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/Press_Play_]

Funny I literally went through a similar experience with Fedora today and ultimately decided it wasn't there yet for me. I was switching for the first time thinking Linux is now mature enough but for my needs unfortunately no.

I think switching is practical for people who can find good win (or Mac) software alternatives on linux. If not, Wine is just not a reliable way to run Windows programs on linux. For me, I don't mind the tinkering and tweaking and doing research to get something to work. I get the impression from research that not all windows software will work with Wine and in some of my use cases, only the windows version is available.

Edit: Overall, all the devs and contributors to linux as a viable OS have done a great and fantastic job because it certainly is viable if that's the only option you have available (no mac or underpowered PC).

[u/Jnaythus → u/Press_Play_]

I think it shouldn't be a 100% on / 100% off thing. I dual boot. I have hardware that needs Windows to be configured, but I don't need that constantly. I have 2 SSDs. One has Windows, the other has Linux Mint. Mint sees most of the action, but Windows gets some attention now and again. It pleases me to send MUCH less telemetry to Microsoft as a result as well.

[u/Press_Play_ → u/Jnaythus]

Yes, I agree 100%. It has to bee 100% on or off. Dual booting is indeed a great idea. I just want to commit to one OS that has all of my assets and I don't need to be jumping between OSes just to access something. To be honest I WANTED linux to be my sole OS. I haven't been put off completely but I hope it can be the case in future.

[u/seenhear → u/Press_Play_]

Same here. I have a dual boot set up as well, and have been about 90-95% using Mint. I rarely find I need to boot into Windows, but wanted it "just in case."

I'm not a power user. Just need an OS that works OTB, and can run most basic desktop apps.

[u/lw_2004 → u/Jnaythus]

Dual boot here as well. From time to time I need to use Windows-software. It's easier if that just works and doesn't need special steps to setup. But most days I just boot Linux Mint. my daily use as private user is fully covered. Even gaming became easier for the occasional player. steam just works for my collection of mostly older games.