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Linux Distros Designed for Former Windows Users Are Picking Up Steam | Linux Journal (www.linuxjournal.com)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 76 points 9 months ago (12 children)

What it takes is people being able to buy a Linux machine at the local electronics store. Installing your OS yourself is still a major hurdle for most people.

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  • [–] 54 points 9 months ago (7 children)

    That is an important step, yes.

    However another important step is that the default distro needs to basically not even highlight that terminal exists.

    If you're trying to learn how to use linux, and step 1 of the tutorial is "open terminal", you will lose 97% of your new install base. Then headlines will flood that linux machines are being returned in high numbers.

    As much as you guys hate to hear this, the first experience for a new linux user needs to be intuitive. Before they even turn the machine on, they have to know how to use this software. Not because they are experts, but because the space and experience guides itself.

    Then as you learn, you can customize a bit more, and from there linux can become a rabbit hole. But the point is, let the individual user control the depths which they dive. Because I suspect 90%+ won't even change the desktop background. And thats ok.

    Make it easy for the dummies, but then you individually can tinker if you want to. And it's linux, so....ya know. Go nuts. But some people don't want to do all that tinkering. That vanilla experience is what gets remembered to represent that OS. Even if you customized it and experienced it very differently.

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  • [–] 7 points 9 months ago

    That's where I think Bazzite really shines... I didn't need the terminal to setup all of the normal stuff at all, and new apps I discovered right from the start menu so I didn't need to go far at all.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago

    Yup. I'm using my terminal every day, but I program for work and don't mind a keyboard-friendly interface for a few forms of tinkering and program updates I'm doing. But even I wanted to prefer the GUI for common actions.

    The stupidest reason I started going back to my terminal was, my GUI package manager didn't have a "Select All / Select None" button for package updates, so if I only wanted to update one app at a time, I had to do it from the terminal. That's not "terminal being awesome", or "terminal being my preference", that's just lazy UI design.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    There is no need for a terminal if you don't want to use it.

    On the other hand, the terminal is the single best way to get ideas across so people think they somehow need it.

    Even windows is like this: want to fix something? cmd or powershell is the way they are going to avoid having to give you 20 pages of screen shots and condense it into a single line.

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  • [–] 10 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Steam Deck + Steam Cube

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