Nate created a Usability issue board and it is currently populated exclusively with LTT issues. Maybe it could be mentioned somehow. In a new section, perhaps?

Part 1 - Cave Story+

Purchased just to test and confirmed the issue. Was looking around for a solution and found this:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=129059216

Unlike on Windows, the window Luke has open is not the “Fonts folder” but a program called GNOME Font Viewer. There is no single equivalent of the “Fonts folder” (C:\Windows\Fonts) since fontconfig uses a search path based on XDG data directories (on FHS-based distros /usr/share/fonts would be one; ~/.local/share/fonts would be another, specific to the current user).

But GNOME Font Viewer does actually support installing fonts, only one by one and user needs to open them, they cannot just drag them onto the app. The following issues are relevant:

• https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-font-viewer/-/issues/5
• https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-font-viewer/-/issues/14

In the video Linus expresses his concern on how mouse acceleration is turned on by default but mouse acceleration is on by default on Windows 10, probably ever since Windows XP. On Mac OS you can't even turn off mouse acceleration without using a very specific terminal command for it.

This should be removed from the list because changing the default behavior will be detrimental rather than a welcome change.

Turning mouse acceleration off by default will affect the majority of users as most people don't bother changing the defaults.

One benefit of this approach is that guides for other distros may still work on your without user interpretation of the package manager cmds. The downside is that without a dictionary of package naming from one distro to another may lead to bugs.

Bedrocks Linux's pmm is the best example of this, though of course built to work with actual packages from each distribution (along with the rest of the bedrock structure).

I think this combined with a reasonable dictionary lookup between the top five distros would get pretty far for usability. Of course, the other added use could be including distro-less repos like flatpack with a single packagemanager.

Another one that looks promising is pacapt though it only solves it one way.

Hello,

On the main page of this repo, I saw that you listed this as a possible fix:

Possible fix: Hide the archive (dot prefix) until it's done compressing.

I don't particularly agree with that one. The reason being that it removes any visual indication of the operation doing anything.

One of the things that made this an issue for Linus, was that the progress indication would be shown in the bottom right corner of his second monitor.

Worse still, this progress indication is usually hidden behind the spinning circle icon (notifications dropdown menu) in KDE (as far as I remember from my own system. Take this with a grain of salt, however, because I'm still using KDE version 5.12.8 as my (embedded) dev environment is stable at this point)

Possible fix: When such an action is triggered, expand the KDE "notifications dropdown menu" automatically by default on the screen the action was triggered. (but make it configurable)

That way, operation progress has an immediate visual indication and it nudges the user into checking the notifications dropdown menu for progress updates. Veteran users, however, could configure it to not bother them.

Unifying the Plasma Settings

Presently on Plasma, (On Manjaro KDE mind you, I can't speak for other Plasma distros) you can reach settings both in the main settings application, and separately by searching for them individually. I think that Linus' concerns are valid, and instead of opening up a separate window for a specific settings page, it should just open that page in the main settings manager.

Separate Settings Window

Primary Settings Window

Both open at same time

I suggest renaming this one to somehing along the lines of You can't drag and drop files from Ark into a subdirectory of the directory currently open in dolphin. Attempting to do so just drops the files in the currently open directory.

The user was unable to locate the refresh action in the menu system [View -> Refresh (F5)].

The refresh action is not in the right-click menu.
The refresh action is not on the toolbar.

Recommendations:

1. Add "Refresh" icon to the toolbar as default. I also recommend adding the "Home" icon to the toolbar as well to duplicate the default functions of a web browser ie (Back, Forward, Refresh, Home). This may make it easier especially for new users to navigate the Linux file system.
2. Add "Refresh" to the right click menu.

I have configured my own Dolphin toolbar thusly:

Steps to add "Refresh" and "Home" icons to the toolbar:

1. Using the menu system go to "Tools > Configure Toolbars..." and use the pop-up dialogue to modify the toolbar.
   OR
   Right click on the toolbar and select "Configure Toolbars..." from the right click menu.
2. Search for and select "Refresh" on the "Available actions:" list on the left and using the arrows in the middle of the panel, move "Refresh" to the "Current actions:" list on the right and adjust its position.
   
3. Remove the text beside the icon by clicking on the "Change Text..." button found beneath the list "Current actions:" and checking the option "Hide text when toolbar shows text alongside icons".
   

You can see this in Gardiner Byrant's video as he attempts to compress the files. This is also present on my system in Arch Linux. Luke/Linus don't use Nautilus, so they don't face this issue.

Up to you whether you consider this out of scope or not.

Seems to be a issue with whatever kernel pop OS uses.

Possible Fix : https://www.spinics.net/lists/usb/msg02644.html
TL;DR : Add the following to modprobe config options usbcore use_both_schemes=y

It would make sense to enable Flatpak by default, and show Snap and AUR packages when searched, but show a warning on the first install attempt:

• for snap: something that warns about the general issues that often arise with snap
• for AUR: a general warning about the fact that since manjaro delays the release of packages for a week or so, not all AUR packages will work.

There's an extension

https://store.kde.org/p/1384645/

Which is kinda fine. If a user has the knowledge to install the extension, then they probably understand the risks or have a particular reason to use root. If they don't then they probably shouldnt be anyway

Does Pop! include lspci? If so, that may be their justification if/when asked about hardinfo

lsb_release -a
LSB Version:	core-11.1.0ubuntu2-noarch:printing-11.1.0ubuntu2-noarch:security-11.1.0ubuntu2-noarch
Distributor ID:	Linuxmint
Description:	Linux Mint 20.2
Release:	20.2
Codename:	uma

What am I doing wrong?

Right-clicking in Dolphin does work. What he tries to do is drag 'n drop with right click, from Dolphin to Desktop. This functionality is already there, all you have to do is use the LEFT mouse click.

So basically Windows has the need for restarting after updates since they can't be installed when the OS is running. And Linux doesn't really need a restart unless you need the kernel updates to be applied right now (livepatch can solve that too)

But the misconception that Linux doesn't need restarts to fix problems is not true. Of course alot of problems can be fixed without restarting but will often require you to debug it first and then fixing it.
Re initializing a program is way faster than debugging so go for it.
Also new configuration is loaded when you restart the program.

I mean most routers are based on Linux and a good old restart fixes your network issues. most of the time :)

Second google hit (tomsguide) seems pretty decent list. They even tested two entries on that list.
They could even test drive a bunch of them and come with their own list. You cannot choose for them.

One thing that is not apparent with your recent Linux reviews is that Linux offers the best desktop experiences out of all the major players.

To showcase this, I suggest trying the following distros:

Fedora 35

Fedora offers a vanilla version of GNOME 41, makes it easy to install Steam and graphics drivers, and provides the latest technologies that most distros aren't ready to integrate (pulsewire, wayland, etc). It's my opinion that this distro represents the best Linux desktop environment for normal users.

GNOME 41 is a very interesting desktop, and any review of it should account for the learning curve involved to understand its expected user flow. The Overview, while unpopular to those new to it, is well-considered and is a direct evolution of macOS concepts.

Consider Apple's Mission Control, and compare it to the GNOME implementation which it calls the Activities Overview:

The MacOS Mission Control shows the Dock on the bottom (with an App launcher by default), shows Windows in Expose, and a view of the virtual desktops.

GNOME provides all of this too, along with an inline search tool (what MacOS calls Spotlight), all at the press of a key. It can also be activated by a hot corner, touchpad gesture, or top-left button. On Mac, these are several different services without a unified interface or keybindings. GNOME can showcase all of this functionality to new users by simply showing the Overview on login.

KDE Neon

The folks at KDE maintain its own Ubuntu-based distribution where they provide packages directly from their CI/CD pipes. This means that this version of KDE is exactly as the maintainers intended, and doesn't have any distro-level changes and themes which usually only drag the experience down. Newer versions of KDE Plasma are gorgeous and extremely easy to use. While the underlining distro isn't a bleeding edge as Fedora, it's based on Linux and is very easy to install Steam and other packages.

KDE Plasma compares to Windows 11 in terms of visual design and customization. Windows and Mac still offer more stable, easier-to-use environments, but it's becoming hard to argue that either Desktop Environment matches their open-source rivals in terms of general user experience. KDE specifically offers native blurring effects that provide a very attractive user experience reminiscent of other major players. It also subtly supports several approaches to desktop and window management, making it great for users who don't want to adopt to something new like GNOME. Plasma allows you to build almost any user interface, it's very powerful.

Installing kde-servicemenus-rootactions on the AUR does not work. I found an alternative workaround.

Install yay. You can refer to this link to install yay

Once yay is installed. Open a terminal and enter the command
yay dolphin root
It will show 4 options.

Choose the 4th option to open Dolphin via Polkit. All the other options is to open dolphin via ksudo.

Once installed. Open Dolphin. Rightclick anywhere in a blank space. And select root actions, and click Open in File Manager.

It will prompt you for your password and dolphin is now in a plain white background with root access.

This is a old issue. I faced it too. It is fixed.

Currently works perfectly with my 3 sinks and 2 devices

"Show Desktop" and "Minimize All Windows" are two separate things in KDE. I found a hotkey for "Show Desktop" in System Settings → Shortcuts → Global Shortcuts → Plasma, but none for "Minimize All Windows" (only to "activate" the existing widget for that function). Pretty sure this would be a "won't fix".

Part 3

Fullscreen doesn't work in VLC media player.

Change the compositor in system settings from OpenGL 2.0 to OpenGL 3.1

Happens on my HDMI display, but not my DisplayPort display. Using Nvidia drivers. The suggested fix solves the issue for me

Part 2

When Linus tried to download a script from GitHub, the process was difficult, he ended up downloading it as HTML.

I developed a simple Firefox addon which adds the download button on every downloadable github file
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/github-download-button-addon/

Distro - Ubuntu 21.10, default GNOME 40.4 with Wayland
Hardware - Intel 9300H + Nvidia 1650 with Intel/Nvidia "On demand" mode turned on (which is the default).

1. Copy paste to another drive (Ubuntu to Windows drive)
   Done after disabling fastboot
   https://askubuntu.com/questions/880443/dual-boot-cant-move-files

2. Sign pdf document
   Method 1 (adding actual image) - done using Libre Office Draw. It supports editing PDFs.
   Method 2 (digital signature) - Didn't do myself, but reviews say it works.

3. Export chart from Excel
   Done without issues, I did not face the border issue mentioned in video.

4. Add new font
   Just click on install.
   Install gnome-tweaks to change system font.

5. Print Word Document
   I don't have printer, but it should work anyway.

6. Compress file - Done. Wish progress bar was more detailed (Nautilus). Its just a circle getting filled up.

7. Take Screenshot
   Works great.

8. Make a shortcut
   This is not available by default! You have to change settings :
   Nautilus -> Preferences -> Create link
   After that you can do shortcuts. This should be on by default!

9. Connect a network share
   I just logged in to Google and use a common account. Nautilus nicely mounts Google Drive.

10. Setup Discord to work on startup - Done. Used gnome-tweaks to create startup.

11. 4k playback is not smooth on Firefox/Brave. Windows much faster. Something to do with hardware acceleration?

12. watch HDR content - don't think its possible now but devs are working on this.

Bonus - recording videos using OBS. I was on Wayland, so got black screen. Looks like apt package doesn't have latest update.
I installed via snap and it worked perfectly.

Overall Score - 10/12 (after applying some fixes).

Interestingly - their solution, which was to download the aur "obs browser" plugin or copy plugin files actually gives them an outdated browser - the official plugin and method is a compile time patch - in other words you have to compile it

The ideal solution is to try and make sure package maintainers include these plugins with their default obs package.

The current solution is to install the flatpak or the AUR package (named obs-sudio-browser)

Since it seems renaming it had no negative effects to the compression, it should instead be renamed by the compression utility to indicate status. I.E.: file.compressing[*---] and with progress file.compressing[**--]. It should also check what the current main section of the name is and use that when renaming, allowing for a user to rename the first part without losing it on the next name update.

The option of simply hiding it, violates the principle of doing something when a user does something to indicate action and makes canceling via deletion a power user task instead of a normal option.

The option of a pop-up has two downsides:

1. It could get lost
2. If it forced top level, it could get in the way of use on what could be a background task for the user

My personal preference for a filename based option is also so that I could potentially use this via cli instead of monitoring the file size changes.

u/Xornial created a website mirror of this repo on https://arewelinusyet.com/. As the person says, it's difficult to sync the changes from there to their website.

I suggest merging with the person's project and keeping the content using Hugo-based static website.

Advantages:

• Advanced styling, like in e.g. https://arewewaylandyet.com/
• Possibility to create labels for items, so that they can be filtered (advanced list)
• Minimalistic "go-to" webpage with the quick summary
• Meme (i.e. easy to remember and spread) web page address

Disadvantages:

• Requires a bit of initial work, but the complexity of contributing is not increasing much, as the Hugo operates on Markdown files too.

Instead of creating a warning for every package manager out there, Perhaps a welcome message in the terminal would be a better solution? its just a matter of editing the ~/.bashrc script, and add an echo command at the beginning of the script:

# ~/.bashrc: executed by bash(1) for non-login shells.
# see /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/startup-files (in the package bash-doc)
# for examples

echo "Welcome to Manjaro GNOME 21.1.6."
echo -e "To install a package, type \033[1;32m\"sudo pacman -Syu <package name>\"\033[1m"
\""

The end result should be able to get the point across. Opening a new terminal window shows the following: