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Unpopular Opinion
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Windows is an abomination when it comes to plug and play. Errors are part of the normal use of the system and rebooting is actually the most efficient way to solve issues. If that is fine for you then anything is.
With Windows I can just download an app and follow the instructions on the installer and more often than not it works without an issue. Even my grandmom can do that. With Mac it's even easier.
With Linux you just open the software manager and search for it with effectively 0 chance of your grandma downloading a virus.
The app store model is the Linux model. Linux just doesn't have paid apps in said stores.
The problem in my experience is that those apps are often quite bloated, require you to make an account, then run in the background slurping up telemetry data. (I'm looking at you, HP Smart)
And then if you run into a situation where the app stops working properly, if a reinstall doesn't fix it you're basically out of luck because the error logging and online documentation is functionally non-existent.
On windows, you have to go to the software's website, find the download page, click download, run the installer exe, then click through the installation wizard.
On Linux, you can either install it in one command in the terminal, or install in one click from a gui. You almost certainly have a gui app store preinstalled unless you choose a minimal distro like Arch.
If you want to update software on Windows, you go through that whole process again. On Linux, you just do a system update.
I'm not really sure what part of that is easier on Windows
If you know what to type into terminal which for the 99% of users means googling for instructions and in the end you've spent as much time and effort on it than you would on Windows. Assuming it works out without a hickup. If you put the right string of text in there but it returns an error, missing repository for example, you're then stuck there with no clue what to do next.
I think that long time Linux users to who this is second nature underestimate how daunting this is for a novice.
Or you could use a gui that is probably already on your system, like I said. Maybe Ubuntu just sucks, I don't have experience with it. But I have used flatpak on SteamOS, which is incredibly easy and smooth.
But the terminal can be super easy too, it's not like you're typing out complicated commands just to install software. I use yay, so it's literally just 'yay ' to search and install.
Just because you are already used to Windows doesn't mean it's simple. It's actually more convoluted and difficult to learn if someone hasn't used either.
Apple changed to the app store model years ago and people preferred it. Hell my grandma uses Linux now