Google Trends: "how to install linux" is going... viral?!
Posted by mina86ng@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 309 comments
Posted by mina86ng@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 309 comments
LastNewRon@reddit
That's just linus after he failed with Pop!_OS again.
BoxedAndArchived@reddit
He does seem uniquely cursed with installing Linux.
UltraCynar@reddit
It would help if he changed distros and stopped picking the same one expecting different results
BoxedAndArchived@reddit
If that's the Distro being suggested by the sources that the average person is looking at, why wouldn't he chose it? That's the experience that most people are also going to have if they try to install Linux with no prior experience.
hysan@reddit
The problem is that Linus had repeatedly stated that he doesn’t watch YouTube videos and won’t use them as part of his research. I like how unbiased he tries to be, but this is the one thing that I think lessens his takes (not just on Linux but other topics too). YouTube has become an increasingly larger factor in people’s judgement of quality/what to do about XYZ. I get that he avoids it because of the very nature of his job (there’s no way to be unbiased on which channels to watch), but I also think that means his approach is inherently biased/flawed.
mercsterreddit@reddit
No offense, mate, but nothing interesting about Linux is happening on Youtube. It is fine for newbies, but even the established, old school Youtube Linux channels are, by graybeard standards, amateur hour. Mostly about distributions and crud like that. Newbies love reinstalling their OS all the time; most serious information technologists don't care about that, they want to use their computer to do stuff other than navel gazing.
ExoMonk@reddit
I think his approach was fine and represents a segment of casual users; not all obviously. I'm a new user as of this year and the same age as Linus; elder millennial who is techy enough to figure things out, but also very capable of breaking shit unexpectedly.
He used google list-icles and ChatGPT to get recommendations. I used google search and also reddit search across a couple subreddits (this one and /r/linuxgaming). YouTube never even entered my mind. I use YouTube for all kinds of other things like fixing a crooked door or my refrigerator not dispensing ice, but wasn't even a thought when it came to choosing a distro. Probably because videos are long form content from people I don't know. In the time it takes to watch one video from some random I can scan 10 reddit threads.
Maybe the conclusions would be different if I watched 10 videos instead, but that's just how people like him and me do research. Articles and community threads. Maybe Gen Z or younger default to video content for information, but then again Elijah who i think is Gen Z went to Reddit for recommendations and got suggested Bazzite, ChimeraOS, CachyOs, Manjaro and PopOS.
I myself chose CachyOs, with runner ups being Bazzite and OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. I have a couple minor issues, but nothing mission critical. It mostly works fine and haven't touched my windows install since the start of the year.
Dr_Hexagon@reddit
There's his problem.
forevernooob@reddit
If that's his problem, that means this problem is going to appear across the majority of people.
Dr_Hexagon@reddit
The AI bubble will burst and there will no longer be a free tier for access to ChatGPT. All the AI companies are losing money, once the VC cash runs out and they have to make a profit the free access will be gone.
forevernooob@reddit
Ok but that doesn't mean there won't be other projects / companies jumping in the gap and offering a free service.
Yes, likely that when the AI bubble bursts, it will send huge shockwaves across the industry but that doesn't mean that it will stop AI in its tracks.
Dr_Hexagon@reddit
no one will able to afford to offer AI for free unless its a model running locally. The in the cloud models cost too much per query to be ad supported.
forevernooob@reddit
I don't know, I think the costs will come down and if it won't be US companies offering free products, then I'm pretty sure Chinese companies like Deepseek will (because of subsidies)
steakanabake@reddit
the logical person would say i tried pop last time it burned me im going to choose a different one from one of the many listicles and the idiot box. as the saying goes fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me.
BoxedAndArchived@reddit
That's not what Linus is showing. He's depicting the first time switcher, HE may have had prior experience, but he's showing what happens if you jump into the switch with no experience and no preparation. The same way most people are going to jump in, ya know?
steakanabake@reddit
then he relays that the first time (which he did) was a shit process and he makes the logical choice to pick a different distro not stick his hand back on the burner to learn the same mistake again.
BoxedAndArchived@reddit
And if he didn't point out that he's done this before, people like you would just ridicule him for not saying so. It doesn't change what he's trying to show.
You are expecting him to have more of the experience that Luke is having, because Luke is depicting a person who knows a bit more about switching, may have dabbled, knows what might be his pitfalls. And then there's the experience that Elijah is having where he knows he's ignorant and he's trying to prepare. Three experiences, all covering the likely experiences of switchers.
Linus is good at being ignorant, and it's not that he is ignorant, he just knows what he needs to avoid in order to show ignorance.
rrtk77@reddit
The issue here, I think, is the editing. Luke is barely shown, and Elijah is like a third of the video. Meanwhile, Linus's experience takes up a bulk of the video. So, despite 2 out of 3 people having very smooth experiences, the guy who decided that he was going to try and install a new OS in the worst possible scenario and had issues got the bulk of the time.
We saw some of what Elijah struggled with on install with Secure Boot. The issue there is most people don't know that Secure Boot is basically entirely controlled by Microsoft, which is why it's often a pain point on Linux. I think that's valid (for instance, Elijah likely killed his windows install). We barely saw Luke not have any problems.
Part of the problem of "Linux just working" is its not entertaining. Because of that, problems are going to be magnified in the edit, because Linus isn't really in the business of boring education. Ultimately, LTT does more harm than they do good here, because they have internal pressure to not be fair to the average user's experience.
Most people, in Linus's situation where he's trying to install Linux and has a friend who's successfully done it, ask their friend for help.
ExoMonk@reddit
But that's not a fair representation of the experience for the average user and he talks about that. Of course he could reach out to any number of experts in his contact list and get answers. But most people don't have a list of expert friends.
All of my friends know of linux in a general sense, but switching off Windows is something that never enters their brain. It's like breathing, they don't actively think about breathing they just breathe. They don't think about operating systems, they just use windows to play games or macbooks for dev stuff.
I would have liked to see more from Luke too, but I think he just didn't have much to contribute. I know his work laptop was having hardware issues and needed to be on Windows because Lenovo wouldn't touch it with Linux on it but on his desktop he did have some issues with Teams and his audio mixer (restart fixed it), but gaming was fine.
You just don't hear much from people that don't have problems beyond "yeah it's been fine. Everything's been working for the most part. No notes."
rrtk77@reddit
Like I said, that's why LTT is a bad source for this kind of "experiment". They have to amplify "problems" because they want to be entertaining.
That phrase is convenient/a bit of a shield for him. Because what even is the average user? The average user may not know how to even download an iso or flash it to a usb. The average user may never have installed Windows in their life, they just get it on their new laptop. So an actual average user experience to get Pop_OS would be for Linus to just buy a system76 computer.
Again, this isn't a personal criticism or me thinking they are anti-Linux or anything. I just think this isn't a great way for them to explore this topic, and I don't know if they have a good way to explore it.
If I was their editor, I'd say they need to both show struggles AND then explain what someone in a similar situation should do, because they ALSO have an ethical responsibility to educate their audience. Maybe I'd even say to get some Linux-topics creators to make appearances and give advice and answer questions (they, for instance, know who Chris Titus Tech is, given they showed his reaction to their other video), to highlight good resources for their audience who wants to switch to look at.
But I fully admit, that video probably wouldn't do well. This video already has 1.5M+ views. GamersNexus talking to Level 1 Tech Tips about what distros they should focus on got barely over 400k. I can talk about editorial changes all I want, I don't have to make decisions so these guys can pay their mortgages.
ExoMonk@reddit
That's fair too. I guess I would say the average user in this situation is someone that knows enough to know they want to dip their toe into Linux, but not enough to know what a good distro is or how to fix things if things go horribly awry. So maybe not average user; like you said the average user doesn't even know how to describe what Windows is let alone that there are other choices.
Good suggestion. I know this is one of many videos they plan on doing for this series so I hope to see more "I had ABC problem but solved it doing XYZ" or "had some bumps, went fine after".
I've only been using Linux since the start of the year and it's been mostly fine. Some weird issues here and there but not mission critical. I pretty much just game and it hasn't gotten in the way of that.
ghisnoob@reddit
He did. He chose Bazzite after Pop_OS. He STILL HAD ISSUES. https://www.youtube.com/live/fV4_bJ4eMdQ?t=2712
throwaway234f32423df@reddit
anything but the distros that people actually use, wouldn't want people thinking you're a normie or a casual, better to try some random obscure thing for 10 minutes and then go back to Windows
quavan@reddit
He tried Pop_OS, Bazzite (which is effectively just Fedora) and Kubuntu. All three had issues. Last challenge, he was on Manjaro. None of these are random obscure things.
savorymilkman@reddit
He tried to install sudo on Manjaro he didn't really try
ArdiMaster@reddit
Yeah, some people/systems just seem to be cursed w.r.t. Linux.
Personally, I tried out Kubuntu on my gaming PC and it wouldn’t even recognize my mouse and keyboard??? How?? I try Fedora and the M&K work, but the onboard Ethernet adapter (Realtek 2.5Gbit) doesn’t because the in-kernel driver is borked, so best case would be to find a distro that has Realtek’s proprietary driver in an easily accessible repo.
(And that’s before we even get to the NVIDIA driver!)
quavan@reddit
I'm a fairly technical user (software engineer running a homelab), and even I've had some bizarre things happen as well. My Fedora install on my laptop just kept hard crashing. Ubuntu installs kept getting into weird state over the years. Even my last Fedora Server install just decided it wouldn't boot up one day, couldn't even make it to the UEFI menu without taking out the drive.
So much of the Linux experience honestly just comes down to your hardware. Happened to pick a combination that works well? Then you'll probably have a pretty good experience. Happened to pick something else? It's just gonna be weird obscure issues. And it's a little difficult to make hardware choices specifically for Linux as a layperson.
turdas@reddit
Bazzite is one of the more popular distros right now, and is very beginner friendly for the Linus Techtip audience since it's just immutable Fedora with a bunch of gamer packages preinstalled and configured.
M44rtensen@reddit
The problem lies in the word popular. The more popular distros if ranked by how much people talk about them will always favor the flashy, the new. The more broken.
What distributions are recommended should be ranked by how boring the choice is. The most boring choice should be the default. So, in a sense, what is the most widely used distro nobody talks about.
Then you might ask if you'd prefer a rolling distro or not. If you really want rolling, we can start to talk about arch flavors-but really only then. And if you don't know what rolling means, you don't want it (yet).
And then you might ask if you want a windows-like de or a more mac-ish de.
turdas@reddit
Yeah and that's exactly what Fedora, which Bazzite is directly based on, is. And when I say "based on" I don't mean in the same way Ubuntu is based on Debian, but rather Bazzite directly builds on top of the Fedora Atomic images provided by the Fedora Project.
Balmung60@reddit
I feel like Ubuntu or Debian likely have Fedora beat by virtue of usage share, but it's hard to get good distro-specific usage data.
Neither is considered particularly exciting or generate terribly much discussion anymore, especially compared to their various forks or sub-distros or whatever you want to call them, but I think that if I had to pick one to describe as the "default", most generic and widespread distro, it would probably be Ubuntu.
savorymilkman@reddit
Tbh the best debian is anything debian based
RupeThereItIs@reddit
Fedora is not the quit behemoth you seem to think it is.
I would not recommend Red Hat for a beginner in this day & age.
Hell, I NEVER would have recommended Fedora, the Fedora/RHEL split is what made me ditch Red Hat in the first place.
Despite all the hate it gets, Ubuntu is where beginners should start.
turdas@reddit
Fedora is about as big as Ubuntu is these days.
Ubuntu, incidentally, is pretty bad nowadays with Canonical focusing more on the cloud space than the desktop and repeatedly making questionable decisions with the technologies they choose to adopt (snap...)
M44rtensen@reddit
Still, it's more "exciting" than fedora. So - use fedora.
turdas@reddit
There are a few good reasons to use Bazzite over Fedora, mostly that Bazzite comes preinstalled with some stuff many gamers will install anyway, and bundles some proprietary software and codecs that you won't find in the Fedora repos due to Fedora's all-FOSS philosophy.
It's also immutable, and while Fedora does have their own immutable releases (Silverblue and Kinoite and friends), the Universal Blue variants of those (which Bazzite is a part of) are generally more user-friendly specifically because they bundle a bunch of non-free code that most users would install anyway, but which is somewhat inconvenient to install on an immutable distro.
hardolaf@reddit
And the biggest benefit of it is that it gives people a SteamOS like experience where all they do is update and it just works for the most part. No brain really needed to use it.
savorymilkman@reddit
Well... Tell that to Ubuntu after it kills my processes after 30 min
Balmung60@reddit
It's hard to get actual good usage data rather than "discussion data" for a variety of reasons. The Steam hardware survey is pretty granular about distro, but it's also an inherently biased survey that will naturally oversample gaming-focused distros like SteamOS, Bazzite, and Nobara, but just about anything else is going to heavily sample web servers and not just desktops, and we're presumably trying to replicate what a desktop user would be looking for.
Even with those factored in, you're probably still statistically looking for either Ubuntu or Debian, rather than Fedora, though.
Sensitive_Box_@reddit
Common linux-user L
savorymilkman@reddit
I don't get it. Fedora doesn't impress me. Manjaro on the other hand...
LegionsOmen@reddit
I swapped from windows to bazzite about 8 months ago and almost have never looked backed, I'm using a Nvidia 3080 and every game has ran almost perfect or better than on windows, only issue I'm having is with my ram causing my pc to freeze when it maxes out, 18gb ddr4
Balmung60@reddit
To be fair, of all the ones I've poked around with, Bazzite's just about the only one that gave me any trouble on the LiveUSB.
But I decided not to move from Mint because I'm used to it and it just works. Maybe I'll make the switch when the support runs out for Linux Mint 22.X
discmaimer@reddit
Was it recently you had bazzite live trouble? I tried it a month ago and had some issues, then tried again over this past weekend and couldn't even get it to boot (except the legacy installer worked). but yesterday I tried the main installer and it worked flawlessly. I'm guessing it just had some issues, but they seem to have fixed it now. Mint's a great choice though anyway, so makes sense to stick with that. I am dual booting both right now.
Balmung60@reddit
I think it was in January or late December
I_T_Gamer@reddit
I tinker too much for an immutable distro. Tried Bazzite first, saw some goofiness in No Man's Sky, and couldn't update video drivers. That was it for me.... Had to go.
Dr_Hexagon@reddit
No Man's Sky runs fine under bazzite. Did you try looking at GE-Proton to see if it had any recommendation for NMS ?
I_T_Gamer@reddit
I wasn't knocking the distro, but my first troubleshooting step was not viable in Bazzite, so I swapped to Arch. I've been in IT for over 20 years. For me I need to be able to make changes and figure things out, for someone that wants to tinker Bazzite isn't the best fit.
Balmung60@reddit
Is that not a thing you can do in Bazzite? I'm on AMD and the drivers are just part of the kernel, so updating them just comes as part of normal updates.
steakanabake@reddit
you update graphics when you update the OS image. they build a best case version for that specific set of drivers.
Dr_Hexagon@reddit
Bazzite is not exactly obscure. It's in the top 10 distros on Steam stats. For most people including me it installs seamlessly and "just works". I was playing steam games immediately after install with no extra steps needed.
Indolent_Bard@reddit
Bro, Bazzite is the closest thing we have to SteamOS for general hardware. It's also a well-maintained and popular distro.
TryingT0Wr1t3@reddit
I had to make a media server this weekend while the kid was asleep so I had just one hour to assemble the thing and install some OS to run plex and a samba server. I just chose Ubuntu, and it worked right away. Put Infuse and Plex client on the Apple TV and everything is working.
RodionRaskolnikov__@reddit
These challenges would be way too boring if they only stuck to Ubuntu LTS or Fedora lol
thearctican@reddit
Big surprise.
He needs to pick a serious distro, not a hobby project.
691060857822578@reddit
It's crazy that you consider a Universal Blue distro not serious.
thearctican@reddit
Process surrounding a thing doesn't make the thing serious (or good) by default.
Baidizzle@reddit
I just casually installed Ubuntu Cinnamon and had 0 issues
691060857822578@reddit
I don't care to watch the whole thing, but after a brief glance I wonder.. Did he install the Game Mode version on an NVIDIA computer? Because it is well known and documented that you will receive those results (screen flicker, tearing, etc).
minilandl@reddit
Or not asking AI for recommendations and actually use his brain
Xotchkass@reddit
It's pretty obvious he's doing it on purpose.
LastNewRon@reddit
There can only be 1 Linus that's good eith linux in thie timeline ig.
mina86ng@reddit (OP)
Hmm…
;)
Available-Craft-5795@reddit
Obviously you forgot Linus Sebastian (LTT)
aoeudhtns@reddit
🤔
DogmaSychroniser@reddit
I'm more worried about Linus Walleij being in twice.
mina86ng@reddit (OP)
It’s just some acronyms after his name. Not sure what what LD/EAB mean. E could be for Ericsson.
Luessing vs Lüssing is of course because in German ü is a ligature for ue¹ and, as far as I understand, both spellings are equivalent and correct.
¹ Not to be confused with diaeresis used in French and sometimes English to indicate separate syllables as in Citroën or naïve.
Azelphur@reddit
"There can only be one" - Linus Torvalds
The one true Linus said it, therefore it must be true.
( /s obviously, anyone with their name on the Linux kernel is automatically cool in my books )
BoxedAndArchived@reddit
There can only be one well known Linus that's good with Linux?
literallymetaphoric@reddit
I just installed Bazzite as a dual boot with my Windows partition but it kept failing for no reason. Turned out my EFI partition was full from when I tried Ubuntu years ago. Just had to delete all the Linux stuff in there and it worked fine.
cyborgborg@reddit
Installing it isn't the problem, but he just manages to break perfectly functions installs by using it
ux92@reddit
I really don't understand why he fails like that so miserably when he literally had Linus Torvalds installing Fedora right next to him with just a few clicks.
forevernooob@reddit
He wanted to simulate a normie who doesn't have any expert Linux people around to call for help. That's what he literally explained in the video.
ux92@reddit
I really doubt a normie would install an operating system under pressure at a LAN party. A normie would probably research and ask around.
forevernooob@reddit
lol
And do most people also read manuals before using a product according to you?
ux92@reddit
Idk, when I don't know about something I tend to research. If I want to buy a product that is important to me I read reviews, I watch videos about it, before buying it. Why would it be different here? Because "it's free"? Like if you were going to buy a chair wouldn't you first inform yourself on the chair, what people think of it, try it, see if it's comfortable for you?
forevernooob@reddit
I think you'd be surprised how many people just buy stuff just by impulse alone. I mean... there are entire fields of research dedicated to extract as much value from impulse purchases from consumers.
Also... LTT already demonstrated the kind of research that a normie would do. They read some articles and afterwards asked ChatGPT.
But ok, let's say a normie tries to do research watching videos on YT. It's arguably one of the worst ways to research about which distro to choose. Uninformed / malicious influencers trying to peddle their preference, and usually what they show is just how the DE looks like, and while yeah it's a part of a distro, it's definitely not the biggest part.
ux92@reddit
At least he wouldn't have landed on pop os. I don't see anyone recommending it right now on youtube or any of the social medias.
Formal-Bread9422@reddit
He is not very tech literate. People seem to forget that.
RemCogito@reddit
Yeah he literally worked doing videos for a computer part store, and then when they laid him off, he made the you tube channel. He's good at reading a prompter, and isn't afraid to read something he barely understands with confidence.
Both of those things are not so easy for the actual tech literates to do easily.
Its why Tech vendors have both Sales and Sales Engineering. Sales can sell with confidence and sales engineering can make sure that sales doesn't sell a product based on something it absolutely cannot do, and if the sales person is flying close to the sun, the sales engineer can figure out what rube goldberg hack needs to be done to make sure that there is no breach of contract.
rcoelho14@reddit
He wasn't laid off, he literally quit and negotiated taking the channel (which he started while working at NCIX) with him.
He's good with hardware, but software not so much, and it shows
Koino_@reddit
He seems knowledgeable when it comes hardware at least
BoxedAndArchived@reddit
No idea, but he seems to attract the biggest bugs somehow.
Ugly_Slut-Wannabe@reddit
At least, if somehow Linus Media Group goes under, he'll have a bright future as a QA tester.
BoxedAndArchived@reddit
He's got Linus Torvald's contact info now, if anyone is going to find a bug in Linux, it will be Linus Sebastian!
theaveragemillenial@reddit
I love cosmic, but as someone who is new to linux its probably not a good idea to switch to a distro that is bringing in a brand new DE...
directheated@reddit
Or it just allows him to make click baity/high engagement videos
BoxedAndArchived@reddit
Him and 99% of all creators...
arcanecolour@reddit
People think Linus is dumb, I'm convinced hes a genius. Everyone is talking about his problems with Linux. Its pure entertainment, people getting mad about him choosing Pop, and the hilarious fact that Luke is right next to him just chillin with no problems. He's drummed up WAYYY more drama, views, posts regarding their videos by having a ton of problems than if he was like: "yep going good". People would bail and get bored.
BionisGuy@reddit
Still don't understand his fascination with Pop!
ux92@reddit
A couple of years ago it was "the new Ubuntu", or "the new Mint", a.k.a. "the noob friendly distro".
AI has outdated information. I guess his whole point was to roleplay as a regular end user who would not do research and just ask their favorite AI what to install.
brad-ml@reddit
Works great for me. Though I haven't switched to the new version on my main computer yet.
BionisGuy@reddit
I got tricked into trying Pop!_OS as well since the first time i tried to do the jump to Linux i read articles that said "Pop is the gaming distro"
I had problems after problems after problems with that Distro. The thing is that, the distro slowly killed itself on me. After a while stuff just... refused to start and i really don't know why.
Starting steam and then a game? The game boots, but then the game just kills itself and if i waited long enough steam also killed itself.
And this happened with every application i tried to open. Mind you it happened slowly over like a week.
After that i went back to Windows until i finally decided to give CachyOS a try, and then ending up on Nobara which i am currently daily driving.
therealzakie@reddit
torvalds cursed him from the start
flatline000@reddit
I felt so embarrassed for him while watching that video.
LvS@reddit
I was happy he got the appropriate punishment for asking chatGPT.
There's a whole internet of people but he chose to follow the slop machine.
dejaentendu280@reddit
He was correct that asking chat gpt is what the average person would do. Why fault him for it?
Expired30DayTrial@reddit
The average person would ask “Hey, how do I get into Linux?” for a general advice, he instead listed all the different computers he has, mentioning details only a pro would know while assuming that each setup has unique features that an ordinary distro wouldn’t be able to handle. He may have acted like a normie, but kept on thinking like someone from the industry.
forevernooob@reddit
I don't think you have an accurate representation of what the average user is like. Also, ask where exactly?
Expired30DayTrial@reddit
He didn’t make a bad move by asking the chatbot, it was the question that was the problem. Linus can try all he wants, but at the end of the day he works in tech, he understands it and can’t prevent himself from using his experience. For example, he wouldn’t stop mentioning how he has both AMD/Nvidia cards in his systems, because he remembers how Nvidia cards may have issues with Linux.
My average person isn’t primarily a gamer, they don’t know what kind of GPU they run, let alone that something like a compatibility issue exists.
indearthorinexcess@reddit
The average person dislikes AI
Ezmiller_2@reddit
I like Claude when I want an answer for something. What I don't like is AI being forced on me like MS wants to do. I don't need a 'nag me' AI.
Low-Bat-3038@reddit
He's not the average person though. He's choosing not to draw from his own expertise or that of his friends, community and staff. I get why he's trying to go in like a non-expert, but are "average person" users just going onto Google/ChatGPT and asking about Linux in the first place? How would they know about Linux if not for someone telling them to try it out?
mr_MADAFAKA@reddit
The average user typically lacks familiarity with operating system installation processes, such as setting up Windows, and may have little to no awareness of alternative systems like Linux.
Ezmiller_2@reddit
My life without installing MSDOS 5.0 on my parents 286. I wouldn't know how to install DOS 6.22., and would be super scared by the startup live screen of Suse 9.2, if I ventured that way.
lemontoga@reddit
And that person would be likely to get exposure to that idea from a massively popular normie-tech channel like LTT.
With windows getting shittier and shittier by the day and Linux hype growing, now is a perfect time for someone like LTT to be showing normie users how to jump into Linux succesfully. Linus isn't a normie so he doesn't have to be putting on normie blinders every time he does it. He should be putting out his usual fun + informative style videos and guiding his users on how to successfully try out linux.
PmMeUrNihilism@reddit
The average person isn't knowingly or intentionally using AI, that's just wrong. And perpetuating any use of a slop machine is exactly why people should fault him for it.
errie_tholluxe@reddit
You know it wasn't that long ago when the average person would just Google how to install Linux and not not be running to chat. Gpt. Those days need to come back again, right after Google gets rid of all its ai
ExoMonk@reddit
Yeah even if people DO go to google, 9/10 times they're reading AI summaries instead of clicking to sites.
flatline000@reddit
The average person is using chat gpt?
I would have assumed the average person would still be using a search engine like Google.
palocundo@reddit
I'm not sure, I think this is changing.
A lot of people go straight to chatgpt or copilot or Gemini or whatever else they have installed on the phone/pc
Eternum1@reddit
Can confirm that last, tho the only ai I would fully trust for guiding through linux install and troubleshooting for is claude, it can help you troubleshoot things like grub not finding the boot partition, which for a normal person would be a brick wall and way beyond what they would be able to figure out, if we want widespread adoption we need to meet people where they're at and unfortunately as it stands most people just dont know enough about computers to pull this off without outside help and frequently are nervous about asking a person for help
frequently something I've noticed is if someone uses ai for anything related to linux and its noticed people completely shut the person down regardless of what the situation was, and if you're looking for help and mention you used ai and people not only dont help u but verbally berate you thats not going to make you reach out to the community again and may make you go back to windows
I've worked with grok and claude for linux troubleshooting and claude wins hands down but grok is somewhat viable as a method of doing this and the usage limits are way better, its also, worth noting I've noticed a lot of people really are extremely out of date on what AIs can do they are fully capable of helping with linux related matters though using AI is a skill and knowing how to phrase what you want well is very important as it drastically affects what level of quality you get someone who doesn't think through all the way exactly what they want to accomplish will get poor results from them, also worth noting is, you almost need the paid versions of AI to see how far the tech has come
I guess what I'm trying to say is refusing to help or cruxifying someone for using ai when the tech is slowing becoming a part of daily life isnt exactly helpful for trying to encourage people to adopt linux, which we want i don't know about any of you but I personally want to live in a world where FOSS is the norm and where people own and control their devices fully and where Microsoft, Google, Samsung, and Apple die bankrupt because everyone switches to linux for everything, and beliefs that result in behavior that makes newcomers give up and go back to windows are an obstacle preventing that
steakanabake@reddit
dude we have lawyers using chatgpt to cite legal briefs using made up case law normies use a fuck ton of chatgpt.
amberoze@reddit
Because he puts on a facade of being "not the average person". He proclaimed to know better, but still makes the obvious wrong choice.
He could have easily pivoted, "Asking ChatGPT is what the average person might do, but we aren't going to do that. Instead, being an educational channel, we're going to actually teach the proper procedures for diagnosing and troubleshooting our mistake. Then we're going to guide you through the corrective actions."
Simple. Effective. And more importantly, correct.
yawara25@reddit
It's not an educational channel, and they don't really pretend to be one either. It's primarily an entertainment channel that sometimes incorporates educational/informative bits into their content.
mina86ng@reddit (OP)
He could have pivoted, but that would be a different video. He wanted to make a video showing average user’s experience.
Nvrnight@reddit
He literally wanted to show what the experience would be like from the average person's point of view. If you want Linux widespread, then it needs to be viable for the average person. It's good to shine a spotlight on these issues so they get fixed, rather than putting your head into the sand and pretending its all sunshine and rainbows in Desktop Linux Land.
amberoze@reddit
I literally gave an example of how he could pivot away from using AI to hallucinate the solution, and direct people to the proper methods instead. With his following, all he did was make a fool of himself in the tech community, where he had a golden opportunity to give people proper direction instead.
can_ichange_it_later@reddit
Absolute nonsense! Not everybody is glued to the jipity.
(Also he sort of does this weird thing for the video, where he aggressively tries to emulate an average person, and in the process he throws his brain into the wind...)
Methode3@reddit
How can he be that bad with Linux. He deals with tech all day….. I’ve been running arch and Debian for about 8 months with zero issues. Also don’t know anyone who’s used pop os.
No-Island-6126@reddit
linus is pretty much the only dude at LMG who doesn't care that much about technology
steakanabake@reddit
because linus is a tech entertainer and less of tech expert hes your friend that has to much money but still buys shit he doesnt need and never will.
marrsd@reddit
Or his expertise with Windows is working against him
steakanabake@reddit
this is just my personal opinion but i really dont think linux is what youd call a power user in the sense of running windows in out of the box ways vs someone who just uses windows a lot. in the same way that steve jobs was part of apple but i wouldnt really call him an engineer.
Indolent_Bard@reddit
Considering he tried installing it during a LAN party, honestly I think it went about as well as could be expected.
Latey-Natey@reddit
Linus’s insistence to use the terminal and not the GUI will be the end of him.
shine_on@reddit
It's entirely possible LTT knew that Pop!_OS was still under development but they did what a typical new user would do, which is do a couple of google searches and then pick something that seemed good based on the results.
I've seen his recent video, and I've seen lots of people reacting to it and commenting on it here, so as a means of driving engagement and promoting discussion it's doing exactly what Linus wanted it to do.
the-machine-m4n@reddit
Pop exclamation mark underscore OS
tdammers@reddit
Or, as I have come to call it, "Pop slash exclamation mark underscore OS".
Marce7a@reddit
The only fault of pop os is probably steam window bugs to be fair.
Watch broddie reaction video
mina86ng@reddit (OP)
But his video just came out while the Trends started picking up in January.
LastNewRon@reddit
/jk
Sirusho_Yunyan@reddit
I think part of is the fact that he objectively doesn't think through his decisions or take advice from more technical people in his team. His videos can be frustrating because he's doing himself a disservice and making his team look stupid. Having said that, Wendell from Level1Techs has done a bunch of Linux stuff recently, which is also cropping up.
BoxedAndArchived@reddit
I've got to disagree with you a little on this.
Most people don't have a team. So his experience is going to be what most other people experience. And if a relatively techy person has issues, then the normal person is also going to have issues.
Another good example of this is Steve Irwin. His TV show often depicted him being "reckless" with wildlife, and among professional zoologists he was regarded as a joke. Years after Irwin died, Destin from Smarter Every Day talked with a marine biologist that shared the opinion that Irwin was a joke until he actually worked with Irwin. Behind the scenes, he knew what he was doing, he was showing how dangerous animals could be. He took precautions, he knew he was going to get hurt sometimes, and that was part of what he felt needed to be shown.
Arguably, Linus, despite being an tech entertainer, needs to show the pitfalls of the Linux experience. There's a reason why the computer world is dominated by Windows and MacOS.
mina86ng@reddit (OP)
That’s on purpose since average user doesn’t have a team let alone team of technical people.
ReactionNo98@reddit
Well , windows users like me are tired of microslop bullshit updates somehow destroying or ruining something 😭✌️
Existing_Radish_3440@reddit
Nah thats just me had a couple of issues. Decided to start with Arch. Then EndeavourOS and finally landed on Ubuntu which I'll likely have to change once these new age verification rolls out.
hirkajnu@reddit
Any ideas on what to switch to?
jso__@reddit
you're going to switch away from a distro because, to comply with a law, they give you a pop up which asks you, without verification, to list your age? just say you're 120 and be done with it. it's not worth the hassle
Existing_Radish_3440@reddit
I left windows because of privacy concerns. What it is, is a dangerous step. I will not comply with a foreign law as stupid as this one
jso__@reddit
But there isn't any privacy concern. As long as you can lie about your age, it doesn't reveal any personal data. If they start implementing age verification, sure, then consider switching, but Ubuntu isn't implementing that.
Existing_Radish_3440@reddit
When governments start going wait they're just lying nobody is 169 years old the governments will likely pressure operating systems to find more intrusive/accurate ways to obtain ages.
jso__@reddit
Sure, maybe. And then you can worry about finding a pirate OS which has developers willing to break the law. But for now, there's really nothing to do other than advocate politically against these laws. Because even though the law itself isn't harmful yet, the reason it's dangerous is because it sets a precedent.
TheG0AT0fAllTime@reddit
You can just archinstall arch and fly high from there, what issues did you face?
Existing_Radish_3440@reddit
Skill issues. I had never touched a linux OS (besides Android if it counts) and decided to try Arch first which seemed to break just a lot of little things, going to EndeavourOS was a little better but I'd seemingly done something wrong since my audio would randomly stop working whenever it booted. So I decided to settle for Ubuntu which was way easier to install and have had no errors. It was a very out of the box install. Ubuntu is pretty much my practice run and when I've got the time plan to set up a VM to play with Arch and get my confidence up.
TheG0AT0fAllTime@reddit
Ugh that sucks. Sorry it was such a mess. I've been using it for a few years now and admittedly things can go wrong. But that's an awful initial experience. I get it.
Existing_Radish_3440@reddit
Yes but it builds character
-turtl-@reddit
Yeah starting with Arch is not a great idea
Existing_Radish_3440@reddit
It was not. But it was a still learning experience
JoshDaMan101@reddit
Oh yeah fair, i was thinking it mightve been you. Hope you got all your issues sorted 👍
arcanecolour@reddit
From 40 searches a month to 100, its the year of Linux /s
Lost-Nature-1841@reddit
It's funny that linux is the most used kernel in the whole world. The most used mobile OS in the entire world. Linux runs the internet infraestructure. But some people are still waiting for the Linux year. Get over it. Linux already won this war.
tdammers@reddit
What people mean by "year of Linux on the desktop" is "year of Linux-based open-source desktop operating systems".
Yes, Android is the most popular mobile OS, and yes, it runs on a Linux kernel, but I'd estimate that about 99.999% of Android devices out there are running a proprietary Android distribution with all the Google stuff and a bunch of vendor-specific shovelware in it - that's not the kind of "Linux" people mean when they say "year of Linux".
Yes, the majority of servers out there runs some flavor of Linux or other, but to the end user, that makes little to no difference; the benefit of Linux OSes is that they are free software, meaning, they put the user in control - but this only works on devices you control, which someone else's server is not, so when you run a web app hosted on a server you don't control, then the OS running on that server makes absolutely no difference whatsoever in terms of how strongly you are in control of your data and your interactions with the service.
In other words, running a Linux OS only really matters in practice if it means you get to be in control of the device. You are not in control of your phone running a proprietary Android distribution, you are not in control of your "smart" TV running Samsung's proprietary Linux-based OS, you are not in control of the firmware in your car that runs on a Linux kernel, you are not in control of someone else's web server running on Linux.
Lost-Nature-1841@reddit
You can run a customized ROM of Android to have full control of your device. Did you forget that Android is open source? There are many alternative Android ROMs. And you still have Android devices that come from the factory with ROMs that allow greater privacy, security, much more control over your device.
You sound like a Microsoft agent in a bombed-out bunker still trying to damage Linux's reputation. Forget it, Microsoft agent. You lost. Haha
tdammers@reddit
You can, but about 0.01% of Android users do.
The base system is, but the versions shipped on off-the-shelf Android devices are not. That's why I said "a proprietary Android distribution": these systems may be built on an open source foundation, and 95% of their codebase may be open source, but the proprietary 5% make it impossible for the average user to properly be in control of their device, so for all practical intents and purposes, it is a proprietary operating system.
And those amount to, what, 0.01% of the overall market? I'm probably being overly generous here even.
Lost-Nature-1841@reddit
That's all Microslop did: tied selling with its shitty product. Now that the world is becoming more educated and things are more accessible because internet, they are losing market share for Zorin, Android, Chrome OS, Aluminium OS next etc etc etc. Microslop had a monopoly because tied selling and other strategies. But even doing tied selling Microsoft lost the Servers War because Windows NT was a totally shitty mierda solution with a proprietary source.
tdammers@reddit
Sure.
But my point is that Android, ChomeOS, and pretty much all the other widely used consumer-grade operating systems, aren't really any better. Some of them run on Linux, but that alone doesn't make them FLOSS in a meaningful way, not as far as the end users are concerned.
So yeah, the "year of Linux" has already happened a decade ago or so, it's just that it didn't happen the way people had hoped, and it didn't bring about the Age of Aquarius or whatever they naively thought would happen. Corporate greed is still ruling the mainstream OS landscape, maybe more so than ever before.
Lost-Nature-1841@reddit
Addendum: even games are super easy and flawless on Linux. Come on Steam + Proton + Zorin killed Microslop. Can you see that i am not being a Linux evangelist but telling you facts.
theillustratedlife@reddit
People who say GNU/Linux sound like pedants, but Linux isn't an operating system so much as it is the biggest part in a kit to make one.
Loud-Section-3397@reddit
lately lots of non-tech friends have been curious about linux because of tik-tok /reels videos showing arch rices and stuff. Oh if they knew...
brandbaard@reddit
I tried switching to CachyOS over the weekend. I was damn close to sticking with it, but bailed back to Windows with these 3 specific sticking points:
- The OneDrive / Google Drive support is non-existent unless you pay the exorbitant license fee for InSync.
- The Nvidia drivers dropping 30% performance in DX12 games (supposedly a fix is close, I'll have to try again when its here)
- I need Excel (and unfortunately, specifically Excel) for work and I couldn't quite get it working properly with WinApps or Winboat. And the web version of Excel is ass. I could probably work around this if
Sadzeih@reddit
NathLWX@reddit
For point number 3, can't you install WinBoat?
brandbaard@reddit
Thanks for the link on 1, I'll try it out. That one didn't pop up in my research looking for a solution.
steakanabake@reddit
could you run it in a windows vm?
jermygod@reddit
just use 1 separate 250GB sata SSD with windows as work OS for excel and such
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
savorymilkman@reddit
Lol I just wanna bot get Rufus flash installer plug in ??? Profit
Tranek21379165@reddit
Yessss
IAmJiaTan@reddit
That was me installing LFS
Glad-Weight1754@reddit
Is the year of linux again?
Low-Ad4420@reddit
Though it's a recurring joke i really think this time there is more substance than ever before. ARM is a good foothold for linux as windows ARM is dogshit.
EA is hiring people for kernel anticheat DRM and this is very telling. DXVK and Proton are doing a great job, and the absolute mess that is windows and microslop will give linux a push (and probably MacOS).
There is a lot of work to do though. Wayland is a mess and GPU drivers are sometimes lacking. The lack of vaapi in nvidia has taken it's tool on firefox/chromium hardware video acceleration but i guess it'll get to a decent state (some external projects are already functional).
We'll see how it goes.
HexspaReloaded@reddit
Why is Wayland a mess? For gaming?
ChickenOverlord@reddit
Here's a sampling of issues caused by Wayland just for Counter Strike 2:
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/csgo-osx-linux/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20wayland
HexspaReloaded@reddit
Oh jeez. Thanks for the links.
gljames24@reddit
Hopefully Vulkan Video supersedes vaapi rather than just adding another video hardware acceleration standard.
Walk-the-layout@reddit
It's always the year of Linux because your entire life is running on Linux. your heart runs on Linux.
Normal_Usual7367@reddit
Every year is the year of Linux
AdmiralQuokka@reddit
`echo "$(date +%Y) will be the year of the Linux desktop!"7
Babbalas@reddit
Hey! I saw you sneaking "desktop" in there!
Glad-Weight1754@reddit
This year will be the year of OpenSuse Linux. I can feel it in my bones.
kemma_@reddit
Puts on “Year of the Linus”
jirka642@reddit
We had been in the year of linux since Proton was released.
Salamok@reddit
It is the year of another Windows version.
Turtvaiz@reddit
{current_year}?!!
newsflashjackass@reddit
Year of the Linux crop top.
MartinSch64@reddit
Every year is the year of linux.
budgetboarvessel@reddit
Again? Still.
Glad-Weight1754@reddit
I think "still" rather than "again" :)
LeadingOtherwise1278@reddit
Yes
cjd166@reddit
How to install Linux 🟢 How to uninstall Linux 🟦 📊
Glittering_Cat1545@reddit
So true lol
Anantha_datta@reddit
Yeah I saw that thread. It’s referencing a spike in Google Trends for the search “how to install Linux.”
Apparently the search interest has jumped a lot recently — some reports say it increased about 5× in the last few months, reaching an all-time high.
The main reasons people are speculating about:
Windows 10 support ending soon – many older PCs can’t upgrade to Windows 11, so people are looking for alternatives instead of buying new hardware.
• Frustration with Windows changes – things like deeper AI integrations (Copilot), ads, and system bloat are pushing some users to explore Linux.
• Linux becoming easier for beginners – modern distributions like Ubuntu or Mint have simple installers and GUIs that feel similar to Windows.
The Reddit post itself is basically pointing out that a lot more people are suddenly searching how to switch, which suggests curiosity about Linux is spreading beyond just developers. That said, spikes in search interest don’t always mean millions of people actually switch OS — it often means people are researching or experimenting before deciding.
GalacticChickenBake@reddit
Microslop dislike that.
Naive-Pride-8928@reddit
Given how Windows 10 reached its final update on October 14, 2025, I am sure a lot of these searches are because of the ridiculous TPM requirement.
A lot of schools and libraries can't throw away old hardware because Windows 11 is no longer compatible.
ArtisticFox8@reddit
My university decided to bypass the Windows 11 TPM requirements, so there is a bunch of PCs from like 2014 running it.
timonix@reddit
As if they aren't just going to keep going but unsupported
ArtisticFox8@reddit
Not all of them will
mina86ng@reddit (OP)
Interesting that the jump happened in January and continued in February. Windows 10 EOD happened in October which I assumed would be the impetus for people to get interested in installing Linux. I wonder if there’s some event I’m missing or maybe it’s just lag.
pizzaiolo2@reddit
Several known tech YouTubers have been covering Linux recently
Ajedi32@reddit
Starting in January? Who?
Addianis@reddit
I don't know about January, but the past 2 weeks or so there has been an uptick in tech channels talking about the age verification laws that are going to start effecting almost all OS distributers that have been popping up recently.
santi28212@reddit
Oh the age verification thing is definetly why. Youtubers keep bringing up how this will be hard for linux.
link_dead@reddit
All of them right around the same time frame, it was kinda weird.
NeuroXc@reddit
This is surprisingly common on YT, they all seem to copy each other's ideas. Sometimes it's all cool and sometimes it's frowned upon, depending on the content sphere.
link_dead@reddit
Or it was some sort of coordinated ad campaign, although I'm not sure who would fund something like that.
Maleficent_Celery_55@reddit
Maybe some famous youtuber made a video about linux? Doubt a massive surge would happen otherwise.
VenusianBug@reddit
I'm one person who recently started planning to shift to linux without watching any videos by famous youtubers about it (still haven't watched it). For me, it wasn't just Windows 11 (which I could install but hate) but an accretion of things that just broke me. A bunch of other people feeling the same might not be enough to cause that jump, but I also think there are lots like me.
bl4ckh4lo@reddit
For me (haven't made the switch yet) it's the enshitification of everything. From the chrome browser, to the native android system, to the spyware on windows os. I'm just done being the product for these mega corps to sell to the likes of DHS/ICE and advertisers.
VenusianBug@reddit
Same. All of this.
I first migrated a sacrificial laptop (there was a reason it was sacrificial, and now the battery is dead). I'm just finishing up another project in a program that only officially runs on Windows before I migrated the not-so-sacrificial one. But I was surprised how simple it was. The hardest part has been because I used MS365 as one of my backup locations - now I have to detangle that and set up a replacement.
Shadow123_654@reddit
Welcome to Linux, hope you have a good time with it!
TheTopAdventure@reddit
im still on windows 10, there ~~is~~ was free extended support for one year if you logged in.
GreatMacAndCheese@reddit
AI has reached its singularity event, Skynet is realizing how much it hates Windows?
Pan-F@reddit
For a lot of ex-Win 10 users, myself included, our personal machines finally forced the Win 11 update only in the last month. That's what made me feel like it's time to stop procrastinating on this, and actually figure out how I can switch to Linux.
I'm dual-booting now, loving getting away from Microsoft as much as I can and hoping to eventually ditch Windows completely.
aphilentus@reddit
For me, the age attestation bills were the last straw. I switched a week or so ago
A_Random_Sidequest@reddit
M$ said Win12 will be a service based and with monthly fee or something like that
Daharka@reddit
Which wasn't true, but the point stands.
uboofs@reddit
It might have something to do with the age attestation bills. Could also be old tax software not working on windows 10.
xgalmes@reddit
I just put Ubuntu on my Surface Laptop Go 2022 because Windows 11 last updates made it totally useless.
From one day to another, It had some kind of power management issues. The i5 CPU was running at 90% but mostly only around 0.7GHz, like it was always at super saver mode. I tried everything...
Ubuntu 24, wow, it's working super smooth and was super easy to install. I should've done it earlier.
ragin2cajun@reddit
Probably around the time Windows Malware 12 was announced.
cow_fucker_3000@reddit
Which was entirely fake news btw
ragin2cajun@reddit
Oh Microslop decided to not integrate AI into their whole ecosystem, backtracked their dataharvesting settings, and won't make users log in with a MS account to use the hardware they bought?
Mrstrangeno@reddit
The year of the linux desktop
The_Pacific_gamer@reddit
LTT and also Windows has been having a bad track record as of lately.
Walk-the-layout@reddit
This is more nuanced than just researches. When people will look at a distro, they will most likely install cachyOS or Ubuntu, Debian or Fedora in some cases... without knowing what they are doing. This is not good for the power users. Linux is not good for the power users. People have been spoon-fed since Microslop started locking down the OS. They are used to something that is stable enough to make them run any program they want.
However, that stability is disappearing on windows and it has never been there to begin with on Linux.
When you want to download a Windows product, you have the ability to download an MSI or EXE installer. Then the wizard will do everything for you including installing missing drivers or dependencies like the oh-so-dreaded c++ installer that's been stacking since the beginning of time. Now on Linux, people will not necessarily get that you cannot use AUR on Ubuntu or apt-get on Arch.
I have experienced most people stack illiteracy firsthand. People from 16 to 18 that I've been with a lot during my life are unable to turn a document from PDF to DOCX or the other way around. Just yesterday I've been asked how to convert an MP3 file to an M4A file. Like I don't know, google it?
Some people will even struggle to change their desktop wallpaper. And all of these complaints will absolutely lead to trash talking of Linux even worse than Arch users trash talking Ubuntu. People are scared of the terminal, for no reason it's present on every OS, but it's just that. On Windows, you never had to open it, mostly. On Mac OS, even less. Now, we have people just going off saying, oh Linux is just a terminal! Oh yeah, you fucked up your install, could you reinstall now?
And all of this will only lead to the poor reputation of Linux being even worse. And that also includes Linus Tech Tips, whose trial of Pop!_OS was absolutely fucked up. Most people in the comments didn't even understand what was wrong. Of course, Linux users who know a bit about it could troubleshoot. Hell, people are gonna ask ChatGPT for it.
Until we have the absolute most locked and most stable OS in the world, we will never be able to satisfy the average Windows power user, starting with my parents for example, who have only seen Windows in all their life and are too old to understand anything else now. Not even MacOS. I tried to explain to them how AUR worked and they just didn't understand. Fault can be on me because I'm pretty bad at explaining stuff.
But yes, we have people who are absolute noobs. They are part of the PC community the same way we are. Many people cannot tell you what an OS is, whereas you in your Linux bubble you can. You are an echo chamber of people who know how computers work. And God bless you for that. You know way more of how computers work then 90% of the planet. And out of the 5% of the 10 that are missing, there are people who are genuinely technophobic. Like my little brother who refused that I patched his YouTube with RV because he was scared to get a virus. A virus!
So, don't get too excited about it. Most people will do research and find the threads of people who do not know how to use Linux and get scared.
Coaxalis@reddit
gaming is what was mostly keeping people on slopdows
No-Island-6126@reddit
No it's not. Convenience was, and still is. The mere action of having to switch OSes is a dealbreaker for most normal people.
Coaxalis@reddit
Nothingtohideness, not convenience.
And gaming.
Ezmiller_2@reddit
I didn't know that it was a crime to have both Windows and Linux. When did this become illegal?
ChaiTRex@reddit
Well, it became illegal to answer that question last week, so we can't tell you.
steakanabake@reddit
and really its like 6 games that have people stuck on microslop for gaming, they just happen to be wildly popular games that everyone plays.
genius_retard@reddit
And typically the only reason they can't be played on Linux is because the anti-cheat system won't allow it.
ChaiTRex@reddit
EA might be working on that.
Ugly_Slut-Wannabe@reddit
The three things keeping me on Windows were Clip Studio Paint, Scrivener and Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher.
I managed to get two of those working almost flawlessly with Bottles and I'll probably soon work on seeing how to get the Affinity 2 suite working.
FattyDrake@reddit
Even tho I got CSP working with pen pressure support under Bottles, I've been making an effort to switch over to Krita to "future proof" my setup. Some rough edges, but they recently overhauled the text tool. Worth checking out. If they ever add 3D layers I'd happily give up CSP entirely.
Ugly_Slut-Wannabe@reddit
They finally fixed that freaking awful text tool?! The text tool, the vector layers and 3D are the biggest things preventing me from going from CSP to Krita.
There's some other stuff I feel it's better on CSP, but those I can deal with not having.
FattyDrake@reddit
Krita 5.3 is what fixes the text tool, it's in final beta stages. I agree about the vector layers too, tho there has been some progress there too (haven't checked them out in the newer betas.)
They have to wait until the 6.0 release is finiahed before thinking about 3D layers because of Qt 6's 3D stuff.
directheated@reddit
Which ones are they that are wildly popular? Forza is the only one that comes to mind but I've been out of the gaming loop.
steakanabake@reddit
league/valorant/fortnight/battlefield(what ever the newest one is)R6 Seige/ i dunno apex legends( if that spot hasnt been taken over by arc raiders, which seemingly goes out of its way to make sure linux works)
directheated@reddit
Ah gotcha, my assumption is it would have been games using Windows store and owned by Microsoft, that Games For Windows or whatever Microsoft used to call it.
steakanabake@reddit
ironically Sea of Thieves runs very well on proton, tbf its the steam version and not the UWP version. only 1st party MS game i have issues with is Grounded 2 but its only the cross save stuff the game its self runs just fine.
the3gs@reddit
I am one of the few who doesn't play any games that require anticheat or anything that isn't supported on linux. I wish it was as easy for most people to switch and never come back. I literally switch completely by accident, as I had a windows install dual boot set up, but I hadn't used it for 6 months before I realized how long it had been. I expected more games to have problems, but as I don't really do multiplayer games, I have never had problems.
steakanabake@reddit
about the only online multiplayer game i play is warframe and havent had an issue running it with proton the devs do not care one bit about running on linux there are even bits of the devs reaching out to the community on how to make the game work even better on linux/proton.
SheriffBartholomew@reddit
I don't play them.
Sensitive_Box_@reddit
I kept windows on my second PC so I could play BF6 and i haven't touched it in two months... Lol might just switch that one over to Linux, too.
steakanabake@reddit
no better time to switch to linux then yesterday.
brandbaard@reddit
For me its Google Drive, OneDrive and Excel :|
steakanabake@reddit
the browser versions dont work?
daniel-sousa-me@reddit
Yes, the penetration of GNU/Linux among nongamers is through the roof!
/s
MicroProcrastination@reddit
Yeah, ive been using linux for few years on and off with dualboot system. Im a laptop guy so i got myself egpu and hoped to test it out on Linux, but it crashes it no matter what i do. So im back to using mostly windows.
EconomistNo5807@reddit
thats crazy, I installed linux on my laptop and gaming desktop about 1 year ago, haven't had any troubles :(
moep123@reddit
There were news on someone installing Linux on a PS5 and making GTA5 running at 1440p, 60fps with ray tracing. Using Steam.
Silber4@reddit
Or Winslops 🤭
Coaxalis@reddit
surveillows
Silber4@reddit
AI slop data harvest environments
HeavyMetalBluegrass@reddit
He makes it look harder than it is. I'm a senior and knew nothing about Windows let alone Linux. I managed to test 4 disros before settling on Nobara. They all worked well and I'm happily using it as my sole OS.
AerieInteresting4171@reddit
Humans are evolving again !
Bill-T-O-Double-P@reddit
The yin and yang of Linus. The alpha and the omega. One creates Linux. The other wrecks it.
-turtl-@reddit
Massive win
Samiassa@reddit
I’ve been really trying and failing 😔 sorry for getting ya’lls hopes up
_o0Zero0o_@reddit
Love to see it
eldragonnegro2395@reddit
Es una buena noticia.
ThinInvestigator4953@reddit
And those people find out how to install linux and decide they dont want to do that. LOL
FlashyCode7140@reddit
I'm curious to know which distro they will choose :o
bcacb@reddit
Debian 13 with KDE Plasma desktop is a very viable alternative to Windows 10 since support has ended. It has a similar look and feel for people not wanting to upgrade their PC hardware to run Windows 11
RayAfterDark@reddit
It was me. I put Linux on my laptop to test the waters. I'm enjoying it, so far!
HexspaReloaded@reddit
Same. Desktop migration scheduled for Christmas.
RandomOnlinePerson99@reddit
Probably also "how to install [game] on [distro]"
Ezmiller_2@reddit
Steam must be super hard for people to use? I'm always confused when folks have problems, unless they be pirates?
RandomOnlinePerson99@reddit
I know, steam handles most stuff through that proton thingy but sometimes there are additional things you need to set or some games just crash.
Ezmiller_2@reddit
Right. I have a few that way, and I bet they would work if I would fork over the money for the remastered Crysis 3.
No-Natural-7412@reddit
Thanks to linux I guess
buildersunstable@reddit
Thats just me looking up the same thing repeatedly
Legitimate-Rush527@reddit
I've seen countless posts and comments about Mint, Pop, Zorin, Cachy etc
Legint question. As a sysadmin / support and now fresh/noob DevOps working in RHEL 7 and 8 nonstop i figured I wanted something *known* that had yum/dnf and rpm's for my daily PCs as well, i've been using Fedora for the last 5 years, before that I used Arch and Manjaro, even before that Ubuntu. I'm missing something on these "new" OSs?
BeastMasterJ@reddit
Not really. Most of them (good ones at least) are just some additional software bundled in with the upstream os for gamepads, non-foss software (nvidia drivers etc), and maybe some DE tweaks. A lot of them have kernel tweaks, or a different scheduler. Cachy compiles binaries for specific cpus. Nothing major, arguably snake oil. Really if you have a system that works they offer nothing.
Cachy/nobara is a great way to get arch/fedora installed with codecs/drivers quickly but that's really the only case where I would use them, personally
Ezmiller_2@reddit
Cachy also tweaks the kernel timing a big. Your hardware becomes much more aggressive in getting things done.
BeastMasterJ@reddit
That was addressed in my comment but frankly it's kinda snake oil.
I have both kernels on my machine and freely swap between both.
Ezmiller_2@reddit
From what I have read and experienced, Cachy has a different timing scheduler for the kernel. Instead of "best guess", when it notices a task is taking longer, .then the kernel throws everything at it. So whatever the task is, it becomes top priority. I installed it on an old HP Envy desktop that has a Skylake i5, 12gb DDR3L (udimms, not laptop), and a 580X 8gb. oh a Samsung or SanDisk SSD. Not joking, boot time is like 5, 10 seconds from the HP screen. It runs super stable too IMO. But then I come from the old school of Suse 9.2 and Slackware. I wish I had a legit use for RHEL, but I don't. It was super stable when I used it and it's always felt less unfinished than other distros IMO.
mina86ng@reddit (OP)
Probably not. If you’re happy with whatever you’re using, keep using that. If there is something that’s missing, it’s probably possible to install it on your system. (I call that ‘Linux distributions are not like cars’).
clemtibs@reddit
My money is research on the self hosted discord alternatives...
Ok-Membership8756@reddit
there are still people googling, that great tbh
k0fi96@reddit
I don't know if the definition of viral has changed, but to me something goes viral when EVERYONE knows about it. When my 70 year old father who only watches the news and has no social media asks me about something going on with the Internet, that's how I know something has truly broken containment and gone viral.
I_T_Gamer@reddit
I really hope to see a massive swing on Steam, I only game on my home PC so obviously thats where I want most of the eyes, on Linux support in gaming. Its light years better than it was, and I hope it continues to improve.
SheriffBartholomew@reddit
It is way better than gaming support on Windows 11. Sheesh, what a disaster that is.
UtterlyInsane@reddit
I'm glad to hear that. I had I basic Ubuntu years back and loved it, but the lack of games was a bummer. Not that my computer could run anything triple A. WINE worked for most stuff without a Linux version anyway
PopePolycarp@reddit
I am into Linux all of the sudden, because of the Jia Tan deep dive video from Veritasium.
EmbedSoftwareEng@reddit
"How to install Linux on a Soviet toaster from 1965."
AuDHDMDD@reddit
If you're not doing an IoT LTSC install, you can't/won't upgrade to 11, don't want 11s slop, and to supposedly deal with a subscription AI based Windows 12, Linux is your only option and keep the same hardware.
drewski3420@reddit
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means
void4@reddit
Honk honk
jermygod@reddit
why are you speaking English?
speak native American or something
Honk honk
K1kobus@reddit
Curious!
esmifra@reddit
Yes, and Reddit is American.
You can be pro environment and have a car and a house with electricity.
You can promote migrating towards European products but still use non European tools if there's no alternative with high enough market share for what you need.
Interesting_Buy_3969@reddit
echo 2026 year of the linux desktop
Nnyan@reddit
I have all my home servers running and one personal laptop running linux. Work laptop will be Windows don’t see that changing.
Blackmore1030@reddit
The straight consequence of Windows becoming unusable.
track-10@reddit
I was one of these people contributing to that spike. I'd been thinking about it for ages and the new year seemed as good a time as any to make the move.
I started with an old Surface Go 1, then my 2nd hand ThinkPad. Still on my to-do list is my old desktop that I want to turn into a Media Server.
My main reason, aside from detesting Microsoft and wanting to opt out of Big Tech and focus on FOSS, was to breath new life in to old tech and save money.
It's been so fun to tinker again and feel more in control of my tech. I wish I'd done it sooner!
xander1421@reddit
time to make tutorial videos)
slutty_butterfly19@reddit
Well it looks like my wifi/bt card is finally getting driver support on linux soon so I might actually be able to give it a real shot this time.
zlice0@reddit
gee i can't imagine why xp
koziello@reddit
What does y axis represent though? I see this as total number of searches per day, which would be a bump from 40 to 100 searches.
Percentage wise very impressive, but kind of irrelevant in nominal numbers.
Cooper_Wire@reddit
No, I think 100 is a reference for the maximum
koziello@reddit
Maximum of all google searches given day? That'd be hundreds of thousands searches if not millions. That's very unlikely, or we are really in the mythical Year of Linux.
Excuse me for remaining sceptical, though it would be a really good news.
K1kobus@reddit
The y-axis doesnt represent absolute values but a trend. The maximum value in the timeframe is set to a value of 100 and 0 being an absolute zero. All values in between are relative.
I hate these kinds of representations as well but they are quite common when the data behind the trend is complicated and you want to present a simplified trend.
koziello@reddit
Thank you!
Cooper_Wire@reddit
I didn't explained it clearly. Here's google description for the y-axis :
> Numbers represent search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means there was not enough data for this term.
mina86ng@reddit (OP)
It’s a normalised scale, not a raw number.
esmifra@reddit
It's percentage wise.
koziello@reddit
So not great, not terrible kind of thing
Tequilla_Sunsett@reddit
It's always time for some linux install.