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Linux Distros Designed for Former Windows Users Are Picking Up Steam | Linux Journal (www.linuxjournal.com)

submitted 1 day ago by network_switch@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 21 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I imagine it would make a huge bump if Valve were to announce "Wait no longer, SteamOS is here!!", even if their release is just an overnight reskin-fork of (Bazzite/CachyOS/PopOS).

I say this as someone who tries to tell people, stop waiting on Valve, and try out a few of the options. I'm glad I found a distro that works for me, but I didn't enjoy the original search. I certainly got pressured into it as Microsoft really put as much effort as they could into making Windows as terrible as possible; and it was not "Everything works 100% out of box!" But the move was worthwhile.

[–] finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 hour ago

SteamOS is already an extant distro (based on Arch btw), it's what they use for the steam deck/machine/frame. It's also available to download but there is no official support. I've been meaning to try it on my desktop, as I primarily use it for gaming anyways

SteamOS wikipedia page since the steam page keeps redirecting me to the app

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 10 points 18 hours ago

just installed linux mint over windows 10 on my mums laptop this weekend :)

[–] Jyrdano@lemmy.world 14 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Its funny, seeing this article as a lifelong windows user, just after finishing a boot-up usb drive with Mint on it.

I have win11 at work and the whole experience feels awful. I have a new laptop coming up that comes without an OS installed. Ill rather deal with the hassle of installing and learning a new OS than paying Microsoft for license to have my PC full of ads and AI slop.

[–] spizzat2@lemmy.zip 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Where did you order the laptop without an OS?

[–] Jyrdano@lemmy.world 4 points 20 hours ago

It was local electronics shop (czech rep.) they offer same laptops with win11 or without OS. Dont know how things are on Amazon or other US based websites, but I know for a fact you can order one on Asus official website.

[–] orioler25@lemmy.world 12 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Tumbleweed with KDE is honestly the smoothest work environment Ive had since Windows 7.

[–] theyoyomaster@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Kubuntu is another great option.

[–] orioler25@lemmy.world 4 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

For beginners? Totally; but snap gets annoying over time.

[–] theyoyomaster@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Well, it’s been doing great for my first foray into Linux so far. What are the limits of snap that end up being annoying?

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 hours ago

It's Canonical's (the company that created/updates/supports Ubuntu) package format. There are a few problems.

They can only be hosted on proprietary Canonical servers. That sort of flies in the face of one of the "free" aspects of Linux. Canonical is also sort of fostering a reputation of abandoning/massively changing something core in Ubuntu every couple major releases, which has made some wary of depending on snaps, since if Canonical decides to stop hosting them, anyone dependent on them is kinda screwed. Snaps can also chew up disk space if you're not careful. I don't think that's necessarily unique to snaps, but in my experience that issue has been worse with snaps than with comparable alternatives like flatpaks.

[–] InFerNo@lemmy.ml 1 points 19 hours ago

Tumbleweed is a rolling release distro while Kubuntu has point releases. I'm not sure which is better for new users. I'm leaning towards rolling, it stays up to date.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago

Well yeah, I would assume Steam would be a big priority for this scenario...

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 52 points 1 day ago

I like the headline… former Windows users are picking up Steam on Linux, because it’s pretty much indistinguishable from Steam on Windows.

[–] Zephorah@discuss.online 92 points 1 day ago (11 children)

It will take some serious, I hate to say it, YouTube campaigning and such to make Linux a more mainstream thought in the public’s brain.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 74 points 1 day ago (3 children)

What it takes is people being able to buy a Linux machine at the local electronics store. Installing your OS yourself is still a major hurdle for most people.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 52 points 1 day ago (6 children)

That is an important step, yes.

However another important step is that the default distro needs to basically not even highlight that terminal exists.

If you're trying to learn how to use linux, and step 1 of the tutorial is "open terminal", you will lose 97% of your new install base. Then headlines will flood that linux machines are being returned in high numbers.

As much as you guys hate to hear this, the first experience for a new linux user needs to be intuitive. Before they even turn the machine on, they have to know how to use this software. Not because they are experts, but because the space and experience guides itself.

Then as you learn, you can customize a bit more, and from there linux can become a rabbit hole. But the point is, let the individual user control the depths which they dive. Because I suspect 90%+ won't even change the desktop background. And thats ok.

Make it easy for the dummies, but then you individually can tinker if you want to. And it's linux, so....ya know. Go nuts. But some people don't want to do all that tinkering. That vanilla experience is what gets remembered to represent that OS. Even if you customized it and experienced it very differently.

[–] NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 hours ago

There is no need for a terminal if you don't want to use it.

On the other hand, the terminal is the single best way to get ideas across so people think they somehow need it.

Even windows is like this: want to fix something? cmd or powershell is the way they are going to avoid having to give you 20 pages of screen shots and condense it into a single line.

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago

Yup. I'm using my terminal every day, but I program for work and don't mind a keyboard-friendly interface for a few forms of tinkering and program updates I'm doing. But even I wanted to prefer the GUI for common actions.

The stupidest reason I started going back to my terminal was, my GUI package manager didn't have a "Select All / Select None" button for package updates, so if I only wanted to update one app at a time, I had to do it from the terminal. That's not "terminal being awesome", or "terminal being my preference", that's just lazy UI design.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you use something like Mint or Ubuntu, you never need to see the terminal.

[–] Imaginary_Stand4909@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

You say that, but there are plenty of posts on the Linux mint forums where solutions requured using the terminal for basic troubleshooting (especially WiFi and bluetooth).

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[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Steam Deck + Steam Cube

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[–] Zephorah@discuss.online 6 points 1 day ago

More than system76 and Lenovo think pads without graphics cards.

[–] korendian@lemmy.zip 2 points 20 hours ago

I am 100% on board with a media push to get people on board, across all platforms.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Problem is Youtube is known to censor these kind of campaigns. I think they literally got caught delisting Tiny11 tutorials recently. Imagine what they‘ll do if Linux Tutorials pick up steam. Big tech is one giant illegal syndicate and politicians have invested in all of them.

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 4 points 21 hours ago

YouTube has done a lot of malicious removal, but I'd be surprised if Windows 11 was one of those intentional targets. YT is run by Google, purveyors of Chromebooks; I'd think they'd generally benefit from a move off of MS/Windows.

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[–] pokexpert30@jlai.lu 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't mind DE to have a windows-mimicking workflow (cinnamon, KDE kinda) but modding Gnome to mimick windows is not great because it causes weird bug and maintenance issues. Aka it breaks easily and gives bad impressions to the user

[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 3 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (2 children)

Yes. GNOME is great, but you better learn the logic behind it, it's not a DE that adjusts well to the user, it's actually the opposite, but if you get the gist of it, it works wonders.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 4 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah that's why I hate Gnome, they have ideas about how you should use your computer and those ideas aren't yours.

[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 4 points 21 hours ago

The way I see it, they have a proposal to make to you as a user. This is Linux, fortunately. There are plenty of choices to make, so you can try i3 or Sway to make things go exactly your way.

[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 3 points 23 hours ago

for me, gnome seemed unnecessarily cumbersome to use with its minimalism

[–] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 1 day ago

Microsoft’s ecosystem has been slowly pushing some users toward the exit. Hardware requirements for Windows 11 left millions of perfectly functional PCs behind. Ads on the Start menu and in system notifications have frustrated many. And for gamers, launcher problems, forced reboots and background processes that siphon resources have driven a search for alternatives.

No shit? That's crazy.

[–] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 38 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

So... just like... KDE?

Not that it is designed for it but it is a similar workflow and should be familiar to Windows users

[–] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

Back in the day KDE's UI was very much a clone of Windows, but with even more dialogs and lists. I'm still put off by that experience twenty years later.

[–] LucidNightmare@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 16 hours ago

I can see why so many options would make someone just shake their head and close the settings app.

I think you should go through them when you have the time, if you’re still interested in the other things KDE brings to the table. I went through all of the settings when I moved over to openSUSE Tumbleweed last December, and I’m still here today. KDE to me is what operating systems should do. Give me the power to change every single thing I can, while still having presets for people who don’t.

Anyway, I see your point though! The options are great for making the OS feel like mine!

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[–] BassTurd@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago (7 children)

I don't truly understand things like this. Most DE's are similar enough to Windows that anyone who's spent a minute on a computer should be able to intuitively get to a web browser to surf the web. That's what most people do. Word processing and the likes is tough since most are ingrained in Office, but something like (pukes in mouth) Google sheets is decently popular and good enough for most people.

If you give most someone a computer with a browser and auto updates, they'll be able to do almost everything they are already doing on Windows with minimal thought.

There are exceptions, but those people suck at Windows already, so it's a moot point. If you can't find the start menu in Windows, it doesn't matter what OS you're using.

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago

It's always "one little thing", and often an OS-local feature that many wouldn't be aware of.

eg, You go to your grandma's to help with her computer. She mostly uses her web browser to check on news. BUT, she has one specific home-network file operation she performs regularly, using an old network drive that got set up decades ago by who-knows.

That's one tiny example, but there's hundreds of others around, and not from tech nuts. Someone has one specific VPN app they must use, on their personal device, infrequently, for work. Someone runs one app that still mentions Windows 95 compatibility. Someone with learning disabilities is very very used to the pattern of logging in, so much so that they're confused and ready to call IT when they don't get a Ctrl+Alt+Delete prompt.

Thankfully, those are often exaggerations, and it's good that most people's use cases for niche stuff has migrated to web apps. You're right that a lot of people really do only rely on their web browser. These days, even Edge is "sorta" available on Linux if someone is that dedicated to their list of bookmarks. Just don't expect it's always as simple as people not finding the start-menu-equivalent.

[–] Peffse@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (9 children)

funny you should say it like that. I just recently I tried using Debian's default GNOME desktop and thought I had corrupted the install somehow. I reinstalled the OS two more times because it kept dumping me into a nearly blank screen with no obvious buttons to click aside network/sound/power.

I'm used to LXDE, KDE, and Cinnamon, so this was completely foreign to me... and trying to find the web browser had me at a caveman level of confusion.

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[–] 4shtonButcher@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 day ago

Installed Mint on two aging family laptops. One is smoothly running 00s era games already and i barely needed to help the family member with that.

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