Promoting Linux: An End-User Manifesto

I've decided to run Linux as my main os next PC build... I said that two years ago and still haven't built my new rig.

I'm terrified of switching. There's just way too much information out there. So many options.

I'm used to being in a box with just one or two ways of doing things.

Does anyone know a good series to help windows users adapt?

Just need web surfing and gaming including steam vr

Honestly, just go with Debian Stable (bookworm) with KDE or Linux Mint. It is pretty stable and a windows like experience.

I have not tried VR on it tho, so can't speak to that.
- +1 for mint. It was my first distro and it made me love Linux.
- I second Debian. Stable is excellent.
  
  Testing has newer packages and is generally almost as stable.
  
  I published my Debian gaming setup a few days ago. Haven’t tried VR on it either as I don’t have a headset, but I assume it works.
  
  https://lemmy.world/post/9543661
- Sorry, but Debian stable is a terrible recommendation! They don't even ship bugfix releases of KDE Plasma... It's stuck with a months old version that has lots of known and long fixed bugs in it
One of the great things about Linux is that you can almost always just run whatever distro from the USB drive before installing (and just reboot without the USB drive to get back into Windows) So you can download a few ISOs and try each one for a bit before committing to anything.

This is nice if there's anything specific that you need to work, you can try it and make sure it's usable for you before making any permanent changes.

For example, I'm legally blind and use a screen magnifier. I tried a few distros to compare the built-in magnifiers before settling on one.

I'd also recommend using Ventoy on your USB. That lets you just plop ISO files on the drive and choose which one at boot.
- Great advice.
  
  I'm already using git to gather my linux build notes and install commands I'll need.
  
  Eventually I'll be able to USB boot a disto and run my custom setup script for my apps.
Linux Mint with Cinnamon. Easiest transition. If you want customization, use KDE. If you want your desktop environment to make choices for you, GNOME.
- Thanks. I loaded exactly that already on an older laptop just to get used to it and test some workloads.
  
  Just regular web surfing is snappy as all hell.
Get into the "variety is good" mindset. Having options is always better than not having options, even if it feels overwhelming at first. It'll get easier with time
just go zorin os. it attempts to simulate the look and feel of windows while also having a lot of pre installed applications including playonlinux/wine sot that once its installed you can just go.
- I'll definitely look into zorin thanks
I made the dive into Linux mint last night. If you already have windows installed you can side load so you don't have to completely commit right out of the box. I play games that would require windows so this was necessary for me but so far outside of hating middle mouse click to paste and some troubleshooting for my headset (I could hear myself quietly through my headphones when speaking into mic) Linux has been preferable to win11
- That is not what sideload means my friend.

When folks will stop with the "If Linux won't become another Windows, it'll fail" mentality? Linux is not Winblows -- and we really mean it. To "increase adoption" users need to acknowledge (only) this -- that both Windows and Linux differs from one another and that won't change in any time soon.

I have just started trying to use Linux and I find it very hard to actually recommend it to anyone. And the problem isn't really anything mentioned in the video, it's just that the UX is not great. You have to google so much to get things working and the answers are almost always typing some cryptic stuff into the terminal. I am technically minded enough to get by but Linux ends up feeling more like a hobby to me rather than something I can actually get work done in.

That said, I really like Linux and am gonna stick with it. I just don't don't see it being widely adopted until it becomes a bit more straight forward.

Which distro and DE are we talking about?

I have the same issue with Windows. I've been using Linux since I got my first PC. Trying to navigate Windows is a pain in the ass. It's just old programs somehow put together. When I find some solutions online it's often opening who knows what via Windows+R or better yet, changing something I have no idea about in regedit.
And even the most basic things are hidden away by many steps.
- I feel you, I'm sure a lot of it comes down to familiarity. I just very recently did a fresh reinstall of windows and endeavour in a dual boot. And honestly the Calamares installer is a lot nicer than the windows one. But doing simple things like just writing to a secondary hard drive is a non-issue in windows whereas in Linux it was a whole learning adventure.
Beginners usually do not have to do anything in terminal to adjust the system. Which desktop environment?

There isn't one united linux user frontend - would be cool if you'd state which one is not great.

I assume you talk about gsetting commands?
- I have tried quite a few now. Fedora, Mint, Debian - none could detect my wifi card so I had to go do a bunch of googling to try and get them working, found what driver I needed but was never able to actually find out how to install it, other than some terminal commands in forums that didn't end up working. I stuck with Endeavour OS because it detected it without any problems.
  
  I have a keyboard that I configure with an online tool called via that requires something called hid. On windows it just works but on Endeavour I have to enable something through the terminal.
  
  I have a shared data drive and in order to make it mount when I start the computer I had to go and edit some fstab file?
  
  I couldn't even figure out how to install a dual boot with with fedora and mint because it asked me about the root and home and swap and boot partitions and didn't explain how to set any of them up or what they did.
  
  I needed a program for work that wasn't on a repository and I had to google howw to launch an .sh file because clicking doesn't work haha. Also through the terminal.
  
  I'm not saying these are crazy insurmountable problems, and windows definitely has some similar things, getting my tablet working was so much smoother on Linux for example. But I've had to learn so much more about how my computer works to actually use Linux and I'm just not sure the majority of people will have that patience.

Is there a peertube bot? 😅

I don't think PeerTube would work here, unless you mean a bot that posts PeerTube stuff from certain channels every so often.

There is a bot around here that converts YouTube links to Piped ones.
- Haha, I just mean a bot that posts the peertube link instead of youtube just like the piped bot. It was a joke but it would be cool if there was one - but it should remind OP to post on peertube as well - probably a bad idea! 😅
Dunno, but I suppose you can use piped: https://piped.video/watch?v=98kFh3JpIXk
- Thx, I don't need piped, I use a vpn

Is this Mario San Serif?

He makes a great point about separating "the FOSS crusade" from the linux discussion.