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this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2025
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I think if you wiped everyone’s prior experience and knowledge and all that stuff, like just wiped the slate clean and presented all the OSes for what they are and let everyone choose which on they got to use, things would land pretty much where they are right now. Linux is generally way easier than it was 10 years ago but it’s still far too tricky for most normal users. If it’s too difficult for them to use then they effectively don’t have a computer and it’s useless to them. Linux may be free but after dropping £1000+ on a laptop people don’t mind so much paying an extra £70 for the software.
The two most important things to normal people are good looks and ease of use and Linux comes in last in both of those races.
Linux isn’t for normal people, it’s made by nerds for nerds.
Depends on how you define wiping the slate clean? Just for the users or also for the hardware and software vendors?
Because the difficulty of Linux comes from the lack of hardware and software support. If you just compare the OS then for the average user there little to no difference in terms of functionality. People probably would ever prefer Linux due to it being just generally faster than Windows. You wouldn't pay extra to to get something that runs worse.
What people will pay extra for is the guarantee that their hardware and software just works. The only benefit Windows has is that you don't have to worry if your hardware or software will work because in 99.9% of the time it does and if it doesn't you can contact support and they won't instantly tell you your system isn't supported.
Could you be more specific about exactly what about Linux makes it so difficult to use that a typical person would not be able to use their computer at all if it were installed on it?
I think one thing that was trickier for me on linux than windows was mounting a network share from my server to my laptop. I had to search online what to do, after I figured out how to edit fstab it was pretty simple but if I didnt already know how to edit a file with something like nano or how to change directories in the terminal it would have seemed way more complicated, then again the fact that Im mounting a nas share is already well beyond most peoples use case and already means I have the knowledge to look up what I want to do. I think in order to jump to linux you have to be wanting to not deal with enshitification so you are willing to put a little effort to get away from bigger annoying problems, or if they are just handed a linux machine and all they really need is the browser and you are there for any questions then it works
I don't think that editing fstab is a necessary step in this process, going by the first set of instructions here.
I wonder if the GUI steps are Gnome or Ubuntu specific. The same steps in KDE work, except half or more applications won't recognize it.
I'll have to check that out. I remember it was like that on popOS but for whatever reason I ended up doing it the fstab way, I think it wouldn't stay after reboots or something and after I learned about fstab I just copy pasta'd the same thing over instead of looking more into it
at least bassite seems quite easy to use for someone who would use it just for browsing and games. Actually it feels a bit too custodial as i cant even install portmaster due to its writeonly nature. So you cant do complex stuff even if you wanted to. It makes it very safe too, since if its awful for user to do that, malware couldnt do anything at all.
If you dont want to do anything complex with linux and dont need to use microsoft products, its easier to use than windows imo since there is no corporate bullshit you have to deal with. Though you still need to learn the basics just like when you start using windows for first time. Then again, maybe i'm overestimating the abilities of average user who doesnt really know anything about computers.