I'm someone who grew up on Windows but switched to Linux and holy shit was it so much nicer. I don't know if Windows massively improved or if people are just incapable of comparing something new with something they already know. Because Windows is hard.

99/100 basic users need someone to unfuck their windows install after what, one, two years?

Every time you need to do something non standard you're basically going from training wheels to "good luck, deputy sysadmin."

Broken registry. Orphaned cruft.

Malware, spyware.

It’s so wild that I have seen like, four Linux people in my lifetime admit the simple truth that every version of Windows and macOS, iOS and Android since conception have been geared progressively more toward being absolutely friendly to users that are dumb as rocks—in a good way—where Linux has absolutely not. And that this barrier is 100% of the difference between proprietary desktop environments and Linux. Linux is majority developed for power users, full stop. The closest I have seen to the contrary is like, maybe the Adwaita devs, and unfortunately they don’t have the reach to apply their knowledge to essential UX stuff like app installation or hardware compatibility.

This is why I get so frustrated with the “just switch to Linux, loser” crowd, because it’s so utterly disconnected with the reality that most people do not have the resources to invest in any kind of learning curve. It has to be intuitive and accessible from the start. Web developers understand this. MS, Apple, and Google get it. Like, even people who design public transportation understand that they must cater to a user who is drunk and not fluent in the local language when designing signage and systems. Why doesn’t the vast majority of the Linux community get it?

Is it still an unpopular opinion if I just hate that I agree with you?

(Writing this from my linux gaming desktop. I don't use arch btw)

Philosophy time: Is it unpopular opinion if 90% of PC users agree with you?

I think there is no general answer to "Is Linux mainstream ready to replace Windows?" because the use case is so important to consider.

If you just need a PC to browse the web and consume media then Linux is absolutely fine. This should more or less apply to a large group of users that don't do anything else with their devices.

Are you a gamer? Then I'd say more or less perfectly fine but it really depends on the games you want to play. Everything with the new, invasive anti-cheat tools doesn't work (e. g. League of Legends) but smaller, single player, or many multi player games do work at the moment.

Are you a professional or are using otherwise specific software? This is the biggest hurdle I see at the moment. CAD programs for engineering are a big problem for example.

And last but not least: Are you using periphery that needs specific drivers? Printers, audio interfaces, and whatnot. Then you might be out of luck as well if you can't script.

The last two points are the only ones that would worry me when I won't have at least one windows machine lying around.

don't worry about it. with the enshittification of win 11, that gap will close faster than copilot will record your activities.

windows isn't ready to replace windows. they never have been.

Honestly… I love Linux with all my heart. I can firsthand say that the Linux Desktop is 20 thousand times better than when I got into it around the first Ubuntu betas, but it’s still quite a mess in certain areas. It often boils down to the hardware and software you expect to run on it (or viable alternatives, if they exist) being compatible or not.

Sorry but most of those points can easily be applied to Windows too. But yes, if you cannot even do simple configuration options, which there's GUIs for too, or differentiate between distros / Windows versions, then I'm afraid even Windows is not ready to replace Windows.

I need to disagree on pretty much all points. I switched both my mother and an old friend of mine to linux and neither of them had any major issues. They're not technical people, but they understood the basics needed for everyday use without problem.

I swear, half the issues people report after trying out linux are entirely related to the nvidia drivers and nothing else.

I also currently interact with Linux systems regularly although they don’t have a DE and aren’t for general workstation use.

🚩🚩🚩

A line used by every concern troll.

Linux is plenty ready for "most users." I recently saw a meme that applies here, about experts/enthusiasts overestimating the "average normie" in their field even when they're trying to account for most people not being on their level.

GPU Drivers, app stores

"Most users" scroll Facebook or Twitter and watch Netflix. Distro comes with firefox? GG. 🤷‍♂️ While I don't think its widespread (and hope lol,) ever since the Facebook app integrated a web browser there are people (usually younger iirc) who think Facebook IS the internet. Loads of people almost wouldn't notice if you switched their os overnight, if they have a desktop/laptop at all.

As for people looking to change to Linux due to MS business decisions, let's be real - they're by and large already techies. Its also not the 90s anymore, there are resources abound and SOOOO many users to have your problem before you do.

Personal nitpick for me, nothing to do with OP but the overall sentiment - Using the terminal is NOT THAT BALL CRUSHINGLY HARD as people still make it out to be, certainly not for stuff you may need it for in modern times. I have fedora, I need spotify. "sudo dnf install Spotify" "y" ta da. Certainly not an adventure, IMO.

EDIT: I'm thinking alot of you haven't used Linux in a long time. I've run into an issue before, but people run into issues with windows too and nobody is screeching about that. 🤷‍♂️ Some of you just straight didn't read my comment. 🤣

For media consumption, internet browsing etc, Linux is more than ready to replace Windows. However, problems do arise in exotic hardware combinations, but these days, this is the exception rather than the norm.

an adventure in terminal

That I do not understand. With APT, it's usually a single installation command for any kind of software packaged by the distribution. An adventure would in that case translate to a one-liner by your standards?

Who doesn't trust that people can learn new skills? This guy.

Windows isn't good enough to replace the Unix/linux desktops I've been running for the past 35 years.

What's Windows?

As a full-time Linux user and evangelist, I agree that it's not ready for most users. Just too many issues and idiosyncrasies. Mostly bugs and hardware incompatibility things. Also way too easy to break your system.

It is a tough sale for sure.

I am trying to transition to Linux but there are a bunch of hurdles.

For example I installed fedora KDE spin in dual boot on my desktop. Then I installed steam as a flatpak and pointed it to my already installed game. Didn't work because of some permissions I didn't understand how to configure with flatseal.

Alright then noted I need to learn that shit but now I want to play a game so I uninstalled the steam flatpak and installed the steam package from the fedora repo. Checked the boxes in the packagemanager-gui (discovery) for nonfree steam and nonfree nvidia drivers, pointed to the library and it worked.

Great! Updated the games and downloaded the saves. So far so good. But after all that I had no time to play anymore because i had to look up a bunch of stuff to understand that I don't understand enough to make it work the way I tried.

I took my laptop with me which also has fedora KDE on it. When I had a little time I thought "hey maybe I can play a bit of moonring. After all I now know how to get steam running".

So I downloaded steam from the fedora repo, Logged in, downloaded moonring and... No save sync.

I go into settings and see that cloud save is enabled. Start a game maybe that triggers it? Nope.

It doesn't even say that sync failed or something like that beside the start button.

Okay so off to the web search. But as that gets more fucked by the minute I just get some problem adjacent stuff.

Like: "how to install steam on fedora". I already installed it, why isn't the cloud working? "Maybe it is because the path for savefiles is casesensitive?". Maybe but what am I supposed to do about it? And so on. So I closed my laptop with a bad taste in my mouth.

It is just frustrating to have to understand a bunch of shit you are not interested in just so that something works which worked before without a problem.

The world is just to complex and fast moving to understand everything and to retain everything. That's why we are an expert society. "I invest my time to understand this stuff really good and you invest your time to understand this and in the end we exchange our labor".

And that's the "problem" with Linux, that you have invest time into it. And people mostly don't have the time because they have lifes beside the PC.

1997 was the year of Linux on the desktop.

Also 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

2024 baby! I can feel it.

"replacing windows" should not be the objective of the Linux desktop ecosystem.

Bro get ready to be descended upon by the cult

My wife's gaming pc runs on garuda for quite some time now and she never had any problems, just saying. To the more intricate things: people have to get already that they don't get the everything-button. If you want something as you specifically want it, you have to learn some stuff. If you want a table that's just right for you and well done, you'll have to pay good money or learn carpentry. Why should it be different with technology?

In other news, apples not yet ready to replace oranges.