Gms9810 wrote:
I was talking about the software and the mindset behind why they make it complicated when it doesn't have to be that way.

I don't think I quite understand.
Are you inferring that developers are making things complicated in Linux on purpose?
Please think about this:
Your OS was written by thousands of volunteers all over the world.It takes quite a bit of organizing to make it all fit together.
You have probably had "dependency problems".The reason is simple,when a dev. writes a program that needs to for instance
sent text to the screen he will be using existing software to accomplish that.No sense in re-inventing the wheel.
Now if that particular part (dll in Windows, library in Linux) is missing his program will fail.
A desktop install will take between 500 and 1000 separate programs to do the things you want.
They have to be aware of the necessary libraries to run well.
That's what the package manager is for:It takes care of the additional stuff needed to run a certain program.
The most popular Linux distro tries to hide this from the user as much as possible so it's install is more like Windows.
The drawback is obvious: An install that is not transparent.
Gerard.

As I said earlier, I've been working with computers for over 30 years, I was around when the very first OS came out, certainly I understand the logistics of deploying massive projects like Linux. I was partly venting about the software but my point was basically about the attitudes of a lot of people who use it. Bob hit it right on the head, for years Windows was The the big thing and Linux was a joke in the world's eyes. Now things are reversing and way too many people are getting arrogant and nasty because of it. I have a very low tolerance in my old age for mean or stupid people, I either rip them to pieces of just avoid them. That's why I'm very selective about with forums I join/post on. I have this for my Gimp forum and I have a good rat forum and a decent ferret forum But i still have to find a civilized Inkscape forum and a decent Mint forum. I recently signed up on a mint forum and am in the process of making my mind up about it.
It seems that Operating Systems are a lot like churches, everybody has their own idea of what it should contain so they go off and start their own and before you know it they're bashing on each other. In a really cool world we would only need one OS.

Gms9810,
I am 84.
Gerard.

Ah, good, then you understand where I'm coming from. I'm sure you've had to deal with the 'you just a stupid old person' mentality. It doesn't bother me much because I was that way once, at least it doesn't bother me as much as the 'you're a stupid noob' mentality.
I'm 55, retired and glad to make your acquaintance, Gerard. There are a lot of Gimp tuts on youtube made by kids that sound like they just got home from day care. It's very refreshing to meet people who actually shave.
By the way, I've been told that I write like I'm mad, I almost never get mad so if i seem to be upset just overlook it. It's a side effect fro a stroke.

Hi Gms9810,
I'm sorry to read about the stroke.
I was fifty when I had to switch from livelong analog electronics to digital.
Boy did I have a hard time understanding that.
But after a couple of months I managed to write a short assembler program for an AppleII.
This could be incorporated into a Basic program to pretty print the output of laboratory instrument.
The Basic program was to slow to read the output of the instrument directly.
After that I wrote a lot of PLC programs.
I retired at 60.
My first desktop had a pentium II at 200MHz etc.
I had Win95 on it,later Win98.
Didn't much like it but that was all there was.
Then I read about Linux,end of Windows for me.
Gerard.

Actually I've had at least 6 strokes, one was really bad. The first computer I owned was an old commodore VIC 20, we had an Altos computer at work but I minimized my contact with it. I was hoping Linux would be the end of windows for me too but I don't see it as possible, I have a lot of Windows software that i paid for that won't run on Linux. I do, however, see it as very possible very soon that I just use my Linux computer for day to day stuff and just use Windows when I have to. In the way of introductions, I'm also married have 3 kids and 3 grandkids. Retired (due to the strokes and arthritis, I have 3 dogs, 5 ferrets, 23 rats, and an African grey parrot.

I find my interactions on the Ubuntu forums to be very pleasant and courteous. Can't vouch for Mint, since I don't use it. I can definitely state my disdain for Microsoft tech support and engineers who have a high snobbery rate (not to mention Bill Gates 2008 press conference luncheon in Washington DC, where he basically called Vista users - "dumb" because of the issues they had with the new OS. Yeah right.). I have two nephews who work for Microsoft and they tend to think that ALL MS products are superior. I made up my mind at that point that I would find a way to wean myself from Windows, permanently. I rarely use it anymore, except for banking, since my bank hasn't yet adapted to the Linux platform. Eventually that will change.

I have issues with coders with an elitist mindset. It's comparable to being a library, but never opening your doors. I guess they must have been born with all that information firmly embedded into their brains. I also don't adhere to the "my way is the best way" to do things, because it simply doesn't apply across the board. Different strokes for different folks.

Well actually that desktop wasn't my first.
I owned a ZX Spectrum which had to be connected to a TV.
I bought a Pascal compiler program for it and wrote a simulation program in Pascal.
At that moment I was involved in a project at work to improve the output of a mixer/kneader machine.
I have 3 kids also and 4 grandchildren.The eldest is now at the university studying physics.
The other three are grade school age.
A couple of years ago I had a curious problem:I was seeing double (no not from drink).
The eyespecialist sent me to a neurologist who made me do a brain scan.
On this scan he showed me some dark spots caused by strokes I was never aware of but were not the cause of my eye problem.
They fortunately were in areas of the brain that are not very important.
Eventually my eyes returned to normal and to this day nobody knows what caused it.
I don't do any coding anymore,my short term memory is the problem.
Gerard.

some time between my last post here and now my taskbar in mint has disappeared. I just submitted a post in the mint forum so we'll see if they're nice or not. I completely agree about Microsoft, it would give me qreat pleasure to never have to use another MS product again. Well, I need to sort this out, nice talkign with you.

@Gms9810,
Have you tried this - or is this you?