This is Microsoft’s latest annoying addition to Windows.
I personally enjoy knowing I can easily search for software I need, know it will run and install without issues and I won’t have to fuck around with poorly documented systems when something inevitably breaks.
Sure Windows pisses me off and sucks, but it’s still simpler to deal with.
it was somewhat controversial, but the mint people solved for this by including their own curated software manager (re:store) where you can search for (and install/uninstall) packages known to already work well with the distro.
most of my support calls are ‘wheres that thing i can install apps with?’
That came from Debian long before Mint even existed. The lineage goes Debian -> Ubuntu -> Mint, and the package manager was part of Debian since the 1990s (although you had to use it through the command-line back then.)
Use a popular Linux distro and employ the app store (that, unlike Windows Store, actually relies on insanely rich repositories that have just about anything) - installing apps on Linux is simpler than on Windows.
As per app support - 99% of all programs are either Linux-native or run just fine through Wine. Unless you have to work in field of engineering or employ Adobe software, you should be just fine
Yeah, I’ve used everything from Ubuntu to Arch and can use it just fine. That’s not my point. It’s hard to argue against that software discoverability is worse and implementation/documentation is inconsistent. To find a program for windows, I just need to search for what it does and multiple options show up without using a store or knowing a repo name. Installing is as easy as running an exe (no dependencies, or distro limitations, or editing specific files buried in the system).
I am no fan of Windows by any means, but I never have to worry about edge cases. I will always be able to do what I’m aiming for without fiddling with Wine or anything else.
