[Off-Topic] My Personal file server with Ubuntu wracking it and about the Linux desktop and Windows.

[MathCubes]

First, I have a personal server which for my files, has a web server on it which shows my public files i.eIf I want to share a very large file I give someone a link to it instead of paying for mega and uploading it to that, Personal VPN when I am away from home and DNS.... Well due to 18.04 LTS support ended so I had to update it to I believe 22.04 LTS or it was 20.04 LTS one of the two... whatever the GUI updater decided, and like Ubuntu function being buggy it decided to completely wreck the system. I tried to fix it but It wasn't worth my time. Read only file system, kernel panic, wreck drivers to ACHI and my hard drivers. I tried to reinstall the kernel from a live CD but that just wrecked. The boot loader tried to repair it and realized everything was basically wrecked. So I had to rebuild the system from starch and yeah share I do have a backup of the drive but I had to update it either way.... So I just installed Debian 11 on it and reinstalled everything and replaced my conf files. It was Debian or a CentOS replacement such as Rockky and I do not know how to use RHEL base distro and like the documentation is behind a paywall. People say Debian is hard to install but I still found it super easy? What's hard about it? It just has a few more information input dialogs like domain name?

I have used the Linux desktop for I guess around 10 or so years from 2011 to I guess around 2020. A few years ago I just switched to Windows on the Desktop. Ubuntu was my go to distro and I thought I could avoid the bugs if I went with a LTS release and that wasn't the case. I wonder why it's so popular since it's so buggy and the system gets wrecked with updates or software installs. I had to help a complete novice out when it comes to competing because her repo system broke which is ultra common with Ubuntu. Lucky just apt-get -f install fixed it but my god how does someone new knows to replace the repo system form a live cd when it breaks and yeah I had to do that a few times. And they promote PPAs but they will just break your system. New people do not know that with Linux everything is the same ecosystem and everything is integrated and so if you want to run the latest version of a program then you have to also update the back end because they share the same libraries and you can basically have one version. Yeah sure there are things like homebrew and nix which can install it to your home directory but new people wouldn't know that. Ubuntu has always been metastable since I have ever used it and do not forget when they abandon their own freaking desktop. POP!_OS has this bug where when you uninstall Steam it nukes their desktop. Like WTF is a new person going to do about that? Yeah sure to rebuild a Linux system but most don't. I have no idea why anyone would recommend Ubuntu.

For the other distros, Opensuse I got frustrated with it because I couldn't find any documentation and they ended evergreen but that is just the nature of going with a company they have to up-sell you. RHEL base distro i.e. cent was the same way. I wanted to install a web server I believe. The problem of Arch which I used is security and basic stuff takes so many commands. For example, apt-get install virtual box in Arch is super complex. There have been many times where I didn't update my arch install for 300+ days and it didn't break and so perhaps I did get lucky. I just know Debian systems and it so happens that Debian base systems have the most documentation. I just want something that is stable and it just works.

As for why I drop using the Linux desktop is simply because of the lack of software. Installing Debian made me interested again in the Linux desktop and especially since Proton is permanently decent now for Linux gaming. But overall the OS is a tool that enables you to get what you need to do in the most efficient manner. My time is the most variable thing to me and is the output of my product. I do believe that Linux is going to overtake windows on the desktop and it's only a matter of time. Simply put, there are governments that are pouring so much money into developing Linux on the desktop that we would have the software that we need. China is the clearest example. Simply put Linux is global. After the user base increases so much than when other companies began to support it it's going to be like exportation growth. Especially if M$ mess up again like what they did with mobile I heard that currently after 2025 after they axed Win 10 support that it will leave half of their users without an upgrade path due to TPM requirement and apparently Windows 12 is going to require AI hardware... So... If I recall correctly they had half of the market share of the OS of PDAs.

To me it's sad that most Linux users do not donate money. The devs have to eat. Synergy for example was originally FOSS but they want close source due to lack of donations and it's not the only example. Most Linux users do not care about their platform because they do not fund it or contribute, they just freeload when they can afford to donate. I personally donate to small devs. I bought Qcad for example instead of using librecad. I donate money to the free software foundation.

The state of the Linux desktop applications shows this very well. Kdenlive the best FOSS video editor sucks. For example, the speed effect isn’t even key framable. Gimp is a toy compared to Photoshop. The best one in their niche would be Krita. Linux doesn't really have any good workstation applications, the only two I can think of are Blender and BricsCAD. There is no good photo editing software. What takes a few seconds in Photoshop would take perhaps a few hours if possible in GIMP and the results would not be as good. GIMP does not have the AI tools. Adobe Illustrator especially with VectorScribe does not compare to Inkscape and inkscape UI is just horrible granted in the last few years it came a long way but is still not really close but has features that AI doesn’t but I would rather use it over featureless Affinity Designer. There is no alternative by far to iZotope RX. I use it to clear up audio. Last time I used wine it didn't really work that well with online services like if you need to login to use the software due to its being a subscription. Even if it does work there is no guarantee that newer versions will and oftentimes the performance will be less than running it natively on windows and very rarely does it not have any bugs which are introduced due to being run on Wine. For example, the service I go to back up my most important files on my file server is their windows application which simply is a modern application but it's a very basic one where you just login, put it to the directory to backup and set the schedule ... It doesn't work in wine. The GUI doesn't even load right. Like wtf and yet Valve can make it do some windows games better than being run on windows like older games. I am truly shocked. I had to beg them for their Linux enterprise version which they did eventually give it to me but they gave it to me as is without any support or documentation, and with an agreement that I will not distribute it either. They just let me know what variables to change to let it log into my account since I do not have an enterprise account with them. I figured out how to use it after a day of studying it because there are so many config files and options and how they all relate to each other and so on.

I do use Microsoft Office but for writing or spreadsheets for personal use when someone isn’t feeling generous to give me an MS office license. Libreoffice is like 90-95% there other than the bad UI but that is again typical for FOSS programs. Freecad I feel is the worst offender of that. The three biggest problems of Libreoffice is the lack of quickparts i.e. the ability to automate many similar documents by building up parts which are templates which I used when I was in school and what I use for when I am in a business setting. So if you need to write many documents in the future you can make it like a template and you can just add on as you go instead of copy and pasting. So if you need to duplicate a part of the document like an QnA section like 10 questions and well, all of those would be formatted the same way and so you can simply have it to add an place button. Or you could insert a new template section if for example you have 20 but a document at a time but use 6 out of them. To my knowledge the best that libre has is autotext which is also a time saver. Spreadsheets lacks some functions that WPS spreadsheet has but WPS has a bad formatting bug that with a multiline cell that if you auto resize it, it treats it as a single line cell. It’s not 1 to 1 compatible with MS office format but it’s not really their fault, and minorly they lack tabs. I would use Libre before any other office suite other than M$ one. WPS does have neat features but perhaps I would use it for PDF and spreadsheet if it didn’t have that bug but using it for English on their writer is out of the question as it doesn’t even have a spell check. Microsoft, and Libre are the only ones which are not toys and are really mainstream. There is also wordperfect and that does formatting better than any other writer. On another note, There is nothing like being forced to use MS office though. I love that feeling when someone either requires MS formatting to be perfect such as a school and you must use the online features which don't work in Wine.



I could run those 3 in wine but for others, I do not know the alternatives would be on Linux and if they exist wouldn't be as elegant. For example I use power-toys such as mouse utils such as mouse move and mouse highlight and power rename. Sure there might appear like there is an alternative for that but is it integrated with the file manager? Knowing Linux, it is not. Even Windows has better support for context means in their OS than Linux has. And yeah I do use basically all of them other than fancy zones which is ironic because I have 4 monitors…

I do not know a good ShareX alternative. Is there an application on linux which is like it? Never seen one. I need to press a hotkey to either capture a window or the screen plus ideally an dialog to auto select an element of the window with the ability to add text to it. I need a hotkey to auto begin recording a window with audio. And I need something which I can capture a small part of a window that will auto do OCR on it if it’s in a different language. It will run it though DEEPL and give it back to me in English. This is very important for me for my use case. Time is everything. I can screenshot it, manually run it through an OCR for that language, copy it over to deepl, and get it by when you are dealing with many different things that add up quite quickly: a few minutes, compared to a second to two. This could make it or break it if I need to partake in a conversation in a different language. You know that they will also post pictures in their native language like memes which I need to understand as well.

Second is there anything like Faststone as well very fast rendering with being about to show EXIF information? When I was using Linux on the desktop to my knowledge there was nothing like it. Third, In Dolphin I assume, though I use GNOME, or in any other file manager is there anything like this? https://imgur.com/a/llzIQ1Q That I can mouse over a file and get a preview? It saves so much time. I work with hundreds of files and when you are glazing over them to find the right one like instead of dragging them into vlc which takes time…. Or reading a simple instruction. Or glazing though a pdf and using the scroll wheel to move from page to page? I know that there is a preview panel but that isn’t what I am looking for because I want it to be on mouse hover and it also wants it to auto play audio and video. If I recall, panel preview doesn’t work with audio or video. Does Dolphin work with NTFS tags or comments on files?


I also need something that can batch put like a watermark on video and with a timestamp with per se text form a variable like a camera location or name or combine two videos next to each other into one. I haven’t seen this on linux.


I would use Linux again on the desktop if these things work for me. However, I wouldn’t accept major performance loss or many bugs like dah. Neither would accept an unacceptable solution such as to use the terminal to rename files in batch. A typo could really ruin everything. Everything should be integrated and an easy to use gui should be present. It’s just easier and safer that way. Why would I want to type a terminal command in when I can visually see it better with a gui and it’s only like a few clicks. Using a mouse is easier on the wrist and hands as well than a keyboard. My time is valuable and after I set it up I just want it to simply work and be easy to use. I have no problem with coding something or using the terminal to even install an OS but afterwards I want a polish system. This is where Linux sorta fails. Gnome is the closest. Where Linux really fails is that most distros are not as stable as a mature release of windows. Windows 10 has been rock stable for a few years now and Ubuntu has always been metastable. I use the education edition with updates configured on how I like them delayed by 30 days.

Thoughts, Is this the common Ubuntu experience? And the second part is just my experience with Linux on the desktop. I have no problem with using it on a laptop which I use mostly for programming or web browsing. I am curious on if there are alternative because like I was recommended them a few of them by a colleague and my mind was brown away. I never like the gnome screenshot tool for example or nautilus but at least gnome has a nice ui and so nice that Apple had to ripped off Gnome. And than the Apple fanboys came around to attack Gnome for stealing 'their' design. At-least Gnome has innovated the Linux desktop on the front end such as what Canonical was doing with Unity.

MathCubes

[canci]

I have to admit, your post is super long, so I just skimmed it.

The thing you mention with open source software having too little financing is interesting, and is a problem as old as Linux. Of course, donations and voluntary programmers sometimes can't give you the same quality as a corporation pouring money into it. While I don't share your thoughts that Kdenlive sucks, I agree that it probably doesn't have all the features of professional grade video editors. But there are also other examples: I work with MS Word every day at work, but I find LibreOffice Writer to be have a better UI that I can customise to look like Apple's Write, and it also has some other neat tricks that MS Office doesn't. Plus, for having so much money, MS Office still seems to be suffering from random memory leaks as though it was programmed by a high schooler in .NET.
Since I've started earning a liveable wage, I make it a habit to sit down once a year and donate about the same money I would otherwise had paid for software packages: GIMP, Inkscape, Debian, LibreOffice. MS Office can set you back hundreds of euros depending on the license, so I don't think it's too much to ask of me to give around 100 euros total for all my favourite software. But I remember a time when I couldn't afford MS Office, so I was happy that I could order a full set of Debian installation DVDs at my local LUG and use LaTeX for free to write my university papers.

I wouldn't say Apple ripped off Gnome. The UI in MacOS and iOS has been there longer than Gnome. Also, Gnome has a few Mac ideas, but I don't think they're doing the same. The Gnome experience is different enough to be its own thing. I also think that Gnome is actually implementing certain Mac ideas much better: Gnome desktops look much cleaner and have less visual clutter than MacOS.

Regarding saving time:
Linux isn't Windows. So, just like moving to a Mac, moving to a Linux setup will mean learning at least a few new things. But you have both options with Linux: Use Ubuntu, elemantary OS or Linux Mint and you will get a complete package that was already set up for you. My mum uses Linux Mint. She doesn't even know that it's Linux. She installs software through the GUI software store and rarely has to call me for anything.
If you don't like the more commercial nature of Ubuntu, there are also distros like MX Linux, which take Debian and make it more newbie friendly. But you can also come to Debian and just set up everything yourself.

I personally don't think that using, for example, Linux Mint is more complicated than using Windows 10. In fact, I was out of the Windows world for a long while and then had to use it again for a job. The fact that Windows 10, at the time, had 3 different tools for setting up system stuff like keyboards etc., while Linux Mint just had one, is an example where even commercial offers

[BBQdave]

I wouldn't say Apple ripped off Gnome. The UI in MacOS and iOS has been there longer than Gnome. Also, Gnome has a few Mac ideas, but I don't think they're doing the same. The Gnome experience is different enough to be its own thing. I also think that Gnome is actually implementing certain Mac ideas much better: Gnome desktops look much cleaner and have less visual clutter than MacOS.

+1
I am one who lived through the transition from Mac os9 to Mac X. Mac X was an amazing change in desktop appearance and flow. And I believe it influenced the Gnome devs as well.

I agree too, that Gnome took it in a different better direction. The current Gnome DE is comfortable visually and smooth in work flow. Possibly appealing to visual and graphic oriented minds.

I am an amateur photographer, and started playing with photo development and manipulation with Mac os9. Mac X was great, but the cost and vendor lock in drove me away. I loaded Yellow Dog Linux (Linux distro for Mac PPC hardware) and haven't looked back

Today Gnome is the default on major linux distro releases (Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu-Tweak) and it's no surprise. And what a great combination, amazing DE and GNU/Linux applications

[kent_dorfman766]

don't use phrases like "the linux desktop" because there is no such animal, and it encourages/justifies the gnome minions in their war to take over and cripple true choice. There are several linux desktops: gnome, kde, lxde, mate...

[canci]

Kent, I don't think there's a cabal of evil Gnome minions trying to take over the desktop world. There are distros that for one reason or another chose Gnome as a default desktop experience. It's not like it's hard to switch to another desktop. Even in Debian, it's a matter of installing a meta package.

As to crippling choice: I do somewhat agree that Gnome making GTK exclusive to its own development is narrowing the choice for developers, but I don't think Gnome can in any way prevent people from building other desktops. In fact, when I compare today to 15 years ago: There are more complete desktops in the Debian repos than ever before. Let's count them:


GTK desktops:

• Gnome
• Cinnamon
• Mate
• Budgie
• Xfce
• LXDE

QT desktops:

• KDE
• LxQt

Mixed (I think?):

• Ukui

And I'm afraid to count all the window managers.

[BBQdave]

And I'm afraid to count all the window managers.

I've been timid to dip my toe in that pool. Just walking around the edge

I'm researching Window Maker, but have not taken the plunge. Gnome is so comfortable and the work flow makes since to me, so perhaps that is holding me up. May have to get a Gnome Minion badge sticker for my laptop

[steve_v]

I don't think there's a cabal of evil Gnome minions trying to take over the desktop world.

"Cabal" is perhaps a bit strong, but I for one have seen several variations of "we want to be recognisable as "the" linux desktop" "promote the GNOME brand" and "decide if you are a GNOME app or not" from devs on that project.
There's a fair bit of NIH goes on in GNOME these days from what I can see, and personally I find the active hostility around theming, customisation, and desktop-agnostic applications (toward individuals, app developers, distros, and even KDEs well-intentioned attempts to make GTK apps not look stupid in plasma) particularly offputting.

I'm pretty sure the agenda where gnome+systemd+freedesktop.org/redhat fills the corporate-friendly homogenous "desktop linux" role (and spares all the poor windows refugees the horror of making decisions) is not just my imagination either. I've been around a while now, and I've been watching those tentacles grow... But that's a long and off-topic rant of its own.

• Gnome
• Cinnamon
• Mate
• Budgie
• Xfce
• LXDE

Let us not forget that two of those are a direct result of people being annoyed enough at the boneheaded design decisions in GNOME3 to fork the project...

Ed. Or

• LxQt

Coming into existence at least in part to get away from GTK3 with it's attendant GNOME-isms and "IDGAF about non-GNOME use-cases" development model.

[canci]

@steve_v I think we agree in principal, just that I don't assume any nefariousness on their part. Ignorance and lack of solidarity... yes. I think Gnome didn't take their role and responsibility seriously, being that they are maintaining one of the only two viable widget frameworks out there. While GTK2 fit into any desktop imaginable and was easy to theme, GTK3 took a very long time until it was halfway useable again. I remember a time during the 2010s when potential open source converts on Windows would look at how weird certain programmes suddenly looked in their Windows builds just because of GTK3.

And yeah, we can safely also count a third desktop springing into existence because Gnome got too esoteric: Budgie.
Since SolusOS lost a very vocal contributor (Ike Something?), everyone forgot that once they were considering refactoring the major new version in Qt.

---

Be that as it may, I also admire Gnome for creating GUI tools that are less cluttered and more minimalist than KDE. I mostly use console stuff, so suddenly opening up a GUI tool that has every button imaginable gives me slight anxiety (Calibre, I'm looking at you) So I just prefer e.g. gThumb to Gwenview etc. Granted, that's for when I really need just a few things from my software. I still prefer GNU Cash to Denaro, even though Denaro looks kinda cool. And I'm glad we have all these options and can just mix and match.
.

[MathCubes]

Interesting I thought no one would really read this. No, the Linux desktop is the GNU operating system being use on the desktop. The desktop environment doesn't really matter. It doesn't fundamentally change anything. You can put Cario on Windows or even KDE4 and you still basically have the same experience. The same is true for GNU operating system. And I prefer to say it like that it even though it may seem odd because it cuts off things that do not use the GNU userland(utils) such as Android or Chrome OS. The file system stature might be minor different and commands would probably be decently but not majorly different depending on if it's RHEL or Debian based. The rest wouldn't consider on the desktop or even on a server. Arch outside of SteamOS is at best an half fasted glued together mess that always seems to just fall apart somewhere and is not secure at all.

The most radical ones are for an unique use cases such as Tails and Kali/Backtracks. And they are better for their use cases than any other OS would ever be.

[MathCubes]

I have to admit, your post is super long, so I just skimmed it.

The thing you mention with open source software having too little financing is interesting, and is a problem as old as Linux. Of course, donations and voluntary programmers sometimes can't give you the same quality as a corporation pouring money into it. While I don't share your thoughts that Kdenlive sucks, I agree that it probably doesn't have all the features of professional grade video editors. But there are also other examples: I work with MS Word every day at work, but I find LibreOffice Writer to be have a better UI that I can customise to look like Apple's Write, and it also has some other neat tricks that MS Office doesn't. Plus, for having so much money, MS Office still seems to be suffering from random memory leaks as though it was programmed by a high schooler in .NET.
Since I've started earning a liveable wage, I make it a habit to sit down once a year and donate about the same money I would otherwise had paid for software packages: GIMP, Inkscape, Debian, LibreOffice. MS Office can set you back hundreds of euros depending on the license, so I don't think it's too much to ask of me to give around 100 euros total for all my favourite software. But I remember a time when I couldn't afford MS Office, so I was happy that I could order a full set of Debian installation DVDs at my local LUG and use LaTeX for free to write my university papers.

I wouldn't say Apple ripped off Gnome. The UI in MacOS and iOS has been there longer than Gnome. Also, Gnome has a few Mac ideas, but I don't think they're doing the same. The Gnome experience is different enough to be its own thing. I also think that Gnome is actually implementing certain Mac ideas much better: Gnome desktops look much cleaner and have less visual clutter than MacOS.

Regarding saving time:
Linux isn't Windows. So, just like moving to a Mac, moving to a Linux setup will mean learning at least a few new things. But you have both options with Linux: Use Ubuntu, elemantary OS or Linux Mint and you will get a complete package that was already set up for you. My mum uses Linux Mint. She doesn't even know that it's Linux. She installs software through the GUI software store and rarely has to call me for anything.
If you don't like the more commercial nature of Ubuntu, there are also distros like MX Linux, which take Debian and make it more newbie friendly. But you can also come to Debian and just set up everything yourself.

I personally don't think that using, for example, Linux Mint is more complicated than using Windows 10. In fact, I was out of the Windows world for a long while and then had to use it again for a job. The fact that Windows 10, at the time, had 3 different tools for setting up system stuff like keyboards etc., while Linux Mint just had one, is an example where even commercial offers

I have to admit, your post is super long, so I just skimmed it.

Fair enough you had to skimmed it. Kdenlive has always given me weird artifacts when I am rendering with it like flickering between overlays for example. Something sucks when it doesn't do or come close to what you need it to do. MSPaint is the prefect example. Outside of zooming in onto pixels of an image and acting as an pixel viewer it's sucks. You bring up corporations... Why as a community that we can not pour money into the programs as well? Where do corporations make their money? Form charging for their software than they reinvesting it back into their software. Their users just basically pay for the development of their software that they use. The problem is that our devs in our community do not have the b*lls to charge for their work and so they do not do work which benefits everyone on our operating system. Then you have people that always try to cut their neck off the neck of the main Dev like what happen with QCAD with LibreCAD. Basically the dev, founder or whatever you want to call the pos of LibreCAD made a fork of the community edition and is abusing the GPL license to basically pirate the software where it's the only life line for the dev that works on QCAD. When the dev of QCAD ask him to stop, the dev of Librecad wasn't appreciative of his work nor him and was acting like a compete menace by insulting and making a mockery of him as he is one of those FOSS freaks who simply view anyone else that do not believe in their religion as an tyrant. The dev of QCAD kindly gives most of his away his work under the GPL and to make a free lite version. As he wasn't even doing any transformative work with it or giving back to QCAD in anyway. It's basically an pirate version and if it successful then development would basically end. Unraid is also GPL but people pay for it. So I guess it's something about our community that most of us do not want to voluntarily pay unless it's a game to a dev to make our desktop experience better.

" LibreOffice Writer to be have a better UI that I can customise to look like Apple's Write, and it also has some other neat tricks that MS Office doesn't. Plus, for having so much money, MS Office still seems to be suffering from random memory leaks as though it was programmed by a high schooler in .NET. " I agreed with you overall. But a better UI is less clutter, more straightforwards, You can always find what you want and is to easy to see, Is organized, has way better accessibility for people that needs it, and doesn't break and is scalable across different platforms. Ribbon overall prefills this better. Most people that prefer traditional interface and metaphor are just used to it. I prefer ribbon over a traditional menu system because less things are hidden, slightly more organized and is easier to see. Most youth I speak to are the same way. They prefer the UI of like google docs or MS office. When MS 2007 came out I was excited and the same goes for windows 8 too. The classic desktop/user interface metaphor is garbage and ineffective. You have a whole screen and so why not use it instead of making everything small in a tiny section of it. Do an expo. This is why I love Gnome so much. I just use stock Gnome 3 with the open weather extension. It's just that good and well thought out. Gnome 40 isn't as nice though but had to compromise with new users that are stupid and would just rage quit. Android, and IOS both use expos for switching though applications. It's easy to bump the top left or use the keyboard. You shouldn't minimize anything but use other virtual desktops. It's just better. I would rather the dev to think things out than for me to take my time to.

"Since I've started earning a liveable wage, I make it a habit to sit down once a year and donate about the same money I would otherwise had paid for software packages: GIMP, Inkscape, Debian, LibreOffice. MS Office can set you back hundreds of euros depending on the license, so I don't think it's too much to ask of me to give around 100 euros total for all my favourite software. But I remember a time when I couldn't afford MS Office, so I was happy that I could order a full set of Debian installation DVDs at my local LUG and use LaTeX for free to write my university papers." Subscriptions aren't that bad. They make the software more affordable in the short term. Schools required the use of MS office or Google docs basically nowadays. You have to use it. it's an industry standard. Even like a decade ago when I was in High school about ever other high school student even outside of my school distract I knew was force to use MS office because the teacher etc... wants to load it up correctly on their pc and so the formatting is bad and you had to use their computers as well during class time. The college I went to mandated it because of collective features and online sharing with the teacher and so you have to use their cloud. Again in regard to paying, for me paying for a software, I can do it because I do not blow my money. I lived by my self and I manage it quite well and since I do not want to waste my time away I work part time and pay for my own insurances. If a software saves me alot of time on a project and especially a project that I am getting pay to do then I will do it. For example if a software saves me 2 hours of work then they only ask for 15 dollars per month and I make like 25 something then it's wroth it because I would lose 25 otherwise or I can do another project to get more. If you can not pay for it then just use a good freeware one or when you get your car fixed just download another one. The most affordable option.

"I wouldn't say Apple ripped off Gnome. The UI in MacOS and iOS has been there longer than Gnome. Also, Gnome has a few Mac ideas, but I don't think they're doing the same. The Gnome experience is different enough to be its own thing. I also think that Gnome is actually implementing certain Mac ideas much better: Gnome desktops look much cleaner and have less visual clutter than MacOS." The headerbars was actually the GNOME's team idea.... That is what I meant. With their titlebars.

Regarding saving time:
"Linux isn't Windows. So, just like moving to a Mac, moving to a Linux setup will mean learning at least a few new things. But you have both options with Linux: Use Ubuntu, elemantary OS or Linux Mint and you will get a complete package that was already set up for you. My mum uses Linux Mint. She doesn't even know that it's Linux. She installs software through the GUI software store and rarely has to call me for anything.
If you don't like the more commercial nature of Ubuntu, there are also distros like MX Linux, which take Debian and make it more newbie friendly. But you can also come to Debian and just set up everything yourself." Completely agreed with everything above with the exception of the distros you recommended as they are metastable since they use Ubuntu as a base. I just like a plain unbloated installed. Installing an OS or modifying it doesn't save that much time. It doesn't really add up since you basically only do it once and if I was installing it across many different computers I would just copy over an image to the hard drive.

"I personally don't think that using, for example, Linux Mint is more complicated than using Windows 10. In fact, I was out of the Windows world for a long while and then had to use it again for a job. The fact that Windows 10, at the time, had 3 different tools for setting up system stuff like keyboards etc., while Linux Mint just had one, is an example where even commercial offers" Agreed. Linux on the desktop is overall better if you get a stable distro like Debian. The difference between the two is like Linux has the rock hard really good foundation but the house ontop isn't that good, where as Windows is the opposite where the foundation is has holes, and is super leekly, and you can not reach far enough to fix them yet the house is always feature rich and has everything you need and wish for. And sometimes even more then what you wish for such as getting the extra wannacry bonus pack in the mail though SMB1.