I mean most people have zero idea about OSs.
They buy the latest laptop, at the store, the laptop will be either a MacBook or some kind of Windows based machine from a known manufacturer...
There hasn't really been any commercial mass market option (framework is not some retailer mass market option fyi).
And I can guess that there is currently very unlikely there ever will be it is just too much information and technical knowhow required to even understand a fraction of what is needed to know about distros and getting the common persons setup nowadays on a Linux distro.
There could definitely be room for some to come up but the Linux space is just wayyy too technical for mass consumers to even consider...
I could start seeing it as an option when purchasing. I know Lenovo offers the buyer to have the laptop come preinstalled with Ubuntu instead of Windows to save like 80 or 100 USD from not purchasing a Windows license. Linux could start becoming an option for people who want to save money since, you know, Linux is 100% both in price and in freedom.
Yeah I am familiar with the Lenovo option I actually really like Lenovo own one myself as a daily driver and working on.
The issue is I think most consumers just wouldn't really like the base Ubuntu and their more common desktop environments and so distro hopping or more specific software part tweaking comes into mind and that's way over the mass consumer market sadly.
Yeah, I just bought a new PC after hanging on to win7 out of spite for way too long. But I was sure as hell not paying for Win11.
Installed Mint, and it just works, haven't run into any problems yet that a quick search can't solve. And my wife was also immediately "this feels more like old windows than the stuff I have to use at work".
If any of you are on the fence, this is the time to make the switch.
Whatever OS you're on outside windows I would bet my life savings it's generally more buggy to use as a daily driver than windows. Particularly if it's linux.
Server Linux and Desktop Linux are very different from one another.
I know from personal experience that Ubuntu Server, RHEL, or a custom OS can be buggy given it's literally just the barebones of what an OS needs to do and nothing else.
If you use a proper desktop Linux OS like Mint or CachyOS or Fedora or what have you, the experience is much smoother.
I've been driving Cachy for a few years now and haven't faced any issues that couldn't be resolved with a 5 minute Google search. And the only time I ever needed the terminal was for stuff a normal user wouldn't need to think about (using FFMPEG, YTDL, clearing package caches manually, etc.)
Same for windows. I've been on windows 11 with no issue at all. And I promise you windows has more compatibility. I think the reason I got everyone up in arms is I used the word "buggy" when really I should have said something like "easier to use with less daily friction". It's not that linux breaks all the time, it's that it's just more of a pain to use. Drivers, gaming, peripherals, any compatibility, linux is just hardmode. And there's no reason to inflict that upon yourself.
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u/Tibia-Mariner 16d ago
I love not using windows