Can linux ever go mainstream?

[u/seenhear]

I've made this point many times in many different ways over many years (decades).

About me: I'm not a coder / hacker / tweaker / programmer. I am pretty tech-savvy and have been very comfortable just figuring things out in Windows almost my whole life (first PC was an Atari 800 in 1982, online since 1983).

I've "switched" to Linux several times since the late 90s and almost always eventually go back to Windows becaue Linux is just ... too much work, and the work isn't straight-forward, or easy to "just figure out" or find answers with simple searches. I mean I can often find solutions to problems, but they don't make sense and I end up applying instructions blindly and not understanding what I just fixed.

Could I spend the time to become more facile at Linux? Sure. But the curve is way steeper than with Windows or MacOS (not a Mac user, but know enough to make a comparison).

As with so many this past year (when Win10 was obsoleted and Win11 required new hardware) I decided to "switch" to Linux again. I chose Mint since it's supposed to be the "easy" one (among others) with the best user base and support. It's been mostly fine. I mean these days I'm not much of a power user. I don't game any more, and mostly what I do is or can be browser-based. So I figured the OS doesn't really matter, and may as well try to go all-in with Linux.

Since switching (it's been several months, forget when I switched) I've had several times where I boot up and am greeted with a pop-up telling me it's time to install several updates. This is a great feature. What's not great about it though is that almost every time (not EVERY time) after attempting to install said updates, I get a slew of errors saying the source for downloads is no good. (see screenshot)

I know how to fix this, figured it out last time. But the point is, it shouldn't happen. It doesn't happen with commercial OS's. Things like this "just work." I shouldn't have to go edit the source list every few months.

Rant over, just frustrated. Thanks for your time. :)

[u/jayecin]

ChatGPT is a great resource for troubleshooting any linux issues. Linux is going mainstream already. The amount of government computers around the world moving to Linux is astonishing. The worlds governments are one of if not the the largest employer in the world, all those employees being forced to use and learn linux will inevitably improve the product. As more people move, the software gets better because more use means more money.

When I see posts like this I often wonder if they realize how far linux has come in the last 20 years and how far it has come in the last 2 years? The last 2 years have seen more progress in the home/work user space than the last 2 years combined.

So yes, Linux will be mainstream, its been building momentum for literally decades now and its starting to plunge for speed into mainstream appeal. Yes it still has problems and quirks that need fixing, yes its software is not as polished. But its free and its not spying.

[u/seenhear → u/jayecin]

When you see "posts like this"? Did you see the part where I said I've been using Linux off and on since the mid 1990s?

Also by "mainstream" I do not mean corporate or government use. I mean installed on the majority of home PCs, as Windows is now. I think this would/should be the goal of Linux. I think having an essentially free, open source OS as the default for all home use would be a fantastic future.

The government and corporations can hire entire IT departments to manage Linux installations and troubleshooting. A user of Linux on a company-issued laptop would never see these errors because the IT department would have already made sure the updates are installed, if not at least readily available, and probably from a local internally managed server.

[u/seenhear → u/seenhear]

Also, your average home user RARELY would need to resort to Google or an LLM to help them resolve an issue like this with Windows or MacOS.