I see it like this, learning Microsoft is like learning how to make music using a Looper - while learning Apple is like learning to make music with a Fisher Price toy, and Linux is like learning the guitar. The effort is equal to the reward. Apple takes almost now effort, and while you get shit done, it's at minimal reward, and to do more complex things, you have to spend more money and do more technically unapproved things to pull it off. Microsoft is simlilar in that vein but being as it's an actual tool to do work, it offers some of the functionality out of the box you have to pay for in time, money, and fucking around to get working. LInux is like the guitar - she be a cruel mistress at first, blistered fingers, ear shattering noises, but if you get to know her well, you'll be rewarded with a reliable, and drama free system.

I think the first bar of entry is that Linux users don't share the same "I'm a clueless moron with computers whose only using this because that's the only operating system I know how to operate" thing that Apple and Windows users tend to say any time they need support. Instead, you are coldly "greeted" by a community where the most vocal of the lot are fat, parent's basement dwelling, Warcraft nerd stereotypes who are mostly middle-aged but covered in more zits than a teenager, and have the self-esteem to match. So they will bully and troll you the minute you ask about anything basic. Being a Linux user and going to a forum is a lot like going to a Biker bar in the 60's - it's almost like exclusive turf. Thing is, I've made myself more exclusive to anyone as a user, I just hide in the shadows, and listen to their stuff. Sometimes I'll catch something useful. However, A simple question like "how do I apply updates" is met with "RTFM" and "Haha, newb" - not "see the shield in the system tray - double click, click apply, and put in your super-user password", or "type sudo apt update" at the terminal prompt. Seriously, I'd only expect such disdain from the cranky network administrator at work whose overworked, answering questions from people outside the scope of his job all the time, and having to deal with legal questions just as much as he does network administration and tier 1 support questions all day long, but some of these guys don't even do I.T. - so what's their excuse? Why even speak up at all? Admittedly, as one on the spectrum myself, maybe it's just our ASD flaring up.

My Linux journey could be likened akin to the "Brave Little Toaster" if it was just the toaster by itself on the journey. Except now I have a nice kitchen counter to hang out on, in a nice, cool, dry area, with a fresh supply of bread and butter to make toast with on my own (which for no logical reason despite being the damn toaster - I shall consume). The problem ain't the world (Linux) it's the people (users).

I guess I could handle this one well because that's similiar to how I operate in life. I don't rely on friend's to help out on anything. I've moved house twice - with ZERO help. When my truck's battery died, I walked with the 45LB block of lead-acid to Pep Boys on foot, exchanged it, and walked home to my car 3-4 blocks with another 50LB Block of lead and acid to put in my truck. When I had Kidney Stones, and was ready to leave the hospital, I called a bandmate, he did not pick up despite always being up early. So I lied, said I had a taxi, and then walked home, six miles, with a kidney stone in my gut, had breakfast at IHOP, and then pissed the stone out at home. When I needed my clutch replaced, I spent 2 months researching how to remove a Mazda M5ODR1 Manual transmission, everything, the size, the weight, what needed removed, what tools and parts I'd need, and I watched it multiple times on multiple vehicles incluing a Mazda B-series, Ford Ranger, and the Explorer I was about to be working on. I researched and rebuilt my own bicycle on a budget - because I was not about to get upsold by a bike shop desparate to take advantage of a newbie. Everything about DOS, Windows, and Apple, I taught myself. Nobody taught me this shit. Honestly, I've grown a bit misanthropic, and resentful of human beings in general, because their emotions, wounds and scars, and general bullshit always seems to get in the way of their productivity. This is also why I upset other people so much - because I tend to reach a plateau with certain things at some point where I can skate along at 120% productivity, and still be working on other things at the same time. It's called "familiarity", and most people don't focus enough on obtaining that with anything anymore. Like many have said before, nothing is sacred anymore.

And that was my #1 problem with Linux that took me so long - familiarity! It's a once command-line driven O/S, based on anoher command-line driven O/S (Unix), entirely different from the mainstream Microsoft command-line driven O/S (DOS), that has a GUI on top of it (XFCE/Cinnamon/whatnot) like Windows 3.1, and has plaintext config files, like Windows 3.1, which happens to be my favorite version of Windows I might add for that reason.

But the commands are different (ie LS instead of DIR, / instead of \, and automated tasks like YUM or APT for updates instead of manually downloading files like I do for DOS and then unzipping and organizing the directories as I see fit for my scenario), the GUI is different (all sorts of options in how it can look, act, feel, and how many resources it requires), the tools are different (ie Libre Office instead of Microsoft Office, Firefox instead of IE/Edge/Safari, PIX instead of downloading IRFANVIEW like I did for Windows), hell, evne just the folders and drives are organized differently - everything is one big file system starting with ./ and then fanning off from there - even the other drives! Drives are usually mounted in /mnt or /media - not with some drive letter like A/B/C/D/E -w ith assumed universal uses for A/B/C based on some hardware standard from 40 years ago!

But once I got used to all that, it's actually been a much more peaceful existence. Gone is dealing with Windows update acting like a someone's bratty teenaged son with no life or priorities! Gone is the constant FUD and lies about "Security Risks" because I want to run a 32-bit Executable from 1995, and there's no reason to use an "old version" because the NEW version WORKS WITH THE OLD SOFTWARE! I don't need to get an Apple to run apple apps, I have VirtualBox and Basilisk for that. I don't need a PC, I have Wine & VirtualBOX. They have a free emulator for damn near everything with a CPU in it from a old Pong Unit to a current generation PC. So if I'm running something really specific, and shitty, I can emulate it at the very least, and the system does not so much as even hiccup while doing it. I don't have to hear about constant lies that they are dropping xx support because "legacy code", or that this is the "final version" and that they are only doing incremental updates from here till doomsday (Windows 10, what a lie that was, now we have WINDOWS 12 and jsut had Windows 11 come out!). Sippa coffee to Linus Torvaldes.

And since 90% of everything on the O/S is Open Source anyway, I don't have to worry about some commercial, multinational shitbox company taking it over and ruining the future versions, nor do I need to open my pocketbook for my personal use of such software. Apple Stores? Those were a fuckin' nightmare! Every other application $34.95 for the full version, $95.95 for the full Pro version, download now for only $17.95 (w/ in-app purchases). Seriously, Apple is like a minefield of expenses, no wonder only RICH people use them! And Microsoft is so stuck in the past sometimes you NEED to buy the damn box for it! And they have product keys still, which prevent nothing, and cause more headaches than they resolve revenue hemmhorage problems. Seriously, if you don't want your products pirated - either go open source, or just leave the computer industry. In a 24/7/365 connected world, it's only a matter of time before some n'ear do well is going to pirate something you created. I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying, think long and hard about your damage-control methods before you implement them, because most likely, there is someone smarter, better, and knows more about computers than you, and they WILL crack your algorithm for your product keys and they WILL pirate your product. Not admitting anything here, I'm talking cold, hard, reality. Humans are crap, nature is crap, humans created technology, therefore technology is crap, and crap will figure out how break crap to get crap for crap! And commercialization, especially in this time, is REALLY CRAPPY! Being a computer guy is like being a guitar player - sure, you might be the fastest "shredder" on your "block" - but that does not mean 2 towns over there's not a more emotionally mature and connected guy with faster fingers and better dexterity than you ready to rip the heads off everyone else you THINK is fast and tight.

My only complaint with Linux regarding anything, really, is the internet - less to do with actual Linux, and more to do with the fact that when things DO change, it's not impossible to hit some sort of tutorial, or writing that is six months to a few years out of date, and the methods, the repositories and keys, functions in the commands, might not exist anymore, or may have been updated to a better, more functional method that's a lot easier and takes less steps. I went through this with BlueGriffon, scrcpy to record my phone for YouTube, and am still dealing with some problems regarding compatibility with my iMAC (in particular, the audio system). But that's truly an Apple problem since Apple refuses to release the specs or what "secret sauce" their hardware has - I'm kind of going through that with the PCMCIA and memory controller functionality on my NEC Versa laptops in in FreeDOS (hence getting the NanTans).