cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/6028275
After being extremely annoyed with how Microsoft was trying to force me to use their worthless Outlook programme, and learning that Windows 11 (which they've also been pressuring to try) is polluted with advertising, I decided that it was time to migrate to another operating system. Somebody recommended EndeavourOS to me, and after backing up my valuables and following these instructions, I am finally trying a better operating system.
If I'm being honest, my first impressions are... not good.
One of the first things that I notice is that I can't easily modify the /usr/ directory. I tried to install Java there but the OS would not let me because I lack the permission. How do I get the permission? I don't know. I am guessing that it has something to do with Terminal Emulator, and the fact that I have to use this program so much immediately tells me that this OS was made for programmers in mind, not ordinary users. On Windows, I could click an executable, click a few more buttons and be done with it, but here the OS wants me to mess with a ~~DOS prompt~~ terminal.
Then there is the scaling. I managed to adjust the scaling while keeping the resolution so that everything on my screen didn't look microscopic. The problem is that when I open certain tabs or windows, they stretch out so far that the monitor can only show part of them. Here's a screenshot so that you can see what I mean:
This is just lousy design. I can shrink the window, but not by much.
I want to uninstall a font. How do I do that? Well, I read on the EndeavourOS forum that I need to run 'pacman' (meaning the terminal) to uninstall a font. Nobody elaborated on that. So after entering the terminal, typing 'su', then my password (another annoyance), then entering "pacman -R /usr/share/fonts/noto/NotoColorEmoji.ttf", the terminal spits out "error: target not found: /usr/share/fonts/noto/NotoColorEmoji.ttf", even though I am 100% certain that it is there. I would just remove it by simply clicking it and deleting it, except that the OS refuses and tells me "Error removing file: Permission denied".
Speaking of which, I actually find this more annoying than Windows' worthless 'administrator' function. At least I could simply click the administrator function and be done with it. The process here looks much less straightforward.
I want a calendar with scheduling, which is part of the reason that I am quitting Windows. I downloaded the Orage application hence, then I clicked on 'orage-4.18.0.tar.bz2' in my downloads folder. My cursor spins like something is loading, and... nothing happens. I don't even get an error message.
There are some other things that I could mention (where's the color filter?), but these are the worst offenders. I'm not calling it quits on EndeavourOS, and I am sure that eventually I'll get the hang of things, but so far this has been unenjoyable.
OK, couple things here. First... change how you view installing and uninstalling. 99% of what you want/need can be installed with pacman, which is like the windows store. If you are not keen on the cli/terminal use, open up a command prompt and run the command 'sudo pacman -S octopi' to install it. You can then launch the octopi app and install or uninstall apps from there. I recommend sticking to this for now until you get more comfortable with linux and the cli. You'll want to use octopi to download and install yay, which is another package manager like pacman but has more software available. Once you do that, enable AUR (arch user repository) in octopi so it knows to use yay as well as pacman when searching for software.
The calendar app you mentioned - you downloaded a 'tarball', which is essentially a compressed file for the app. If you searched for Osage and followed links to their source page, there's directions on how to install the tarball. This is common for linux apps. That being said, Osage is in the AUR so after getting g octopi setup you can install it from there.
The remove command you used is not for removing files, it's for uninstalling packages. So to uninstall noto fonts you would use the command 'sudo pacman -Rdd noto-fonts', however depending on the desktop 3nvironment (de) you selected it could cause issues. I don't really recommend removing the font since it's a dependency for KDE, XFCE, and maybe some others. Instead, find a replacement font you like and set it in the settings.
Regarding the dpi issue, does the problem persist after logout/login or a reboot? Sometimes dpi setting require that, again depending on the desktop environment.
Continuing slickJujitsu's line, the reason they want you to install yay is because it's an "AUR helper" meaning it can pull programs from the Arch User Repository. Arch (and arch based distros like endeavor) have their own repositories with curated programs chosen by the distro maintainers which pacman will pull from, but the AUR has every program you could imagine.
yayandoctopiwill install from both places so once installed you shouldn't have to worry about the distinction again. A more "beginner friendly" distro would have them preinstalled for you.Software management does seem to be the biggest hurdle for new users though so you aren't alone. Unless you're trying to install some incredibly niche software, downloading a file in your browser is almost certainly going to be 100x harder than using the package manager. The package manager will keep track of all your programs and keep them updated for you, while self-installed programs it doesn't know about it can't keep updated for you.
Well that's annoying.
Also don't get used to using su like that, it puts you in an interactive root session. Sudo does the same but only for the command you are running. Safer to uze sudo on aper command basis to prevent accidentally making bad changes to your system. Sometimes su is needed but not usually.
Do 'sudo pacman -S --needed git base-devel yay ', let that run, then 'yay -S octopi '
That will install the yay package manager, then uses yay to install stall octopi. Just co firmed on an Endeavor OS vm.