this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2025
769 points (98.2% liked)

Programmer Humor

27158 readers
2203 users here now

Welcome to Programmer Humor!

This is a place where you can post jokes, memes, humor, etc. related to programming!

For sharing awful code theres also Programming Horror.

Rules

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I don't fucking know why I can't eject USB hard drives. I installed the SysInternals apps, and best they can tell me is that Dropbox is fucking with the drives. I explicitly told Dropbox to not fuck with USB drives. I don't know who's lying, I just want whoever is fucking with the drives to stop fucking with the drives, OK??? OK.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 29 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

No average user would be able to look up what commands to run? Because newsflash: unlike Windows, searching for a common problem on Linux normally turns up a solution written by a human who knows what they're talking about.

"Windows doesn't even have basic package management like every Unix-like OS does so you don't have to individually update applications and go find them on the Internet, but this one edge case on Linux requires like two terminal commands (the sudo -i is totally superfluous if you just put sudo in front of commands) instead of installing an entire separate tool you'll ever use one time like on Windows and which an average user wouldn't even know exists. Therefore Linux is more complicated."

Incidentally, here's what Microsoft officially recommends for the "average user" regarding PowerToys:

collapsed inline media

It's insane how nose-blind Windows users are to how user-unfriendly their OS is.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (4 children)

It’s insane how nose-blind Windows users are to how user-unfriendly their OS is.

Oh the irony. You clearly don't work with any sort of end user.

For 99% of computer users, if the GUI doesn't have an option, it doesn't exist. They aren't searching past a basic Google of the issue showing them step by step instructions of how to use the GUI to fix the problem. If there is no way to do so in the GUI, it's not getting fixed by them, they'll take it to the Geek Squad if they even decide to fix it at all. They're must more likely to just ignore an issue. In this case, just removing the USB drive and complaining about something being corrupt later on. The idea of the terminal scares the average person.

Windows doesn’t even have basic package management like every Unix-like OS does Well that's simply wrong. winget upgrade --all I just upgraded 44 apps I definitely didn't install via winget, they were all installed via individually downloaded installers at some point in the past, but all upgrade with a single package manager command in a terminal. Certainly seems similar to me. It may not be everything, but it's certainly the majority of things on this system other than the games.

[–] umbraroze@piefed.social 21 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

For 99% of computer users, if the GUI doesn’t have an option, it doesn’t exist.

Literally 99% of Windows tech support is

Have you right clicked on Windows menu, selected Terminal (Admin), then entered sfc /scannow and then DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth and DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth and DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth? ...ohhh shit you're still fucked up - well, maybe you need to completely reinstall windows, well, here's the page on how to do it.

That's the difference with Linux. Your average user never uses terminal, and when they do, they find the tools suck.

[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 16 points 2 days ago

They aren’t searching past a basic Google of the issue showing them step by step instructions

Your users are searching for their problems???

Most wouldn't even do that.

If the button isn't right there to fix everything automatically, the problem just stays that way until they (maybe) restart

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 2 days ago

Alright, so others went over the "easy" way to see which program is being the offender. But I feel like the average Lemmy user just skips GUI at this point.
Say hello to KDE:

collapsed inline media

KDE also does automatic fsck before mounting, which is why it may take some 2 seconds to mount a drive.

HDDs it properly spins down and unpowers as well.

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

If there is no way to do so in the GUI, it's not getting fixed by them, they'll take it to the Geek Squad if they even decide to fix it at all.

The best part is that Geek Squad probably won't even fix it.

With the amount of time allocated to tasks and the lack of autonomy retail workers are given, the solution to anything not explicitly written in an employee runbook is going to be "we need to reinstall windows" or "it can't be fixed, but we have a new computer you can buy"

[–] The_Decryptor@aussie.zone 4 points 2 days ago

Windows doesn’t even have basic package management like every Unix-like OS does so you don’t have to individually update applications and go find them on the Internet

Funny thing is that it does (winget), but it's a terminal app. Windows users who look down on Linux users for "needing" to use a terminal don't want to bring it up, so Linux users also aren't aware of it and never point to it as a counter example.