The process for installation is more or less the same for all of them.

Linux Mint and PopOS are the “go to” suggestions. I really don’t like the way either of them look. I’m partial to GNOME for aesthetics and ease of use.

Bazzite comes with most of the stuff you will want pre-loaded, and also the cool Steam Deck Gamescope interface. It’s the only one I’ve used with seamless background updates like you might be accustomed to on Android or iOS. That’s my recommendation.

They’re functionally indifferent, for purposes of this conversation.

If I know the name of the package/application

How do you know it?

There is a package manager for Windows

Yes, that’s what I said.

WinGet I believe

LOL it’s just called Microsoft store, my dude.

Objectively, huh?

Yes huh

I can have a package installed by the terminal before Discover (the GUI for installing packages) even opens

Just lying again. You’d have to go and search what words to type in first.

And going to a website to download an executable to install a specific piece of software, which you need to give permission when executing to get through the firewall because (to your system) it’s just some random executable, isn’t?

I don’t know what you aren’t understanding about this. All 3 OSs have package managers that function similarly. What I’m talking about is when the software is not available in the package manager…

Then having that executable check for updates when launched and sending you to the website to download a new installer

You’ve really never used Windows before, have you? That’s once again not how it works. Maybe give it a go and come back after you’ve got some experience.

Is Microsoft paying you?

You could make an argument for such a thing insofar as time is money. And like they say “Linux is free so long as your time is worth nothing.”

It does a lot more than it’s told and you know that

All different tasks under the umbrella of “install this software”. I don’t understand the relevance.

Ideally, yes. Whatever you want. Not whatever bad actors want.

So Windows will install malicious software and Linux won’t…? Even if you tell it to? No.

The answer is the file extension doesn’t do anything

Again I don’t understand the relevance.

Glad we sorted that out.

I think you misunderstood.

I didn’t.

It will anything whether it should or not.

It does what it’s told, which is the way an OS should work.

It can be made to execute a payload that shouldn’t be run.

And Linux can’t? Isn’t that the whole thing about Linux and open software is that it can be made to do whatever you want?

Having an app store is easier than expecting people to download things from the internet

…how exactly do you think the app store works?

Do you just not realize that Windows and Mac also have app stores?

Pixels have reached price parity with iPhones, which is wild to me considering the insane amount of additional value Google is getting out of you over Apple. You could even form an argument that they’re far more expensive.

That’s not how you install stuff on Linux normally

It’s not how you “normally” install stuff on Windows or Mac either. But often times the software you need isn’t available in a package manager. If everything was available as a flatpak I would take it all back, but that doesn’t even remotely resemble reality.

I find that faster and easier than using a GUI

It is neither of those things. Objectively.

the GUI option is there and dead simple and easy for people who can’t be asked to learn how to use the most basic tools on their computer.

The phrase you’re looking for is “can’t be arsed” but you’re wrong anyway. The problem is not that we “can’t be arsed”, the problem is that it’s an unnecessarily convoluted and unintuitive process.

I see.

But you can do all of that with an app on your local device.

I can’t believe that a project hasn’t previously heavily focused on becoming a fully feature complete Self-hosted Podcast platform

…y tho? What’s the point?

The problem is using Proxmox…

I hate hunting for exes online to install the most basic software

What are your talking about? You don’t need to “hunt” for anything. You just type it into a search engine the same way you would on Linux…?

and how there’s no way to update all of my apps with a single click

…have you just never heard of the Microsoft store? You wanna take a guess at what that is?

Well now you’re just blatantly lying. Windows doesn’t execute anything without you asking it to. The difference is that it works when you do.

Sure, if downloading onto a thumb drive and rebooting a few times is hard becase you expect your OS to be preloaded then maybe but that wasn’t even your point.

You’re right. It wasn’t. Not sure why you brought that up.

Open up the Application Installer, a GUI and type in the obvious bar at the top for what you want, download and good to go.

You’re intentionally misrepresenting the situation. That’s great if the software you’re looking for is available in the “application installer”. That is very often not the case. If it’s available at all, it’s often a .deb or .rpm or appimage, or you’re expected to compile it yourself from scratch.

AppImages won’t even run without some fuckery. And when you do that, they still have no icon and can’t be pinned in your app tray. Sure, you can install Gear Lever to greatly simplify this process if you know about it but it’s not typically not installed by default, which makes this process completely unintuitive.

And if they only make a .deb available, and you’re running Fedora, well fuck you.

These are all complications that simply don’t exist on Windows or Mac.

That’s not what the title of the OP says. That’s my point.

From their FAQ

Yes, I am aware. I did not argue that is isn’t for testing. I said you didn’t need to compile it for Mac or Windows, because it’s not expected of you to have a CS degree to install it.

You probably just need to use chmod to let your system know it’s allowed to execute it.

WTF is chmod? Execute what? How can you not see that this is a problem?

that sounds like you dont understand or just dislike the process and conflate that with difficulty

LOL and what exactly else would you call that? They’re random to me. I don’t know them, I don’t want to know them, I just want it to work like every other sensible OS where I can figure out how to complete basic tasks without needing a computer science degree. That’s what most people want and it’s why Linux will remain a niche OS by nerds and for nerds, because that’s the way they like it, which is fine, but let’s not try to gaslight people into believing there’s no reason people might want something else.