I too am very cautious of getting stuck with Linux. I try to be sure I’m not doing things the hard way. I have found easy distros and easy ways to do most things in Linux despite many people suggesting I do it the IT pro way that they do. Usually because they haven’t investigated easy ways for non IT users. They mean well, but don’t know about usability or if there us an easy way.

Windows doesn’t have a real choice of desktop environments. So I moved to Linux 15 years ago. I’m not in IT and always use a mouse. Importantly for me, I’ve never needed the CLI, despite people telling me that’s impossible. Plasma lets me tweak it to my needs. I use Kubuntu, yet don’t care about what’s below the desktop environment. Happy to change distros.

I install graphical and visual design apps. And I’ll navigate to the category by mouse. I don’t memorise the names of all my apps. I’m not in IT, and I’m not working with text all the time. I’ll right click the app icon and go ‘Add to favourites’, so I have a highly productive, 1 click access to important apps. I’m interested in usability, am not a beginner and I know my UI and settings well. I can see why people find this tiny green dot useful. It’s OK if you are not into usability. But note that there are many different user types, with different needs at different times. And the flexibility of KDE Plasma makes it a really great desktop environment.

sure. those are reasons it’s missing some stuff. But I was referring to other important things also missing from Windows. Which is what Linux seems to follow. Linux has a great opportunity to break away, and come up with something really good. But sadly, there will be reasons not to, I suspect.

AutoCAD might be widely used at the lower end, where many just create a sketch and extrude it. But that is no good for car or aircraft design, where you need high end smooth shape commands, and high productivity workflows.

Great. But AutoCAD and Solidworks are not high end CAD. Acceptable for some I guess. But we need serious CAD.

We have to use Windows at work for our high end CAD. There’s no FOSS alternative.

I use Linux at home. Which is basically a, less crap, copy of Windows. But is still missing important stuff.

Why not both? It’s simple to install both and decide for yourself. I use both for different tasks.

I’m also not a text first person. There are a lot of us about. I have found GUI applications to do most commands I need. Most IT users don’t know them, as they’ve never searched for them. I pin the apps as Favourites in the launcher, to help remember my processes. The apps typically keep the last used values, making them quite productive.

Get a spare computer. Then you will feel more inclined to mess with it. And your main computer is always ready to look up issues and set up boot USB sticks. You will definitely try out lots more distros without hesitation.

And there are some cool mini PCs to buy quite cheap.

In KDE Plasma, if you right click on the launch menu button, there is an option Show Alternatives. Here, you can immediately select and use one of the installed alternative start menus. On top of that, you can install further launcher menus, which will then appear in the Show Alternatives list. I installed Simple Menu (from Eike Hein) that has categories, favourites and search. And let’s you move the icons around. But its that easy to try out different launchers. I hope you find a good one.

Copy pasting strange commands people will not memorise does not solve it! To keep non IT people on Linux, they need to find out how their desktop GUI works, so they are in control and happy to stay. The aim is not to use the minimum possible time writing the tips. Thrusting an unfamiliar environment on people is sure to scare them away, and is bad usability.

I searched but never ever found a website with Linux help specially for non IT people. This is seriously needed. Everywhere I’ve looked, gatekeepers with no clue about the GUI solutions, insist people use the command line for day to day user tasks. Sure things vary between desktop environments, but it’s important people learn about their desktop. It’s how they get comfortable, and stay. And not stuck reliant on strangers having to spoon feed them cryptic text commands each time. I’d be happy to help contribute. As I’ve found GUI ways to do nearly everything.

I setup and use Linux on my home PC for the last 12 years, as a non IT person. I don’t use the command line or any IT tools. It has to be user friendly. 99.9% of the time, me, and many others, enjoy a very good, modern experience. I’m happy with the Linux apps for home use. Installation, partitioning, app store and updates are all graphical. There might be the occasional glitch. Where you need online help. Ignore those who say the command line is the only way to solve it. They know nothing about GUI solutions. Nearly all issues are solvable. If you are unlucky, at worst, a reinstall is quick, and GUI based. Your learning can be confined to discovering the easy tools and GUI alternatives. I find Kubuntu good, because it allows me to solve things due to its flexibility.

This question just shows how messed up, and broken much of IT is.

People speak many different languages around the world. Gimp doesn’t have a bad connotation outside small and sad group of people. A subset of English speakers only. People like that should not dictate what the rest of us, outside their bubble, do.

Businesses around the world, who have no idea what a few people use the term gimp to mean, are no different. The name makes no difference to them. To most people around the world, gimp means that photo editor.

I’m a non IT user interested in usability. I left Windows 7, on my home PC, over 10 years ago, as Linux has a good selection of Desktop Environments to choose from. So I get to try different ways of working. Windows has loads of tweaks. But no serious alternative desktops. Work PC is Windows only sadly.

Plasma has that built in.

As long as it’s easy to setup, anything would be good. After many years of asking, nobody has been able to suggest anything.