WIndows to Linux/KDE transition

[SpecialEd]

Following a thread on reddit where a "Linux expert" claims Neon is not a good distro to transition to from Windows. He thinks it is particularly difficult and that KDE in general should change some defaults to make it easier for Windows users to transition, (i.e., He claims most people hate single click and the default should be double click).

How many of you prefer single-click as opposed to double-click?
How many of you found it hard to switch after using Windows?
How many of you insist your Linux setup be as close to Windows as you can make it?

[WWDERW]

How many of you prefer single-click as opposed to double-click?

I must say I'm more of a double click person, but as long as it's easy and discoverable to change, it doesn't bother me what is default.

How many of you found it hard to switch after using Windows?

If a user is a long time user of Windows (started back in the DOS 3.2 days), it's more of a function of really wanting to make the switch. At least in my mind. There is always going to be some teething pain switching from one platform to another or even switching from one software to another. Have the looks of Windows is only superficial. For some, it may be enough, but they still have to want to bare and push on through some very different metaphors of working with their system. My first Linux on bare metal, all or nothing was Fedora 22. Gnome 3 couldn't be even more divergent from the Windows metaphor that one could get with the GUI. It really wasn't all that hard to make the switch, of course, I was one that didn't mind that Windows lost the "Start" key when Windows 8 initially came out.

How many of you insist your Linux setup be as close to Windows as you can make it?

While I may have some setup very much like Windows, I don't really insist on it, but I do miss my 9X (anyone know good theme for 9x look alike for Neon?) I must say. I still run 98 (no, not SE either) in a VM. All time favorite.

[kernelbasher]

How many of you prefer single-click as opposed to double-click?
How many of you found it hard to switch after using Windows?
How many of you insist your Linux setup be as close to Windows as you can make it?

I'm single click and it annoys me no end that it isn't default with Kubuntu
Not hard at all,
TBH the desktop layout of KDE is pretty typical of the old Windows layout and I don't really change much from the install layout. I don't use Windows and have no Windows installs at all and I have no desire to try and mock it up either.

[Don B. Cilly]

Neon is Kubuntu, mind you :·)
It simply has less apps installed by default and a more up-to-date Plasma (just my thing, BTW).
There is no practical difference in usage.

On any new install, the first two things I do:
- Install conky (I hate flying blind :·)
- Switch to single-click. Double has been default for a while now.

I had no problems switching to GUI Linux. Even though it was Gnome, I mean, I didn't use it to play around with the DE and saying "noice, innit". I used it to use the applications, and they worked just fine.
Now, of course, when I switched to KDE, I did think "noice, innit". Then 14.04 came out and I thought "absolutely amazing, innit".
But I already had the CLI bit pretty much down pat, as I'd been using that for years without DE, so...

Now, moving from Windows to KDE and complaining it's hard to find one's way around, is like moving from a one-room tenement in a city slum to a 10-room villa with sea view and complaining that one gets lost because it has too many rooms, it's hard to find the bathroom, and the sun is too bright in the morning :·)
I mean, KDE is so vastly superior to Windows as an interface... really

[claydoh]

Neon is Kubuntu, mind you :·)

Ummm.....no, it is not. Not at all. Different dev teams using different build systems and tools.
Neon's creators were the original Kubuntu dev team and creators.

It simply has less apps installed by default and a more up-to-date Plasma (just my thing, BTW).

There is no practical difference in usage.

That is true, for the most part

[claydoh]

Following a thread on reddit where a "Linux expert" claims Neon is not a good distro to transition to from Windows. He thinks it is particularly difficult and that KDE in general should change some defaults to make it easier for Windows users to transition, (i.e., He claims most people hate single click and the default should be double click).

How many of you prefer single-click as opposed to double-click?
How many of you found it hard to switch after using Windows?
How many of you insist your Linux setup be as close to Windows as you can make it?

I sort of agree that Neon is not intended to be, nor should be considered a 'newbie' distro. Or a distro at all, for that matter.

Having said that, I think the Linux desktop can do whatever if freaking well wants, and overly catering to Windows or Mac users is silly. I am a proponent of 'forcing' people to have a few things that are done differently, which encourages exploration of the settings and options.

I prefer single click, but don't really care. It takes me all of a second to get used to double clicking when I have to spend time on Windows. Or whatever the length of time it takes to click, then double-click a file.


As a long time Linux desktop-focused home user, I do understand the frustration, but for me it is 100% reversed. Windows doesn't do things in the way that I am used to.
But I do not b**** when the UI acts differently. I b**** when I am doing windows updates when Windows is updating, though :banghead

[sithlord48]

I for one really want to resurrect Kandalf.

[Don B. Cilly]

You do?

[Snowhog]

Wow! Now isn't that a flash back from the past! KDE (in it's early days) really had a Windows 3.11 (?) look about it!

[GreyGeek]

I'm a single click guy!

All buttons, like those at the bottom of this page, are single click. Having a double-click desktop is a pain, IMHO. Besides, when the tremors take over having to click the mouse button twice in succession within a specific time period often results in the second click being on something else, or a triple click. When you get old you'll understand.

[Worzel]

For silly reasons I paid to have Windows 10 installed on my Lenovo. Within 48 hours it was 'a fool and his money are soon parted'. Install Neon and wipe out that other system asap. I have never been so confused trying to do even the most basic things.

Work is MS based but running specific programmes so I'm just happy clicking as required!

[oshunluvr]

KDEneon isn't a distro so, so much for that poster being a "Linux expert". Probably just a Gnomebot pushing their narrow agenda. "Gnome user" = "Borg" in my book.

Single click here, but IIRC double-click is the default, isn't it? Or at least it used to be. Double click is needed for Windows because File Explorer is a POS. Dolphin works easily with a single click. I have to use Windows for work, but when this job is over, so is Winblows.

As far as look-and-feel, nothing about my KDE desktop reminds me of my Windows desktop except I like blue at the momen. Have a look and see what you think. Note that I edited the Windows default desktop and added my little buddy!

[jlittle]

How many of you prefer single-click as opposed to double-click?

I dislike single-click to open. With it I inadvertently open things, by clicking on windows to raise them. In dolphin, if you mouse over a file you get basic info about the file at the bottom left, but it only persists for 1 second, a large fraction of which is taken up by my eye movement from the mouse pointer to that bottom left. With double-click to open I can single-click the file to get the info leisurely. (Using the information panel is too distracting most of the time.)

How many of you found it hard to switch after using Windows?

Using Windows is unpleasant and clumsy, so I minimize its usage these days, and I don't find it at all hard to leave it. A large proportion of my time on Windows was using an X client onto Unix boxes, or failing that inside terminal emulators, or vim using remote editing.