There's quite a lot needed from peripheral manufacturers, regarding drivers and utilities. You still can't, for example, just buy any new printer or scanner - you have to check compatibility first.
this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2025
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Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Being able to do everything a "normie" would do without the need to use a terminal.
And a way for companies to get flatpak as an alternative, i remember a friend of mine who tried to use 'buntu budgie for a while and he needed a software for cartographic stuff.
We got lucky the company of said software (and yes, it needed to be THAT specific software to avoid compat' issues, so no free alternatives were viable even if they were available) used to provide a .deb package, we got forced to change a lot of sys native binaries to make it work and ended up just breaking a lot of other stuff to do so. Flatpaks (fuck snaps) need to be the default option to be available across systems without caring about distros, so anyone can run it on "mandragora linux" if they want to
They need to be able to buy accessory products that do more harm than good. It’s can’t be a proper alternative to windows without CCleaner support!
Maybe you jest, maybe not, but scams and bad actors will be a required milestone for popularity
Oh, heavens, I can only imagine what crapware OEMs would cook up with full access to the OS…
How would you like 11 gigabytes of junkware in your kernel? That only works on that version? Oh, and your computer won’t work without it.
A universeal and thought out accessibility system. Best with kernel support.
Games are still not perfect. Multiple screens can be really finicky if they have different resolutions and refresh rates.
- Needs to come pre-installed on computers.
- Pre-installed distro needs to support one-click installation (like .app or .exe).
- Pre-installed distro needs to have be easily searchable (for problems, and e.g. searching "chrome DISTRO_NAME" needs to pop up with a link to the one-click installer).
- Pre-installed distro needs to run perfectly out-of-the-box, no fiddling with drivers, no needing to issue a random shell command for some random issue.
- UI needs to be intuitive. Probably something like KDE. Could maybe do Elementary or GNOME with dash-to-dock or something.
- Updates should be easy. Ideally apps can self-update or the apps will indicate if they need an update and have a button opening up an updater that can update all your apps/the OS.
- Updates for minor programs need to be hidden/rolled into OS updates. Most people aren't gonna want to see that glibc updated.
- Better management of stuff like VPNs (probably not important for the average user, but e.g. NetworkManager's GUI support is kinda shit).
- If using GNOME, need to have app indicator stuff pre-installed (if I'm being honest, the fact it's not built-in is absurd).
- Needs to come with good basic apps. Some of the default apps included with DEs are kinda shit. There is still no truly good mail client IMO (at least that doesn't look dated AF).
Probably more.
EDIT: Something like Lutris should probably be integrated into the OS. Installing non-Steam games is a minor hassle at the moment IMO.
Pre-installed distro needs to support one-click installation (like .app or .exe).
This defeats a lot of what makes Linux secure. The main reason you don't get malware is because you never run untrusted binaries from the internet and you install everything from trusted sources like your package manager. A non tech savvy person doing this will inevitably hit one of the super rare Linux malware in the wild. Clueless person downloads the wrong installer is the model malware entry case. I also don't see a benefit of just having an app store, you can even show proprietary software by default as long as they can be turned off (I suspect the main reason for one click installation is for downloading proprietary software).
Personally, basically no one I know uses the app stores on windows or macos much. These app stores are actually functional in that they have proprietary apps and allow purchases. There is basically 0 chance Linux will become popular if you can only install things through an app store (especially those that make it hard/impossible to buy proprietary apps). Additionally, desktop Linux is not particularly secure anyway. Flatpaks are helpful here, but most require manual tuning of their sandbox to actually be secure, which the average user is 100% not gonna do. On top of this, what do you do when an app is not available in your curated app store? Do you download it directly online? Do you trust some random repository you find online that can be filled with who knows what at a later point? Or do you just say "oh well sucks to be you I guess?" If you download it directly online, then it may not even have dependency information. If it doesn't embed dependency information, then it's basically useless to your average person. It also has the problem you mentioned of someone downloading the wrong executable. Likewise, the other two options are IMO just not viable.
IMO, the only way for a package manager/app store solution to work is:
- The platform is built around it from day 1
- The platform has a large number of developers submitting their packages to it (as opposed to the distro maintainers having to track down changes themselves)
- The app store has payment methods
- The app store has proprietary apps
- The app store has a large number of reviewers that can check the apps submitted in a timely manner
- Probably bundling dependencies with the apps.
- The app store has a functional review system with users actually leaving reviews.
- Going along with the reviews, going through the app store (as opposed to using the package manager directly) may need to be a requirement to encourage reviews, at least at first.
Basically, it needs to be an iOS/Android situation, with a similarly large company backing it. I should also note that it's possible to install malware on iOS/Android, just harder, and the scope is usually less severe because of sandboxing.
EDIT: Also, it's entirely possible to do one-click installs in a "safe" way, by requiring that developers get their apps signed by whoever makes the distro (like macos gatekeeper or whatever it's called).
EDIT 2: I should also note that just being "different" is enough for people not to use something. If something basic, like the way to install apps, is different enough, people may just decide they don't like it. My relatives would likely do this, for instance.
For the vast majority of users Linux is just a worse deal. Only thing that really comes to mind that Linux does that users care about is that it will support that hardware that Windows 11 will leave behind, and even those users will happily just run Windows 10 without updates and if that bites them in the ass then maybe they’ll upgrade or just ask their IT friend to use a bypass to make Windows 11 at least work on their old hardware.
Otherwise, of the things users actually care about, Linux has worse app support to the point that even pro-Linux users would rather dual-boot that lose access to their games and worse hardware support. Linux also has a problem of not being well understood by a lot of tech folk so if you bring somebody onboard you better be ready to be their only point of support.
ChromeOS is probably the best example against this since it is basically just a browser, the laptops it sells on are substantially better value than their budget counterparts and realistically a lot of the people buying them are parents for their kids so the user’s preference is substantially pushed aside in favour of cost. The SteamDeck is another good counter-example since it essentially refuses to compete with the PC gaming market by calling itself a handheld.
Linux is stuck in the crappy position of needing more users to get more software and hardware support but users need better software and hardware support for Linux to make sense compared to Windows. It’s getting better and Valve’s efforts have steadily brought the Linux gaming percentage up but it’s still the enthusiast OS.
By all means encourage it’s usage though. Linux is a far more open and privacy-respecting option and the more tech folk and basic-usage users that adopt it the better!
I think the hardware compatibility issues may be overstated. It seems (to me) that besides apple silicon, the support for most consumer hardware is pretty robust. this seems especially true of the kinds of hardware casuals use. Im not a tester, but havent seen a dell, hp, or Lenovo with a hardware issue in ages.
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I think the big problem is no Ubuntu circa 2010 distro anymore that "just works" ala netbooks of the era. Only Fedora has Ubuntu in 2010-level hardware support for actual modern hardware, but no Broadcom wifi sans internet and you will need to google for and execute like 40 lines of random cli commands that seem to add the same 3 codecs 14 ways apiece to make HEVC work (more for VLC HEVC ironically). Ubuntu does Broadcom wifi out of the box, but has gotten bad and has poor hardware support overall for new hardware. Mint has the best printer support, but as of 22.1 no longer does Broadcom wifi out of the box... SteamOS is actually really great -- and has MARKEDLY better hardware support for dongles and such than Bazzite, no comparison, and Bazzite suffers from Fedora's shit HEVC situation PLUS immutable distro BS where it DOES use system .so's but is in denial -- but isn't a real distro...
I'm still seeing YouTube comments about having to use the terminal for everything. I mainly use it for btop
For non-enterprise users only two things:
- Zero reasonably priced options for support when things go wrong.
- Breaking changes caused by updates that make that support necessary.
If my neighbor's Windows or Apple machine breaks they can call Microsoft or Apple, the PC manufacturer or a bunch of different support providers. Microsoft provides free support if one of their updates causes problems.
I can't find any Linux support aimed at home users, only very expensive enterprise support options.
Have u ever talked to tech support of microsoft as usual user? With such quality ofsupport it would be better that it would none,in the end all their support coming please reboot computer.
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You can call Microsoft? I thought Microsoft called me
Hello this is da virus techneetiian fwom da Microsoft.
It's amazing how much damage those scammers cause.
Last year I ran into a retired neighbor at Staples buying a new laptop because her existing machine had been hacked. She came back after leaving it running to find someone was logged in remotely. They drained $8k from her retirement account. Turned out 6 months earlier she got a call from "Microsoft" asking to connect to her machine because they "noticed it had a problem."
Te community lmao
I guess it would be reducing the need of terminal usage as much as possible. That's still the only thing a common user struggles with, in my opinion. The rest is just difference or has nothing to do with Linux.
With Linux gaming is rising currently, most common problem is kernel anti-cheat games and it's not Linux problem, for example. What are devs supposed to do? To develop literal Windows kernel compatibility layer or something? But Linux may do stuff on their end to make cheating difficult to keep game studio's happy but that would also mean to stray away from its philosophy. As a general platform, it would be hard to do this anyway. This would be possible per distro basis. Maybe Linux dev circles are already discussing this, maybe not, I don't know honestly.
I mean to be fair most modern distros have a gooey for everything from updating to obtaining new packages to installing and managing software settings everything
If you want to use a terminal, it is completely optional in most distros now.
Hell I installed God damn endeavor OS for my brother. He is not once needed to use a terminal in 2 and 1/2 years. He uses nothing but a GUI manager for packages gaming everything.
He's the kind of guy who doesn't understand the difference between his desktop and a web browser. Took him about 3 weeks to get used to KDE and other than being inundated with a bunch of questions at the start of just what the name of different applications were to be able to find settings. He seriously couldn't find the settings app called settings.
He hasn't had any issues that he wouldn't also have had on Windows. At this point everything is just game related and unique to the game he happens to be playing.
I could end of the day. Terminal usage is entirely not required. It's just easier to use the terminal for so much that a lot of people go straight to it or default back to it instead of fighting through the GUI. That's the real issue. It's not that the terminal is mandatory. It's that the GUI while they exist and are competent in, complete enough to actually cover all your use cases finally.
Still need a lot of work to get to the point where they are. So user-friendly that even my idiot brother can use them without help at the start of his learning experience.
To be fair 7 or 8 years ago GUI were not complete enough to cover all use cases in terminals were still very much required for some niche things. We've come a long way, especially in the last three or 4 years on that front.
Also, as someone who has helped probably 60ish people over the last 4 years convert to Linux. The thing I have learned the most stop recommending gnome. Like gnome is the least user friendly desktop experience to learn on for new users. It is far too restrictive and descriptive too new users.
It results in new users. Getting frustrated because things that they expect to be there or to be adjustable or to work like Windows or Mac just don't. You need too many extensions, tools, tweaks and things to get it to the point that new users can bring existing knowledge from other systems over and hit the ground running.
Gnome is gnome's way no one else is in that fundamentally is a bad new user experience in a very poor learning platform.
If we weren't in a world where windows and Mac were so widespread it would be fine. But because users already have a host, a lifetime of knowledge based on other systems, you have to be able to convert that knowledge to the new system for new users. Asking them to do something a specific and new way or to move outside of the officially supported methods immediately to be able to use that knowledge. Is bad.
I've put new users on mate Cinnamon budgie kde gnome and xfce.
My experience the ones that do the best for new users coming from Windows or Mac. Has been xfce for users who have been using computers since Windows 95-XP. Cinnamon and mate tend to do amazingly well for users that grew up on Windows 7.
While KDE has far and away with kde6 been the most reliable for Windows 10 and 11 converts especially kids between the ages of like 12 to 16.
I've put people on endeavor popos mint and even open suse that have all done very well.
Weirdly enough. Every time someone tries Ubuntu it breaks on them not immediately. Usually usually within about 3 months. It just always breaks and some stupid way. I have just started telling people to avoid Ubuntu.
Some small but important taken-for-granted things functioning like screen and audio sharing/recording in wayland. Yes, I know sometimes with some apps/distros it works. But it needs to work all the time on all reasonably current hardware everywhere. Wayland is getting there, but we're still a ways off and X11 has its own issues. It feels like we're 80% of the way there for feature parity and stability vs Windows and MacOS, but this last 20% stretch is feeling like an eternity. The bugginess and lack of features stretches to multi-monitor support as well. Plus we've got a bunch of distros threatening off and on to remove 32bit libraries, which would really hamper software support that's already anemic to begin with... There's no one single blockbuster issue. It's just little everyday things that produce just enough friction to keep the unwashed masses away.
I think it's more users need to realize that an OS that is easier to use in every way is not a more difficult OS to use.
But also, I'm okay gatekeeping Linux, as bringing the masses over just means enshitification and turning it into Windows again. Fuck that.
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