MadModder

No offense meant by that. Just my personal take on those particular ways of loading programs. I don't see that it hurts anyone, and others may like them. To me, and I've show several newbies how to use Linux, those particular aspects are counterproductive. Newbies generally do not want to drop to console to add a program. Apt requires console work with a number of unfamiliar and ambiguous commands, such as update/upgrade remove/purge, etc.

Synaptic, is supposed to make this into an automated, more graphically oriented process, which would be great if it worked the way it is supposed to. But it has many problems. For instance try installing Wine with it. It will pull in many dependencies to do that. Then uninstall it immediately afterwards. It will not uninstall those most of those dependencies. This kind of thing eventually bloats a user's system. There are many other problems with Synaptic installations, which require a new user to go to apt to and console to make the program they want work.

Su and sudo, is for most people I've introduced to Linux, another point of confusion. At first they cannot understand why they do not have permission to do the things they want to do. While Linux, like Unix, was designed as a multi-user system, where a root administrator, and lesser permissioned users was a necessary practicality, most home computers are single user systems. Since now with sudo, anyone can override their permissions restrictions anyway, I personally prefer not to have to type that in.

EasyOS is just a personal preference for me, and I'm fine if others want to use any other Linux system, or even Windows or Mac OS's. To each their own. But there's nothing wrong, I think, in pointing out what one's personal likes and dislikes are, and the reasons for them, and I think those do not prevent newbies from trying Linux of any species.

I hope my comments are taken in the spirit meant -- not as a discouragement to anyone.

Thanks for expanding your reply. I'll admit that I have some learning to do about the way I worded my reply.

I tend to have rather strict way of writing about projects.

It consist offering context as best as I can, when I have an opinion (good, bad, ugly or whatever). You have provided a good example of that kind, and it can, and most probably will make the subject(s) more relatable and easier to approach.

But yeah, I've noticed the same thing with Wine. I've used this site to find the codename of the distro I'm using, and version-specific installation instructions: https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/wikis/Debian-Ubuntu

It requires separate app to handle Wine settings using GUI. I've used WineGUI, available at: https://gitlab.melroy.org/melroy/winegui/-/releases
 
So it certainly isn't as straightforward as Windows user like me might assume.

Another virtual machine, Qemu/virt-manager, has installation instructions at: https://christitus.com/vm-setup-in-linux/ 

What comes to VMWare player, it's one bugger to install. The version specific instructions I've managed to find from random website, they work, but I doubt that I'd install it again. And then there's the fact, that Broadcom once declared it to be free to use (it may have included VMWare Workstation as well), and then deleted the download links from their website.

In the end, it's true that using terminal isn't everyone's cup of tea. That was one of the main reasons that kept me away from Linux for a long time.

I don't remember which of the Linux Youtubers said: Linux doesn't protect you from yourself. In other words, using terminal can be scary, as it can break the system.

That's why I try to describe the steps when I use terminal, in as simple terms as I can, and if possible, add links to the content I'm referring. And no doubt, there's always room to improve that.

Rester, this was a two year old thread.

Not any more it's not 

In fairness - the last post date isn't exactly "In yer face" with SMF - I didn't notice it was 2 years ago for example, and ffs I'm an admin on 2 SMF forums, so I should know better!

Quote from: vtsteam on December 24, 2025, 10:23:53 PM

I hate synaptics and apt for a number of functional reasons, sudo as well.

How does that help new Linux users?

Again, as many of us know, Linux discussions can and probably will get pretty heated. I certainly hope that it doesn't have to happen here, on this forum.

The aim of this thread is to provide info written by me, a noob Linux user, to other noob Linux users reading this thread (if any).

I could go on and on about these off-topic subjects - but no, it has to end right here.

No offense meant by that. Just my personal take on those particular ways of loading programs. I don't see that it hurts anyone, and others may like them. To me, and I've show several newbies how to use Linux, those particular aspects are counterproductive. Newbies generally do not want to drop to console to add a program. Apt requires console work with a number of unfamiliar and ambiguous commands, such as update/upgrade remove/purge, etc.

Synaptic, is supposed to make this into an automated, more graphically oriented process, which would be great if it worked the way it is supposed to. But it has many problems. For instance try installing Wine with it. It will pull in many dependencies to do that. Then uninstall it immediately afterwards. It will not uninstall those most of those dependencies. This kind of thing eventually bloats a user's system. There are many other problems with Synaptic installations, which require a new user to go to apt to and console to make the program they want work.

Su and sudo, is for most people I've introduced to Linux, another point of confusion. At first they cannot understand why they do not have permission to do the things they want to do. While Linux, like Unix, was designed as a multi-user system, where a root administrator, and lesser permissioned users was a necessary practicality, most home computers are single user systems. Since now with sudo, anyone can override their permissions restrictions anyway, I personally prefer not to have to type that in.

EasyOS is just a personal preference for me, and I'm fine if others want to use any other Linux system, or even Windows or Mac OS's. To each their own. But there's nothing wrong, I think, in pointing out what one's personal likes and dislikes are, and the reasons for them, and I think those do not prevent newbies from trying Linux of any species.

I hope my comments are taken in the spirit meant -- not as a discouragement to anyone.

From my experience on a lot of forums, most don’t allow direct video uploads because of storage and bandwidth limits. Usually they expect a YouTube (or similar) link embedded in the post, and attachments are limited to images or small files. Also, don’t take the lack of replies personally—some sections are quiet, and mods or regulars may only check in occasionally.

If your video format is large or not widely supported, converting it first can help before uploading elsewhere. I’ve used guides like https://www.movavi.com/learning-portal/mkv-editors.html to quickly trim or convert clips. It’s useful when you need a smaller, more compatible file before sharing a link.

Happy New year and merry Christmas 2026