Report: Linux was on 6.34 percent of computers last month if you count ChromeOS.

I know this might be a couple months old, but I didn’t know we already passed 4%.

  • DiplomjodlerEnglish
    17•5 months ago

    People find Windows easier to use because they are used to the quirks. Of course you shouldn’t let a beginner try Arch, but there are plenty of beginner friendly distros. The complications often come from installing Linux in the first place but the average user will have just as much trouble installing Windows.

    • mesamuneOPEnglish
      14•5 months ago

      I think most users dont install windows period. It just comes with the computer. And if it breaks, they get a new one. Thats it.

      • DiplomjodlerEnglish
        12•5 months ago

        Yes, that’s my point. If people could buy Linux PCs at Best Buy or Walmart, most of them would get on with it just fine.

    • OptionalEnglish
      5•5 months ago

      Agree. Windows has almost a forty year “quirk bake-in”. All your relatives and non-savvy friends are NOT going to learn anything new (even mac) if they can help it.

      The more droolproof linux can be the easier it will be adopted. Whether or not it mimics windows is a choice, but either way we’re losing computer literacy instead of everyone being computer literate. Sadly.

    • Anony MooseEnglish
      2•5 months ago

      I think Linux still prioritizes the command-line for a lot of config/setup, which can be extremely daunting for new users. In addition, there are also a million options for everything, which is great for freedom, but really confusing for newbies.

      I should note that both of these things are amazing pluses for me as a power user/developer.

      • DiplomjodlerEnglish
        8•5 months ago

        Have you tried Mint or something similar? You can absolutely run and install it without using the command line.

        • OptionalEnglish
          2•5 months ago

          Yes but the more refined and simple it can be the better. Mint or otherwise.

        • @[email protected]English
          1•5 months ago

          I’ve been toying with Fedora Kinoite on a VM. Haven’t opened the terminal even once. This might actually be the path for fast adoption.

        • Anony MooseEnglish
          1•5 months ago

          I only ran Mint for a bit, but from what I’ve heard, it does a pretty good job with sane defaults and keeping things simple.

          I’m talking more about the fact that when things break (as they always do), the easiest way to fix it is via the command line. It’s something I’m super comfortable with, having used *nix systems for more than 20 years, but i think even my very smart, technically inclined friend would be frustrated if he had to do it.

          For instance, I installed Debian recently, and since I wanted luks disk encryption and dual boot, I had to very carefully set up the partitions in the installer, and the interface was frankly atrocious. I was very nervous about accidentally nuking the wrong partition, unlike with a Windows install where this is pretty much impossible.

          Then, of course, the Nouveau drivers didn’t like my 4090, so on the first boot I had a blank screen (no signal), until grub timed out into a console. For some reason I was then thrown into a tty, so I had to startx, install the proprietary Nvidia drivers, tweak grub to pass some kernel parameters till I got back to a semi-stable boot. Oh, and I also had to get a newer kernel and nvidia drivers from backports, since the Debian packages are ancient.

          I do realize that maybe Mint packages the latest proprietary nvidia drivers during the install, so maybe I would have avoided those particular issues, and I’m not sure how good Mint’s partitioning interface in the installer is.

          Maybe Linux will work out of the box for a majority of users and they’ll never have to encounter the command line, but I’m skeptical.