Linux Is Not the Developers Paradise You Have Been Told It Is

I've never heard anyone claim that Linux is a flawless paradise for developers. Nothing is, including Linux. Everything has its benefits and drawbacks.

What I have heard people claim (and is my own experience) is that developing for Linux is less frustrating than Windows.

> other operating systems like macOS or Windows offer more intuitive experiences.

What's "intuitive" is what you're used to. For instance, I find that MacOS is the exact opposite of intuitive. That's not a fault with MacOS, but a reflection of the fact that I'm not used to it and as a result it's difficult to figure out how to do things.

The same is true for Windows if you aren't used to that, and Linux if you aren't used to that, etc.

The single biggest issue is the community's bad habit of hand-waving away these issues when they're brought up. I could (and have in the past) make a long list of all the problems that plague me as a Linux desktop user, but there is a default dismissal answer to each and every one of them as to why I'm just being a big baby and it's not actually an issue. My gut tells me Microsoft is somehow behind this.

Jokes aside, free desktop needs to grow up before it can expect to be embraced with market share. Until then, people are going to keep using Windows, and people are going to keep wondering why, while dismissing Windows users' answers.

On the 4th point, everything has a learning curve. When you want to use something new, you've got to learn how to use it. I've used different systems over the years and unix-like systems are by far the easiest to use once you get the hang of things.

On the 5th point, it basically comes down to network effects. This can be a real practical "right now" problem for people, but if you want to use something you think is better this point aside, you should so as to negate it. It takes people needing things for other people to decide to do them.

Nobody ever told me that Linux was supposed to be a paradise; indeed, I'm sure I've read this same list of complaints dozens of times over the last few decades.

I didn't switch to full-time Linux use because I thought it was the best thing ever, but because the alternatives grew sufficiently irritating that I no longer cared to put up with them.

Yes, Linux sometimes requires tinkering - though far less often than people who complain about this seem to think - but the fact that it can be tinkered with means that the machine can always be made to do what I want it to do, even if that takes some work. It's my machine, not Apple's or Microsoft's or Google's, and I will decide how it is to work and what it is to be used for; Linux alone(1) still seems to understand that, so that's where I'm staying.

[1] I'm sure the BSDs are good about this too, but I've never had reason to try them.