The best one I’ve ever heard is they like the Microsoft wallpapers. Yes i told them you can use them on linux too. But they argued with me that they wouldn’t be compatible.
Why you out there telling people to install it? Those who want it will find it. This isn’t an evangelical mission.
Some years ago, mentioning Linux for daily non-gaming use:
Guy: “Installing Linux is complicated though”
Me: “It wasn’t bad 10 years ago, and now it’s as hard as clicking Next a few times, even faster than Windows”
Guy: “Well duh, you have ten years of experience installing it!”
Difficult to argue with this non-logic.
My grandfather’s reason for it. “It will be too different from my current system”
… the only thing he does is the web browser, and bookworm deluxe which i have confirmed does work via wine. I was recommending him install an OS called q4os, which I have on my laptop, I showed him the side by side comparison of q4os vs windows. For a point of reference this is what q4os looks like
I think he is too scared of change.
I still don’t know how Wine works and I’m a Linux advocate.
yea but he wouldn’t need to handle that, I do all his setup, he just has to click the shortcut that opens the game just like he does currently.
If it came pre-installed on laptop majority wouldn’t mind.
Most people’s reasons in my experience demonstrate to me that they have a perception of Linux as it was 15+ years ago.
I discussed switching to Linux with a group of friends in a voice chat some time ago, most were fairly open to it, and one or two have switched since, but mainly their reasons were time constraints, not wanting to go through the process of backing up files, and finding alternative software.
One guy in particular brought up gaming, MS office, and some other particular software they used. I showed them protondb and every game they looked up was gold or higher, showed them libre office which they could not complain about since it generally works a lot nicer, and it turned out that other software was available as a .deb. After all of this, the reason they gave me was “but I like Windows”.
Fair enough I guess, though they couldn’t really produce the reason as to why.
Generally, people just don’t like any kind of change, even if it has the potential to make them a lot happier.
not wanting to go through the process of backing up files
This was a big thing when I was helping some people with Windows 10s EOL, A lot of folks just don’t have a 2nd drive to back stuff up onto.
As a compulsive data-hoarder the idea of having everything on a single drive with no backup plan, local or “cloud” based… Terrifying! You could write a horror movie about it.
I just quasi ran into storage issues. have 1 qnap with 16tb raid1… NTFS
I can’t for the life of me get it to connect to Linux, detects it being connected, won’t display as a drive.
I stupidly installed bazzite, which is stupidly restrictive (so I’ve learned) on fstab… found out after I had to boot into grub to edit fstab back since it wouldnt let me edit the file since bazzite revoked me root access? ok… that was the deal breaker for me (with bazzite, not Linux)
Okay hear me out… When you say all those words in a sentence, I have honestly no idea what you are saying. But furthermore it looks like it didn’t work (or so I think). That is the reason why people (me included) don’t dare to switch
It looks like a hassle, it takes time to learn, people don’t want to back up 2 their files (I know, I don’t get that either), they don’t want to think about “bazzite” or “fstab”, partition the drive for dual boot or search hours looking for a solution.
The people with no or limited knowledge about computers want to open their laptop, start edge or chrome (I know I know) and watch cat movies on Instagram.
I really wanna make the jump, but the unknown with all possible hassle is holding me back.
And apparently mint is super easy, but it will take time and courage!
When you say all those words in a sentence, I have honestly no idea what you are saying.
ya know. I’ve read this a lot directed at me… I clearly have a communication issue. I’ll reread everything and try to figure myself out .
Really it depends what you use your computer for. If you’re a casual user, and all you do is browse the web, watch videos, and play games, the transition is no worse than moving from Windows to Mac. There are some small quirks to get used to, but anybody should be able to figure out 90% of it in a matter of minutes.
People like to recommend immutable distros like bazzite because in theory they’re much harder to break, but in reality they are a niche community and are nowhere ready for primetime for casual users
It surprises me that there are users like that that haven’t yet gone through some kind of major data loss event. Or maybe they’ve only used a computer for a couple years…
If you ever talk to someone who’s worked in a place offering data recovery. They’ve probably met a lot of people who’ve gone through exactly that.
After all of this, the reason they gave me was “but I like Windows”.
This is the response I normally get as well, which infuriates me to no end, because it isn’t an actual reason, it is ultimately their decision, and I feel like they are making a mistake out of laziness or perceived comfort.
“but I like Windows”
I can’t imagine any better reason to use Windows than that.
A friend of mine finally decided to heed my advice and try it out. He successfully installed fedora and was pleasantly surprised by the ‘clean’ design (of gnome). He then enabled his Bluetooth headphones and DMed me that they won’t connect. The BT menu wouldn’t show them.
Now, I wouldn’t call him stupid, so I committed a grave sin of troubleshooting when I decided to not offend his intelligence. We hopped on a call and started debugging. Looking at drivers, support for his hardware, logs for any errors… He didn’t have another device to connect through BT at the moment and I was out of ideas, so we called it a night and decided to try again tomorrow.
By the time we reconnected the next day, he had already reinstalled windows, but was suffering from the same issue.
And then it downed on me… “Did you pair your headphones?” I asked, afraid of the answer. He just blinked twice and the “what do you mean?” hit me so hard I couldn’t even laugh. “I’ve never had to do that before…”
Some painful explanations later, or an argument really, and his headphones were paired. But by that time he had had enough and didn’t want me to bother him about Linux again. Needless to say, pointing out it was his misunderstanding of the technology that ultimately led to this outcome didn’t really help.
This memory still injects fury in my veins as I fall asleep, right there with fumbling my words when speaking with my highschool crush…
He was able to install Linux and Windows but couldn’t figure out how to pair a Bluetooth device…
“I’ve never had to do that before…”
Not trying to shit on the guy, but like, that’s literally the first thing you do with BT anything. 😄
I guess that really depends on the equipment though, some devices when you turn it on for the first time will automatically enter pairing mode, so all that had to be done is click it in the bluetooth menu, but it might not auto enter pairing mode when you turn it on after. So it’s unlikely the user ever knew they were pairing it, and just clicked through the prompts like many do
Yeah, no, of course. But that’s kinda my point: there was still an initial pairing. I’m not trying to be antagonistic or anything. I just find it a bit silly that one could research how to replace their entire OS with one they’re not familiar with but not realize they’re gonna have to re-pair their BT devices.
Then again, I think we’re all guilty of sometimes missing small details. I once put a PC together for a buddy and couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t post only to eventually realize I was a dummy who forgot to plug in the CPU power. 😂
We all have been there. First technical build I struggled for 45 minutes trying to figure out why I was getting a zero display whatsoever only to find out that I plugged that damn HDMI cable into the wrong port, and the board had disabled everything including post and splash from using the motherboards port
I find a big part of trying to be the friend that transitions others to Linux is taking on the role of mentor. It’s something a lot of wish we could just hand to someone and dust off our hands, but that ultimately leads to experiences like yours.
For a better chance of success, especially on first install, be on the line with them as they go through the steps, or in person is better yet.
Answer all the questions you can and help them install all their usual stuff. Most people don’t want to have to go through this change, so making it fun and social goes a long way.
Devil’s advocate here. When people complain about phone calls, or going out in public, or being social, I think “it’s not hard.” I know for some people it is a massive hassle.
Apply that same sentiment to having to learn an OS that is irrelevant to your job or seems difficult or you’re not interested in.
-
“I could install linux, but what am I gonna do on Linux?” (Note: Some people just think OS is an amusement park)
-
“I could install linux but then I have to type commands into a terminal?”
-
I want to switch, but I need some help. I need to be able to “RDP” into remote machines. I think that one is probably easy and built-in from decades ago. I also need to be able to setup a Hyper-V equivalent, to run other machines from my main laptop- haven’t figured that one out yet. And for my media server (Plex), I need to understand the best way to setup a RAID5 or better across multiple drives. Any recommendations on guides for a lifelong NT4 MCSE & current Azure admin? I am sick of Win11 (and 10, 8.1 was OK, 7 was better… they just keep getting worse)
Nearly everything you are talking about is easy and built into the vast majority of desktop linux distributions, and more than a few server ones too!
RDP: Remmina, KDE (windows like Desktop Environment)
Hyper-V: KVM+QEMU, but im going to ask why? There are very few reasons to do full virtual machines these days when you can just run everything as containers.
Plex: Plex
RAID5: use ZFS Z5 or linux mdadm r5. The advantages of ZFS is that you get lots of tools like snapshots, and reslivering which helps prevent bit rot.
Depending on your hardware I would honestly suggest your host OS be Proxmox, and then just run your gaming/personal system as a VM with GPU pass through. Proxmox has all the KVM+QEMU tools and ZFS tools baked in with a good web UI that makes managing these things easier.
I need to be able to “RDP” into remote machines
Remmina, do this every day for work from my Debian system.
I also need to be able to setup a Hyper-V equivalent, to run other machines from my main laptop
Virtual box or QEMU + KVM. I use QEMU + KVM, works really well.
And for my media server (Plex), I need to understand the best way to setup a RAID5 or better across multiple drives.
Recommend Jellyfin over Plex but in either case - if you want software RAID then use mdadm, this is how the RAID5 array on my jellyfin server works. Otherwise, there are compatible drivers for some hardware with actual hardware RAID5 arrays you can look up if you have such hardware.
For reference, all my machines whether client or server run either Debian 12 or Debian 13.
I need to be able to “RDP” into remote machines. I think that one is probably easy and built-in from decades ago.
KDE has a built in RDP server you can enable!
If you’re using X server and not Wayland, xrdp is also good.
Remmina is a good RDP client.
I also need to be able to setup a Hyper-V equivalent, to run other machines from my main laptop- haven’t figured that one out yet.
GNOME Boxes might be what you’re looking for? KVM if you need a full blown hypervisor.
And which flavor of Linux? I would assume I’d use Ubuntu, but I don’t know the pros and cons of any of them.
Ubuntu’s not bad, though watch for out of date info when you look things up. It’s been around a long time.
One of the most useful things I’ve heard is that while there are a lot of little niche distros, it comes mostly down to three main types: Debian based, Fedora based, and Arch based. This crosses with the most popular desktop environments: KDE Plasma, LXQt, GNOME, XFCE. There are other options but it’s easier to not have to learn two things at once.
The desktop environment is the front end ‘look’n’feel’ of the system. Look at some screenshots to get the look. Some are more easily customizable/prettier (KDE more windows-y, GNOME more Mac-y) and some are lighter on resources if that’s a worry. (XFCE/LXQt)
The three main swaths of distros are more about the back end. Debian tends to be more stable, but not bleeding edge, so it might not handle hardware that just came out but is a bit less likely to break. Arch tends to be on the bleeding edge, with a lot of capabilities, but can give you some ‘learning experiences’ you might not be looking for. Fedora is in the middle.
Almost anything you can do on one, you can do on the others, so don’t worry too much about exclusives. It’s more about what comes as pre-installed conveniences/bloatware. (e.g. steam and lutris on gaming distros, networking tools as on Kaisen or Kali, or a kernel tweaked for lower latency audio in Ubuntu Studio meant for music production)
And the best part is you can try a whole bunch of them very easily if you have a spare good-sized thumb drive laying around. Ventoy is a tool for booting multiple systems from a single USB. Most major distros offer a ‘live usb’ file. Set up a ventoy USB drive. Download the ISOs for any distros that look cool, and then boot from the USB to try out any that interest you without even needing to do anything to your existing windows install.
for alot of people their relationship with windows is like that of an abusive partner. which is why you see alot of the same excuses pop up
One friend told me that he likes the Windows 11 ui.
You should dress up KDE to look like Windows 11 just to prove a point.
A surprising amount of people have put up this mental wall separating “SteamOS” from Linux.
I’ve had this conversation with multiple people and it’s being brought up again because of the Steam Machine announcement.
Some (very few) legitimately didn’t know SteamOS was a Linux distro, Or they knew it was based on Linux but thought it used a whole different user ecosystem. Like how Android is technically Linux but using it is nothing like using desktop Linux. These people I’ve found are more willing to actually look into Linux after someone’s explained to them that SteamOS is just Linux. And that there’s even SteamOS-like Linux distros you can use right now!
Then you have those who are hard-line about having Official SteamOS. And most of the time they have some misguided believe along the line of, SteamOS is Linux but Valve has fixed all the “Linux issues”. And for a lot of them you’re probably not going to get far convincing them that mainline Linux isn’t just endless command lines these days.
Some dude just posted that he’s not going to Linux because he can’t play Rust on it…
These reasons are always the dumbest to me, they act like they can’t dual boot. I think most of the time they just can’t be bothered which is fine, but just say that.
To be fair, dual booting is not really for people that aren’t very tech savvy. Just thinking about trying to explain partitions to some people I know is giving me a headache
Fair, the first thing I teach anyone who gets a dualboot up and running, is how to install boot repair disk on a flash drive and how to run the system repair on it(easy enough since it autoruns). It fixes most basic BS that windows can do to a Linux install
In my experience, there are no silly reasons. Most people tend to stick to what they’re familiar with and not to experiment. And that is just fine.
On the other hand there are also other people eager to learn something new. Take your time and invest your energy in them. Show them around. It is a win:win.
“It’s old tech”
