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Linux would have to be extremely good for most people to take the effort to switch. Switching to Wikipedia doesn't require reformatting your hard drive and inst

by snazz 6y ago

Linux would have to be extremely good for most people to take the effort to switch. Switching to Wikipedia doesn't require reformatting your hard drive and installing a new operating system—a completely foreign concept for 98% of the computer-using population.

kinkrtyavimoodh 6y ago
Reformatting your hard drive and installing a new operating system is just the beginning of it. Such a drastic change of OS basically disrupts your whole workflow while you get used to the new one. Everything from where to find things to keyboard shortcuts to UX paradigms.
- lionkor 6y ago
  I would argue that the change from Win10 to a KDE linux or a similar windows-like UX is similar to a change from Win7 to Win10. Its fair to say that even the Win7 to Win10 switch is something people only do if you force them, but I could see the Win10->Linux change happen for a lot of people if they saw anything it had that they needed. Not having to worry about AV and automatic updates, automatic download and in-OS-ads would be pretty huge already. Yes, most powerusers on windows know where to turn all that off, but a lot of people, like my parents, are scared to fuck something up, so they dont touch any settings, especially not if windows tells them "this improves your experience, you sure you wanna turn it off? nudge". A lot of people would not notice or care if you switched their machine to Linux - as long as it means they have to worry about less.
sergeykish 6y ago
You can run Linux from USB stick. That still requires BIOS/UEFI setup, though I do not expect non-technical population switching. It would be great if Steam had non game applications.
- gsich 6y ago
  Steam has that.
- lionkor 6y ago
  You should be able to install most distros alongside windows without any extra work, just in the installer. UEFI+GPT boot is an option, and that never required me to fuck with the uefi setup, it just installed itself into the EFI partition together with windows's stuff, and you could pick in GRUB "windows" or "linux" :)

by snazz 6y ago

kinkrtyavimoodh 6y ago

Reformatting your hard drive and installing a new operating system is just the beginning of it. Such a drastic change of OS basically disrupts your whole workflow while you get used to the new one. Everything from where to find things to keyboard shortcuts to UX paradigms.

lionkor 6y ago
I would argue that the change from Win10 to a KDE linux or a similar windows-like UX is similar to a change from Win7 to Win10. Its fair to say that even the Win7 to Win10 switch is something people only do if you force them, but I could see the Win10->Linux change happen for a lot of people if they saw anything it had that they needed. Not having to worry about AV and automatic updates, automatic download and in-OS-ads would be pretty huge already. Yes, most powerusers on windows know where to turn all that off, but a lot of people, like my parents, are scared to fuck something up, so they dont touch any settings, especially not if windows tells them "this improves your experience, you sure you wanna turn it off? nudge". A lot of people would not notice or care if you switched their machine to Linux - as long as it means they have to worry about less.

sergeykish 6y ago

You can run Linux from USB stick. That still requires BIOS/UEFI setup, though I do not expect non-technical population switching. It would be great if Steam had non game applications.

gsich 6y ago
Steam has that.
lionkor 6y ago
You should be able to install most distros alongside windows without any extra work, just in the installer. UEFI+GPT boot is an option, and that never required me to fuck with the uefi setup, it just installed itself into the EFI partition together with windows's stuff, and you could pick in GRUB "windows" or "linux" :)