I installed Debian + KDE on my mom’s laptop. She hasn’t had a complaint since. How tech-savvy is she, you ask? I’m sitting with her right now, so out of politeness she put on headphones to watch her favorite soap opera. Mind you, the headphones weren’t plugged into the laptop. She was sitting there, headphones on her head, sound coming through the speakers, watching her soaps like this is how it’s meant to be done.
I feel like this gets so close to understanding why non-technical people don’t use Linux. I had a class once in college I had to use Linux for so I have used it. It wouldn’t be hard at all to use Linux for what I use my computer for everyday. So if my laptop come with Linux or someone else installed Linux on it I’d be fine. I might not even notice right away honestly.
The barrier isn’t using Linux, the barrier is installing Linux in the first place. Windows also works fine for the random low level stuff I use my laptop to do, so why would I go out of my way to install Linux when it would improve my life 0% and be a huge boring hassle for me?
Kinda shows you haven’t actually installed Linux, if ever, in the last 10 years
Yeah, that’s kinda my point. Why would I? If it came on laptops out of the box? I’d use it. But as someone whose job description lists excel as “a plus, not required” Why would I have installed Linux in the past 10 years?
install process for Linux is easier imo. no bullshit licence agreements, just give it a disk to install onto, set your language, and it handles the rest
I agree it’s easy now. For non-technical people who aren’t interested in tech, even that would be too much. They’re not building their own computers, and prebuilts almost always come with Windows. Going out of their way at all and learning to switch from Windows, which works fine for their needs, to something else doesn’t make sense to them.
I buy a new laptop and I open it. It’s running windows as soon as I turn it on. How is that easier than having to go find something to install? If I turned on a brand new laptop and it was running Linux then I’d just use Linux. I wouldn’t bother going to find windows to download it either.
Sooner or later, a non-techy user is going to ask their techy friend for advice because their Windows PC is slow, full of spam, or they can’t find anything after an automatic update.
At that point you might just offer to install Linux for them.
I have never had to ask someone for help with my laptop even after an update. As far as I can tell my PC isnt slow and Ive never noticed spam. I just don’t use/push my laptop enough for that to have ever been a problem.
That said, if someone installed Linux for me and set it up? I’d use Linux. The operating system really doesn’t impact my use of the laptop. The point I’ve been trying to make, and that seems to be largely being lost on the angry Linux bros on lemmy, is that using Linux isn’t the barrier and most people would use Linux- if it came pre-installed. Installation is the barrier, not use. If you put it on family/friends computers they’ll probably use it just fine. They just aren’t gonna bother learning to install it themselves.
using Linux isn’t the barrier and most people would use Linux- if it came pre-installed. Installation is the barrier, not use.
That’s a very important and apt analysis. Thanks for sharing your perspective!
As for spam, I was actually referring to things that Windows decided to build into the interface that the user may not like: Low quality news, Cortana, Copilot, calls to create an online account.
How does Linux handle steam and games?
Depends, if you want to play online, tough luck. Most anticheats refuse to work with Linux, the smaller games probably work fine, but if it’s somewhat mainstream (fortnite, valorant, cod, rainbow six, etc) it probably won’t work. ProtonDB has a great list.
Interesting…I play online literally all the time, including Elden Ring and Armored Core 6, both of which have EAC. No Man’s Sky’s multiplayer has worked BETTER for me on Linux than it did on Windows. So what is this “tough luck”? What distro do you use? I use Fedora 39 (KDE Plasma spin) and I have ZERO issues. But that’s because I use the Fedora package from Discovery, not the flatpak version of Steam. Flatpak has serious issues with EAC because of the sandboxing.
Personally, a solid 8/10. Steam is probably the best experience if you are playing Steam games but there are also other third party launches that can handle Epic games and GOG and others.
Some games run natively but most will be using Wine, or Steam’s implementation Proton. If you have issues, you can check out tinker steps on https://www.protondb.com (and also check there before buying a game to see if others have been running it fine).
The vast majority of games work out of the box, some need some tweaks, and I don’t think I’ve come across any that I wanted to play that don’t work at all.
Steam Deck and Steam’s investment in linux has really been a game changer in this space.
I normally buy games without even looking whether they support Linux. On the extremely rare occasion that a Steam game doesn’t run on Debian, I’ll just get a refund. Sometimes I feel like I should stick to Linux native games on Steam, to send a message that Linux gamers exist - but then there’s sure to be something that I just can’t live without on the Windows side.
I don’t think I’ve come across any that I wanted to play that don’t work at all.
The main ones that don’t work are the ones with kernel-level Anticheat. The one exception is Easy Anticheat. They made a way for that one to work.
So that will mostly be multiplayer games like COD, Destiny 2, Overwatch, etc. And EA is making a push to switch their games to their proprietary anticheat which doesn’t work on Linux. So I think Battlefield is now on that list as well.
If those games aren’t the types of games you play, then you should be mostly fine.
No joke. I’ve been blown away by what my old used Steam Deck is capable of to the point that I’ve already decided that I’m done with Windows. I’ll probably build a new PC soon (my 2015 laptop is only about as powerful as the Steam Deck) and I’m currently favoring Nobara as my replacement OS when I pull the trigger on parts and get started building. As somebody else pointed out, some games like Call of Duty use kernel based anticheat so only Windows will work for those games, but the only competitive online multiplayer game I ever play is Rocket League and that works pretty well on my Steam Deck as is. If you’re already a PC gamer, you’re used to having to do some troubleshooting here and there, and it seems like it’s maybe 1-5% more work to troubleshoot those occasional issues when you’re running Linux. I’m not a computer whiz or anything, just semi decent at eventually figuring out logic. If you can figure out how to get a Lemmy account and use an app for it on your phone, you can figure out gaming on Linux.
I can’t speak for other distros, but I use Fedora (KDE Plasma spin) and it has worked flawlessly with my entire Steam library, which includes quite a few very old, never-going-to-be-optimized-for-Steam-Deck titles. The only “issue” I have had is that if I put my system to Sleep, I have to unplug and re-plug my controller (I use wired for low latency and a stable connection/no batteries dying) for it to function again. It’s probably just a setting I’ve been too lazy to locate, though.
HOWEVER, I will tell you that you may have difficulty getting Steam going, simply because only one person, buried in the reviews on Discovery has given proper instructions on how to get it going. It’s really stupid, too, because it’s the easiest thing in the world (simply untick the box for accelerated graphics in the advanced app settings of the Steam app). If you do go with Fedora KDE Plasma, DO NOT use the flatpak, use the Fedora distributed app that’s in Discovery. The flatpak version has issues with Easy Anti Cheat and recognizing controllers, and while there supposedly are fixes/workarounds, why piss around with something when there’s a version that works much better and more easily?
Anyway, just do it. I was quite apprehensive about fully switching (I can’t afford a new computer if I fuck this one up), but I ended up HAVING to switch (Windows is a fucking piece of shit) and man, it was the best thing I ever did. Just try a few distros before you settle in, see how you like the way they work and what they can do. There are countless communities, forums, discords, blogs, videos, etc., out there, so you won’t be alone in your quest for a good computer system.
It’s fantastic. I’ve been 100% Linux for gaming for 2 years now.
A favorite story of mine is the Elden Ring release. On Linux, the PC version didn’t have the microstutters it had on Windows, and it was entirely due to shader precaching on Steam/Proton. There are other times where performance is better on Linux also (and this is for Windows versions of games), not the least of which being lower overhead.
Mind you, nvidia does still lead to some driver issues for some. AMD is kind of where you want to be for easy Linux gaming.
Really well. I’ve been playing Cyberpunk 2077 in Linux on my PC without issue, and plenty of other games on it, my Steam Deck and now a living room mini PC.
A combination of steam (and Proton), Wine and Heroic launcher (for GOG, Epic and toeht stores), plus tech like Vulkan, makes most PC gaming viable in Linux.
There remain some games that don’t work but generally they get tweaked into working with a newer version of Proton. Windows-reliant anticheat software seems to be an issue though if you like competitive fps type games.
you can do almost everything in your browser, so why don’t you just switch to linux, i asked myself this question, using linux since.
She probably hasn’t had a complaint because her son is a techie, and because promoting Linux seemingly makes him happy…
I love Linux and all, and I don’t want to take away from OP, but I think this is more of a sweet story rather than the example many commentators will use to cite that everyone can and should use Linux.
going to use your title in lieu of “I use arch btw”
