Brother you literally have no idea who I am or who my friend is, and you’re gonna sit here and lecture me on forcing an OS down their throat? You are literally creating a fantasy in your head and pretending it’s reality. My friend WANTED to try Linux, he came to me asking about it and I agreed to help him. He was unsure of it and at first didn’t even want to try, he expected the whole install to be a headache.

Imagine if you had a kid who wanted to learn to ride a bike. At first, they fall over again and again and want to quit. They say they’re never going to learn. But you keep trying to show them why it’s worth it. That’s essentially what was going on with my friend.

Keep telling yourself I’m somehow the problem, though. The one who actually tried to introduce a new user to something they want to like.

Think whatever you want dude. You’re making shit up, and assuming things you can’t possibly know. How am I supposed to prove myself? What does a normal, non-suspicious post even look like to you? Mutahar is the guy who made the video. You probably didn’t even watch it which explains at least in part why you refuse to engage with the discussion at all. The fact that I am responding to almost everyone is more evidence for my ACTUAL desire to have a serious discussion. Stop accusing people of shit you have no basis for.

I agree with all of this. I am an experienced Windows user who wants to use an OS I can actually feel good about supporting, that respects privacy and isn’t run by a greedy corporation. My Windows experience does not translate to Linux literacy. But that doesn’t change the fact that advocating for Linux to become easier to use, even potentially as easy to use as something like Windows, should be something we can all agree would be a positive change. Retaining the best parts of Linux and making it easy to use are not mutually exclusive goals. They shouldn’t be.

Casting this as some kind of fundamental problem with Linux? Did I say that? I literally said nothing of the sort. Stop putting words in my mouth. I agree with what you said about Muta. Like I keep saying, I don’t usually watch his content, I’m just open minded enough to give any video a chance if it’s a relevant topic, and this one happened to spark some thought for me. You’re literally exemplifying the “gatekeeper” behavior I’m talking about. I don’t think it’s as widespread as some people make it out to be, but when your response to a post that is EXPLICITLY asking to discuss a very common complaint about Linux is to just shift the focus onto the content creator because you don’t like him, you’re not making it easy for new users to feel like this is a community they want to engage with.

Mutahar’s video is not the crux of what I’m discussing AT ALL. It just so happens that seeing the video reminded me of these criticism which I already had. I could have posted this whole thread without the video and had a nearly identical conversation. The difference is that we wouldn’t have to waste time talking about Muta, when the conversation is about Linux. Which is not a perfect OS. Nor is Windows, or ANY OS. Talking about this stuff is how we try to figure out how to improve them.

It’s not even about which OS is easier to troubleshoot. The case I’m making is that there is progress that is needed to be made on Linux’s part to help people understand it as easily as they do on Windows. Let’s not even pretend that it’s easier to troubleshoot Linux than it is to troubleshoot Windows (I know you’re not specifically saying this but comparing which is easier is something a new user absolutely takes into account). It definitely would be easier if you’ve used Linux for longer, obviously. But for those who haven’t ever tried it, but want to, then do so, have problems and begin troubleshooting, it can feel like a labyrinth and be extremely overwhelming. I’m only trying to convey that despite the progress Linux has made over the years, it is still out of the reach of many people. As I keep saying, people SHOULD take the time to learn. It would be great and beneficial, but a lot people just can’t invest the time.

Is there something wrong with making a new account to make a discussion post about a video? Is this not a forum website? This is ridiculous behavior. I’ve been respectful and open to every single person I’ve responded to. I am not creating drama or name calling. If there’s drama being created on this post, it’s because people can’t stand Mutahar. And I agree with them! But as someone who refuses to be an ideologue living in an echo chamber, I watch content from sources I don’t agree with too, and I discuss it. I don’t get what problem you have with this.

It quite literally is a barrier to entry. That is what “barrier to entry” means. It is something that prevents potential users from giving the OS a serious shot. Literally my closest friend is an example of this. After a lot of convincing, I talked them into installing Linux Mint on a separate partition. I guided them through the process and asked them to use it as a daily OS for a week. They did so, and came back to me with essentially the same complaints I laid out in this post. They work as a digital artist, and needed to install Photoshop. They looked up guides, watched YouTube videos, but told me that they just couldn’t figure it out in a timely enough manner to allow them to get the work they needed to do finished. Could they have figured it out with more effort and time? Absolutely. But this is what I’m describing, something that in theory should be simple, is a lot more complicated for a user who is unfamiliar with the process. This doesn’t make most people motivated to just read through tutorials and forum posts and long processes for how to set up Wine, or what have you. It makes them want to just go with something that works without the headache. That isn’t entirely Linux’s fault, obviously Adobe refuses to create a native version. But to someone who has only used Windows, it’s technical, complicated process.

I don’t know if the goal being to increase the number of users who switch to Linux is a majority opinion or not. We would need to see a poll or some kind of data. I didn’t say it was a religion. You’re right, people that want it will find it. But let’s not pretend that there’s no incentive for it to grow. You don’t create something and make it publicly available without caring if anyone uses it, that isn’t how that works. At least not in the case of an OS. Linux growing and becoming more widely accessible is an objectively good thing. The bigger the community and userbase gets, the faster the barrier to entry comes down, the simpler it will be to do these things that Windows only users see as complex. If you’re going to say that this is all complaining and that this is just how it has to be, you’re following the mindset I’m criticizing. I think a big focus in Linux should be streamlining things like Wine, or other tools that require a lot of manual user setup.

Equating the desire to help as many users as possible have easy access to what we all believe is a superior OS, to “spreading the message like cancer” sounds a lot more like a zealous, religious doctrine than what I’m advocating for.

Genuinely, this was not posted to boost the video. The video’s only role in this is that I watched it and it was what made me think about the subject, so I made the post. Don’t read too much into it.

In Windows there are tools or 3rd party softwares available to customize literally almost anything. There’s plenty on Linux that I couldn’t say the same for. Granted I may not know where to look in some cases and may have missed it, or it may simply be a result of my lack of experience with Linux in general. But the point is that a new user’s first impressions matter, and if someone who isn’t comfortable doing commands and using non-GUI tools is forced to use them all the time, their patience may run thin faster than others. I believe people should want to learn and they should do the research. But realistically, if the goal is to get as many users to adopt Linux as possible, this is a barrier to entry.

Yeah I mostly agree. It’s been made pretty clear by not only this post but just watching Mutahar’s content in the past that he likes to sound more educated than he is. On many topics, not just Linux and computing. This video just happened to spark some thought for me and I felt like putting it into words. I just didn’t think about people’s perception of the actual content creator because I feel like this could have been a conversation even without referencing the video at all.

Don’t know if you’re talking to me or Mutahar, but this is exactly what people can’t stand about some Linux users. It’s why the stereotype of “gatekeeper” Linux users exists. Because instead of engaging with the discussion in any way, you got triggered and decided to yell insults over the internet. That’s pretty fucking sad.

And to be clear, I don’t like Mutahar much either. He’s very biased and I usually don’t watch his stuff. I was bored and clicked on this video. I also try to make a habit of watching creators I have an aversion to, because I want to avoid confirmation bias. Not trying to present as holier than thou, just being honest.