[princevegeta89]

The worst thing is, there is no real alternative to Windows that is backed by somewhat of a corporate guarantee besides macOS.

But many people who use Windows wouldn't want to move to a considerably new platform like macOS, which works quite differently. There is Linux, but then there are compatibility issues and driver issues and other things that are not great for the casual average user.

It feels like Windows could have been better off without being free, but being something like a buy once, keep forever solution, like the good old days. Today it has just turned into a complete toxic pit of mess that tracks you in every little thing you do and works against you to make sure that it maximizes profits for Microsoft and its partners. The usability is completely destroyed, alas.

[dleslie]

RedHat and Ubuntu both provide enterprise support.

[princevegeta89]

Well, they are still Linux, and they are confusing for casual, average users.

[aucisson_masque]

It ain’t that confusing. Click on the icon of the app you want to launch and that’s it.

The app is similar to what’s going in on windows.

Where that becomes frustrating is when you have a computer that isn’t well supported by Linux, things don’t work, battery is bad, you have to look up for ways to fix them and so on.

But if the « driver » support was as good as on windows, people could switch in 2 seconds.

My university computers ran Ubuntu, we were not computer nerd but civil engineering yet everyone adapted very quick.

[princevegeta89]

Well okay, tell me why a single user would end up buying enterprise support? And I would still argue that linux is confusing for casual users. Everything from file system paths to system settings, things are not understood readily for casual users. Lack of available apps like photoshop, etc can also frustrate users.

[aucisson_masque]

I must have miss written it. I meant that single user would have to buy computer that are well supported by Linux.

You don’t need canonical enterprise support.

If nothing is already broken, Ubuntu isn’t that different from windows. You got your 10 app icons, and a button to shut down the computer.

And the file path ? Everyone used the standard file picker and had no issue. I guess it defaulted to the home directory or desktop, whatever the case we just put all the garbage there in folder like we used to do in windows.

[dleslie]

This really isn't the case any longer. Linux Mint and similar are gaining traction in the gaming community because of how simple they are to use. It's entirely possible to use Linux nowadays without ever opening a terminal, and the UX is no more difficult than Windows XP was.

[lysace]

My dad wanted a computer for the interwebs, at 70ish. I built him a PC and loaded it with the Ubuntu of the day (like 2012). It worked fine.

The previous time he meaningfully interacted with a computer before that was via punched tape containing ALGOL in the early 1960s. (When I first manually "decoded" those tapes 30 years later in the 1990s, it kind of blew my mind. I had just learned Turbo Pascal. Looks very similar at a high level.)

[jjcm]

These days less so. LLMs have greatly lowered the barrier to entry.

[direwolf20]

What corporate guarantee? The system doesn't work properly.