There might be a very simple explanation for why the masses have yet to adopt Linux as their desktop operating system and it's one the open-source community won't like.

I’m curious to hear thoughts on this. I agree for the most part, I just wish people would see the benefit of choice and be brave enough to try it out.

  • Square Singer@feddit.de
    0·
    1 year ago

    Well, it’s all about expectations and alternatives. People don’t expect to be overloaded with choices before the OS even boots.

    Linux is the only OS on any platform where they have (to make) this choice.

    Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, all of these Systems don’t give you a choice between wildly different versions.

    Also, the issue extends to after the installation as well. If someone asks me about a Windows issue of medium intensity, I can tell them on the phone how to fix it without having a PC nearby.

    Say they ask me how to do something as simple as to install a program from the repository.

    Depending on the Linux they are using, they will (or will not) have any one of a few dozen package manager GUIs, which will work wildly different. Even if they don’t use the GUI, they might be using apt, yum, pacman, snap or any other of a few dozen CLI package managers.

    And depending on their distro, the package in question can have one of a few dozen different names, or might not be in the repo at all, so that I need to add a ppa or some other form of external repository.

    That is a massive issue in everyday use. The only viable thing is for the local family/friend group admin to decide which distro to use and then everyone needs to use that distro or get educated themselves.

    For example, I got a lot of experience (~10 years) on Debian-based OSes. Put me on Arch and I have no clue.

    The same is not true for e.g. Windows, where I have used every single version extensively (except of Win11).