TempleOS users in this post:

Hated by both sides for different reasons but both are valid

Also BSD

Even Microsoft are now renting Linux VMs on their cloud infrastructure.

I know, the average person probably only knows 2, maybe 3 distros Max

And Mint

Yes, of course Mint

I work on the IT side of a non tech company. I don’t think vastly even comes close to covering how un-savvy the average person is

Oh, absolutely. They've never had to do family tech support, and it shows.

I tried to upvote you twice but was not allowed. So here is my second upvote: You hit the problem spot on!

Shit's better now. That's not to say that your average person could handle everything.

If I have a normal person linux on a usb on a computer set to boot from usb, they could totally install it.

If an update fucks over a driver or a package, they're completely fucked.

If they need to make their own boot usb, they're completely fucked.

If they need to configure their computer to boot from the usb if it's not setup that way ... completely fucked.

If they're good with generic drivers, generic browsers and probably steam, they'll be fine.

Grandma is probably fine with Linux now.

Of course, a decent number of gen-x grandmas might have actually fucked around with linux years ago :)

Or their ability to recognize shapes

"Press the sources button, the one with a arrow pointing into a box"

presses the home button

(That was after it turned out said person just... didnt plug it the hdmi cable, ofcource its not going to work both devices arent fucking on nor connected to each other)

Is every other person here some kind of computer science enthusiast or something like that?

That's a fair way to sum it up, yeah. Politics aside, we like to tinker with tech and Linux is inherently tinker-able.

It's because Lemmy is a techy tinkering hub. The same skills and interests needed to be aware of and migrate to Lemmy lend themselves to people migrating to Linux.

Both are free and open source and arguably better than the alternatives of reddit and windows so of course there are a bunch of dorks on here trying to get you to switch.

Both also cut down on how much you can be spied on and manipulated by algorithms so that's a big incentive to convert people too.

Edit: btw you should switch to linux

Lemmy's full of linux fans. Theres not really much more to it

Lemmy, like linux, has a very small learning curve that keeps out most people.

The principles that make Lemmy attractive are the same principles that people like about Linux: freedom, openness, tech independence. The list could go on.

Point is, it's safe to say that if you like either one, you're more likely than the average person to like the other as well.

Because there is an ethical implication is using Linux vs Windows.

Windows is the De Facto choice since Windows 95 at least. And Microsoft is steering computers in a anti-consumers space. So for many people, using Linux isn't simply using a different OS but it is also a ethical statement.

Ig yea, I do use Linux too, but the "Linux VS WindOws" bs OS wars is everywhere tbh, but yea- if you are on reddit, you wouldnt see it cuz the algorithm knows you don't care- on the other hand if I open reddit rn (I haven't opened it in, god knows how long) I bet, the first post that gets shoved in my face is some fuckass stupid OS war rage bait.

One of the Reason I quit reddit was because of this kind of negative engagement farming kind of posts just filling up my feed, This place is better compared to reddit on that case, but because there's not a prominent algorithm that tracks you, what you see is what everyone mostly sees and Ig somany privacy consious people who switched to lemmy, also uses some form operating system that respects their choice.

Honestly i don't see much pro windows stuff here. Mainly just hate for it.

But yeah the thought-journey to reach Lemmy from Reddit is a very similar journey to reaching Linux from Windows.

I don’t get why people on Lemmy care so much about either of them so passionately

Weirdos who feel the need to let everyone know their team is superior, so they can feel superior. Its just as dumb as apple vs. android or Xbox vs playstation vs pc. Guys, It's ok to like what you do and NOT shit on people who don't do what you're doing.

I just got a second SSD and installed Linux on it and in BIOS I set the boot order to boot from the Linux drive. Still have my SSD with Windows 10 in case I need it. During boot, I then can just press F8 and select the boot drive, should I desire to use my Windows 10 drive. Easy.

2-3 days seems very optimistic, but it depends how much you enjoy tinkering with your setup.

Maybe consider dual-booting so you can go back to windows if something urgent comes up while you migrate.

What I did was clone my windows drive as a virtual machine on an external drive, like a flash drive, then, I wiped the drive, installed kubuntu, moved the VM back to the drive, and when I run into something that I'm like "I can't find an alternative to this app on Linux" or "I need a copy of that one thing from my old windows install" I just boot it up, use the app and do what I need, or transfer the file over, and I'm good.

In my case I will admit, I did not wipe the windows drive and ended up dual booting, but not very often, just because I haven't been able to get a vm to run smooth using virtual manager since I switched, running windows or Linux, pretty sure it's because of Nvidia and their proprietary driver. If I don't need GPU, I can use the VM just fine. But for specific games or software, switching to Windows on bare metal is handy.

I'd say the VM thing isn't the best solution to the problem you're facing, but it is a solution that can make the transition a little easier, it helped for me anyways, so I figured I'd share.

Try Linux on a USB stick in live mode (JUST DON'T PRESS INSTALL YET) . It will be a bit slower than a direct drive boot but you can play around with Linux and get to like it without having to wreck all your windows stuff or wipe any drives.

If you have nothing backed up then you can just pretend the drive failed and you lost everything. Now you can just wipe the drive and install Linux.

My wife is in the same boat. But it's more like 2 weeks, 2-3 days to migrate and the rest to get used to the different OS. After that you're good forever though (at least until you see new shiny distro come out)

Linux can access NTFS-based drives. I say that you should just move everything onto drives that aren't hosting the OS, then format the OS drive with a fresh Linux.