this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2025
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Preface: I am a Linux user
The Linux desktop needs to not require users to dig through config files to enable features that both windows and Mac have working by default. Fingerprint sensors, audio interfaces, broken bootloaders that you have to fix yourself. Requiring people to ever use a command line even once will keep people on Windows as the dominant platform.
Every time I have to look at a Linux forum to figure out why something isn't working and the answers are run these commands I am instantly reminded that this is the exact thing keeping Windows mainstream.
Driver support still isn't perfect. Software support as well. Linux needs to ship out of the box running exe files in compatibility layers. Linux needs to adopt executable installers for software packages that can be downloaded on the web. If Linux wants to be the way people use computers, Linux needs to fit the mould that windows has built for the people who have used it for the last 40 years.
Doing anything differently is enough of a deterrent for 90% of computer users. And of those 90%, 75% of them will give up immediately trying to fix anything that doesn't work and either call someone else or decide it's broken and do nothing.
Linux is incredibly powerful and I believe it should be the way we run computers, but I get exactly why it isn't.
I agree, but only until the part you mention how people should install their software. And that's simply because I don't think that people should install random .exes or .debs from the internet, because repositories are:
Yeah I'd say a large percentage of users don't even know what a repository is, have no idea what a maintainer does, and wouldn't even refer to their 'apps' as software.
You're asking a lot of of people who don't give a fuck.
There's another thing that frustrates me about Linux and its various philosophies. Should I be allowed to do what I want with my software? Or should the machine protect me from myself? It seems at conflict with itself to allow you to do stuff like delete system files without much more than a warning while also having protections in place as you describe. Windows tried doing this exact thing with S Mode and people get pissed about windows not allowing them to do whatever they want.
I fundamentally disagree that users should not be allowed to install whatever they want from wherever they want.
You can install whatever dodgy file from wherever you want. I (and many others) don't think that should be the default
Basically this, it's why it has worked from that gaming side since just installing steam and running a game is now a painless process thanks to proton.