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this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2023
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As a librarian this is an awesome idea but unlikely to work out long term for a couple of reasons relating to the libraries.
Patrons will absolutely freak out if the computer they sit down at doesn't look like the Windows machine they are expecting. Even the time-keeping software we use makes people uncomfortable and it's just a countdown clock for the 30 minutes they signed up for. I've had a very expensive Mac desktop for art and music software go totally unused for years because most patrons want a Windows computer to check their Hotmail. Librarian sobs
Unless the library 'technologist" or IT team is already really into Linux in their off time AND paid well enough to bring that experience with them to the office, the people tasked with keeping it running will fail within 6 months and revert it back to something they can fix fast. Generally there's one IT department that's handing the libraries and other government run service offices and they will not take the time to do anything out of the ordinary.
Maybe for a subset of computers in a large library like the stand-up quick access stations or catalog lookup computers near the books. Linux can and does a lot of good keeping these one-use stations going despite the fact the run on 1998 Dell Potatoes.
To your first point, a huge portion of the use library computers get is from people who don’t own or can’t afford their own computer but just need to print government/work/school docs with some minimal document editor. Sure you could run with LibreOffice or something and hope no one cares, but you’re right that most people would freak out if they can’t open something in Word or have to learn how to print something in Gnome/KDE/whatever.
Most of them are following instructions they are getting from elsewhere to do those tasks and most instructions the offices are giving out are expecting a Windows computer. I still have a lot of users looking for the Blue E. headdesk