this post was submitted on 24 May 2024
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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This is something people fail to realize, and I think part of it is because Linux people tend to surround themselves with other Linux people.
I have been helping my friend get into Linux, we picked a sensible distro, fedora, with the default gnome spin. He loves the UI, great.
But there is a random problem with his microphone, everything is garbled, I can't recreate it on my hardware and it's unclear.
He reads guides and randomly inputs terminal commands, things get borked, he re installs, cycle continues.
He tries a different distro, microphone works, but world of Warcraft is funky with lutris, so no go.
The result is, all of this shit just works on windows, and it just doesn't on Linux. Progress has been made in compatibility, but, for example, there was a whole day of learning just about x vs Wayland and not actually getting to use the computer. For someone who has never opened a terminal before, something as simple to you and I as adding a package repo is completely gibberish
Yes you can learn all of this, but to quote this friend who has been trying Linux for the past two weeks "I'm just gonna re install windows and go back to living my life after work"
When you have 20 years of understanding windows, you need to be nearly 1 to 1 with that platform to get people to switch.
It's not about being 1:1. I have used Android, iOS, MacOS and a bunch of other systems. Most of those have been easy to adapt. In fact, like your friend, I prefer the GNOME look because the MacOS-ish UI feels fun and fresh after being on Windows for so long.
It's the ratio of troubleshooting versus usage and the lack of definitive resolution for things.
FWIW, I just went back to Windows, not because I found the terminal commands hard to grasp (I started working with computers in the 80s, I'm not intimidated by a command line), but because they often didn't match what tutorials said, or because something that didn't work didn't generate an error and simply did nothing, or because something just randomly stopped working for no reason and just dangled there, broken, indefinitely.
Say what you will about how haphazardly Windows is architected, but most of the time if something breaks it's a matter of either installing the right thing, uninstalling the right thing, finding the right setting or reinstalling the OS. That sense of rebuilding your bike as you ride on it that Linux still forces upon you is just so friction-heavy, and the failstate of it is so frustrating. There's a reason why a dedicated Android or ChromeOS for your hardware feels just fine but desktop Linux is untenable for 90% of users, and it's not the 1:1 parity with Windows.