Heyho, recently someone asked for the silliest reasons, but as someone who has suggested linux to many people, I often encounter people having valid reasons for staying with Windows or switching back.
The most boring but valid one is “I have to use Windows for work. It is a requirement (of some software I have to use)”. But there are also other answers that fit. My sister for example tried Linux, but while installing software constantly encountered issues that I helped her solve and eventually switched back because she felt like she had less control than over windows. While I am aware that this is fundamentally wrong, it is valid that some amateur users do not want to invest enough time to get over the initial hurdles of relearning how to install software.
What are the best reasons people have given you for not wanting to try Linux?
I’m a new convert to Linux. I played around with it a bit probably about 15 years ago, but never did much seriously with it. Finally bit the bullet about a week ago between the windows 10 EOL and deciding that Linux gaming is finally in a place I can live with.
I’m a reasonable tech-literate person, I’m no sys admin but I’m the family “guy who’s good with computers” I did a few semesters as a computer science student and was reasonably good at it before deciding to go in a different direction.
And while things are working just fine for most of my general computing needs, I feel like I’m in a bit of a weird place right now, kind of like I’m back to being a kid with my family’s first Compaq in the 90s. I can play games and do my homework and make my computer do some cool things, but I know there’s more cool stuff I can make it do but I don’t know how yet.
I have about 30 years of know-how and tips and tricks built up on how to make windows bend to my will, but I don’t have that for Linux yet, and it’s not exactly a great feeling.
And I feel like there’s sort of a gap in the Linux community to help the slightly-above-average-computer-person Linux-convert like me to build up to where they were as a windows user.
Like there’s a wealth of knowledge on choosing a distro and installing it, alternatives to common windows programs, etc.
And then a big gap
And then people who have a whole home computer lab, self-hosting everything, doing serious programming as a hobby, etc.
And in the middle are a bunch of forum posts where someone asks a question, and some kind of computer sage emerges from the ether, tells you to transcribe a magic spell into your terminal, and all your problems will be solved, then vanishes in a puff of smoke.
And don’t get me wrong, I’m glad those magical Linux wizards exist to fix my problems. But I have almost no idea what the hell what the magical commands they told me to run are actually doing.
And I’m slowly piecing some of it together, googling things as I go, and that’s a fine way to learn things, but it is slow and I wish there was a better way to power through learning some of this stuff without needing to go take a whole actual course on it. I think my ideal would be sort of a Duolingo-type app for terminal commands.
Also at the lower end of the spectrum, I feel like maybe there’s a need for sort of a basic tutorial program for the kind of people who are not computer people to learn the absolute basics. I feel like back in the 90s I encountered a few introduction-to-windows sort of programs that would walk you through “this is your start menu,” “here’s what click/double-check/right click/etc” means," “here’s how you turn your computer off” kind of stuff.
And while that kind of thing is almost insultingly basic for anyone who’s going to install Linux for themselves, I think that kind of hand-holding might be needed for some other people we might try to convert.
Also don’t get me wrong, I like doing stuff in the terminal and don’t want it to go anywhere, when I know what I’m doing it is really efficient, but that shit is straight-up intimidating for a lot of average and below-average computer people, not to mention how truly abysmal a lot of their typing skills are. I feel like a little less emphasis on the terminal and building out some more control panel -like GUI menus would go a long way to getting people to switch.
Maybe these sorts of resources exist and I haven’t found them yet. If they do please point me towards them. If they actually don’t exist, maybe one of those wise Linux sages will see this and take up the task of building it.
I actually agree completely with that. I still remember the “how to use your Mac” intro floppy disks that my uncle still had mixed in with other program disks when I got his old Macintosh SE (dual floppy and no hard drive). It started with stuff like little “games” for how to use the mouse, Trash Bin, and other super basic things for GUI (since the concept was new at that time). My jump into Windows was easier because of that. Though the jump to Windows was its own issue since the family PC we got second-hand was still on 3.11 in 1998 and I was having to use 95 for a keyboarding class in middle school. But it was kind of interesting to have experienced (though not so much at the time as I couldn’t just do things like my friends would talk about on their 95/98 PCs). But even 95 did put effort into a tutorial that was helpful.
Windows these days doesn’t really have a tutorial for things (though Windows 8 did have a pretty okay one). Everything on 10 and 11 just feels like dark patterns in tricking you into shit Microsoft wants, and not a “how to” for even what is going on with the Start Menu. Just get an update and shit is just completely different (mostly with 11’s new jarring layout change).
I am kind of shocked there isn’t already something like that. Even a lot of web forums these days have a “getting you started” tutorial that walks you through making dummy replies to messages from the bot. And create a dummy post that will be only created virtually while working with the bot. It would be great if the distros that try to be the easiest for new users to have a “introduction to terminal” that can safely show the most likely needed stuff. Like the normal stuff like ls, cp, copy, move, makedir, etc. Along with updating and installing stuff. There are lots of easy search results for these things, but a lot of people learn better hands-on (and especially if they know they won’t be able to just break shit if done wrong).
This is a hardware example (but still applies to the hands-on learning). I personally hate it when I am forced to learn how to fix stuff like iPhone hardware only on actual peoples’ devices. As it makes the pressure so much worse, and know that I might lead to the person not having their phone even longer with so much daily life needing them all the time. Apple does have step-by-step guides and video examples. But actually going through the motions is very different than the “perfect” stuff shown that make it seem easier.
Same can be with the difference in like driving a car in a sim and the class part vs how physical stuff like g-forces and actually feeling a hydroplane. You learn important things in the sim and in the class part of getting your learners permit, but then get a chance to drive with a teacher.
It seems that PC use and basic understanding has regressed dramatically over the past decade due to smart phones/tablets. So the starting point for a shocking amount of users is not good even for Windows (all the new PC gamers coming from only knowing consoles are badly needing to understand how to keep an eye on their drives filling up and to actually use the second drives). So it would be beyond great for Linux adoption efforts to focus on having hands-on “games” that range from basically treating it like the user is back in the early 90s (or the 80s for Apple’s first jump to having a GUI), and for folks that are already aware of the stuff that a complete new to computers folks don’t know.
As far as terminal tutorials, so far the best I’ve found is LabEx, but I feel like it’s lacking in a lot of ways.
First of all it definitely feels designed to push you towards paying for a subscription. And while their pricing honestly isn’t too terrible, it’s more than I want to spend on this. Nothing against companies and people being paid for making a product but it feels a little against the FOSS spirit to me.
Second I’ve mostly been trying to use it on my phone and that experience is just kind of shitty. Personally I kind of want to learn in short bursts here and there throughout the day when I have downtime at work or whatever. If I have time to sit down in front of my computer it’s probably because I want to be doing something fairly specific with it and it’s probably not to just practice my terminal use, so a better phone experience would be great.
And finally, it just seems a bit over-engineered, at least for what I want to use it for. It seems like it’s spinning up a whole Linux VM with a desktop environment and such for me to interact with through my browser just for me to type stuff into a terminal and read their tutorial. It does have other courses and maybe all of that is more useful there, but it seems like a bit much for me.
I will check it out, even if they push the subscription it still may be good to know about. Not like it comes up often, but some of my co-workers that are in school for CS might find it useful for extra practice.
Currently I have a Pi that I really only use for messing with Linux stuff and some of the purpose built alt-OSes (like media center stuff). So I have a safe environment that doesn’t matter if I brick the OS. Which might be a good option for lots of folks (even though it still lacks the guided tutorials that we have been talking about). Would be great if the Pi folks could create something on there for active learning Terminal.