My computer has accumulated some cruft that’s making it hard to manage, and resetting the PC seems like the most straightforward way to deal with it. I already have all my important files saved elsewhere. I also wanted to see if I could kill two birds with one stone and rid myself of the dependence on an MS account. I’ve seen there’s some terminal stuff you can do when installing Windows fresh that bypasses the mandatory account creation, but does that still work when resetting? Especially when resetting from the cloud?
And because someone is going to say “Just use Linux”, believe me, I’d love to, but the user experience sucks for literally anyone who isn’t a software developer and the accessibility has actually gotten worse over the 15 years I’ve tried to use it.
You have to boot without network access then do the terminal command.
What distro of Linux did you use that was so difficult? Something like Mint is very entry level and intuitive. You don’t have to run any terminal commands if you don’t want to, and the out of box configuration is good enough that you don’t have to modify anything for a stable, up to date system.
I started with Ubuntu 8.10 in early 2009. From there I’ve tried mostly Ubuntu but have explored other distros. My usage pattern usually goes like this. I get sick of some Windows BS or just want to convince myself I’m a competent IT industry professional. I install some Linux distro on a separate SSD and only boot into that for as long as I can. The phase usually lasts from a week to about 2 or 3 months. My longest I think was between November 2023 and March of 2024 where I used Mint. I’ve tried all the various *buntus, Pop!_OS, CentOS (RIP). I’ve even used Arch btw, installed it myself and everything. In the end I either run into something that simply doesn’t exist on Linux or get sick of arcane kludges for things that just work on Windows and then come crawling back to Bill feeling defeated. This happens at least once a year but usually more.
Non-existent accessibility is the biggest hurdle, and I have zero faith that it will improve. Accessibility is an afterthought even for huge companies with the resources to devote to it, and you can forget about it for the comparatively smaller loose associations of developers contributing to the software stack that is a typical Linux distro. I was there for the transition from GNOME 2 to Unity and eventually to GNOME 3, as well as from X to Wayland, and it’s just been downhill each time. Orca simply doesn’t work, period. Magnification, if present at all, is glitchy and prone to freezing or crashing. The best I can do is a workaround using espeak and xclip to speak text copied to the clipboard, which, yes, involves the terminal. Is it cool that that’s possible? sure. But I have to put an alias into my .bashrc and constantly tab back and forth between whatever I’m reading and the terminal. Not a big deal if you’re only doing it once or twice, but I have to do it hundreds of times a day. If you encounter a little issue that often it’s no longer little. On windows it’s just ctrl+alt+LMB that’s it.
I find it’s really hard to impress upon sighted users why this is a problem. Imagine someone hands you a laptop, but the monitor either doesn’t work or shuts off at random. Then when you complain, you’re told “It works for me” or “That’s not my problem” or “I don’t know how to help you” or if you’re lucky, a half-dismissive “We’re working on it.” That’s Linux when you’re blind. Can you live with a non working display? Would you call an OS like that ready to ship? Yes this is a problem with commercial software as well, but it’s orders of magnitude worse with Linux.
I just cannot imagine in any way microslop being more helpful in that regard or any, if there is any os where the magnifier is broken it is windows
What makes you qualified to make that statement? I have to rely on assistive software to use a computer. I am the only judge of what meets my needs, and years of trying to use it have informed me that desktop Linux does not meet my needs. period. end of discussion. I have made the reasons why clear elsewhere in this thread.
Mint requires running a terminal command to disable the stupid printer notification.
It also doesn’t support Logitech mice out of the box, you have to search for the solution, which is a third party app to support a 10 year old (or brand new) mouse.
Stop acting like it’s a direct swap and people will be less hesitant to switch.
Be open and honest that not everything is an easy transition, there will be hiccups, and there may be some things for which an easy solution simply doesn’t exist.
If you use Excel every day, switching is likely not pragmatic, as the OSS solutions simply don’t compare yet and will always fall short if you use tables (about 90% of the spreadsheets I’ve ever been sent).
Also, did you even listen to OP? Linux isn’t an option. Wow.
What do you mean by “support” here? I’m pretty sure Logitech mice will work fine, but you might need a tool to change on-device settings.
100%.
Logitech mice work fine out of the box as a generic mouse. You only need third party software if you want to mess around with the Logitech special-sauce stuff.
Neither Windows or Mac have ‘support’ for that either, until you install Logitech’s software. Of course, Logitech as a company don’t provide any software for Linux.
So if anything, it’s not that “Linux doesn’t support Logitech” it’s that Logitech doesn’t Support Linux.
thisthisthisthis. I use Excel tables constantly. It’s a common theme with LibreOffice. Got something simple, maybe a doc with a few headers? Great, no problem, you can interoperate just fine. But go off the beaten path and you inevitably run into trouble. If I were sharing documents with exactly nobody I could happily switch, but the reality is I have to work with other people. And Windows/Office is what other people use. This is what I mean when I say Linux only works if you’re a dev. There’s lots of excellent text editors and IDEs and compilers and the like, but outside of that verdant oasis it’s a desert of broken non-options.
Regarding Mint, Bluetooth is maddeningly inconsistent. I’ve had stuff that works perfectly… exactly once, then never ever again, no matter what unspeakable tortures I inflict on the Bluetooth settings or what arcane wizardry I attempt in the terminal.
I asked what they have tried, I didn’t say they have to switch. I was providing some information that perhaps they didn’t have. You don’t have to be a righteous butthole about it.