, it is also kind of my experience of setting up my desktop using a tiling window manager, unless im majorly using CLI or TUI applications,the consistence is almost 0.
It reminds me of this meme


When i log into a GNOME session i feel like i had a stroke and i'm having to do physical therapy to learn to walk again.

[Portreve]

The primary DE for Linux Mint is Cinnamon, which of course was created because Clem & Co. likely felt the same way you did vis a vis Gnome 3. MATE has its issues, but those do not necessarily reflect how Cinnamon is.

As someone who came from the Mac OS side of things, I've always found Gnome 2.x and Cinnamon (any version) to be extremely Classic Mac OS / Mac OS X-like, with just the best bits from Windows added in, which collectively makes the hybrid experience most delightful.

I've used Linux Mint when Gnome 2.x was still the current release, and I've used it with both MATE and XFCE. For reasons stated above, and simply because it gets a lot more development- and polishing love than the others, it seems like it probably represents the best user experience.

[absque fenestris]

...
As someone who came from the Mac OS side of things, I've always found Gnome 2.x and Cinnamon (any version) to be extremely Classic Mac OS / Mac OS X-like, with just the best bits from Windows added in, which collectively makes the hybrid experience most delightful.
...

With this you have the finest filet mignon prepared exactly à point.
Connaisseurs in the Linux delicatessen ...

[MikeNovember]

Hi,

It seems there is a lot of confusion in the OP message between operating systems, desktop environments and apps.

Criticism about KDEnlive or Audacity is about apps; and Audacity is not a Linux related app, since it is available for Linux, MacOS and Windows...

Comparing OS X 10.6 (issued in 2009) to Windows 95 (1995) is just ridiculous; comparison could have been done between Snow Leopard and Windows 7, both of the same generation.

Personally, I have used computers since 1975 (at this time they were punched cards computers); in the professional category I have used mainframes, Unix workstations, VAX VMS computers, Windows desktops and laptops (with MS-DOS, DRI, GEM, Windows 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 3.11 all versions of Windows Nt, 2000, XP, 7); in the "home" category, I have used bi-processors Apple II with DOS, Prodos and CPM; PCs with MS-DOS, Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, 7, 10; Mac Mini and MacBook Pro with OS X Leopard up to MacOS Big Sur; several kinds of Linux (several versions of Knoppix, with KDE; several versions of Ubuntu, with Gnome or Unity; several versions of Linux Mint, with XFCE or Mate).

The Deskotp Environment and the Operating System seem to me very secondary; I use a set of applications (Chromium, Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, VLC, OBS Studio, Avidemux, Handbrake, Audacity, Darktable, Gimp, Xnview MP...) that are available with Linux, MacOS or Windows and work the same way on the three operating systems.

Today most of my apps run on my host (Linux Mint) and some on my guest (Windows), such as scientific apps available only for Windows only (MathCad, TblCurve, or statistics software) or graphic apps (Darktable, Gimp) because some programs I can call from Gimp exist only for Windows (ON1 free effects, Google Nik Collection). My wife has a MacBook Pro that I maintain, update, backup... for her.

With experience, I don't see any difference when using MacOS, Windows or Linux. I don't perceive one to be superior. Principles are the same, just some tricks to know are different from an OS to another.

Discussions of the kind "what is the best operating system" make me laugh, because each individual has its own criteria to say an operating system is good / bad, and because there is no superlatively good operating system: if there was one, it would be alone, and no other OS would exist.

I am perplex when I see the high number of Linux distros and sub-distros, each one created to correct something or improve something... Final result is tens of incompatible distros, with a lot of energy loss.

I use Linux Mint Mate because it is simple to install, use, maintain, backup; the way I use it is not very standard: most of my apps are flatpaks (self-updating, allowing to use Mint 20.x up to the end of its support, with a stable environment and fresh apps); backup tools are not Mint ones (foxclone and FreeFileSync); installation is not the default one ("/" and "/home" on two different partitions). I consider that 90% of what is installed by default is useless (for me) but I have not time to spend to uninstall what I don't use (and large SSDs are not expensive).

Regards,

MN

[cliffcoggin]

I had one in a Zenith Z-150 system later "upgraded" with a NEC V-20 chip. 8 bit processor.

I don't know what they are either, nor do I want to know, though I guess they are computery stuff.

[Agentl074]

I am just learning IT, so I really don't matter lol, but Linux Mint 20.2 Cinnamon works perfectly for what I use it for... Internet browsing, word processing, light digital photography editing, and gaming (software manager 3D racing games etc).

Of course, having a powerhouse behind it for other uses (AMD Ryzen, XFX etc) capability puts it into serious category.

I cannot stand going back to our Windows 10 machines... even with the beefed up specs, they fall short of Linux.