The indoctrination of windows is extreme. Windows is just as hard as linux, harder even with all the layers of obscurity.
And yet... linux is hard, and users decry RTFM as "not growing the userbase"
this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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Sorry, I love Linux and wish everybody was on it but no way is Windows βjust as hardβ. Maybe if you want to look behind the curtain and start tinkering Linux is easier but on the face of it Iβd say Linux is somewhere around early Windows XP when it comes to usability for a normal person.
I was confused until it struck me that maybe you don't consider Windows XP the peak of operating system user interface design.
I'll admit, Vista really messed with my perspective.
If you had to install Windows every time you bought a PC you'd think that Linux and Windows are comparable. That is the issue, tbh. It's not the RTFM; its because the average PC user had NEVER NEEDED to install an OS. Windows just comes preinstalled on 99% of consumer PCs! For the "year of Linux" to be a reality, there needs to be an easy way to get a retail PC with Linux preinstalled. When I show my Windows-only users my Linux laptop, how quickly it boots up, how many apps I have installed, how easy it is to install and update apps, etc., most say: "Oh wow! I can use this". But when I demonstrate having to choose the boot loader, partition setup, etc., they say, "Nah! I'll just go buy a laptop with Windows!"
Tech nerds have a really hard time understanding technophobia.
Yes everyone can use Linux if they just jump through the right hoops.
The average person does not ever want to jump through a single hoop EVER when it comes to learning a new tech.
Either it works or it isn't worth the time/hassle to learn an entire world of information that is required to use different computers to the extent that linux nerds do.
Exactly!
Unfortunately, there needs to be a commercial/financial effort behind the mass adoption of Linux. The average person has no idea that an alternative to Windows or MacOS even exists because they have not seen it advertised on TV or mainstream social media.
These conversations on Linux communities on Lemmy and Mastodon are just us nerds yelling into our own echo chamber. The average person needs something that "just works" without having to read a book about how to set it up.
Well, we got Steam Deck on that front, so at least there's something. Not a desktop, but a regular consumer device with Linux is still nice.
Steam Deck is a step in the right direction, but the manufacturer does not highlight the fact that it runs Linux.
Most people don't realize that they are probably using Linux daily already. If they have a fire TV stick, or Android phone, or a smart speaker, etc.
Android is not Linux, it only uses (modified) Linux kernel. Android experience is not transferable to any other Linux distro. While Steam Deck's is. You're not saying your smart bulb runs Linux just because it uses its kernel.
Windows install is way simpler than that. Thing is, so is Linux with most major distros, unless of course you're doing something more advanced. It sounds like you're being way more technical than you need to, and it's scaring people off.
No, tbh it is.
The thing is that windows has "become the standard"
Where options are, how to fix any problems? You learn windows like you learn a language. German and danish isn't too different, but if you grew up with danish it's going to be harder to learn german.
i picked up linux mint in a weekend; it was incredibly easy to come over from windows.
Windows XP? So then Linux is as usable as the best version of windows.
Not even close. Most hardware issues I had were with Windows. Additionally, that thing gets slow over time, no matter what you do. If you use it often, it'll get to an unusable state in a year or two. And you can't do anything about it except fresh reinstall. It spies on you so much even Google could learn from them. And nowadays it even has ads. You pay for the OS and then you still have ads, classy. And as a bonus, all the spying and ads are so unoptimised that they make your computer slower.