this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2026
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The average Linux evangelist on Lemmy vastly overestimates the tech-saviness of the average person.
Shit's better now. That's not to say that your average person could handle everything.
If I have a normal person linux on a usb on a computer set to boot from usb, they could totally install it.
If an update fucks over a driver or a package, they're completely fucked.
If they need to make their own boot usb, they're completely fucked.
If they need to configure their computer to boot from the usb if it's not setup that way ... completely fucked.
If they're good with generic drivers, generic browsers and probably steam, they'll be fine.
Grandma is probably fine with Linux now.
Of course, a decent number of gen-x grandmas might have actually fucked around with linux years ago :)
It would be great if Mint or Zorin had an atomic version so a failed update can be switched back in seconds and it is essentially impossible for the user to break anything outside of the home folder.
NixOS does that. But it's WAY too complicated for general use :)
I work on the IT side of a non tech company. I don’t think vastly even comes close to covering how un-savvy the average person is
I tried to upvote you twice but was not allowed. So here is my second upvote: You hit the problem spot on!
I think it's more like people still hold onto a view of the difficulty that hasn't been true for years now in the big ones (Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, etc). I agreed with this position 10 years ago, but not anymore. Users that aren't super technical are likely just browsing, watching video, and playing games. All that works out of the box now with nearly no set up in my experience. My 7 year old has been using it with less problems than he was getting in Windows 11 (seriously).
This mirrors my experience as a dumb person desperately trying to seem to cool to nerds. I'd alwys try Linux and something wouldn't work, I'd spend hours trying to fix it, then I'd just stop booting into it.
Been mono-booting Linux Mint with almost no problems for a year, the same time that Windows is the worst its ever been.
I know, the average person probably only knows 2, maybe 3 distros Max
And Mint
Yes, of course Mint
One of my fav xkcds, nice adaptation. (here for those uninitiated)
Then you find the average windows user doesn't even know what Windows is.
There truly is an xkcd for everything.
"What's a Linux?"
You're the relevant XKCD for that!
hey, i was just about to make Mint Tea. it's the time of day i think about installing mint, change my mind, and gossip about it
over a cup of peppermint tea. it's wonderful.
Oh, absolutely. They've never had to do family tech support, and it shows.
I dunno, I switched my 7 year olds laptop over specifically because Windows updates kept breaking things. Everything worked out of the box with Linux and hasn't broken yet. He doesn't care either way, he just wants to use his programs, and that's been easier since switching. I say this as someone who very painfully had to use Linux for a few years about 10 years ago... the experience is just very different today. I don't think a day to day user will notice any difference beyond better stability.
My experience is that once set up, the easy linux distros are way less likely to randomly stop working and need support. And by set up, I pretty much mean "install the OS and grab Steam".
exactly the reason I swapped my parents pc to linux, its just stable and simple for them to use. they dont do much other than open the browser and go to youtube or just plug their phone in and copy over their photos to the pc
Whenever you try to explain anything the conveesation is totally uninteresting
Note to self: they dont care. They dont care that they dont care