this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023
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I'm somewhat amused by the fact that lots of people are suggesting Linux as an alternative but can't agree on which flavor to use as the alternative.
Don't get me wrong, I think Linux is awesome, but this is the problem. You're never going to get the saturation necessary to bring average consumers over in significant numbers until they have a clear choice.
Windows is for the average person, but there's a linux distro for everyone.
Basic Internet-Browser/Email users should either get an ubuntu distro, or a debian distro, but not directly debian. Enthusiast Gamers and Power Users may prefer arch-based distros for their lightweight, and bleeding edge updates. Developers, and Power Users might prefer Debian over arch for it's intense stability over any other distro or OS.
If you're the type of person who wants a drop-in replacement where you don't have to learn anything new ever, and can just be 1:1 with windows, keep dreaming.
This isn't even the case between versions of Windows itself. This is a pipe dream and an excuse made up for some inconceivable reason.
It's an issue of culture not an issue of a clear choice. This is kind of the entire point of the Fediverse. Defaulting to the "Big Social Media" because it's easy and everyone knows it, and we know many people will go to it. But Once they're in, they'll begin to understand how the fediverse works.
It may seem entirely fascinating to us that people can't comprehend how the Fediverse works, but they eventually learn. Similarly we do have an easy Linux Distro that most people start with. Ubuntu.
Is ubuntu the best linux distro? no. Is Lemmy.world the best instance? also no. But looking for the best "x" in an ocean of choices is the wrong question to be asking. What we want to ask is "What is the best 'x' for them?" Ubuntu has the foundations of most everything linux. Most people know Ubuntu, some before they even know what linux is. Once they've gone through and learned more about linux they typically go through the phase of distro hopping for desktop environments, not understanding quite yet that those two are not married to eachother. Slowly they'll start to come to this understanding, but it won't click until they go to a distro originator like Arch or Debian. Where the install process includes selecting a desktop environment. Then from there more things will begin to click.
The best thing we can do is forward people along this path. Imo, the average user should probably start with installing debian in a virtual machine and installing every desktop environment. Allowing them to switch between them until they decide which one is the best for them.