> There is no "Linux desktop", there are distros, they have various desktop environments KDE, Gnome, Unity, MATE, Blackbox, and lots more.

Yeah, that's a big part of the problem right there.

> I'm curious what MS Windows has copied from a common Linux DE or distro that you believe is "crap"?

Rolling releases, i.e: break everything every 3 months, an over-reliance on the the command line for configuration tasks (and I say this as someone who loves powershell), package managers, and hardcoded paths (mostly for their dev tools), to name a few.

Ubuntu, one of the largest Linux distros, does Long-Term Support (LTS) releases with a 5 year release cycle [1].

Things break on Ubuntu for those addicted to upgrades (me!).

In my preferred DE, KDE/Plasma, I can't recall ever needing to use command line for normal user level configurations.

[1] https://www.ubuntu.com/info/release-end-of-life

> In my preferred DE, KDE/Plasma, I can't recall ever needing to use command line for normal user level configurations.

Which in typical Linux evangelist fahion means it never happens to anybody else.

He's right though, on a modern linux desktop you can typically make through a GUI.

But sure, there are edge cases where you might need to use the terminal or edit a configuration file.

As an analogy, in Windows I've occasionally had to make configuration changes through regedit.

That doesn't mean it's normal to have to make changes in the registry on Windows, it can usually be done through the gui

Not at all. If I meant that I'd have said "is never required" or similar; I clearly stated it was my personal experience.

It depends on your hardware as much as anything IME - sadly most PC hardware sellers make stuff to work under MS Windows, so if you're not careful with your purchases you can have problems.

I used to use Slackware, and that was a lot of command line - or at least text based - configuration; but I chose it to learn about administration. Like buying an old car so you can practice fixing it.

A good push on Wayland will cull the herd of WM/DE's quite a bit. At least, it will funnel them into a small set of common toolkits for building DE's.