TIHI

I do not prefer apt-based systems, but I've installed variations of Ubuntu (e.g. Mint) on systems for geriatric (grand)parents in the past 5 years and have not yet needed to drop into shell to fix something.

If the needs are basic (browsing, email, printing, documents), Linux hasn't needed wizardry for years. This is mostly thanks to Gnome and KDE's hard work on GUI admin tools, but if someone is going directly from Windows to i3, they've chosen a steep hill to climb.

No idea what you mean. I just quickly wanted to update before calling it a night, got a grub update and now it neither boots the default nor the fallback image. I use Arch BTW.

My grandma runs Ubuntu and has gotten by fine without the command line

I would disagree with "average casual user" or maybe I think about them differently. For me average casual user now is completely fine with Linux distribution like Mint or Ubuntu or similar (or maybe chrome os). And with that they are little bit safer online as they are usual targets and victims of malicious software etc.

I think casual users are type of people completely happy with internet browser, media player, image viewer and just basic software ... They are usually satisfied with regular Android phone Wich is enough for everything they do in computer space.

This type of users (like my mother and other members of family) are fine with major Linux distros. They don't care about OS they use, it means nothing to them.

This is where I draw the line when suggesting Linux to people. If they don't know and don't care ..Linux is usually fine. If they are aware of what type of os they use or even what version ( talking about Windows) I will suggest Linux only if they are open to it and I'm willing to help and recommend some software alternatives.

My suspicion is it's not just your sexy Linux story but the only sexy Linux story.

This is the best blowjob story I've read yet lol

I had the same experience as you did: I've tried Linux every few years ever since someone brought it to my attention in the nineties. And it always felt like a hobby instead of an invisible layer that just makes my computer tick. After Microsoft tried to ram W11 up my arse for the umpteenth time, I tried again recently. And it was amazing. Absolutely zero driver issues and it is FAST and CLEAN. No pop-ups or sneaky ads or any of the other things that make me feel like a tenant on my own computer. I now have a dual boot setup Ubuntu/W10, where I really only still use the W10 boot for games. And I have my office and audio software living in separate VM's that I can use regardless of which OS I booted into at the start.

It's awesome.

Three distros usually get recommended as fairly hassle-free. Ubuntu (personally haven't used since 2012 or so, don't like that they started advertising stuff), Linux Mint (haven't used in years either, but through no fault of Mint - I changed to something less hassle-free, Gentoo) and Pop!_OS. The latter uses customized Unity, but is working on its' own desktop environment. I have a feeling that when they're finished with it, it will be very user friendly (maybe not the FIRST release, but certainly the later ones).

Mint and Pop!_OS are both based on Ubuntu, so you'll have the vast repository of knowledge that is AskUbuntu to help you with most things.

So get one of those 3 distros and you'll be good! They come in different flavours (desktop environments), I believe GNOME is the most polished one, KDE (on

Also there's two new methods to install software - flatpaks and snaps. Flatpaks are considered the better standard and are supported by Linux Mint and Pop!_OS out of the box and Ubuntu... tries to force you to use snaps. Flatpak is decentralized and anyone can host a store (but mostly you just need Flathub, which is configured by default on most distros I believe). Snap is centralized and its' backend is closed-source, so you're dependent on Canonical.

Both of these install your software in a sort of sandbox that manages the dependencies - this means there should be no library version conflicts, so it doesn't matter what the system version of library X is, the application can use whatever version it needs. Should be a way to reduce compatibility issues on your Linux system, I believe - I haven't tried them yet, mostly because I minimized my kernel to the point where flatpak was complaining about missing some filesystem driver, and I didn't care too much about getting it to work. Will do it soon though.

As for gaming - Pop!_OS has an image available that comes with nVidia drivers straight out of the box, but the other ones I suggested, will also allow you to install them easily. Steam can be installed via apt (may require configuring a secondary repository) or flatpak (Flathub has it!). Once you have Steam installed, playing Windows games is as easy as checking compatibility on Protondb and seeing if there are any tips on whether you should use a non-default Proton version or add command-line options. But most games without draconian kernel-level anticheats work nowadays. New AAA games that don't work on default Proton get support fairly quickly on the GloriousEggroll fork of Proton, but that has to be installed manually (I guess nowadays there's an utility that can handle it too). However, oftentimes, a brand new game will work right away on existing Proton versions too. And sometimes there are regressions, so you may also want to try older Proton versions for some games. But that's as simple as changing a setup option in the Steam GUI. No terminal-fu required.

Overall, it's actually fairly pleasant compared to what it was 10 years ago, when you had to configure wine and pray. Proton handles all that for you. If you're a patient person and can wait a few weeks or months after a game comes out, it's very good, otherwise it can be a bit hit and miss.

You CAN also play non-steam games using Proton via Steam. I played through the entirety of AC Valhalla that way, by adding Ubisoft launcher as a non-steam App. Completely unsupported so it doesn't have a special config like it does for officially supported games, but it worked, just had to change the version to something old

Yeah ignore the people in this thread. I've been using Linux for the past year and a half, and it's the exact same experience for me. And I am definitely more technology literate than the average person.

As much as people want to believe that Linux is easy and hassle-free, it's not, and it is a long way off. They are biased because they have technical knowledge so they don't see the problems that the average user would have.

That being said, I do like Linux. There's a reason why I still use it despite all this. But it's up to you if it's worth it.

Edit: Also all the people recommending Linux Mint, in my experience, it was horrible! Very unstable, and not even very customisable. I feel like I'm going crazy. Can someone explain why it's so popular? Was I doing something wrong?

AMEN! I asked recently if there was a good Linux alternative to this program I used in Windows called "Bulk Rename Utility" and i was flooded by people telling me how easy it was to set up a script to do what I want.

Turns out the best alternative is running BRU in Wine.

Nearly all games work flawlessly on Linux now thanks to Steam and Proton.

True, games are a big part of why people have stuck with Windows I think. The app store definitely isn't much to go by

Or sfc scannow, absolute classic