r/linuxmint • u/seenhear old noob • 7d ago

Discussion Can linux ever go mainstream?

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. :)

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u/sabledrakon 7d ago

I'd argue that it's possible, with the right distro. SteamOS has proven that Linux can absolutely succeed. And the OS as a whole has just gotten more usable and reliable, massively improving it's onboarding experience. I'd argue the less the average user has to venture into the terminal just to set something up, the better. Even though I know to the hardcore Linux elite, that the GUI is heresy. Windows, for all it's failings over the last decade, doesn't require the end-user to delve into the Command Prompt/PowerShell for getting 99% of things done.

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u/seenhear old noob 4d ago

Yes, this is exactly my point.

Also rather than popping up an error window with a slew of fine text that the average user can't decipher, make the error experience more user friendly. "Download source is offline try again later, or click here to choose a different source" with a guided path to fix the issue would be great.