hey everyone this is Nick and while I
truly believe that the Linux desktop can
work a hundred percent for most people
it doesn't mean I can't admit it has
some rough edges and I'm not talking
about sweeping big issues with Linux as
a desktop operating system I'm talking
day-to-day stuff here so here are a
bunch of pain points that affect me and
a lot of people that I moved to Linux of
course these are personal and you might
have others so let me know down there in
the comments the stuff that annoys you
annoys you like this segue to today's
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below now the first one and I think a
lot of people will feel my pain is how
to handle PDFs on Linux to read PDF
documents it's extremely easy every
desktop environment has a nice PDF
reader that's quite fast it works
perfectly you can zoom in zoom out to
handle multiple Pages everything you
might need to read but as soon as you
need to interact with a PDF things start
sucking big time to fill in PDF fields
for starters you can always use your web
browser on its PDF viewer but it's not
amazing the native tools just are
terrible at it here for example is the
gnome PDF viewer trying to edit a
document that I already filled in what I
entered doesn't show in the fields
unless I click on the field on Getty
ocular at least has a button that lets
me enable or disable these forms and at
least it shows what I entered although
why it's not the default it's B on me if
I took the time to enter data into a PDF
document and saved it chances are the
next time I open that document I want
that data to be shown immediately but
maybe that has been developed by
somebody who really loves magical or
invisible ink that you have to heat up
or something who knows and that's just
the basics now if I want to sign a PDF
document on gnome I simply can't there
is no option to do it in any way in
ocular on KDE I can digitally sign a
document but that opens an error message
saying I need to configure a digital
signature which takes me to the online
manual which says I need digital signing
certificates or whatever without any
simple way to add one myself straight
from the application or create one on
the fly from another KDE app hey you
know what would actually work better
being able to just grab a photo of your
actual signature and pasting it on the
document or drawing it with your
touchpad or your mouse yeah that works
for most people most of the time who
wants to sign PDS you don't need digital
certificates but gnome doesn't let you
do that and ocular doesn't either if you
try to drag an image of your signature
it will just open in a new document
there is no menu entry to add an image
and overlay it on top of the PDF so by
default you literally cannot sign a PDF
document what you can do is open the PDF
document with LibreOffice draw which
will open it in an editable stance let
you fill in the form field and add your
signature image by simple drag and drop
but it also completely breaks the layout
of the document in a lot of cases and
editing the actual PDF is a nightmare as
each line of text is its own object that
you'll as often move around as managed
to edit it's a pure freaking nightmare
and the Knight isn't over yet if you
want to reorder Pages inside of a PDF or
move one and add another one you need a
third party tool a Kai I personally use
PDF arranger on Chrome because the
default PDF readers do not let you move
pages around or delete them or just add
another PDF document inside of what
you're currently viewing and if you're
thinking wow this guy has completely
unrealistic expectations about PDFs Mac
OS does that out of the box and has done
it for 10 years you can add signatures
manually you can just drop them onto the
document you can fill the forms and they
stay filled when you reopen the document
you can move pages around you can delete
them you can add new ones by just simple
drag and drop it works and that's what
we need oh and it's free free of charge
like having a third-party tool that you
need to pay to do these things
ridiculous
next thing I don't like on linux's email
and calendar handling simply put we
don't have good desktop applications for
managing these things on Linux
Thunderbird is the closest we have but
the interface is insanely confusing and
it looks like something that's 20 years
old now sure they're working on a big
redesign and I have High Hopes about it
but for now I can't use that thing it's
way too clunky it opens tabs for
everything adding an account is insanely
convoluted it doesn't fit well with
gnome or caddy in terms of look and feel
or behavior it's just weird to use and I
never could get used to it I want to use
it but until it's gotten that complete
ux redesign I just can't it adds too
much friction to do anything it's not a
matter of locks it's just illegible as
an application the default suite for
Gnome is also pretty underwhelming you
have gnome calendar and Geary and gnome
contacts and the calendar option is
decent enough very simple for personal
calendars and definitely not something
you can use professionally if you need
stuff like seeing who is available at
which time or handling of time zones for
example the contacts app is ridiculously
simple without any way to add any form
of accounts that wouldn't be supported
by the gnome online accounts so no card
DAV or iCloud contacts for example its
integration with the default apps is
also mediocre as for example you can't
automatically create a new contact when
you answer to an email address for
example something that should at least
be an option and the email app Geary
while it's decent is also very very
simple it can't create folders to triage
your inbox or labels for Gmail it can't
unify your inboxes in a single View and
more importantly it doesn't seem to
access all IMAP folders for example my
archive folder which is a huge dump of
everything I want to save for later
isn't accessible through gearing it can
only access the males I dropped in that
folder from this exact device which is
obviously not what you want unless maybe
it is then you archive your emails by
device eyes in which case why and you're
a monster and stop it then there's the
caddy Suite of email contacts and
calendars but this thing well it's
insanely powerful and customizable
doesn't look like it has been touched in
decades even just adding an email
account that is able to send and receive
messages is insanely complicated you
have to manually look into the settings
for that account and map the folders
yourself to IMAP folders or everything
will be stored locally and you won't be
able to send anything at all it
thoroughly lacks Auto configuration
tools and same defaults on all the apps
of The Suite although their integration
in a single shell is actually pretty
good if you're looking for an Outlook
alternative once it's configured it's
awesome but a lot of people will just
have flats super far away way before
this configuration can happen hey in a
way these apps are the perfect symbolic
representation of their desktops gnome
apps are way too simple in the name of
ease of use and like critical crucial
features and caddy apps are way too
complex in the name of having all the
features which means that your last
resort is basically Evolution and
honestly it's great but it also looks
pretty outdated like a gnome 2 app that
barely has received the tiniest of
touches to make it feel more modern
it does everything it's pretty cool but
man when you use it on KDE it looks
atrocious and when you use it on a
recent gnome desktop it doesn't feel
like the rest of your applications
either so yeah major pain Point here I
just cannot find a good legible powerful
enough but not insanely complex Suite of
applications for email calendar and
contacts and all the people I installed
Linux 4 told me the exact same thing to
the point that they are all using
webmails and that tells you something
about the quality of your email and
calendar apps when people prefer using a
Webmail to a desktop app now next pain
point is display related stuff we are so
late on that stuff display scaling we
have but fractional scaling it's a damn
mess it's going to have huge performance
impacts it doesn't work well on hybrid
devices with Nvidia Graphics where you
will get screen tearing it doesn't apply
to all apps like steam DaVinci Resolve
only office and a lot more which will
either go 2X or 1X but nothing in
between and it's just messy and 10 years
behind even Windows which also sucks at
this by the way HDR isn't a thing at all
on Linux and I don't even know how you
could go about turning it on and
watching HDR content or playing games
with HDR enabled and font rendering
kinda sucks as well although it's easy
enough to not make it suck that much at
least on gnome and Katie gnome tweaks
phones enable sub pixel NT aliasing and
full hinting on KDE the same setting
things are in the system settings in the
fonts panel your eyes will thank me
after a reboot unless your panel is
already high DPI and using scaling of
any type in which case you absolutely do
not need to enable these things now
seriously why isn't the anti-aliasing
technology used to smooth phones on an
LCD screen turned on by default when
every screen is an LCD these days okay
you've got some OLED but come on it's
mostly LCDs or at least let people
change it easily instead of hiding it in
an additional third-party app on no now
Katie does have settings for that but
again the defaults aren't really set for
most people to have a pleasant
experience with Weyland some of those
things are going away slowly but in the
meantime we're way behind and it's
turning stuff that should be an
advantage like a high DPI display on the
laptop into a drawback that will prevent
you from buying that thing because it's
gonna suck and you know it another pain
point for me personally is automation
like graphically creating a suite of
events that happens when a condition is
met for example when a file is dropped
in the downloads folder and it's an
image maybe I want it compressed as a
JPEG to save some space and then moved
to another folder if it's a screen cap
from Firefox which has a specific name
pattern or maybe I want to be able to
launch a quick one-click shortcut that
automatically adds rounded Corners to
certain images or deletes all old
invoices I have in my download folder
since I know I've already sent them out
stuff like that is crucial to gain some
time on repetitive tasks or even on
video editing and I can't do it right
now on Linux at least not graphically
and sure I could spend some time and
create bash scripts to do this exact
same thing but I don't want to I want to
do it graphically because if we're able
to have complete giant settings for
everything on Getty we should be able to
have an automation a graphical
automation app like shortcuts on iOS or
on Mac OS now something that doesn't
affect me at all but seems to be a big
pain point for parents I moved to Linux
is the lack of good Parental Control
software we have some basic things like
blocking certain applications or web
browsers or even preventing application
installs and limiting these by age range
so kids can't install stuff that isn't
allowed but first these age limits are
often not set by the applications you
can install especially when using old
repos and not flat back and second you
can't interact with screen time at all
limiting a computer session to a certain
number of minutes or hours or certain
days in the week at least not out of the
box there seem to be third-party
Solutions but default ones will always
be better integrated and also all these
third-party ones look like they are 20
years old at least so I would be a bit
concerned about their abilities and how
well they are maintained for rental
control apps need to be in that weird
limbo where they need to feel like
they're older than the kid you're trying
to control but they also need to not
feel like they're 20 or 30 years old
because you want them to be able to
handle and catch the new stuff that your
kid might be exposed to not that I would
care at all about that since I do not
have kids and I do not plan to have any
anytime soon but still apparently it's a
big problem okay so these are the pain
points I encounter myself on a regular
basis or that I've been told about by
people close to me PDF handling is for
me at least the worst offender it's the
one that almost makes me want to use
another OS just for doing that and every
time I have to handle a PDF I put the
task off by days because I know it's
going to be a mess HDR and fractional
scaling are mostly issues when looking
at new hardware where you know that you
won't be able to take advantage of all
the capabilities or where high-res
screen is actually a problem for you and
not a feature which sucks and parental
controls well I don't care at all about
it but maybe you do so if you have other
pain points if you agree or disagree
with mine let me know down there in the
comments and maybe we can help each
other finding solutions to fix those
problems and in the meantime I can help
you find a solution to your my computer
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thank you
foreign
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