The indoctrination of windows is extreme. Windows is just as hard as linux, harder even with all the layers of obscurity.

And yet… linux is hard, and users decry RTFM as “not growing the userbase”

  • twinnie@feddit.uk
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    3 days ago

    Sorry, I love Linux and wish everybody was on it but no way is Windows “just as hard”. Maybe if you want to look behind the curtain and start tinkering Linux is easier but on the face of it I’d say Linux is somewhere around early Windows XP when it comes to usability for a normal person.

    • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
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      3 days ago

      I’d say Linux is somewhere around early Windows XP when it comes to usability for a normal person.

      I was confused until it struck me that maybe you don’t consider Windows XP the peak of operating system user interface design.

      I’ll admit, Vista really messed with my perspective.

      • monarch@lemm.ee
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        3 days ago

        I can’t decide if I prefer XP or 7 I never actually daily drove XP at home because I am too young but I remember it being great on the school computers.

    • Peter G@discuss.online
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      3 days ago

      If you had to install Windows every time you bought a PC you’d think that Linux and Windows are comparable. That is the issue, tbh. It’s not the RTFM; its because the average PC user had NEVER NEEDED to install an OS. Windows just comes preinstalled on 99% of consumer PCs! For the “year of Linux” to be a reality, there needs to be an easy way to get a retail PC with Linux preinstalled. When I show my Windows-only users my Linux laptop, how quickly it boots up, how many apps I have installed, how easy it is to install and update apps, etc., most say: “Oh wow! I can use this”. But when I demonstrate having to choose the boot loader, partition setup, etc., they say, “Nah! I’ll just go buy a laptop with Windows!”

      • SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Tech nerds have a really hard time understanding technophobia.

        Yes everyone can use Linux if they just jump through the right hoops.

        The average person does not ever want to jump through a single hoop EVER when it comes to learning a new tech.

        Either it works or it isn’t worth the time/hassle to learn an entire world of information that is required to use different computers to the extent that linux nerds do.

        • Peter G@discuss.online
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          3 days ago

          Exactly!

          Unfortunately, there needs to be a commercial/financial effort behind the mass adoption of Linux. The average person has no idea that an alternative to Windows or MacOS even exists because they have not seen it advertised on TV or mainstream social media.

          These conversations on Linux communities on Lemmy and Mastodon are just us nerds yelling into our own echo chamber. The average person needs something that “just works” without having to read a book about how to set it up.

      • Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 days ago

        Windows install is way simpler than that. Thing is, so is Linux with most major distros, unless of course you’re doing something more advanced. It sounds like you’re being way more technical than you need to, and it’s scaring people off.

    • Cassa@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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      3 days ago

      No, tbh it is.

      The thing is that windows has “become the standard”

      Where options are, how to fix any problems? You learn windows like you learn a language. German and danish isn’t too different, but if you grew up with danish it’s going to be harder to learn german.