The indoctrination of windows is extreme. Windows is just as hard as linux, harder even with all the layers of obscurity.
And yet... linux is hard, and users decry RTFM as "not growing the userbase"
this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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Windows users and Linux users are not seeking the same thing from their machines. The common mistake I often see from Linux advocates.
From personal experience, when I was a Windows user, I didn't care (or even know) about privacy, open-source software, nor owning my machine. I didn't care if I had to sign up for a Microsoft account, and I never changed defaults ever (except for my wallpaper). I just wanted the machine to turn-on, work, and play some games.
Why am I bringing this up? Because Linux requires the user care about their machine and defaults. You need to know your architecture, graphics card, and threat-model. You need to know what your apps are called and where they come from. You need to know what tools you need to troubleshoot (and devs will not help you). This is the biggest the pain-point of Linux. Do not succumb to the survivorship bias of RTFM or command-line.
This issue cannot be fixed from simplifying Linux interfaces (though we should do this anyway!). The soul of Linux is adventure, collaboration, and tinkering. To get the most from your machine, you're going to have to interact with several communities. This is what makes Linux great, and frankly I do not think we should kill this for the general public - this is how you get enshittification.
The general public needs to understand that incompetence (being brain-dead) will lead to misery. It is simply the rule of the land. You need to care and you need to collaborate. We should not welcome nor accommodate users that refuse to do this.
My wife is on NixOS, because she wanted a system that would be exactly the same if it died. She doesn't know Linux from Mac or Windows; She doesn't care about privacy or where apps come from, only that it operates the exact same everyday. (And Windows could not satisfy this requirement)
A pain point I've seen with NixOS for new users is the focus on editing files β how easy is it for her to install applications that way?
IIRC, flatpaks do work with NixOS so long as it's enabled (and you've installed GNOME Software / Discover / etc - since I assume they're not using the terminal to install programs, and that's assuming that they don't need more than a web browser).
So, if OP already set that up, then if Flathub has all you need, then it would make sense.
Though the Nix philosophy would disagree because that's imperatively installing software rather than declaratively. You could probably wire up something to dump
flatpak listto a file every so often and then load that in fromconfiguration.nixor a Flake, but I'm not well versed in Nix at all hahaShe doesn't install apps, Her config is what she needs. But nixOS install is pretty simple if you can copy paste text.
You go here https://search.nixos.org/packages
Search for a package, and click if you want permanent or ephemeral app and paste the code into the shell or into your config file.
Run a rebuild
Pretty easy
Yeah, I'm used to NixOS β however, having to edit the config (instead of e.g. a package manager) is a common pain point I see when others use NixOS, and it often leads to them switching distros.
Yeah, I find it simple, but I'm used to text edits driving batch files etc. Daily driver I use Tumbleweed, the Yast zypper GUI gives you select and apply for pqckages, no command line needed.