this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
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Linux has made astounding improvements to its every day usage in the past few years. There really truly are several distros now that you can install that "just work" out of the box. And with the modern DE's, the user won't even know much of a difference from the windows or mac interface.
People have been saying linux 'just works' for over a decade.
This simply isn't true for the average user.
I mean, most installs start by asking you to burn an ISO to a USB. How do I format a usb stick? What's NTFS? My USB stick is full, how do I empty it? Where do I put the thousands of pictures of my cat? Then you're not unlikely to need to change settings in your bios, some versions don't support secure boot. What's a BIOS? How do I enter the bios? Do I need to open the computer? Is there a secret button or an app for that? Sometimes you get error codes. They don't know how to google a fix. Then users have to relearn all the windows apps they're used to. Then users have to install the linux equivalent of the apps they're used to, and start learning all the differences. Then someone sends them a file in a proprietary office format and the formatting's off. They'll google excel, download the windows 'app', and become frustrated when it won't install properly.
We're talking about average users. Not people who've built their own pc. Average users are people who increasingly have trouble using a mouse, don't get how directory structures work, and mainly use apps on their phone.
It's a bit like car guys going on about how easy it is to change your own oil, to someone who's never changed a tyre and doesn't even know how to refill their windscreen washer fluid.
And even if an average user gets things installed and running, they're going to run into graphical issues and lack of polish that pretty much every Linux DE and application has. Stuff like dialog boxes opening up that are too big to fit on a smaller-resolution screen; inconsistent use of widgets, fonts, and icons; help strings being misspelled or completely missing; applications that look wildly different from each other just because they use different GUI frameworks; etc.
Linux "just works" in the loosest sense possible, and I say this as someone who has been using Linux for many years. It's certainly much better than it used to be in the early 2000s, but it continues to lack the design polish and cohesion of Windows and macOS, and that makes it rather off-putting for an average person to use.
The average user would have the same issues with Windows if they had to install it themselves.
The only way to get average users to start using Linux is to sell them the devices pre-installed with it.
Case in point: Android.