We love to praise linux constantly and tell everyone to change to it (they should) but what are your biggest annoyances ?
Mine would be, installing software (made even more complex by flatpaks being added, among the 5 other ways there already were to install software) and probably wifi power management issues.
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Oh! Came up with a new one, though it’s more of a unixism than a Linux specific thing.
I really wish that the core utils and other cli tools had a standard structured output option, like yaml, json, or toml so that it would be easier to parse rather than all of the random regular expressions needed when piping output around.
Edit: And it would be great if we also picked that same format for config files instead of all the bespoke stuff in /etc.
We have awesome distributed systems like Kubernetes (rke2, or k3s as easy distro examples) BUT no desktop usage.
I want a distributed desktop dang it. My phone, my smart tv (media PC), my gaming computer, my SOs gaming computer, my router, my home lab, etc, etc should theoretically all be one computer with multiple users, and multiple interfaces.
Snap. The very existence of it.
The fact that there is NO agreed single package standard across distros.
This is probably the biggest barrier to mainstream linux adoption - devs have to choose between supporting 5+ package formats or just say “screw it” and make a windows/mac app instead.
This is my own opinion, but I think Flatpak and Flathub need to be universally adopted as a standard. It’s already growing that way organically, even if major distro projects haven’t recognized it yet.
With usage of Flatpak growing over time, I think we are heading towards that way.
This has its pros. If all agree to use, say, deb, then some of the users will complain, “I downloaded package XYZ from Arch and it doesn’t work on Fedora!”
No, not really true, IMO.
If all distros come together and agree on a single package format (e.g. deb), then if arch makes a package available in .deb, it can be downloaded and installed on Ubuntu or Fedora, as it becomes an universal package format like flatpak.
Currently we have to compile the source code in such situations.
If flatpak is universal doesn’t it solve the issue ? Is it the sandboxing people dont like?
My system is a mix of .Deb, manual compiled, and flatpaks. As im sure many are. Im not an organized person.
Yep, it’s sandboxing that I don’t like. They feel “tacked on” and don’t integrate properly.
Same for my system which is also a mix of deb, flatpak and Snap.
The main complain of flatpak being size and performance in comparison to ‘native’ installations.
Having to install apps manually and figure out dependencies myself because a popular piece of software only officially supports Ubuntu and Debian. No normal human would ever do this. They would go back to Windows. Hell, I still haven’t even gotten one piece of software to work on my new OpenSUSE system yet: Beyond Compare 4. There’s no flatpack for it. The RPM test says all dependencies are satisfied, but when I run the program, nothing happens. I did some web searching, but I haven’t dug too deep yet.
Why are there so many package managers with such different syntaxes? And why does one repo maintainer decide to call it “package” and another calls it “package4”? Or some entirely different name! It’s maddening. I’ve had to create empty proxy packages that translate package names just to install some RPM file. Again, the average person is not going to do this.
In KDE plasma, the first thing most people do is set up Wi-Fi on their computer, but you need to set up KWallet first or else the password gets stored in some other dimension. I accidentally typed my Wi-Fi password wrong, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to clear it out and make it ask me for the proper password when I try to connect. I even went into network manager and switched the network to say, “ask me every time”. It wouldn’t! It would just sit there and hang on “authenticating”. I never did figure it out. I ended up forgetting to encrypt my system partition, so I simply reinstalled the OS.
And it’s not only obscure software on obscure distros.
The Arduino IDE doesn’t run on Fedora 42. It just doesn’t work.
I personally don’t need it, I use ESP-IDF on Platformio, but Arduino is an incredibly common piece of software and one I would have expected to work flawlessly on Linux.
I have spent way too much time fiddling with audio, both in PulseAudio and Pirewire. Granted, this sucks even more on Windows.
Weird how my absolute favorite thing about Linux is how easy and simple installing software is, at least on Arch. Never touched a flatpack or snap or whatever else they’re called for my 13+ years if use.
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The lack of a universal application installation method which 98% of developers use. Windows has .exe and it makes it so much easier for developers to release one application which is dead simple for users to install. No instruction manual with different methods per distro. Just double click. This results in less support for Linux in general. Fewer games and applications an drivers with fewer features.
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Poor backwards compatibility. Yes it results in bloat, but it also makes it much cheaper to develop for and maintain applications, and this results in more developers for Windows. More hardware and driver support. More applications. More games.
It is no mystery to me why developers don’t focus more on Linux support. It’s more expensive. They tell us this. What is so frustrating is that Linux fans are so quick to blame developers instead of focusing inwards and making Linux a more supportive platform for said developers.
The lack of a universal application installation method which 98% of developers use. Windows has .exe and it makes it so much easier for developers to release one application which is dead simple for users to install. No instruction manual with different methods per distro. Just double click. This results in less support for Linux in general. Fewer games and applications an drivers with fewer features.
That’s not true. .exe isn’t an installation method, it’s just a binary, the better equivalent would be .msi. Also you also have to consider (some) dependencies on Windows, e.g. you can’t assume the required vcredist is available on the target.
Poor backwards compatibility. Yes it results in bloat, but it also makes it much cheaper to develop for and maintain applications, and this results in more developers for Windows. More hardware and driver support. More applications. More games.
Not super sure about this. I was able to run an over 10 year old binary only game when I last tried (UT 2k4 in 2016 or so) and it worked after providing a single missing library. Yes, it did require manual intervention, but I think the situation is much better on Windows where compatibility also isn’t granted anymore.
10 year old binaries are only an achievement on Macs.
I have been able to run Lotus Organizer on Windows 11, 20-30 years old and only runs on a FAT formatted partition of maximum 4GB.
That’s not true. .exe isn’t an installation method, it’s just a binary, the better equivalent would be .msi. Also you also have to consider (some) dependencies on Windows, e.g. you can’t assume the required vcredist is available on the target.
I think one could argue this but it’s immaterial. My point remains the same. The lack of a universal installation method makes deployment expensive on Linux, and confusing for users.
Not super sure about this. I was able to run an over 10 year old binary only game when I last tried (UT 2k4 in 2016 or so) and it worked after providing a single missing library. Yes, it did require manual intervention, but I think the situation is much better on Windows where compatibility also isn’t granted anymore.
I can run a 1998 copy of StarCraft designed for Windows 98 on Windows 11. It’s true there are degrees of backwards compatibility here, but Windows is king. They invest a lot of dev time into ensuring applications remain operational for decades. Their API deprecation policies are legendary.
I think one could argue this but it’s immaterial. My point remains the same. The lack of a universal installation method makes deployment expensive on Linux, and confusing for users.
If you’re fine with an executable just writing stuff to your system, then .sh is Linux’ universal installer format.
It’s true there are degrees of backwards compatibility here, but Windows is king
I agree, Microsoft has invested a lot into backwards compatibility and some nifty tricks to deal with DLL hell which was a huge issue in the past and as a result, provide the best backwards compatibility, as long as you stay on x86-64. Nowadays, each .exe basically sees its own sets of dlls in the filesystem. I agree it’s best there. My point was rather that it’s not as bad on Linux as people make it out to be if the application was packaged correctly. Going forward, I think stuff like Valve’s Linux Runtime can provide compatibility.
If you’re fine with an executable just writing stuff to your system, then .sh is Linux’ universal installer format.
I would be, but it’s not enforced. Few developers use it. Any method needs to have almost total universal adoption. Then libraries get built around that standard instead of the other way around.
My point was rather that it’s not as bad on Linux as people make it out to be if the application was packaged correctly. Going forward, I think stuff like Valve’s Linux Runtime can provide compatibility.
That’s fair. It’s getting better. Linus Torvalds agrees with you. Valve might have to save us from this fragmentation.
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My one major complaint is audio in general. I’ve had so many audio issues. If you need an eq or noise canceling it’s a pain to get it working. There’s always a bug somewhere, always a random distortion.
Voicemeeter is the only thing I miss about Windows. I really do.
I have an audio issue where it starts chopping if (I think, but could be CPU as well) the GPU struggles (think shader compilation). I’ve tried a couple of things to fix it, but haven’t been successful yet. So far it’s been my only major complaint.
Linux needs a shared API framework for all desktop apps for them to succeed. It’s ridiculous that gnome apps and other apps look different and have different theming conventions. I’d love to get into theming and application building, but I’m so afraid that I’ll waste my time on something that won’t apply to everything. macOS solved application cohesion perfectly.
There’s now game developers dropping native support for proton, because proton has a more uniform, stable and predictable API.
So while Linux in many ways becomes the better way to play Windows games, it’s also better to play Windows games on Linux than Linux games on Linux.
I can see a future where more and more of Linux just becomes a wrapper around Proton.
Proton for everything would be pretty heavy though. I’m referring to user facing APIs that could be made consistent.
Proton is not that heavy. In many cases it’s less heavy than Windows.
And sadly I cannot see a future where all of Linux rallies under the same APIs without giving in to the urge to forge.
You want to do some cool thing and you find instructions online.
But that shit only works when t every single aspect of the s is the exact same version.
Which will never be the case, so now you’re at co desperately trying to improvise the steps that, if you inherently knew how to do, you wouldn’t have needed instructions for in the first place.
Not a Linux thing directly but something that bothers me a lot: The complete lack of support from professional applications.
Wanna use this tool that cost hundreds of bucks on Linux? Lmao fuck you.
You’d think companies that actually make money could afford to support Linux and hobbyists doing FOSS stuff for funsies can only focus on the OS they use themselves but somehow we live in a world where the opposite is true.This is what makes switching to Linux for me personally and probably a lot of other people completely unviable because it means having to give up on thousands of dollars of stuff for “freedom”.
And the onus is 100% on the companies developing software. They have to offer Linux versions first, so people can switch to Linux, giving them more Linux users. Doesn’t work the other way around.
Oh also psst don’t ever mention spending money on proprietary software around Linux people, they will have a heart attack.
This is the most important issue facing Linux adoption by far. I wish Valve or someone would step in and start improving Wine/Proton’s general application support. A couple years ago someone made a fork of Wine that got Affinity running, but those improvements never made it back into the upstream project. Productivity software not being given serious consideration is a common problem with Wine/Proton as projects.
I mean the way i see it, not everything can be free. People are putting their time and lives into these programs. And not everyone donates even to projects they’ve used for decades.
The elitism
Ubuntu and GNOME
I’ll be nice in case the developers are reading.
I just think they’re both pretty misguided in their goals.
Ubuntu used to be Debian plus your laptop’s Wi-Fi works out of the box. The hardware support has improved and now Debian in 2025 is better than Ubuntu, plus Debian never shows you terminal ads or prompts you to
snap installsomething that obviously isn’t going to run well inside the default Snap sandbox.I wouldn’t recommend Ubuntu to any new users now. I’d sit and install Debian stable with them, and if something is missing, I’d try Debian unstable or the proprietary repos.
No offense to on-the-ground Ubuntu devs, but Ubuntu really feels like Debian plus a billionaire’s desire to make money reselling Debian.
GNOME… Wants the desktop to look like a phone. Got rid of the system tray and then you have to do a little dance t re-install it. I don’t know why. I’ve had useful stuff in the system tray since Windows XP.
I think GNOME might have also spearheaded the trend of ruining SEO and documentation by naming apps what they do instead of with real names? Like “Movie player” or “Web Browser”. I don’t know if they did any studies or if it helps new users but it’s real weird for advanced users. Most people know that “Chrome” is a brand of web browser, so why would you name your web browser “Web Browser” and make things weird? I like KDE’s thinking. Pick a name and wedge a K into it. And then make an anime furry its mascot. Can’t beat that!
There was a conspiracy theory years ago, because someone from Microsoft was making decisions at GNOME, that GNOME was going to be eaten inside-out by MS, like Nokia was. They were rolling .NET Mono stuff and some kind of object model… I don’t think it got far but I don’t care. I switched to xfce on my desktop and KDE looks great on the Steam Deck and laptop. KDE used to be heavy, but hardware got bigger.
I actually love the package managers on Linux. Apt would be better if you could install multiple versions side-by-side, but I get why that’s hard. Whenever I use Windows it’s like, gross, I have to use MSIs again? I can’t just
apt install git curl wget screen lua? And on macOS I can install brew but a lot of apps use that funny pattern where you drag it into the Applications folder, and then you must remember to unmount the disk image, and also some apps aren’t in the Applications folder.I actually love systemd and everyone can fight me on this. Systemd is really nice.
I wouldn’t recommend Ubuntu to any new users now.
Same. I also have a hard time recommending Mint as an alternative because of major hardware support problems the last time I tried to test drive it (which was a few weeks ago). I always come back to Fedora, but OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is also wonderful, and I’d happily recommend either to newcomers. I did try CachyOS recently and stuck with it for a couple weeks, but recently went back to Fedora because of the constant AUR security issues.
I refer most new users to Bazzite if they just want to game and do normal things. For more technical users, I recommend flipping a coin over Fedora or Tumbleweed. Flatpak is the great uniting force in Linux right now, and I wish more developers would directly support it since community versions make me uncomfortable unless I thoroughly review them first, and I really don’t enjoy that. The prevalence of Ubuntu-first packages is a major problem as Ubuntu rapidly enshittifies while Fedora and Arch communities are left to pick up the slack themselves. Pure Debian is fine, but release cycles are far too slow for my tastes.
The norms on where files belong are really dumb.
Similarly, programs being entitled to strew files all over kingdom come.
Ten different ways to install software and maybe one or two of them actually keep track of where all the files are and clean them up properly upon removal.
Security should be the default, but instead a lot of security features are optional things we have dig through docs to set.
TPM support is getting more common, using it should be too. Detected during install? Set it up as part of LUKs during install, and enable a password, and provide option for TANG (both usage or deployment).
fscrypt should be enabled by default and keys set by logical differences of file types. (Yes on top of LUKS). Honestly setup following selinux profiles and per user is a reasonable default. Hardware wrapped keys should be default.
Encrypted memory an option for this CPU? Enable it. Features for multiple key memory encryption? Enable it. Encrypt on a per VM and per container level by default.
Each service should be containerized, connections made explicit (ideally with l7 rules, l4 at least). If a user want to tinker with have a dev mode that opens that service up, with expectation that it’s temporary (track and warn user when active). Each service should run as it’s own non root user.
Each application should containerized. Wayland should be default to minimize shared data. Access by apps should be explicit and user approved and user configurable. Application should never run as root and escalations should be temporary and explicitly approved by the user. Application to the network should be explicit per connection and l7 aware.
MACSec WPA3 pki should be available during install. Wireless WPA3 PKI option should be default on wireless setup. IPSec/Wire guard VPN/Tor should be available option by default on setup. Vlan tagging should be available options on setup.
FIPS or equivalents should be enforced by default. Old encryption methods/cipher/etc should require explicit approval by the user.
Selinux should enabled by default and selinux tagging should be exposed in user applications, so users can choose the security levels, privacy tags (medical or tax docs or etc), or pseudonym access they want.
Sudo should be setup by default for least privileged roles and not god mode access. The combination of those into a single user could look indistinguishable but it should be set and ready for adding users that are limited in scope.
Encrypted backups following the 321 rule (at least 3 backups, 2 different types of media, 1 off site) should be the default and configurable on install. Schedule and triggered backups should be frequently (ideally constantly backup, with snapshot ting being periodic).
Multiple factor logins should be the default. Support for smart card, key fob, OTP, biometric, plus password built-in and encouraged on install.
Number of known CVEs for hardware, packages, and configurations should be tracked and obviously available for privileged users. Hardware missing for full best practices (like TPM 2.0, memory encryption support, etc). Software source should be kept easily accessable to users for remove and modifications. Software should adhere to SLSA build practices, exception explicitly choosen the user.
Systems should be immutable with expectations being explicit to the user and triggering snapshot ting.
DNSSEC and DNSoTLS/DNSoHTTPS should be default and configurable on install.
NTS should be default for NTP configuration. Hardware time sources should be configurable on install.
Applications should be privacy preserving by default (not defaulting to Google for example).
These are just off the top of my head stuff, stuff I had to annoyingly learn and set up myself to harden systems instead of it just being part of sane defauls. CIS bench mark has more controls that should be set.
