>For instance, if I want to plug in a USB microphone, headphones, and two displays to my computer all at once, I'll have to do some configuration through the command line to make them work correctly.
tbh this kind of thing is why I keep leaving linuxes/unixes/etcs. the amount of background knowledge you need to have to do this without spending hours each time is immense, and I didn't grow up with it so I don't have it.
I was wondering the same thing. I've been on Ubuntu for 2 years now and I've never run into an issue here.
EDIT: I see it now. He's running Ubuntu SERVER with i3 window manager installed and not the actual desktop distro. Just a guess, but that's the root of the issue.
I feel like it's an open problem at this point. I think Sway is the nicest experience (given that it's very similar to i3, while being more user-friendly and not hauling all the Xorg cruft), especially with multiple monitors and stuff like input configuration all centralized.
An idea: Provide a GUI (or web-based with local server, like Fish's configuration) application that lets you make changes like Wi-Fi, sound, displays, time and date, basic window manager configuration and all the other things that you'd need to go into a config file to fix. This could be paired with Sway or another tiling window manager and made into a distro for people currently using DEs to inch their way into a tiling WM.
I'm running Debian 10 with KDE and use microphone through mostly unplugged USB interface (it's plugged in Wintendo by default), headphones and two displays. Nothing of that was configured within command line.
Yeah, that's the kind of asinine problem which I just don't have the bandwidth to deal with any more. My computer is owned by Apple and I don't know what's doing and I can't run a proper Docker but at least when I connect my headphones it just works.
He points out it's more work, and it surely is. I've shifted in the last 18 months from MacOS to Windows 10, to Linux (Fedora), back to Windows 10, and now back again to Linux (Clear). The Windows/Linux oscillation demonstrates that I'm not really happy with either. I'm staying with Linux for now out of stubbornness. But I wish there were better options, and am saddened that the 2019 desktop OS scene is as dire as it is.
Well, technically you are using an oddball distro initially created for headless embedded systems. He is using a server distro with a i3 DE shoehorned into it.
True on CL (which I wouldn't quite recommend for normal use though its performance is really tempting for developers). But I found the same with Fedora earlier this year. And Ubuntu in the more distant past. It's more-or-less worth it to me, though I do vacillate. The available OS options are all rubbish, each in their distinct way.
To people focusing on the specific instance instead of the "I need to have tons of knowledge to fix what Windows/OSX don't have problems with" side of it all:
Every single time I've tried (and I try yearly or so), I've had to resort to the command line within one hour to fix something. Usually file permissions, though I haven't touched anything but the built-in software and updates at that point, so it's extra ridiculous.
Most recently: Elementary OS has broadly been a great experience. But I had to choose a touchscreen-driver kernel, and spend about 2 hours figuring out how to get an on-screen keyboard to work on the lockscreen. both of those are ridiculous.
THAT is what keeps driving me away. And it's WORSE that it's not the same problem each time because knowing how to fix N doesn't help me fix N+1.
tbh this kind of thing is why I keep leaving linuxes/unixes/etcs. the amount of background knowledge you need to have to do this without spending hours each time is immense, and I didn't grow up with it so I don't have it.