I always hear that a normal computer user would never install an OS and that is the main reason Linux has not a higher market share. But I guess what we mean by that is that a user would never create a live usb, access the boot options and boot from there to install the new OS.

Is there a hard technical limitation when it comes to create a tool that installs a linux distro from a “normal” windows exe file, provided that the user first disables secure boot and fast boot (which are things a tool with admin privileges should also be able do on first run)?

Does such a tool already exist?

I feel like there’s something I’m missing, forgive my ignorance

  • Peter G@discuss.online
    8·
    22 hours ago

    What about this as on alternative:

    Instead of trying to make people install an OS or have to buy a new machine with Linux pre installed, just sell NVME drives with a Linux distro. Something like Mint, or Ubuntu. In my experience Linux is really good nowadays in recognizing hardware plus the people who would be the target audience are unlikely to have some exotic PC setup, probably just a standard off-the-shelf laptop with very common components.

    • pishadoot@sh.itjust.works
      5·
      21 hours ago

      Hmmmmmm… I think the hardware bugs might be rare, but common enough to make this a tricky product to sell consistently to the unknown masses.

      Also, I think storage partitioning could be a problem; assuming some number of people would have other drives that they had OS/media together, or just separate storage with files they wanted to keep. Those would be NTFS, which can read/write on Linux but you won’t have the best compatibility with Linux program execution (depending on a ton of factors).

    • LandedGentry@lemmy.zipEnglish
      1·
      19 hours ago

      I run bazzite on my AMD CPU/GPU gaming rig I just built. Installed it on a new blank SSD, no windows ever. Computer has run steady since it first booted, Haven’t even had to open the terminal yet. All my games play out the box

      Point is yes you are correct that you could definitely sell them ready to go potentially! Still hard to account for every single permutation/combination of hardware people will have, but there are some that are more predictable than others. Any modern AMD build for instance will likely play fine with bazzite.