Opensource

These websites are really bad, I really don't understand why many of these websites that invite people to Linux fail to understand the user that would browse something like this. It straight up links to the GNU website to browse distros and software, which by the way, isn't loading as of writing this comment.

This entire website talks about ditching Windows without an obvious call to action. Windows is bad, yes, but giving people a list of every distro under the sun and saying "good luck" won't convince anyone to switch. Give obvious beginner recommendations. Tell people to install Linux Mint, and a beginner-friendly guide on HOW, and why Linux is good rather than just convincing everybody to stay on Windows 10.

IMO, the FSF unfortunately probably shouldn't lead this campaign. They only endorse purely-FOSS systems, and that's not realistic in the short-term future for most Windows users.

The page starting with a popover donation call doesn't help either...

Honestly, I have the greatest hope in Valve for getting users away from Windows. The best way to get more users to adopt Linux is to have it preinstalled on their device. 2nd best option is to manage to brainwash semi-techsavvy users to swap over, and I'm hopeful SteamOS could do that once it's properly released.

From there it's hopefully going to get some more momentum to grow

Linux still needs a lot of UX cleanup. Everyone has different ideas of how to make a desktop work and none of them are compatible with eachother.

Dependency hell is still a problem for some mainstream distros, especially since there are literally a half dozen package formats in use.

Arch is only easy if you actually know how linux works - if you're a mundy, you will be lost trying to get and keep an Arch system running.

Don't overestimate the tech abilities of the mundy pc user. The simple act of balena etching a usb stick may as well be brain surgery for most people, and they will have to do more complex fixes to keep their stuff running in Linux.

Make a proper accounting software replacement to Quickbooks that doesn't require a linux degree to operate.

Integrate VR support apps into the distro pipeline. This is still so broken even the tech savvy may find it's a roll of the die if it works.

Fix the tables in Libreoffice - converting Word documents is a nightmare if table formatting is involved.

Waydroid needs to integrate better as an app, and not just be a screen hogging full screen app. Also, brain surgery just to get Waydroid setup, and on an ancient version of Android at that (11).

Fix the thing with XFCE where it shows the desktop screen before locking it after waking up from sleep. Ths is several seconds of laptop security compromising peekaboo and it is a surprise it still isn't fixed yet!

The Archiving app in LXqt and KDE I think as well has inverted option "preserve folder path when extracting" which should extract folders and subfolders in the archive when checked but nope, it dumps all the files without any folders wherever you extract it, which breaks a lot of things.

And so on...

and so on...

The page should just be a list of steps to switch. Each step should have very specific resources listed for if that step goes wrong. It should not give options. It should just have one distro, and say exactly what to install.

I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have something at the top listing a few scenarios where you’d have to stick with Windows.

Might dissuade people, but the list could be “smart” if you had checkboxes at the top that list activities the user currently does. Then the list would include steps to tell the user how to do that in Linux instead of Windows.

One of the major barriers for me to switching to Linux as my primary OS was a simple hardware limitation. I use a Logitech MX Ergo, and I spend much of my time in Discord voice chats. The open source driver for my mouse, Solaar, wasn't able to be configured to properly hold down the mouse buttons that I use for push to talk. That, to me, is a complete deal-breaker.

I also haven't yet spent the time to figure out JACK audio as an alternative to Voicemeeter Potato, which is another big hurdle, but if my push to talk doesn't even work there's little incentive to do that.

I'll have to see if Solaar has been updated to get this functionality working yet. If it has, maybe I'll give it another shot. I honestly would love to switch to Linux. I prefer it in a lot of ways, but short of learning to make a driver myself or code something to fill the gap, it's a barrier I haven't really seen a way around. There seems to be a fair bit of that with Linux in niche use-case scenarios, which is I think one of the major obstacles to more wide-spread adaptation.

From what I have seen, FSF has their head so far up their own ass that there's no point.