SOLUSfiddler When I was a boy growing up in the US in the 1950's, Ford versus Chevy was a topic of intense debate among both boys and men. The Ford camp and the Chevy camp each were fiercely loyal to their brands, and the fan club for each brand disparaged the other brand. Looking back, it was mostly nonsense. Neither brand was better than the other, and neither manufactured cars and trucks nearly as good as the most basic cars and trucks manufactured today.
As an adult, I witnessed equally heated debates about IBM as400 versus Unix, ascii versus ebcdic, ethernet versus token ring, competing voicemail technologies, competing WAN technologies and so on. I was in senior IT management at the time the debates were hot, and it was my job to filter out the noise, weigh the relative advantages and disadvantages of each, and try to chart a course for our global enterprise-level business that provided a solid, cost-efficient combination of platforms and computing models (e.g. distributed versus central, thin client versus fat client, and so on) that best served our business needs. I learned to be agnostic, make decisions based on cost/benefit, and to let the anger of whichever camp I displeased run off me like rain runs off a roof.
A similarly heated debate has raged about personal computer operating systems -- Windows versus Apple OS's versus Linux -- for at least 30-odd years. I am an agnostic in that respect, too, using Windows, Linux, Android and iOS on a daily basis. I see advantages and disadvantages in each, and try to use all of them in combination to create an environment that fits my needs.
I think the same way about the Windows-Linux debate. I have experience with both Windows (going back about 35 years) and Linux (going back about 15 years), and I am, simply, not in either camp. I appreciate the passion that drives adherents into Windows versus Linux camps, but I don't share it, using both, and remaining "of two minds" about the relative advantages and disadvantages of the two operating systems.
With that in mind, let me address a few of the issues you've raised:
SOLUSfiddler Why on earth do linux people's mouths get all watery when MS starts offering software built to be used on linux machines?
I don't know about "watery" (is that similar to drooling, or is it more similar to frothing at the mouth?), but quite a few people work, of necessity, in a mixed Windows-Linux environment, and almost all enterprise-level businesses deploy both Windows and Linux environments, requiring a relatively large number of employees to be OS-ambidextrous. I think those users are the people interested in Edge-Linux.
SOLUSfiddler The days of "terminal only" and "tinker-knowledge" are long gone by, for the everyday user at least (thank God!): You could very well use a linux system on your computer and not need the terminal at all, there is an abundance of linux operating systems out there that made just that: The "terminal only" approach superfluous.
While Linux has moved well beyond the "terminal only" phase, the terminal is not dead in Linux. In the first post in this thread, I discussed installing Edge on a Solus computer, using three simple terminal commands ("flatpak remote-add flathub-beta https://flathub.org/beta-repo/flathub-beta.flatpakrepo", then "flatpak install flathub-beta org.godotengine.Godot", then "flatpak install com.microsoft.Edge"). If there is a way to install flathub-beta and then an app from the flathub-beta repository without using the terminal, I would appreciate knowing about it. I don't think that it can be done in Solus.
I agree with you that the "everyday user" can use a well-designed distro for everyday tasks without resorting to the terminal, but if you read the "Support" posts on this forum (and similar forums for other distros), you'll notice that a lot of solutions involve both terminal commands and tinker-knowledge.
I agree with you that "[t]he "terminal only" approach is superfluous", but I also think that the issue is a red herring, both ways.
SOLUSfiddler And, I can understand your argument "linux has serious driver problems" - but what kind of users are you talking about? If you always want to use the latest cutting-edge technology - fine, then you might find driver problems in linux. But the way you generalise linux as a whole is going a little too far, I find. And, to be fair: You get a lot of driver problems in Windows, too.
Like it or not, the fact is that Linux commands a very small market share in the desktop/laptop computer market, and many manufacturers don't build Linux drivers for their products, cutting edge or not. This forum reflects that -- complaints abound to the effect that "I can't get this or that printer, wifi adapter and so on working ..." and the problem is almost always a driver problem, either a driver that doesn't exist because the manufacturer doesn't make a Linux driver or a driver that exists, but isn't in the kernel, requiring terminal installation. In general, driver issues are not nearly as big an issue in Windows, assuming that the products involved are from major manufacturers, because the manufacturers make Windows drivers and Windows includes them in the OS.
In general, users who don't have a technical background and want to use a desktop/laptop that "just works". I support about two dozen friends, all in their 70's (as I am) as an on-call "geek". All are intelligent people, facile in computer use but without technical background. I also support, as a volunteer, the computers and network for a small railroad museum (11 desktops/laptops, a small, locked-down business-side network, and a 9-router distributed campus wifi network). As is the case with my friends, most of the people using the computers and network are retired, intelligent and facile, but without much understanding of what is going on in the background. Many younger users are more knowledgeable than older users, to be sure, but my guess is that most younger people are not all that different from the people I'm describing -- most don't have a technical background and want to use a desktop/laptop that "just works", with as little fuss and bother as possible.
SOLUSfiddler I don't understand your argument even less, tomscharbach, if you then turn around to hail Solus as a near-perfect desktop OS (which it is, damn it!).
I don't see an inconsistency in my observation ("However, within the limitations of Linux, Solus Budgie is a near-perfect desktop OS.") To me, it is possible to both understand and appreciate Solus Budgie as a "near-perfect desktop OS" while recognizing, at the same time, that Linux, upon which Solus is built, imposes limitations. If you do see an inconsistency, I won't argue about it, but I've used a number of distros over the years, and Solus Budgie shines in comparison, for the reasons I mentioned.
SOLUSfiddler Isn't linux and FOSS about freedom? About choice? About NOT getting hi-jacked when using a computer - a computer for the home user type of guy or gal, because that's what we're talking about here (this is the Solus forum after all). I thought it was.
I think in much more practical, less philosophical terms, probably because of my background. To me, the purpose of an OS (e.g. Linux, Windows 10, MacOS) is to provide a solid, reasonably stable operating environment, the purpose of a distro (e.g. Solus Budgie) is to provide a "clean and quick, simple and intuitive" working environment, and the purpose of FOSS (e.g. LibreOffice, Gimp) is the same as the purpose of propriety software (e.g. Office 365 or Adobe Photoshop), to provide working tools that meet the needs of the user. While I support FOSS and have used FOSS almost exclusively in my own computing environment for the last twenty-odd years, the reasons are more practical (the need to work as seamlessly as reasonably possible in a mixed Windows-Linux computing environment) than philosophical. I just don't align well with black and white divisions, particularly those that are philosophical in origin.
