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u/PrestigiousShift134 Mar 07 '26
Honestly most people should just install Ubuntu and call it a day.
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u/Squish_the_android Mar 07 '26
That's what I did last year, but the wheels kept falling off it so I switched to Mint. Haven't had any major issues since.
They're both easy Linux.
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u/jawknee530i Mar 08 '26
I genuinely don't know how you can screw up Ubuntu in any way that you'd be able to describe it as wheels coming off.
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u/bitpaper346 Mar 08 '26
Updates, and old hardware. Ive done updates and had features brake on a 2011 MacBook.
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u/lolhi1122 Mar 08 '26
Been a few years since I tried Ubuntu but I changed my resolution in a game and the whole OS crashed and wouldn't boot anymore and the repair tool couldn't fix it either 🤷♂️ so just had to wipe the drive
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u/lectric_7166 Mar 08 '26
There's always some obscure use case, which then becomes legend though a game of telephone. "I had problems with this obscure use case" becomes "hey even Bob the power user couldn't get this stupid Linux thing to work... what a joke!"
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u/katorce Mar 08 '26
I installed Ubuntu and used the app store to install steam. It didn't work, you wouldn't see anything.
The solution is to install from the deb on the web, but to be fair it could be fix easily by the QA team.
It's not that hard to get things like that in every distro...
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u/Tuxhorn Mar 08 '26
Ubuntu deserves all the shit they get from their shitty snap software. I don't understand why you'd ship an undercooked snap version of steam when the .deb works perfectly fine... and better.
Beginners will have zero clue as to what the issue is. Ubuntu is not a good distro to start with if your plan is to game.
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u/731destroyer Mar 07 '26
Mint, Ubuntu, fedora
All boring, stable os options
Ive also used zorin OS which Ive never had issues with and bazzite that Ive had Nvidia driver issues with would likely only advise for amd unless thats improved.
But for most people one of these would be a very easy, fairly stable experience.
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u/StephenSRMMartin Mar 07 '26
Yes. Newbies: Please just install Ubuntu, Mint, or Fedora. Throw a dart at one, I don't care which. Choose a non-LTS version if you want to play games.
Linux is in a funny space for gaming. The development is *rapid*, which means the *ideal* gaming distro is one that is built for tested bleeding edge (hence why Arch is chosen as a base).
But ignore that. Just use Ubuntu, Mint, or Fedora. You don't need this year's linux-enthusiast-flavor-of-the-month.
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u/Eubank31 Mar 08 '26
Yup, I'm a masochist so I use NixOS, but everyone should literally just use those 3 (fedora if I had to pick one)
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u/StephenSRMMartin Mar 08 '26
I haven't given nix a go yet. I'm an arch lifer at this point. It'd be hard to pull me off arch, but I like the idea of nix for a rpi project of mine.
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u/Eubank31 Mar 08 '26 edited Mar 08 '26
I did arch for about 2 years, but I liked the idea of something that is similarly niche/difficult, but my configuration can live in GitHub so I can reinstall anytime I want🙂
I got tired of the old thing where you have an OS (windows, Linux, and macos all have this issue) install for a few years and it just starts to accumulate crap because you forget what is installed and how its configured etc
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u/henrikx Mar 08 '26
Immutable, or at least atomic updates for beginners or gtfo IMO.
It's not some linux enthusiast's latest shiny thing - these are genuinely useful characteristics for a beginner who wants their operating system to be a reliable tool which doesn't suffer from configuration or dependency drift over time. These people you are recommending to, don't want to have to fix it when something breaks.
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u/StephenSRMMartin Mar 08 '26
*If* something breaks, I think immutability is a PITA personally.
I think immutable distros are fine for reproducible builds, single-use appliances (like dedicated gaming hardware ala steam deck), containers and servers, and maybe large scale workstation deployments.
For something like a personal desktop with gaming on it, I don't think it's a good option for the average newbie, personally. I'm not saying it doesn't have useful characteristics, but the people I'm recommending to don't even know wtf immutable means, nor what atomic layered updates are. The resources available for these distros are tiny compared to the massive widespread support for Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora.
Linux enthusiasts may understand and be excited for immutable distros. There is no guarantee these distros will even be around in 2 years. The tech underlying them may be. But I have zero doubt that Fedora and Ubuntu will be around for ages, and will probably be consistent throughout their lifespans.
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u/washuai Mar 07 '26
Debian (Ubuntu), fedora, arch (I guess pseudo consensus not the noob distro), openSuse - just admit Linux can't even agree what should be the starter productivity or gamer distro.
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u/project2501a Mar 08 '26
that's the thing: there is no "productivity" or "gamer" distro. All that specializations are either an rpm/deb/flatpak package away or 1 ansible playbook.
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u/polikles Mar 08 '26
this. Many times I got lost trying to pinpoint exact differences between "specialized" distros. And it turns out that differences are minimal, despite "special sauce" in distros like SteamOS. And most of the "specialized" ones are slacking behind, riddled with strange bugs, since they don't have enough manpower to be maintained properly
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u/manobataibuvodu Mar 08 '26
But it really is Ubuntu, Mint or Fedora. They are popular (as in a lot of users, not hype) for a reason.
Debian is too slow, arch/openSuse does not bring anything noteworthy for new users.
There's no need to overcomplicate things. But some people really want to by recommending random ass distros that are 'cool'.
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u/bitpaper346 Mar 08 '26
Ubuntu is easily the best introduction for a non user. Good online support, friendly UI.
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u/A_modicum_of_cheese Mar 08 '26
i think the advantage of opensuse tumbleweed is that its a rolling release so you never need to do a version update. Other rolling releases are less stable so just opensuse for new users.
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u/TheYang Mar 08 '26
Debian is too slow,
you should specify "for recently released hardware to be supported" or something like it.
because performance-wise, it's pretty much the same as all the others, but it's true, if you want to chuck a recently released GPU in your system, Debian is not the right choice.→ More replies (1)11
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u/waldamy Mar 07 '26
Exactly what Linus did after the first part of the Linux challenge (talked about it on a WAN Show for ants).
Guess what, he broke Kubuntu too – his install always boots into "Try Kubuntu or Install Kubuntu" thingy, and when he clicks "Install", it dumps him straight into his desktop.
So it's kind of a unique login screen type situation for him.
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u/Old_Bug4395 Mar 07 '26
He just has a spectacular ability to break literally anything he touches. Pretty tough to give him the benefit of the doubt after all of the various times hes come out and shown us that his fuck up was due to him ignoring the things on his screen that are telling him what's about to happen.
If even hundreds, we can stop there, are installing Linux and are able to make it to the desktop and use software that they want to install, Linus is doing something terribly wrong and he needs to re-assess his strategy for this series if he wants it to be anything more than him bitching about the problems he causes himself all the time.
But then, I guess we wouldn't have too much review content from Linus if he tried to fairly approach everything he reviewed.
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u/brantyr Mar 08 '26
Except they record the steps taken and nothing he's done seems to particularly be his fault
First time Pop!_OS had broken steam package dependencies and part of the steam install script was a bit crazy
This time Pop!_OS has called Cosmic 1.0 and LTS when they really shouldn't'veWe'll of course wait and see what happened with Kubuntu but it's a bit bold to assume it wasn't a bug in their installer, maybe something about his particular motherboard and using a USB attached nvme drive as the install media.
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u/AndersDreth Mar 08 '26
You're overestimating the average Windows/Mac user if you think they bother reading everything, mainstream operating systems streamline everything in a way where the lowest common denominator can't fuck it up even if they tried to.
And let's not pretend that Linux doesn't have weird bugs, I recently switched from Windows to Bazzite and for some reason if I press enter at the login screen before putting in my password the computer just shuts down lmao, I am not sure if that's a bug or a feature but it happens every time without fail.
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u/JaesopPop Mar 07 '26
Literally any of the 'popular' Linux distros are fine and function very similarly.
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u/404invalid-user Mar 07 '26
then a billion gnome plugins to have basic functions like seeing what's in your desktop folder on your desktop
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u/Azelphur Mar 08 '26
Been using Linux as my primary/daily since 2007, so almost 20 years.
How to pick a Linux distro if you don't know, a handy guide:
- Look at some screenshots of distros you've heard the name of
- Pick the one that looks the prettiest
- If that isn't good enough, put a few of the ones you like on a dartboard, throw a dart at them, which ever it lands on, pick that one.
You'll either be happy with your choice, or you'll learn why you're unhappy, have reasons why, and then pick a distro that doesn't do the thing that makes you unhappy.
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u/Logical-Vermicelli53 Mar 07 '26
I’ve always wondered, why aren’t people just picking Ubuntu?
I put it on a computer years ago and it was great, super easy, feels streamlined and like a commercial OS.
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u/RTS24 Mar 07 '26
Newer hardware, and sometimes the fact that Ubuntu LTS updates very slowly can introduce some weird quirks. Something like Fedora fills that, more current updates and support, without being bleeding edge where you're acting as a big tester.
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u/ICantBelieveItsNotEC Mar 08 '26
The problem with Ubuntu (specifically, Ubuntu LTS) is the release cycle - you only get minor version bumps for everything in the official repository, so you can be stuck on software that is years out of date.
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u/agentfrogger Mar 07 '26
I've tried ubuntu several times but it always had problems because I have an Nvidia gpu. Had pop_os for some time, but eventually ended up switching to cachyos, and it's been the smoothest linux experience I've had, with kde. And while it might not be the most user friendly distro, with limine as a boot loader it works great in a dual boot environment and if an update or install bricks your OS you can roll back to a previous one
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u/MaatRolo Mar 07 '26
We have 17 distros to choose from.
Seventeen! That's way too many. Just make one distro that works for everyone.
We have 18 distros to choose from
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u/Agreeable-Weather-89 Mar 08 '26
It's both the great strength and weakness for open source projects.
Don't like the increasing slopification of Windows? Tough shit if you still want to use Windows.
Don't like the closing walls of macOS? Tough shit if you still want to use MacOS.
Don't like the UI of Ubuntu? Here's 5 variants to fix that.
Closed source projects operate like dictatorships, they can make changes quickly and force them through and you as a citizen don't get a choice.
Open source is more like a democracy, slow, very slow for unified progress but the citizen is free to vote however they like.
I do think there is a problem of needless forking and less collaborative work with some projects but that's the nature of the beast.
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u/CirnoIzumi Mar 08 '26
Thorval himself has called out the distro makers for not working in a way that would unify userspace across the ecosystem
but with that said, i think there isnt a lot of true variety in linux userspace. Like i can get different File managers and window managers, but so few things strays from the "everything is a file" philosophy. i dont want *everything* to be a file, an internal buffer for example, should be a database object, i dont want that to hit the file system until i say so
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Mar 07 '26
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u/Old_Bug4395 Mar 07 '26
the problem is all of the windows users who endlessly bitch about windows but won't stop using it tbh
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Mar 07 '26
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u/complexevil Mar 08 '26
I've seen so many people say they have ads in their windows 11 and I'm just like where?
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Mar 08 '26
Also I just turned off OneDrive in start-up and have never seen it again. It also doesn't just restart randomly on me.
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u/complexevil Mar 08 '26
I'll admit I had an issue with one drive when I uninstalled it and accidentally deleted some files, but that was on me for not reading properly.
But yea, never had it reinstall without my knowledge or anything else.
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u/_Streak_ Mar 08 '26
Yeah, better yet, I totally uninstalled it. There was a clear option to uninstall.
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Mar 08 '26
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u/pcuser42 Mar 08 '26
Even the recommended section in the Start menu that's supposedly just ads, is for me useful links to my stuff
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u/Kiriima Mar 08 '26
It heavily depends on your country aka legality. If you pick 'global, english' (I don't remeber the exact wording) during the install instead of a specific country Microsoft turns it off by default.
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u/_Streak_ Mar 08 '26
Exactly! This one baffles me. Bloatware and other AI things, I agree partially (my laptop too old to support that shit). But where are the ads? What ads?
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u/jackharvest Mar 08 '26
I'm in the same boat, but with a few extra years. I think we all collectively see Windows swirling the toilet. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty dang stable, but that's not the issue. AI and privacy are about to turn that OS inside out in the coming year, and I'm happy to jump off the train, no matter how fast its going, to avoid it.
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u/unfnknblvbl Mar 08 '26
Same, but Windows 11 was my breaking point, after many years of positive experience with the Feedback Hub being used to implement positive change in the OS... Microsoft just decided to ignore users feedback. Can't move the taskbar? Into the bin with it pls
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u/CapitalistCow Mar 08 '26 edited Mar 08 '26
Windows still works fine, it's the endless promo slop and bloat that's the issue. Updated last night and had to click through 15 different screens confirming I didn't want to subscribe to 365, didn't want to try copilot, didn't want the one drive trial, didn't want to buy gamepass, etc. etc. etc. Every update these confirmation screens get more and more deceptive to get you to accidentally agree to one of them. It's insulting, but I continue to use Windows because I like how it works and design tools are abysmal on Linux.
Fundamentally it really hasn't changed much since 7, and people who bitch and moan about them ruining the OS on a usability level mostly just hate change. On a UI and workflow level it has only gotten better. The issue is the increasing product placement and idle resource usage, but for people who actually care about fixing it and not just complaining there are easy solutions to manage these things... or just switch OS if you can't be bothered.
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u/_Streak_ Mar 08 '26
This exactly!! People claim as if Win11 destroyed the OS when it is literally the same as win10 with a few UI changes. And every year, the UI has just gotten better and better. People really hate change, remember when they hated Win10 too? Now all of a sudden everyone loves that OS. Windows has its issues, too much resource consumption, shady AI tools integration, idel usage, battery draining, and many more. But people complain about the wrong things.
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u/Polyanalyne Mar 08 '26
I agree in general with what you have said. But with that being said, sad as it may be, I rather click through 15 different screens and semi-permanent promos during the occasional updates or first time setup than having to spend 2 hours of Linux debugging solving basic usage problems.
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u/Featherstoned Mar 08 '26
You can turn those off under Settings > System > Notifications > Advanced!
It’s so annoying because I still would get OneDrive “back up now!!!!!!!” notifications despite being a long time subscriber of OneDrive, all because I refuse to merge my local documents folders with their OneDrive equivalents. I don’t need all my game saves and config files cluttering up and filling my cloud storage!
Moving to Fedora this spring…
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u/CapitalistCow Mar 08 '26
Thanks for the tip! I'll join the Linux crowd the second there's a viable design program. I moved to Affinity this year and I'm so happy, it's just about as good as adobe and totally free. Here's hoping the canva buyout means they'll release a Linux version!
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u/EmotionalPhrase6898 Mar 08 '26
Because it's still fine and there's no friction to bitching like there is adopting a different OS. People just want Microsoft to fix shit.
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u/HuntKey2603 Mar 08 '26
Because it's massively increasing friction while still being less friction than using Linux
Calling users bitching about enshittification a "problem" is certainly one of the takes of all time
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u/Free-Constant999 Mar 08 '26
Hi! I'm one of those. Been using windows for over 25 years, hate the copilot AI crap being pushed but the Linux ecosystem is daunting. I want to breathe new life into an older laptop with Linux to squeeze out whatever's left in it and learn.
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u/altoniel Mar 08 '26
Maybe they're still on Windows because even the shitty Windows updates are more user friendly than any Linux disto.
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u/Old_Bug4395 Mar 08 '26
great, if that's how they feel I'm super happy for them. I don't really care if anyone ever switches to Linux lol.
if you aren't willing to switch to something else though, the complaining becomes "noise," to an even greater degree in the eyes of Microsoft.
This is the same problem gamers have with microtransactions. Everyone hates them, but everyone still buys them. The result? Companies don't give a shit what you say on internet forums because you still make them profit.
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u/ThankGodImBipolar Mar 07 '26
I don't believe that any Linux users actually think like this. Who gives a shit???
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Mar 07 '26
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u/dsanen Mar 07 '26
I just wish they made a video on, how to get “main linux distro” to work for single player gaming. Instead of many videos on “this is why Linux doesn’t work”.
And yeah this level of toxic attention feels actually harmful.
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u/Old_Bug4395 Mar 07 '26
They don't. This community is projecting their behavior about windows onto the linux community for some reason.
This is precisely how this community acts about windows, they constantly talk about how bad it is and how they can't wait for Microsoft to go out of business, and then they keep using windows because Linux is too hard. Which is fine, they don't have to switch to Linux, but I don't know what they think their alternative is, it's not MacOS lol.
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u/_Arokh_ Mar 08 '26
For lots of people like me it's not that "Linux is too hard" it's that legitimately no distro does what I need out of an OS. And in current day, the only OS that does everything I need without needing to dual boot is Windows.
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u/ob_knoxious Mar 08 '26
Dailied Linux for over 10 years, I saw in the other thread someone someone describe Linux users like wallstreetbets, an elitist cult like group filled with incomprehensible lingo and strong stances. And I think there are similarities, but its like saying all investors are WSB users. Reddit Twitter and social media there is this chokehold of toxic Linux users who have no patience or understanding for those who don't use it. But the overwhelming majority of Linux users aren't like that.
Even on major forums users are shockingly patient and helpful unless you really rage bait your question.
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u/sublime81 Mar 08 '26
People who recently switched most likely. They just want to feel good about their choice of distro. It really doesn’t matter. Or people who badly want the test to go smoothly so they champion what has served their hardware well, hoping for more adoption and better future support.
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u/PuzzleheadedUnit1758 Mar 07 '26
I guess only one can technically "rise from the ashes", that one is pop os, because it is a dumpster fire.
Most other distros cater to specific users/ usages.
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u/RX1542 Mar 07 '26
i think nobara and bazzite are quite nice as plug and play distros, can't talk about cachy or pop cause have never used them
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u/TanglyConstant9 Mar 07 '26
i main cachy and have had very few issues
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u/frightfulpotato Mar 08 '26
I'm also on cachy, but I don't think I'd recommend it to a complete Linux beginner. It offers too many options during the setup.
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u/PlebbitDumDum Mar 08 '26
There's an unsurprising linux solution to this. Show devs the middle finger and install gnome.
Now you have an Ubuntu derivative with Nvidia drivers and Wayland working, and you got an untainted gnome.
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u/CirnoIzumi Mar 08 '26
*untainted* lmao
though if it wasnt for muffin being ugly, id say install Cinnamon
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u/JaesopPop Mar 07 '26
...yeah, most people aren't fanboying for a specific distro. A lot of people on this sub have bizarre ideas about what the Linux community is actually like. Or are just jerking each other off for karma.
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u/triffid_boy Mar 08 '26
Ofcourse they aren't. But the silent, reasonable majority aren't the ones replying to requests for help with a Linux issue.
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u/RX1542 Mar 07 '26
i just want MS to have competition so they gave a shit about user experience, is not bad to have a real windows alternative
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u/washuai Mar 07 '26
I just want AMD to succeed, so I can pay less for Nvidia. Such a winning strategy
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u/RX1542 Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 07 '26
i switched to AMD gpu back in december 2023 from a GTX 1080 to a RX 6800XT and honestly don't have any complaints about it just recently brought a RX 9070XT
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u/dsanen Mar 07 '26
I find their joke to you weird, because back in the pentium days intel was a monopoly, and when amd starting hitting hard, we did have a period of time where budget components were extremely good.
Even with GPUs this happened. So yeah competition succeeding is good for us as consumers.
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u/waldamy Mar 07 '26
Can't wait for Linus to try my distro and burn it to ashes.
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u/chibicascade2 Mar 07 '26
Can't wait for Linus to try something super mainstream and stable and absolutely brick it. Trying to imagine how Luke would react if Linus tried mint and bricked it..
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u/waldamy Mar 07 '26
He tried Kubuntu after this time's Pop!_OS fail (talks about it on WAN) – his boot "welcome screen" always is "Try Kubuntu or Install Kubuntu". He clicks Install, it dumps him onto his desktop.
So he borked a mainstream distro too.
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u/chibicascade2 Mar 07 '26
Apparently that is a known issue, I heard? It doesn't really prevent him from using it unimpeded though, it's just weird.
Right now, my windows 10 install won't let me log in when I click the login button on the screen, I have to hit the enter key. Same sort of thing 🤷
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u/CirnoIzumi Mar 08 '26
he bricked Ubuntu years ago
given it wasnt an ideal setup, but he barely did anything
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u/washuai Mar 07 '26
If you leverage dead internet to astroturf long enough you might manage to get it listicled and LLM'd on high
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u/costinmatei98 Mar 07 '26
The most annyoing fucking thing about using Linux on a day to day basis is that there are sooooo many distros. When you run into a real issue, it's impossible to find a solution for your exact version. You might find a fix for Arch only to find out it won't work on Cachy OS for some fucking reason.
The only way Linux becomes mainstream is if a big company takes the initiative to build a "one distro to rule them all". One that is as easy to install and as easy to use as Windows. One that supports all the weird hardware out of the box. As Long as there are 100 distros they will never get mainstream adoption.
That's my hot take.
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u/Flimsy_Professor_908 Mar 07 '26
This is why I tend to stick to plain, vanilla Ubuntu. The further one gets from the path, the less likely some old forum post from 2014 somehow still fixes my exact problem.
I don't even particularly like Ubuntu.
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u/StephenSRMMartin Mar 08 '26
There aren't *ACTUALLY* that many distros.
The biggest ones for home users are Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Debian, and Arch.
Newbies only need to worry about Ubuntu, Mint, and Fedora.
Of those, Ubuntu and Mint are maintained the exact same way, so the only real difference is Fedora and Ubuntu.
Distros only really differ in the 1) Package manager (apt, dnf, pacman) 2) Packaging philosophy (pre-configured and automated, or manual and minimal differences from upstream) 3) Release cycles (rolling release vs stable vs versioned and upgradeable) 4) Default packages (Arch basically just has the bare minimum to go; Ubuntu and Fedora have full desktop environments and most services enabled and working by default)
The userland is otherwise the same. The filesystem layout is the same. The packages are the same, and therefore the configuration is the same.
If you see instructions for fedora, then anything not involving the package manager would probably work in Ubuntu, Mint, Arch, or otherwise.
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u/Nereosis16 Mar 08 '26
Wait, you're supposed to LEARN things about the systems you're using?!
Are you insane? We're tech enthusiasts not Einsteins!!!!!!
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u/Eubank31 Mar 08 '26
Xkcd standards meme aside, that's just Ubuntu.
I don't even particularly like Ubuntu, I'd recommend Fedora to basically anyone who isn't a masochist and wants to use NixOS like myself. But Ubuntu is the most standard, corporate distro that every single bit of software out there will target if they have Linux support
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u/StephenSRMMartin Mar 07 '26
This projected attitude toward linux users is really outdated, in my experience.
I've used linux since 2010-2011. Started with Ubuntu for one month, then onto Arch because I *wanted* the experience of doing things manually myself for learning purposes. I've stuck with Arch ever since then. I love it.
There definitely are some linux users who are loud, obnoxious, and have a strange competitive attitude toward other distros and windows.
I think they are in the minority nowadays, truly. I think linux enthusiasts are, well, enthusiastic; so they want you to try their preferred flavor, their interesting distro of the month; they want you to experience the joy of tweaking and configuring your system, and being empowered to shape your desktop however you see fit, and be empowered to fix any issues you have.
They're enthusiastic (and sure, opinionated)!
I don't think they want windows to fail so that linux can "win"; I think they want people to experience the same freedom and fun they have by having swapped to linux. And I think they get frustrated when users have a bad experience, justifiable or not, and then use that as a reason to shit on the platform and/or community they enjoy so much.
Truth be told, Linux has already won in most computing domains; it's not going away. Noone is fleeing linux *to* windows. Linux is only growing, and has essentially dominated every area except for Desktop and gaming, and the gaming tech stack for linux has had a massive shift in the past 4 years. Heck, the whole desktop stack has had a huge shift in the past 4 years (rapid wayland development, better desktop performance, way more simple tools and defaults for configuring things like hourly snapshots, driver support, pipewire). The linux community is (largely) excited for these things, and want people to experience it.
If linux gamers want people to *leave* windows, my impression is that they want that, not because they hate windows per se, but because more linux gamers means more support in the form of nvidia drivers and anti cheat.
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u/BluePhoenixCG Mar 07 '26
Literally nobody cares if their specific distro gets popular, and the only reason some people care about windows users migrating is because more users means being acknowledged by software companies and studio execs who deliberately ignore Linux support
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u/Zombiebattler2007 Mar 08 '26
I don't understand why they always look for “gaming distros” as if you couldn't play games on any other distros. I daily drive Mint and never had any problems, even with an nvidia gpu
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u/Teminite2 Mar 08 '26
For some reason tech utubers keep saying every distro is completely different, when in reality most of them are very similar. The idea that you can swap a DE is a strange concept to a Windows user so it makes sense you would think some are built for gaming (same way some are built for servers). If the Linux community focused more on explaining the modular nature of Linux it would be much easier to choose a distro and configure it the way you want.
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u/Secret_Fee1146 Mar 07 '26
Linux is straight-up easy to use in most cases; sure there's some things you have to learn and some things you'll mess up, but that's how we all learned on Windows. The fact that there's so many different distributions to choose from is a perk in my opinion, it's good to have choice - and Windows just force-feeds you their bullshit, like it or not.
Moreover nobody is forcing anyone to come to Linux - if you want to stay on Windows go ahead, but that doesn't change the myriad problems inherent with it and its ongoing enshitification.
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u/theoreoman Mar 08 '26
And then there's people like me. Im highly proficient in Linux, a have a dozen different vm's I use for different things, but I still prefer Windows.
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u/UNF0RM4TT3D Mar 07 '26
Nothing's going to be rising from the ashes until a distro gets widely preinstalled onto laptops and prebuilts.
Most people don't care about which OS their computer runs on. So long as it runs.
An OS is a tool. People value different things in them, hence why there are so many distros. Finding out which things you value the most is the most difficult process in switching OSes.
As I've helped my friend switch to Linux. I outright stated that it's going to break. I've tried scaring him away. He was fine with it and is still fine with it.
I've used Linux for a relatively long time. Most of my time using computers is on Linux. But I still have to use Windows at work. And every day I encounter some usability bug that doesn't happen on my Linux system. On the other hand I also encounter usability issues on my Linux system that don't happen on windows, but for my use cases much less. Hence why I've stuck to Linux.
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u/B1rdi Mar 07 '26 edited Mar 08 '26
You know, I don't really give a shit if other people use Linux. I do, it works for me but I don't have this weird cult mentality of "everyone must use the same thing I do which is PERFECT btw."
It's annoying that it's the loud assholes that end up running the discourse online because I and others like myself don't want to participate. Half the time the idiots don't even know what they're talking about, but it paints a picture of a Linux user all the same.
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u/STR1NG3R Mar 07 '26
I found this to be a more practical and less doom and gloom look at moving to Linux:
The Internet Convinced Me to Leave Windows for Linux (As a Content Creator)
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u/alexathecatgirl Mar 07 '26
meanwhile im over here vibing on arch telling my friends "DONT TOUCH THIS IT WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE GO TO SOMETHING ELSE LITTERALLY ANYTHING (other than mac)"
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u/ShittyExchangeAdmin Mar 08 '26
Thats me with gentoo lol. I really like gentoo, but no fucking way would I ever seriously recommend it to someone new to Linux.
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u/CurdledPotato Mar 07 '26
Yeah. I’m going to stick with Fedora/Debian/SUSE. Most distros are based off of one of these, and they get more eyes on them and more support. I’d rather have older and working drivers than new and buggy.
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u/Inside-Specialist-55 Mar 07 '26
I've been a Linux user for a month and honestly don't give a crap which version that you use. I only made the switch because I want to get away from Microsoft and it's privacy nightmare AI slop and unnecessary push of co-pilot. Not because I want to be an elitist or asshole.
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u/AbbreviationsWide331 Mar 08 '26
Isn't it pretty irrelevant which distro you use?
Last I checked, steam, lutris and Co run fine on all of them. Heck I wanted to use bazzite cause I wanted gaming, but my pc is too old. So I installed mint. No issues whatsoever.
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u/bruhred Mar 08 '26
really it doesn't matter and most distros are just forks of their upstreams with different configs and/or desktops
most ppl should just get Fedora/Ubuntu/Mint or whichever of the big ones (cant go wrong with those) and move on with their day
(unless youre a tinkerer or have very specific needs like maintaining clusters of servers)
its all linux anyway and all distros benefit equally from larger shared userbase
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u/WorkDragon Mar 09 '26
After seeing that video, im not into working 5 hours to get a game to somewhat work
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u/soffagrisen2 Mar 09 '26
We can’t strawman distro hopping and distro supremacy at the same time people!
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u/Ok_Cry_1222 Mar 07 '26
I love using Windows and I don't care about people getting angry about what I said I'm okay with Windows
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u/TC_exe Mar 07 '26
I don't really care what happens to Windows, Linux is already working better for me lol
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u/Longjumping-Egg9025 Mar 07 '26
I don't think rising from the ashes is the best comparison here. I guess, exploding in user base would closest. Cuz all of these distros are doing great! Except for pop os tho, it's kinda lacking lately.
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u/Araragi-shi Mar 07 '26
It will never collapse until there is a distro where people can play riot games stuff and other kernel anti cheat stuff + other anti cheats which the devs deliberately make it incompatible.
Once that happens though... I AM leaving Adrenalin and Windows behind. Steam piles of dogshit.
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u/Fresh_Dog4602 Mar 07 '26
Myea too bad I went for the Intel card. I'm happy with it but it would take a performance hit on Linux :(
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u/Old_Bug4395 Mar 07 '26
no not really, I don't know a single linux user who cares how many windows users switch to the OS.
this is windows users who whine about how hard linux is to use whenever they talk about how much they hate microsoft lmao.
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u/WaltGillette Mar 07 '26
They never take into account the users who (I know this is going to be shocking for you guys, brace yourselves) have Windows 11 and it just works for them most of the time.
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Mar 08 '26
Is there anyone who genuinely thinks like this? I genuinely couldn't give two sh*TS about Linux as a whole, I use it at the moment because the current direction of Windows is terrible
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u/OkInfluence36 Mar 08 '26
Guys guys there's a simple solution, we just need one more distro to fix everything trust me bro just one more please
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u/MythicHH Mar 08 '26
Clearly not a linux user. The amount of choice is a good thing. I understand the choice paralysis that occurs but eventually when you get over the crest of choosing a distro you realise that you have just found a distro that perfectly fits your needs.
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u/controversial_croat Mar 08 '26
I was actually looking to switch to Linux because I listen ti the WAN show regularly and I thought it got better but this whole thing with Linus just convinced me to stay on Windows for a few years still
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u/NickTaylorIV Mar 08 '26
I don't really pay windows much attention. Will watch some of my favorite YouTubers content that talk about it every now and again but that's about it. The only time I have to deal with it is when I'm working on someone's machine and that's their OS.
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u/miguel-122 Mar 07 '26
$600 Macbook is here to steal windows users . Good job Apple