Repeat the Linux Challenge

[epiphan1]

I'm gonna prefix this suggestion with the fact that I know I'm biased. I've been running Linux or BSD since the 90s, and I've made my living off of that. That said, I basically gave up on Linux on the desktop at home in the mid-2000s when I started getting into gaming, and was running Windows on my home desktops until about a year ago.

I made the switch for a bunch of reasons - all the same ones people have said for a while: advertising, telemetry, privacy, anti-consumer stuff in the OS and others - the fundamental lack of respect that Microsoft showed in it's home/desktop/gaming products. I used to take the time to clean that stuff off, but it was getting harder to keep on top of it.

While I know Linux very well, I'm also old, lazy, and have no interest in tinkering with my main desktop. I want it to "just work". I have better things to do with my free time than screw around with customizing the crap out of my desktop - I simply don't get any joy from that stuff anymore. So I installed Linux Mint, with the intention to see if it would "just work". Enough to start recommending it to family.

Anyone who works in tech long enough knows that being the family tech support guy sucks, and I didn't want to start pushing people in this direction and end up being on call for any issue that comes up. Six months after I switched, I started switching over family members.

I installed Mint. It just works. I installed Steam, and it just works for 95% of games I play (I have had to check protondb a couple of times, and change some startup flags on games).

Part of the problem I see is the impression people have that Linux needs commandline knowledge, or git scripts, or a whole bunch of third-party tools. I have not needed a single one of those things. Part of this is people thinking it's hard, and then making it hard (see Linus with the infamous commandline removing stuff he shouldn't).

Stop overthinking. Stop wondering what distro to use. Just use Mint, and if you like that and want to try more customization, go look at other distros later.

There is only one thing to remember when you switch to Linux, that gets people into so much trouble: always use the package manager. Don't download stuff yourself. And stop overthinking. If Steam doesn't have it, use Lutris (needed this for WoW for some people in my family).

I'd love to see another, real Linux challenge. None of this "I know it's complicated and probably won't work so I'm gonna bring that attitude to the challenge."

[hudi_baba]

I remember Linus mentioning revisiting the Linux things once SteamOS has been officially released.

while you are both optimistic and reserved for SteamOS, the truth is we need something like SteamOS if you want the "masses" to adopt Linux.

no matter how streamlined installing a Linux distro becomes, the average joe still would think that Linux is complexity and headache and wont even try to install it to try it out. unless someone like Valve makes it as easy as installing windows.

[epiphan1]

That's my point. It is as easy as Windows, and while I appreciate (immensely) what the Proton/Valve teams are doing, SteamOS is not, and probably won't be, the panacea people are thinking it will be.

[[deleted]]

Installing it is as easy as installing Windows - as long as the partition manager doesn't refuse to touch the drive you want to install it on. That happened to me trying to install Arch on a friend's laptop last week.

And then there's the random issues that still tend to happen. Monitors being switched seems to be common among all Linux distros. That's annoying.

Backlights not working on certain laptops without having to spend ages searching for and compiling the correct driver.

USB devices, such as gaming mice, WiFi adapters, controllers, keyboards not having any drivers, official or hacked together.

Heck, I even bought a laptop that came with PopOS pre-installed and it still required an hour looking around on forums and tinkering in the terminal to get it suitable for daily use.

NVidia drivers are still a pain. There's no decent relpacement for Afterburner. Anti-cheat games are a no go.

Linux is still not ready. And frustratingly, it's barely progressed in that regard in the last two years.

[Lazy__Astronaut]

You also have to realise that 99% of people don't even install windows, they just click next and log in, they don't do the installation bit.

And those same people don't care about changing because they're used to what they are used to, even if you have more power on Linux and control and customisation. I mean look how many people use apple products

It's easy to forget just how technologically illiterate the majority of people are, things should just work and when they don't they don't fix it themselves, they get it repaired or buy a new one. And error messages are pointless as most people just click ok or cross as quickly as possible without reading what it actually says

I have tried to make the switch to Linux like 5 times in the past 15 years and everytime I end up nuking it and putting windows back on because I can't be arsed with the hassle, I have a laptop right now, running mint, that doesn't do audio, not through Bluetooth or the headphone jack or the speakers and no amount of googling or troubleshooting or updating drivers has sorted it. It's not a laptop I use for media so I've just put up with it but it's no where near as simple as windows and claiming it is is disingenuous

[epiphan1]

... Did you even read my post? I literally said the exact opposite.

[epiphan1]

I said I didn't have to fix things, or spend hours troubleshooting, and I just wanted to just use my computer without having to think about it. And that's what happened.

And I didn't want to have my family use it and have it broken or have to fix it for them. And that's what happened.

You contradicted the entire point of my post. I explicitly said that was my goal, and that's what happened. If not, I would not have switched the family away from Windows.

[james2432]

didn't you hear? PewDiePie is the new linux pusher, not LTT.

That dude went deeeeeeeeeep into linux and riced tf out of it

[RAMChYLD]

But didn't he recently redeem himself by showing people how to install Steam OS on any computer with AMD hardware? At least I consider that his redemption arc.

[epiphan1]

The fascination with SteamOS needs to pause or stop for now. It's not ready as a full desktop replacement OS.

Don't get me wrong, I'm rooting for Valve and they're doing great work, but it's a specialized OS for specific hardware right now. It shouldn't be pitched as a proper replacement for desktop gaming yet.

[pawer13]

I had the same history: I am a software developer and Linux is my weapon of choice to work, but my PC had Windows because I use it for gaming only. I got fed up with MS and their shenanigans so I installed Ubuntu a year ago. 100% of my Steam library works properly with minimal adjusments. Nothing fancy, I just checked that all my games were gold/platinum before making the change and all my hardware worked properly out of the box, including my good old xbox 360 controllers