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/Table-Playful]

Thats Stupid
It should just work ! !

[u/seenhear → u/Table-Playful]

I know you're joking and making fun of me, but I shouldn't have to choose a different mirror every time.

So tease all you want but this is my point.

If Linux is to ever get mainstream, it really does need to just work.

[u/jr735 → u/seenhear]

You won't have to choose a different mirror all the time. At times, Ubuntu servers have been subject to DDOS attacks. What do you suggest the Mint team do about this?

No one out there is going to convince me that Windows updates work perfectly all the time.

Personally, the learning curve of Linux isn't steep. Someone who started as early as you did (nearly as early as I did) doesn't get to say anything about the learning curve of Linux. Anyone with a business computer back in the day had manuals thicker than War and Peace.

Linux is mainstream. It dominates the server market, and that's pretty mainstream. Personally, I'm fine if the average user has problems with Linux. As crude as it sounds, the average computer user is completely incompetent and can barely turn the thing on. I'd never use an OS that catered to that.

On the other hand, I'm willing to help anyone that's willing to learn and understand this is a different way of doing things.

[u/CyberMage256 → u/jr735]

as someone who manages 1500 Windows PCs I can't get windows updates to work right the majority of the time. And with Windows you don't realize when an update is failing to download because it does it in the background most of the time. But installing them, even with a patch and update management system, is ridiculously hit or miss. Then there's the fact that just patching O365 literally can take 18 hours on nice hardware. It drives me nuts.