• TommySoda@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    Like it or not, this is the easiest way to get Linux further into the mainstream. I’ve had Linux on my laptop for about a year or so and have been loving it, but I’ve still been wary about switching my gaming PC. I think the biggest issue with most people hesitant to switch is ease of use. From the outside Linux looks cryptic and kinda scary for most people. I mean you have to do research just to find out which distro to use and even then might not even find one you like on the first try. With Windows… You just install Windows and you can already do everything you need to do.

    • mesamune@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      One could argue it’s been mainstream for a while. We just don’t call it Linux. We call it android, game consoles, TVs etc… for consumers they look at hardware and software as one in the same.

      If I were to guess, if steam os takes off, we will have another word other than Linux for these machines.

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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      14 hours ago

      Honestly Linux market share doesn’t matter much.

      With that being said Linux can be used however you see fit as long as you aren’t violating licensing

      • iopq@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        Unless your game bans you from playing because you’re on Linux, then market share matters a ton

        • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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          5 hours ago

          Gaming has nothing to do with Linux. I wish that we could just move on from that. It isn’t the fault of Linux or anyone in the community that some companies choose to ban from you to running there software. Market share is unlikely to cause major changes.

            • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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              3 hours ago

              I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.

              But even if it did, do you seriously think legacy companies would want to support it? Linux encourages knowledge, tinkering and vendor independence which is not what these companies want. They want a locked down platform that keeps the companies safe.

          • Ketata Mohamed@mastodon.tn
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            5 hours ago

            @possiblylinux127 @iopq
            in reality, gaming on Linux became since a long time way better than on winlol, and Mesa & CodeWeavers are actively working to make it better every day, the problem comes from developers, mainly kernel-level anticheat, according to members on the fediverse or one of the communities I follow on fb, it all comes down to a simple checkbox if you want the game to allow running on Linux or nay, so the blame falls down to stupid devs not the OS

        • sheogorath@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          I want to move to Linux but the value proposition for game pass is too damn good, I haven’t bought games the last 3 years because the last 5 games that I bought all got into game pass. It’s like they have this one executive that has the same taste as me.

          I’ll stick with windows for gaming (sadly) until my financial situation improves ಥ⁠‿⁠ಥ

    • Shirasho@lemmings.world
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      15 hours ago

      The biggest hurdle by far is that you need to compile the software you want to use from source more often that is acceptable for the average user. There is also a serious lack of proper hardware driver support.

      Linux is way too fragmented and trying to get up and running with basic apps requires way too much technical skill.

      I really do hope that SteamOS will finally solve these problems by having the backing of a foundation (company) that has years of UX experience (with multiple failures and successes under their belt) that targets a wide range of audiences. This should give hardware manufacturers confidence that developing drivers for that OS will not be a waste of time.

        • FoolHen@lemmy.world
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          8 hours ago

          That doesn’t mean that others don’t have to. I installed Debian on a partition and couldn’t get the WiFi USB stick to work. The manufacturers drivers couldn’t be installed because they were ancient, and installing a generic one for the chip didn’t work. Had to give up. In windows it’s plug and play.

          • stiephelando@discuss.tchncs.de
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            6 hours ago

            I had the same experience with an old printer: Linux recognized it directly whereas Windows didn’t. I wouldn’t say that Linux has a strong disadvantage at these things.

      • cm0002@lemmy.worldOP
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        14 hours ago

        compile the software you want to use from source more often that is acceptable for the average user.

        Wut? I’ve been using Linux in some form or another for years and that is greatly exaggerated even for back then

        Linux is way too fragmented and trying to get up and running with basic apps requires way too much technical skill.

        Um. WHAT. most distros are just some flavor of one of the handful of major ones, like Debian (Even Ubuntu is based on Debian). If it’s a Linux application, it’ll probably work on your distro. There’s some other cases, like FreeBSD which isn’t a Linux kernel, so things differ there, but it’s unlikely you’ll be running it at home unless you’re venturing out of “average user” domain, like Arch for Linux.

        Things have never been easier

      • naught@sh.itjust.works
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        15 hours ago

        The majority of users won’t even touch the command line if they’re on a noob friendly distro. Been that way for a long time. Only Gentoo users are compiling from source, and even then, not that frequently

      • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        The biggest hurdle by far is that you need to compile the software you want to use from source more often that is acceptable for the average user.

        I’ve been using Linux as my main OS since 2007 and not had to do that once.

        Linux is way too fragmented and trying to get up and running with basic apps requires way too much technical skill.

        > open app store

        > search

        > install any flatpak you like

        If anything Windows is the complicated one in this regard.