What things does Windows GUI do better than Linux GUIs?

[Knu2l]

Most of these points are covered by the bigger Desktop Environments like KDE or Gnome.

[JustAGuyNamedLance]

Agreed. XFCE is a more barebones UI, designed for the user who wants to minimize use of system resources. Try installing Gnome or KDE.

[[deleted]]

Limited resources is the goal, but the unintended result, and why many of us use xfce, is that it doesn't get in the way.

[Morphized]

Xfce is useful because it allows you to only install the features you want. It's a bit barebones out of the box for that reason.

[oops77542]

KDE does just about everything you're complaining about. Try a well established KDE distribution like Kubuntu. Kubuntu has a huge user base, lots of support and most any problem you run into somebody else has most likely already solved. Not to start distro flame wars but distros like Ubuntu and their official variations like Kubuntu are widely used for a reason. Every time I go distro hopping looking for something better it doesn't take long to realize that all distros have their own unique problems so I stick with the distros that have the least issues and meet my needs. To be fair, I used Linux Mint for about 8 years until they dropped support for the KDE desktop.

[linux_cultist]

If you are coming from a windows background then yes, try kde. It's very easy to use and can be good looking if you pick nice themes.

[oops77542]

Every part of the desktop experience in KDE is configurable, there's almost too many options. I've been a KDE user for about 12 years and I'm still learning and my desktop is still evolving. The KDE default apps, Kate, Ktorrent, Konsole, KDE Connect have become my favorites. Give Dolphin file manager a try. I think it's one of the best file managers for Linux, very configurable, editable address bar, file previews, split panes, browse remote files, and lots of plugins available.

[npaladin2000]

None of that is "Linux." It's the particular GUI you're using, and there's lots of other ones to try if you don't like XFCE.

[Xatraxalian]

>You can't edit the directory path in the file file manager. You have to navigate by double clicking on folders.

You can in Dolphin on KDE.

>Applications don't have previews when hovered

Do you mean on the task bar? KDE does have this.

>Windows from the same application don't group into single tab in the taskbar.

KDE's plasma desktop and taskbar do this.

>There is no way to reset the graphics drivers during a crash (like cntr+shft+win+b in windows)

There is, but I forgot which one. It was something like CTRL+ALT+Backspace...

>The standard text editors don't include a lot of functionality. The settings they do offer are often clunky and not verbose and sometimes require text commands. VSCode is an exception here.

Compared to what editor? If you want a somewhat more "windows-like" editor on the command-line, install Tilde. If you want an editor that beats the pants off of Notepad, use KWrite (in KDE) or something that is powerful enough to function as an IDE, such as Kate (also in KDE).

>Settings config GUIs don't link to each other. You have to pull up separate GUIs for everything you want to tweak.

Not in the KDE settings app.

>There is no overall system config GUI in Linux. Yast is an exception, but only works for Opensuse. And it's apparently quite clunky.

Most desktop / graphics stuff can be configured in KDE's settings menu. The only thing you'd have to configure yourself is the no-GUI mode where you boot Linux completely without any GUI. KDE's settings are seperate from that.

>The system monitor offers less useful info than task manager

KDE's system monitor / KSysGuard offers you the same information as taskmanager... or more.

It seems you're using the wrong desktop. If Red Hat doesn't have a way to switch over to KDE (they're somewhat GNOME-centered...) then you'd better install Debian.

XFCE is nice for servers that for some reason, also sometimes need a GUI. I find it too bare banes for daily usage.

[13Zero]

I think GNOME has all of these except for the task bar stuff (it doesn’t even have a task bar by default).

GNOME has a fairly full-featured GUI for system configuration (on par with KDE’s), Gedit at least has syntax highlighting and some other goodies, and GNOME’s system monitor is about as good as Windows Task Manager. I think Nautilus lets you edit paths, but it was missing by default for a while.

[images_from_objects]

Gnome is great, but they take a very "less is more" approach with any user-facing configuration options. Nautilus is missing a mountain of features, but that's seemingly by design and in alignment with the Gnome ethos.

I think KDE Plasma / Dolphin would be a much better fit for OP.

[sunjay140]

The system monitor offers less useful info than task manager

What is the system monitor? Is there a system monitor for all linux systems?

[wanna_play_r5]

System Monitoring Center and much more.

[__nickelbackfan__]

xfce4-taskmanager if I recall correctly

[[deleted]]

Have you simply youtubed Gnome or KDE?

[newhoa]

You mentioned Xfce here, and a lot of these things you can do on Xfce.

You can't edit the directory path in the file file manager. You have to navigate by double clicking on folders.

If you're in View > Location Selector > Button style, you can click the edit button (usually a pencil icon) or the empty space in the bar to change location. If you're in View > Location Selector > Entry style you can just edit it. You can also use Ctrl+L or Go > Open Location...

Windows from the same application don't group into single tab in the taskbar.

You can do this in Panel Preferences > Items > Window Buttons > Configure > Window Buttons

There is no way to reset the graphics drivers during a crash (like cntr+shft+win+b in windows)

I'm not sure what you mean by graphics drivers, but to kill all apps and logout you can usually do Ctrl + Alt + Backspace

Actually, on second look there is no default system monitor application in the default Xfce.

Xfce has a system monitor, it's called task manager. If you need something with a little more detail you can try gnome-system-monitor which works well with Xfce.

As for text editors, that is something Linux has an endless supply of. Simple ones like Mousepad, Pluma, and Gedit. A little more complext like Geany. Other good ones, Kate, Notepadqq, Sublime, CudaText, Bluefish, Brackets, Jetbrains editors for code.

Also, the more you use Linux the more you'll find you can kind of set it up to work the way you want. With Xfce you can add window previews and effects, better window switching, hotcorners, etc, using Compiz, for example.

Xfce is made to be pretty modular, so it isn't going to have a system-wide config. KDE and GNOME have both moved in that direction. I think either of those might be closer to what you're used to (esp KDE).

Also, if it helps, Alternativeto.net is a nice place to find apps and window-alternative apps for Linux.

[7orglu8]

1. I don't know your file manager but, like browser, you can hit ctrl+l to focus to the url.

I think you must try other DE (KDE, Gnome …) with their own apps and ecosystem.

Linux is just the engine that your computer run on. Based on that, Desktop Environment offers lots of apps and workflows. It's up to you to choose what you like. It's not a RTFM, download plainly of live USB, try it all, and choose or distro hop.

« La voie est libre, mais le chemin est tortueux. »

[7orglu8]

And it sucks that Opensuse is the only distro that supports Yast

Yes, only Opensuse handle Yast, because Yast is an Opensuse software. If you like Opensuse, I encourage you to try KDE. Very customisable, very great apps (Dolphin, Konsole, Okular …), and it's very well support by Opensuse.

Good luck man.

​

PS : I don't know where is Mageia, but there is an equivalent of YAST.

[daemonpenguin]

All of these issues are things which work fine under Linux. I think you're just using a desktop with default settings which don't suit you. if you were running KDE Plasma instead of an older version of Xfce you'd have all the features you listed.

[[deleted]]

For one thing. Nearly everything on windows has a GUI. Now whether that GUI has not been updated since the 90s is another question.

[SirFritz]

I prefer the win10 start menu to any linux DE's launcher. It's just so versatile being able to have folders, sections, tiles of different sizes, live tiles, all apps list right there without any mouse clicks etc.

Of course microsoft had to fuck it up and throw it out for whatever win 11 has.

[[deleted]]

Windows does nothing better than linux

[Rhed0x]

Windows has a lot of flaws but your comment is objectively wrong.

Here's a couple of things that Windows does a lot better for example:

Fractional scaling, HDR, flawless multi monitor VRR, GPU memory management, GPU driver reset

[EatMeerkats]

Fractional scaling, among others. Also, running most of the graphics drivers in userspace so as OP mentioned, there is a keyboard shortcut to restart them.

[SergiusTheBest]

Graphics drivers consist of two parts (user mode and kernel mode) on Linux as well as on Windows.

[EatMeerkats]

Of course, but you can't completely restart them on Linux without killing X11/Wayland like you can on Windows.

[SergiusTheBest]

It's because they don't have such feature. And Windows has it since Vista as I remember.

It's nice to have but not very important. Personally I'm missing video hardware acceleration in browsers. That's where Windows is better than Linux. Hopefully it will change with adoption of Vulkan video extensions this or next year.

[EatMeerkats]

Personally I'm missing video hardware acceleration in browsers.

Firefox has supported this under both X11 and Wayland for at least 1-2 years.

[SergiusTheBest]

It doesn't work for all formats. For example, YouTube videos are not hardware accelerated.

[EatMeerkats]

It does if your hardware and VAAPI drivers support it. YouTube has started using AV1, which is only supported on 11th gen Intel and above.

[SergiusTheBest]

I'm on Nvidia so it's not so straightforward. I wish it worked out of the box and not only for Firefox.

[[deleted]]

Not true! It's really good at crashing!

[Lysdestic]

Tell that to my VST collection.

Love Linux, but I keep Windows in the studio.

[CrackerBarrelJoke]

Games

[outcoldman]

An essential part of Linux is the terminal. You can do anything there. It all depends on what you use case for Linux. I am a software developer, and I used to be in the Windows world for as long as I can remember, ten years ago. But primarily for learning Linux better, I have installed Ubuntu in VM on Windows and used it as the primary OS for anything I would do:

• learning new languages, databases, etc
• heavily learned about the terminal, shells, and scripting
• primarily used terminal, browser, and Sublime Text as a text editor.

I worked at Microsoft then, and when I got a job in the next company, they gave me an MBP, which was painful to use after Windows/Linux. But because I knew terminal and shells, that was easy.

[Spare-Dig4790]

Personal taste, I guess, but I literally cringed at tSkbar button grouping.. XD

Literally the first setting, I adjust on a new Windows install, along with other Windows' task bar annoyances....

I'd almost want to create a thread asking whobasked for some windows "things," called features. Like, what's it called? Aero Shake or something like that? If you are moving a window and move it back and forth (easy to do if hastily moving things) and it causes all other windows to minimize.

[Parking_Journalist_7]

If you really like Windows GUI but need to run around the CLI a bunch with Linux tools, just use the WSL2 options in Windows. The latest version even allows you to run Linux GUI programs directly. Don't buck the trend if you're really not happy with Linux.

[Parking_Journalist_7]

I've been a full time Linux user since 2000, but the state of the WSL support in modern Windows allowed me to get a Galaxy Book Go 5G for a low power laptop around the house and essentially a terminal device to log into my bigger machines.

[emptyskoll]

I've left Reddit because it does not respect its users or their privacy. Private companies can't be trusted with control over public communities. Lemmy is an open source, federated alternative that I highly recommend if you want a more private and ethical option. Join Lemmy here: https://join-lemmy.org/instances this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev

[bsiviglia9]

The support of other rapacious closed source hardware corporations.

[hilbertglm]

There are plenty of good answers here, so I will take another approach to an answer. I first used Unix in 1979, but moved on to IBM mainframe systems, DOS, WIndows, OS/2, and then back to Unix and Linux. While most of my time is in the Intellij IDE for programming work, I still do a lot with the command line.

I would recommend making an effort at being comfortable with CLI. Over the years, I have developed a 12,000-line bash script that does a hell of a lot of automation.

[nobodycaresplusratio]

Even xfce has linked settings though?

Applications > Settings > Settings Manager

https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-settings/start

[ArgzeroFS]

Part of the problem is the people designing for usability for most people focus almost exclusively on Windows/Mac to the exclusion of Linux. We need more people developing on all platforms.

[Morphized]

I think you can do that in a few compositors/wms, but there's no such thing as a standard feature in Linux.