Oh, totally. I've lost count of the times I've helped folks with their computers and most of their problems seem to be from using Windows: "I'm confused about antivirus," "I keep forgetting to check on updates for the program I use so much," "I'm unsure if I'm on the correct site to download an exe file from," "I keep getting ads in my taskbar," "I was going to find a different browser to use but my computer dissuaded me from doing so," and on and on, and I just think "If only you'd simply try Linux."

I’m helping a family member build a pc. He wanted to use Windows

Building a PC technically doesn't include OS installation.

Build it, boot your OS of choice from a live USB to verify the hardware all works, then walk away.

I told my friends and family years ago that I will be happy to set them up with a working Linux installation and will support them as needed... but if they want to use Windows they are on their own.

I'm really surprised at how much people are ripping on Linux here at lemmy. It's completely justified, I agree that Linux still needs some polish in a few areas before it can REPLACE windows, but I would've figured lemmy to be a bit more... I dunno red pilled and biased towards Linux.

I daily Fedora for ALL my games pretty much, save for Metro Redux: Enhanced Edition and SteamVR titles. Games with anticheat that don't work on Linux? I don't play them anymore, if they don't wanna play ball that's fine.

I'm gonna doubt this one. I've done several installs of various debian-based distros and a full reinstall of Windows 10 recently, and I feel confident in saying that, to have this much difficulty installing Windows, you would either have to be using a corrupt image or damn near tech illiterate.

Sounds more like a hardware issue than a Windows one.

are you trying to do something apecial? windows 11 is a very quick and uninvolved install

I know your struggle. It's not uncommon to experience issues with the Windows installer if the install medium is not created using Microsoft's official Windows installation media creation tool (Use the middle option to download mediacreationtool.exe).

Coming from Linux, I tried writing the Windows .iso directly to a USB drive using dd, this absolutely would not work on any machine for me. Sometimes the install medium would boot, sometimes it wouldn't, but even if it did the installer wouldn't recognize any storage mediums or would fail part way through installing. Using the official media creation tool resolved all the issues I was having.

I do not know why the Windows .iso images do not work on any of my machines, but it sounds like you are experiencing the same issues that I was. Give the official media creation tool a try, hopefully that resolves the issue.

You can tell them all the pros and cons about it, but in all 38 years of my life, I've only had one person enthusiastically wanted to try something new on their PC, a fellow class mate from back in highschool. People legitimately don't like new things when they think what they already use is perfectly fine.

Right now we're in the "every other" release of Windows, the one that's shit. 7 was good, so 8 was shit. 10 was good, so now 11 is shit. I'm not surprised you're having problems.

Might try using 10 and see if that's any better. At a minimum it's not going to be nearly as picky about what it will or won't install on.

write tiny10 to usb
boot usb
15 minute install
windows

Wait... You built a computer. Installed an OS on it, one of the easiest OSes to install... And now are having an issue installing steam... And somehow it's the OS' fault?

This is either fake, trying to pirate windows, or your trying to avoid responsibility for not being able to assemble a simple computer. Wtf?

Lol I threw in the towel after round 2 of the insider hub with windows 11 beta

Thanks for ignoring literally everyone's demands and removing the core features that made windows usable Microsoft

Been happy on Fedora for 2 years. Never going back.

Hasn't even been stable since windows 7 tbh

Yeah, I've had issues with it too! I installed the latest Windows 10 on my mom's laptop after replacing the hard drive with an ssd, and it took me way longer than it should have to do something as simple as move files from the old hard drive to the new one! And a week later, she calls me with issues related to the auto backup OneDrive thing, and I had to troubleshoot that from 2.5 hours away. If she didn't need Photoshop and Lightroom, I would have installed some sort of Windows-similar Linux distro for her. I also have had so many issues with Windows 11 for school that I just stopped using it on bare metal and just have a VM for the one program I need for my CS classes.

Windows and Apple both capitalize on most folks lack of minimal tech savviness plus being creatures of habit. So much so, Apple gave away laptops to numerous Silicon Valley highschool classes in the mid 2000's, just to entrench them into the system.

I've been using Linux for a few years now and I still randomly think about what took me this long to switch. It's how an OS should be made. It can simply be installed and used out the gate or it can be tinkered with to make an ideal setup. Not to mention the lack of invasive tracking. Windows is so bad it's more complete monitoring of the users than tracking.

Regardless, August 2023 to August 2024 will definitely be the year of the Linux desktop! /s

I've installed W10 like 2 years ago and it was one of the worst installing experiences in my life, so many unnecessary barriers.

Installing Windows is easy, but once something goes wrong, troubleshooting becomes more challenging. You have an error code? Yeah, well, try these 100+ things that are the same things you gotta try with every other error code out there. None of those things worked? Well, reinstall windows that should fix it.

Granted, I have plenty of experience with linux at this point to where I won't stress when something fucks up but ive dealt with my fair share of windows issues as well. The majority of the time, I end up reinstalling windows...

Windows 10 LTSC is the way to go if you absolutely have to use Windows, I'd love to use Linux on my gaming rig but Assetto Corsa + my simracing hardware doesn't play nice at all.

I will have to disagree but am a sysadmin by trade, so I work with Limux, Mac and Wimdows. I do run Linux and Steam on an HP Omen but was running Win 11 on it before with zero issues. I switched to Linix because all my other machines are Limux and its a bit of a hassle running compatability mode on Wimdows in order to read games saved on Linux. My son and I built his gaming rig and the hardest part for me is ordering the parts from different vendors. I think its all anout expectations. If you start hating Windows, you really wont find anything good with it and just see its faults.