https://mullvad.net/en/help/install-mullvad-app-linux
Trying to install VPN and these are the instructions Mullvad is giving me. This is ridiculous. There must be a more simple way. I know how to follow the instructions but I have no idea what I’m doing here. Can’t I just download a file and install it? I’m on Ubuntu.
The comment section here is a perfect example of why people don’t use Linux
You got that right. So many contradictory comments for such a simple question.
That said, Linux for home use is a hobby and hobbyists expect a certain level of interest and basic commitment to learning. Also, the Linux community is a bit anti-Windows. So, coming on a Linux forum and complaining that a simple Linux task is too hard, basically because it isn’t Windows and you didn’t bother to read any documentation, pushes ALL the Linux nerd buttons, LOL.
Imagine going on a boardgame forum to complain that some super popular game is dumb because it isn’t like a video game, and too complicated even though you didn’t bother to read the game rules.
As a board game hobbyist, that happens all the time. Our community generally makes an effort to direct them to games with a lower weight and easier rules and encourages them to keep playing to grow the hobby.
That’s not at all what happens with Linux.
Don’t they just make a joke about Patchwork and move on?
Can you recommend any good forums to look for board games?
BGG is all you need
This comment here is a prefect example of being unhelpful and inflammatory.
You added nothing to the conversation but instead tried to be “clever” by doing the same tired old “angsty Linux vs. Windows shtick” that’s been around for as long as GNU/Linux was a thing.
Other people at least offered an explanation or suggestion.
No, he’s 100% correct
100% correct about what? That people trying to offer different bits of advice/explanations are driving people away? Even if some of the advice is not the best/contradict one another, it’s still support being given to another user.
Comments like these don’t say or do much of anything. They just finger wag and scold people for not being the “100% best Linux representative” they can be. Believe it or not, people who are in Linux communities aren’t a monolith of perfect technological wisdom and understanding.
My problem isn’t even with the basis behind the comment which I actually somewhat agree with. It’s just framed in a cowardly way that obnoxiously blames community members for driving people away.
So yes comments like these are useless and the people who make them are lazy.
Clearly, for you, it’s a bitter pill. I get it.
It also fundamentally misunderstands why Linux has such low adoption rates at the desktop. It has much more to do with Windows being ubiquitous in desktop enterprise environments than Linux. MacOS is by all accounts even more intuitive and easier to understand than Windows with a greater selection of native programs than Linux on top of having billions of dollars at their disposal for advertisement, but you’re not exactly seeing MacOS hit >60% of desktops.
Overall, for a thread that’s supposed to help a newbie, this thread has a surprising amount of bad info. From saying Debian doesn’t come with sudo (completely untrue, the Debian installer has an option of adding the user to sudo when most distro installers just add the user to sudo automatically) to saying installing MacOS programs is simply clicking on an icon (not really true either since the only time you’re clicking on shit to install things on MacOS instead of using the store is if you’re installing third-party software, in which case you have to dig through menus).
+1 there is something nice about just downloading and double clicking an exe.
Maybe they should have a common file format for all distro that extracts, etc. for the current distro. I thought that was flatpak, but idk.
They have the .deb at the top of their download page, no need to install the PPA repository if you don’t want. You can’t get any more than “just downloading and double clicking an
exedeb” than that on Ubuntu.I will admit though, I wish there were an easier way to install PPAs.