this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2024
785 points (89.3% liked)
linuxmemes
21453 readers
948 users here now
Hint: :q!
Sister communities:
Community rules (click to expand)
1. Follow the site-wide rules
- Instance-wide TOS: https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
- Lemmy code of conduct: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/code_of_conduct.html
2. Be civil
- Understand the difference between a joke and an insult.
- Do not harrass or attack members of the community for any reason.
- Leave remarks of "peasantry" to the PCMR community. If you dislike an OS/service/application, attack the thing you dislike, not the individuals who use it. Some people may not have a choice.
- Bigotry will not be tolerated.
- These rules are somewhat loosened when the subject is a public figure. Still, do not attack their person or incite harrassment.
3. Post Linux-related content
- Including Unix and BSD.
- Non-Linux content is acceptable as long as it makes a reference to Linux. For example, the poorly made mockery of
sudoin Windows. - No porn. Even if you watch it on a Linux machine.
4. No recent reposts
- Everybody uses Arch btw, can't quit Vim, and wants to interject for a moment. You can stop now.
Please report posts and comments that break these rules!
Important: never execute code or follow advice that you don't understand or can't verify, especially here. The word of the day is credibility. This is a meme community -- even the most helpful comments might just be shitposts that can damage your system. Be aware, be smart, don't fork-bomb your computer.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
We were talking about normal user stuff that normal users do, not "seriously advanced stuff".. And I agree that most normal users probably don't want to use terminals because they are not familiar with them. But normal users probably don't and shouldn't do "seriously advanced stuff", no?
Yes, if you are trying to do "serously advanced stuff" (whatever that means), chances are you will probably need a terminal (or a terminal will at least be easier), but you shouldn't be doing "seriously advanced stuff" unless you know what you are doing anyway...
I just wanted to install steam, but it wasn't in the package manager list.
Then I tried apt-get and that didnt work, I forgot why.
You don't have to do seriously advanced stuff on linux to run into issues without using the terminal.
My point was, even if you actually do some advanced stuff on windows you still don't have to use the terminal.
It's not realistic that you don't have to use the terminal on linux if you want to do any more than web browsing and some text editing, etc.
That doesn't mean that linux is bad, but let's be realistic about what it is.
Maybe you used Debian, which only allows free software in their default repo? But then you won't be able to just install it with apt either. But even if it is not in the repository, you could still go on steam website and download the package from there, so literally the same experience as on windows..
Like what?
10 years ago, or maybe even 5 years ago, I would have agreed with you. Not anymore though, not if you use a half-way beginner friendly distro..
Yup, it was debian. I think I tried adding another repo, but gave up before I got it to work. I didn't try to just download the file, because I had done that before and all I could do is extract whatever is inside the file, but not install it.
It was around 2 years ago, maybe Linux has gotten that much more user friendly in the last two years, but I doubt it.
I use and love debian a lot for servers because it is super stable and relatively lightweight, but I definitely would not recommend it for desktops/notebooks, especially not to people new to linux based systems.
It's super purist about foss, which means you only get free and open source software (no steam, discord, etc) per default and it uses an older kernel (which makes it more stable, but less feature rich and less compatible with new hardware).
If you use something like fedora, linux mint (as far as I heard) or even ubuntu, your experience would probably be a lot better.
To install Steam on most distros with popular DE's, you click the software store to open the software store. If Steam isn't listed in the front page then just click the search box and start typing Steam.
When you see it, click the install button.
When it is done open it by clicking the Open button or pressing the Windows (or Super) key and type Steam. Click it when you see it.
Even if it is, for whatever reason, not part of the repository you have installed, you can still go on steam's website and download the package from there.. In other words, the worst case scenario is literally the same experience as you would have on windows..
That experience is highly dependent on the Linux distro you're using. Steam comes preinstalled on gaming-centric distros like Nobara or Pop!_OS. More "general purpose" distros like Mint or Ubuntu might require adding an apt repository before you can install steam from their GUI package managers, but adding an apt repo can be easily accomplished with a GUI as well.
Basically, if there's no guide for installing steam for a given distro, or the process of installing steam is more than a couple easy steps, that specific distro probably isn't well suited to run steam.
Weird, I would expect Steam to be in the Ubuntu repos (assuming that's what you were using, since you mention apt), but maybe not. As for apt, or apt-get, they are just the terminal equivalent of the GUI package manager (synaptic? it's been a minute since I ran ubuntu), so if something isn't in the repos, apt at the terminal won't find it either. If it's not in the repos, you should be able to download and install steam from the website just like you would in windows. It gives you a .deb file which will launch just like an executable installer in Ubuntu. But to your point, yes, sometimes things in linux take a little extra thinking to get to work. Getting accustomed to the way Linux works can help overcome hiccups like this. Windows has many quirks as well, it's just that if you use WIndows often you know your way around them.