this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2025
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There's only so much incessant bitching I can hear about dark patterns, intrusive automatic updates, shoehorned-in and useless AI, zero user choice, planned obsolesence, and being blindsided by enshittification before I say "just try using the free thing that doesn't have those problems".
"I've tried nothing, and I'm all out of ideas." If you have to for work or something, though, I totally get it and encourage the bitching.
They literally pointed out that a lot of the people saying this kind of stuff may genuinely be unskilled when it comes to computers in general.
Why is it "trying nothing" when the other option to get up to speed enough to use Linux is to basically be taking some college-level courses on the side of their every day life just to be able to use their device appropriately?
For people who aren't tech savvy at all, "Ain't nobody got the time for that!" is a completely fucking reasonable response to being told they need to go learn a bunch of shit about some subject they could give a rats ass about.
It's like telling someone who has a law degree and works 50 hours a week at a law firm that if they want more control over their car they need to take some courses on automotive repair so they don't have to deal with an annoying repair shop. As above, ain't nobody got the time for that!
Literally every Linux nerd seems to forget that this is specialized knowledge that not everyone has dumped skill points into.
I gave my grandma a Linux, she had no idea. All she needed was a web browser that didn't feed her ads and give her issues. Fedora with KDE was super simple for her to figure out how to use and actually had better accessibility features for her. And it was free.
Linux is actually pretty noob friendly nowadays. And if you don't want to mess with it yourself, you can buy computers with Linux preinstalled today.
I get that sometimes people just want to complain and not solution. But like, using windows and other surveillance capitalism adjacent products is a path to fascism so like...maybe people should just, critically evaluate their problems and think of solutions every now and then?
Many distros of linux are easier to use than osx or windows.
I'm glad I don't have to deal with registry editor anymore.
Not everyone knows how to, or is physically able to, cook food, but its pretty rare for people to get angry and offended if someone tries to suggest a recipe to them. People do that a lot with computers though.
You don't have to know much. It'd be like convincing somehow to learn to change a tire. Yeah you gotta figure it out for a sec, but it's not a whole as master class or anything.
I feel like average linux-user here really overestimates the skill level of a typical random computer user lmao.
I installed linux mint on my extra laptop to test it out (going to switch because end of win10 support. Didn't before because I just had no reason blah blah), and oh boy. It's not difficult, but there's no way someone pretty average tech-skill-less could learn to install it by just reading instructions - and this isn't even just because of the OS itself. I had only simple trouble, like how to get to BIOS, which was not a linux issue but old lenovo being a bitch and took me like half a minute to resolve. But just something like that would absolutely stop someone not knowing what they're doing, because an install guide wouldn't help with that - you have to have some pre-knowledge of what to even search for to find solutions. Not to mention the possible OS issues themselves, like me having to install, delete and re-install wine because of some weird bug happening and it installing itself only partially despite me using the recommended terminal commands to install it.... etc.
And many couldn't install windows either if they had to first burn it to a stick and go from there, so I'm not trying to bash linux itself (at least mint would indeed be super easy to use for even a skill-less grandma moving from windows). Saying "just learn" is just about as helpful as "use linux" - to move a lot of people to linux from windows, probably most of them will either have to get help or have it already installed. So they'll just stick with win11 because it's what's they're going to have
Maybe they do. I work with users directly and yeah most are not willing to learn if it's framed that way, but they all do learn. They learn quirks of the OS and installed programs over time because their jobs demand it.
If you search "how to install Linux" or "how to install an OS" you'll be met with a shit ton of documentation and videos on YouTube with plenty to go off of, followed by comments of people that have already had the problems and questions you've had. Only when you get to truly complex things will you start to have a harder time researching your issue.
It's just a matter of will and circumstances. All of the people that work in the parts of European government that are switching over to Linux will undoubtedly learn, the same way they've had to learn windows and windows based programs/installers.
The reason I know how to install an OS is likely the same reason anyone else does. Problem occurred on windows years ago, after reading enough about the problem, discovered its best to reinstall Windows, searched how to reinstall Windows, and after windows shitting the bed more than once on my PCs and friends and families, it's a learned skill that I've developed out of necessity for what I or they were trying to do.
The same applies on the other side of the fence, that's all I'm really trying to say here. It's the same problems (aside from enshittification, selling user data, etc.) with slightly different solutions.
I don't really disagree with you, but I think this kinda highlights part of the problem: there's many people that don't even know what an operating system is. Just as you said, they can learn and they probably will learn when they have to, but a lot of people don't have to, so they'll just stick with win11 even if they struggle with it's stupid shit. We're going to hear this complaining about win11 for years to come, and telling people to switch to linux will just cause the type of irritation described in the original image there...
I admit that personally I'm in the weird spot where my father worked in IT in the 90s and the tech kinda came home with him, so I don't exactly know how people usually learn this stuff. I just grew up with it
I gotcha, and yeah, most people avoid learning at all costs, it's kind of insane.
https://lemmy.world/post/37909826/20160181
Accessibility point aside, just because I can't speak on that not having had to use the features, people that don't fix their own shit on Linux aren't fixing their own shit on windows/iOS either, aside from the occasional flat tire. That was the point I was trying to make. Those who do their own troubleshooting will learn no problem.
That stance I can agree with, but I fundamentally do not agree that Linux is appropriate for the kind of people who don't do their own troubleshooting. Because my point is that is specialized knowledge that not everyone has the time to give to, which is why a lot of people don't troubleshoot their own shit, because they have spent their skill points elsewhere.
Trust me I have met lawyers and doctors who are fucking mystified by computers and don't even want to get into learning the troubleshooting. That's what they have IT departments for. Similarly, changing a tire might just be too much trouble for them and that's why they pay other people to do it.
Yeah I get it, but windows isn't ready for those users either. In my experience, I fuck with them just about the same. How I fuck with them is often different, but I still have to. In fact, I have to fuck with windows so much because it's my job to do it, that's my main driver for using Linux is so I don't feel like I'm at home working when something fucks up.
I will say though, even if you disagree that theyre on par with each other as far as mundane fuckups go, Linux is and has been closing in super fast, and I'm pretty damn excited about it
But if Windows isn't ready for those users either, why are people in this thread shitting all over them for not switching to something else they're not ready for? They'll complain either way when shit doesn't work.
They're complaining about very specific behaviors of windows that do not exist in Linux, and our argument is about whether or not the OSes function well enough for everyday use.
Not defending the behavior in question, but Linux nowadays is MUCH simpler to understand than Windows or MacOS. It is by far the easiest operating system to change to, and the easiest to learn if you are somehow not familiar with any. From a user standpoint it's the least "techie" OS now (aside from mobile OS of course).
What you describe about "needing to take courses" was true ten years ago, it was probably true three years ago. It is just simply not true now.
I use Arch as my daily driver and it is absurd how easy it is to use.
Updating all drivers and programs and the system updates in one command is so awesome and convenient.
yaysudo pacman -Syu
I don't really use yay much.
Very easy to use... once up and running. But there are other distros out there (Bazzite comes to mind as a good example) that "Just work" on a level even Macs can't approach. Installation is the only "complicated" part but I'm sure we'll see some manufacturers installing Bazzite by default in good time.
Yea, so this whole argument falls apart with all the easy beginner distros. They're out of the box easy to use and require minimal computer skills beyond knowing your password, how to use a mouse, and how to use a keyboard. Drivers may not be perfect for everything like your gpu, but if you're using a GPU you probably have enough vomputer skills to google why the driver ism't working.
"Uh, I bought my computer from Alienware. I don't know what a GPU is."
In 2025, you (in the general sense, not @SnotFlickerman specifically) are not entitled to be unskilled and bitch about it. You are being made to care about how to properly deal with technology, because you cannot function in society without some baseline level of computer literacy.
Don't like it? Go live in a fucking shack in the woods, like the Unabomber.
I do not accept this idea that people are so unskilled at computers they can't install Linux, and are so immutably so they can't get better.
Like yeah sometimes you have to ask for help or watch a YouTube video. That shit's free and right there.
They definitely exist, but it feels like stubbornness at that point. It absolutely isn't a lack of capability, it's a lack of willingness.
Getting around people's lack of willingness is the only way the year of the linux desktop will ever happen.
Like with global warming, people can just choose not to, you know.
It's learned helplessness
I feel like so many people are basing their opinion of Linux on outdated ideas of what it can and can't do.
There are distros that are incredibly fucking simple and stable. Easier and faster to set up than Windows.
We need some repair cafe type setup where linux nerds get to set up linux on people's machines.
Nah, it will never work. Grandma Esthel is gonna get Arch Linux on her 20yo machine and everyone is gonna be unhappy still.
So get skilled.
I hear you, but in a lot of these cases the people with complaints are not competent. Anyone who has worked helpdesk or adjacent has seen boatloads of 'em. Imagine I'm an oldie or fool or even grew up without electrical power and I barely know how a computer works. I don't really want to work with them and I think turning the monitor on and off is a reboot. Windows is horrible with all this bloat and AI and so much confusing shit but usability-wise it makes some sense I guess. I could do with a change but I can't do anything confusing or outside of my limited range. I'm probably not installing a good distro. I am not partitioning a drive. I am not creating a bootable USB. What do I do?
The only option here is to have them go out on a limb and buy a machine online pre-installed with Linux or have someone else set it up, right?
Not literally, of course. But if you don't have the baseline level of skill to exist in a technological society without being absolutely reamed by predatory corporations and other scammers and also refuse help to learn how to defend yourself, at some point that's a "you" problem and you deserve to fucking lose.
No but genuinely I resonate with this answer so much. Imagine if you needed to pass a computer literacy test to own any sort of "smart" device/computer and needed a license to operate it. It would eliminate so many scam call centers and would make so many IT teams work load decrease 10x. Imagine the complete LACK of mis/disinformation on the internet. Sometimes i wish that were the world we were in.
While I agree with the "fuck 'em" attitude to a certain extent I'm not sure that should apply to the entire gradient of differently abled. A lot of people who are mentally infirm have to continue to work in this hellscape and may have real roadblocks preventing learning about 'puters and the interweb and there's not a whole lot of resources anyway for people who don't live in the city. But yeah I don't expect a magic answer. Your GIF might actually be the best way haha.
Boomerism is not a mental illness they just don't understand computers
Just don't hire incompetent people then