Linux needs to grow. Stop telling people it’s ‘tech-y’ or acting like you’re more advanced for using it, you are scaring away people. Linux Mint can be used by a senile person perfectly.
Explain shortly the benefits, ‘faster, more secure, easier to use, main choices of professionals and free’. Ask questions that let you know if they need to dual boot, ‘do you use Adobe, anti-cheat games, or Microsoft Office’, ‘how new is your computer’.
And most importantly, offer to help them install.
They don’t understand distros, just pick Linux Mint LTS Cinnamon unless they’re curious.
That’s it, spread Linux to as many people as possible. The larger the marketshare, the better support we ALL get. We can fight enshittification. Take the time to spread it but don’t force it on anyone.
AND STOP SCARING PEOPLE AWAY. Linux has no advertising money, it’s up to us.
I don’t buy the whole “the more users a software has, the better it gets” rhetoric. Historically this has been the opposite of the case. There’s an even higher users-to-contributors ratio amongst the general population. Not all users share the same respect for the philosophy behind FOSS.
If the driving force behind design decisions becomes “what keeps people happy so they’ll keep using our software” and not “freedom,” there’s now a practical incentive to sell out and introduce more Intellectual Property shenanigans into the ecosystem. After all, it’s a lot easier to hire devs and churn out new features and keep the software actively developed for the foreseeable future if there’s money in it. And the only way there can be money in it is if there are proprietary licenses shitting up the place, and Shit As A Service suscription models as far as the eye can see.
Linux always has been, and should always continue to be, about freedom. If that freedom comes with user-friendliness, great! If not, then we have to pay the price: taking responsibility for the tools and tech we use and learning how to use them properly and contributing to them to maintain a community of likeminded people. Otherwise, we’re not worthy of the freedom and the responsibilities it entails.
I get your point about elitism and gatekeeping. We’re no better than Windows users or Mac users or any other OS’ users. We just have a set of values unique to our community, and they have sets of values that differ. We also shouldn’t be throwing users under the bus in the name of politics, but part of what makes Linux slightly more bearable is the way the driving philosophy of Free Software is evident throughout. Linux is better than it could be because it attracts the people who want to be here for the community’s values, not the people who have to be coaxed and coerced into accepting the values to use the “best”/“easiest”/“friendliest” software.
OK I’m searching in vain for the mega-upvote button.
I would add that desktop Linux only exists today as an alternative to Windows because of those values. This history of Linux desktop environments and applications is rife with examples of popular or personally important bits of software that were forked and kept alive by the freedom granted by FLOSS licensing.
If “Linux” was a thing that MS could have bought and then destroyed or enshittified, they’d have done it twenty years ago. And make no mistake, they continue to play the long game.
Yes, we should all be good to newcomers. No, the direction of desktop Linux should not be steered by wanting more of them. It should be steered by a need to provide desktop Linux for people who enjoy using desktop Linux.
This. GNU/Linux should be sold on the premise of the values of software freedom.
Stuff like:
Imagine being able to take a piece of software to any programmer you know or can find to fix a bug, or add something, or improve something, the same way you can take your car to any mechanic. And if you’re inclined, you can even work yourself. Think of how liberating that would be for the world’s communities.
Stuff like that
I wish Free Software, Free Society were mandatory reading…
❤️
PDF: https://www.gnu.org/doc/Press-use/fsfs3-hardcover.pdf
Physical: https://shop.fsf.org/ (when it’s back open)
I stopped having Linux discussions years ago. If people approach me and ask for my opinion I tell them to try Linux Mint and make backups before installation.
If someone comes to me I’m more than happy to answer questions and help, but I won’t bring it up. People don’t like being told that their tool of choice is “bad” “not optimal” or anything like that. Even if it’s only their choice because they grew up with it or don’t want to learn anything new. And they still need to learn if it’s more than browsing the web.
Also I really don’t want to be the one they come running to once something doesn’t work the way they expected - or not at all. I don’t have the time nor the inclination to be tech support for my family and half of my friends.
This is the same as how I am. People know I’m “the Linux guy”, but I don’t preach it. I don’t try to get friends and family to switch operating systems. That’s like trying to get someone to switch to your favourite brand of underpants. The whole ethos behind Linux is the freedom of choice. If someone wants to learn more about it, I’m happy to point them to helpful resources, but they need to make the decision on their own, and choose for themselves. I won’t install it for them, because I don’t want to deal with the “where are all my pictures are gone?”, or “why doesnt my scanner work anymore?”
Insert link to linus daily driver video
Stop being elitist about Linux, the amount of times I’ve had to explain that none of my software runs great on Linux just to have to hear how with trouble shooting it will. My work depends on the use of my software, it’s collaborative. If I have to trouble shoot every time adobe or Ableton updates it’s a bad use of my time and is actively taking time away from projects. Only I use VSTs for music production, they all work perfectly in windows and MacOS. Linux? Hit or miss.
Maybe I’m convinced. Now I gotta find the right one, set it up. Get all my software working, learn a new UI, hope that it doesn’t break collaboration. All in all, not worth the little I would save.
Your time is quite valuable, but there’s a reallllly good chance you’re underestimating the cost of your process in windows:
The OS is cheap. Even buying a key at full price, it’s like ~$100 ballpark. But the software you use costs money, and if it’s business grade, it’s an “As A Service” subscription plan. And any plugins (including VSTs) aren’t free if you want good quality ones. And support plans cost money. And upgrades cost money. And getting new hardware because the newest version of the OS doesn’t supoort anything older than 5 years costs money. And you still end up spending your valuable time on troubleshooting, whether it’s you or waiting on a tech to do it, because problems and errors still occur.
Seriously, keep a spreadsheet of how much time you spend on getting your programs and hardware to work the way you want, even if it’s the time you have to spend waiting for someone else to do the fixing for you. Your time is valuable, and you don’t deserve someone pulling the wool over your eyes to rent you something you should own.
I’m not saying Linux is a better fit for you, nor that you’re in the wrong for not wanting to hop on the hypetrain. Just that it’s not as cut and dry as it seems, the cost isn’t as low as you think, and the whole “Just Works” narrative in any tech is a myth.
The Adobe photography plan costs me $120 a year, and honestly includes more useful updates than not. Their AI masking upgrades the last couple years are saving me hours to days of editing time per photo session.
$120 a year is worth maybe one hour of my free time. Even just migrating to Darktable would take me weeks or months of dedicated time to migrate my existing catalog.
I just give IBM all my money.
As much as I like the premise, the average Joe doesn’t care.
It is techy, as long as it’s not seamless to transition, average person won’t bother.
What a person knows already > all of the other benefits. That’s why people use Photoshop and not GIMP.
If they need to dual boot, forget it. “Can’t I just use windows instead if I have to switch anyway?”
If they can’t install it themselves, they won’t bother learning the system. Say what you want but I think Windows still shits itself less than Linux. And when it does there is a lot more people who can help without typing in cryptic commands into the terminal.
For Linux to become more popular, more open standards would need to be mainstream. Leave Adobe, MS Office and other proprietary software that everyone uses. It’s like asking people to stop using PDFs because YOU a techy person think MD is better or whatever.
I disagree with your photoshop vs gimp point. People don’t use gimp because the ui is complete shit. Tons of people switched to Krita for drawing when that came out because it actually had thought put into the user experience. People don’t use GIMP because no matter how much anyone begs for the devs to make the ui not suck, nothing ever changes.
I say it all the time, people care about apps and browsing websites, they don’t care about the how, just the what. Too many techy folks cannot see it as a business and human problem.
Yeah, “ease of use” wasn’t the best argument, the rest still stands though. I shouldn’t have brought it up. I myself hate the UI a lot. Don’t care what they add, change the UI
As much as I want more people to use Linux and divorce from Microsoft, I don’t want to be someone’s tech support guy, I’ve done it as a teen and as a young adult; I never want to do it again. When my parents have trouble with their computer, they don’t call me, especially since I live in a different timezone and it gets inconvenient… they take it to a technician to get it sorted. If they take a Linux computer to a technician, they will likely just install windows on it and call it a day.
I wrote it here some time ago. Tried Linux Mint with the intention of finally switching from windows on my notebook. Bricked one partition that I forgot I had set to dynamic, Headphone jacks didn’t work even after fiddling around with arcane parameters in the cli. If you mainly need the command line to set your system up and stuff doesn’t work out of the box people don’t have the nerve to switch and learn all that. Love Linux, great on steamdeck, have a couple of Virtual Machines to play around with on my old Poweredge server but it’s not ready for me, the average user. That and I’ve to use windows for my cad work at my job anyways. I’ll take the downvotes but you’ll have to realize you are tech savvy people who have fun learning all that. Most people don’t.
The average user doesn’t install windows. I used to get paid when I was a kid to install windows in my village.
I think Mint is better out of the box than it used to be. I was on it maybe 5 or 6 years ago and had to troubleshoot a few issues, but I just came back to it a few months ago and everything worked flawlessly out of the box.
wait did you install linux mint regular or edge??
I haven’t seen anyone scaring people away. All I see is people saying “try Linux” and others complaining that it’s too much Linux encouragement. They want to stay with their windows. Not our fault. :)
I like a small Linux community so I’m fine. The more people who stay on windows, the more likely it is that Microsoft feels like they have enough users to leave the rest of us alone.
Build an automatic Linux mint installer that can handle most typical configurations and migrate data and apps from windows (with wine)
Get some oldish windows exploits together.
Build a worm that replaced vulnerable windows systems with mint
???
Profit (3 free meals a day and TV for the rest of your life)
fucking genius
Install a theme that looks like the Windows version it replaced
Don’t tell them, just break in their home at night and install it. They’ll call you in the morning. Probably to thank you. Probably.
Sorry, but it is tech-y. Not out of reach by anybody who is interested in learning, but ask the average person to self sign their drivers (required for any Nvidea card if you want to game and don’t turn on legacy bios). Or maybe you want the latest version of Spotify on Mint and therefore need to add flathub using the terminal. With help or research, sure, not hard concepts to grasp. Without help though, it’d probably be a dealbrealer.
And once you’ce done both of those I’d consider you ‘tech-y’
Isn’t flathub configured out of the box in Mint nowadays?
I also don’t think you need to manually sign drivers? Or at least, I’ve never seen anyone mentioning needing to do it. If you do though, I imagine turning off Secure Boot is probably easier.
I got Linux mint and I’m shit at it, terminology and step by steps are lost on me. It definitely needs a significant time commitment.
Irony: being elitist about the most egalitarian operating system
