I hate when people say that they’ll only move when it has 100% support
People who say ‘cant wait for steamOS to come out so that I can move to it’ is also very similar
They never will try Linux, even if what they want comes true
They won’t do it, whether they just fear change or think it’ll break stuff or they can’t bother
And I’m not going to lie, I don’t hate them or debate with them for it, I just hate the bold lies they tell just to get with the crowd
“Fuck you Microsoft, I’m moving to Linux” says the individual that would never move if they haven’t already
Frankly, I probably wouldn’t move either if Windows didn’t permanently break my ethernet and WiFi drivers, and reinstalling windows wasn’t harder than installing Linux, fucking hell
Either way, these people kick up hype for a Linux that will be so much bigger but they never arrive
Maybe they will, due in fucking 2028 or something when they invent a really easy way to use built in Linux tools to move your files from NTFS to Linux and then when you launch steam you have a perfect library of Linux compatible games that are as good or better than windows
And don’t lie, even now with 80% compatibility it feels more like 60%, whether because it depends on the system one runs or because the performance drops just make it not worth it…
At least don’t lie that you’ll move to Linux at a goal post that you’ll just move whenever you get close, maybe say that you’ll move to Linux when you finally get a new pc with a new disk or something?
I feel the someway about people who say “I’m moving to Linux after W10 support ends”.
I think it takes one of two things for people to move.
In my case, I swapped back 3 years ago when ads appeared in explorer for a preview version. In combination with the work the community had done for Valve to consider the steam deck worth selling with Linux, I was confident enough that I could have a good enough experience with Linux.
Honestly it’s like people saying they are going to eat better after the new year. Most don’t and the people that are most of the time just do it right then not waiting for some event to start.
That’s a perfectly legitimate approach. Switching your OS is always a hassle. I can understand that people like to stick with what works for them.
I think a big reason is, people always think it’s an all or nothing migration. Personally I still have a windows install on my system from when I migrated. Sure I can count on one hand the number of times ive had to actually use it, nor have I had to at all in the past few months, but it’s there in case I needed it.
I think people would be much more apt to do that, if they could realize that you can “try it” and if it doesn’t work then switch back again without much difficulty. Which most user friendly installs support dual booting, and the worse case scenario from it is that Windows decides to nuke the bootloader (which doesn’t happen as much anymore due to it changing to UEFI boot) and then at the end of the day, they still have the windows OS to fall on, and the linux OS still exists, it just doesn’t know its there which is a simple fix with just a google search and a boot repair disk (available on the same install medium that the original install was done with)
I think the only thing that will really push adoption is if more systems ship with Linux preinstalled and those laptops are advertised primarily with linux. People aren’t going to go buy a usb drive, figure out how to download an image and how to download and install a flasher and how to use that flashing tool, not when google and apple actively hamstring computer literacy in schools. They probably won’t even click the “budget penguin thing” unless they already know what it is and have been sold the story of linux on that specific laptop.
100%, what would be needed for linux to become mainstream is more stuff like the steam deck, i really hope we get a return of steam machines but done properly this time
The problem with that mentality is that you can easily run an OS without support for a very long time and win 10 LTSC support ends in like 2032.
anyone thinking of switching should just dual boot with separate drives and linux as default boot. I still have my windows drive but it’s been a few months since I’ve needed to boot into it at this point and honestly don’t think there’s any reason left.
IDK, that could be different. I bought some surfaces ~2 years ago that apparently aren’t capable of upgrading to 11. They’re perfectly usable, so I’ll have to put Linux on them. I think anyone that’s capable will find that they have to do that, or throw out perfectly good hardware to buy the next shiny thing.
The only problem is I did switch my laptop to Ubuntu back in the day to avoid W7. Or maybe to was 10? All I did was stream video, like Netflix, on it. Turns out, Netflix wouldn’t run because they locked it down to specific OSes. WINE could run it, with a horrible stutter. So I had to dual boot, then I switched to a VM of Windows in Linux, which ended up just being another step to get to stream a movie. Coupled with hours of driver problems to solve, it just wasn’t worth the hassle.
Now, it’s a matter of “can I stream?” Because otherwise, they’re e-waste. I really hope they can, because while I’ll have to keep my gaming PC on w11, my htpc and tablets I will gladly switch.
I can’t imagine I’m alone. If people can get their programs out of the walled garden of Microsoft, I think they will. Not so much new features, but that they can just do what they always do. We’re creatures of habit. We probably won’t see adoption in high numbers, but more than before.
Also, it’s entirely possible I’ll have to eat these words if streaming still doesn’t work right.
Netflix works flawlessly on Fedora. No streaming problem except with Nba basketball.
Linux actually has stuff that makes it worth switching too, but it’s ones that would require reinstalls to notice and that’s quite infrequent
On windows people dread reinstalls, on Linux it could quite literally happen every time you boot and you notice nothing changes
But these can’t easily be advertised and can’t be felt easily either
Flat out installing at all is the barrier the only thing that is going to move the needle is hardware that has Linux preinstalled and is in the news at the hot new thing to have. The steam deck is doing that and the only other way is preinstalled at the local best buy. You can make Linux the perfect OS that will do your taxes and the laundry and still they will use the worse option becase it was preinstalled. The avg person buys a computer runs it till it gets slow then just buys another one and repeats the process. The avg person just thinks they get used up and dull like razer blades.