"I'd make a trip to the Apple Store and pick up, next time." Um next time I don't think this person is buying a Mac. I wouldn't in this situation.
(Of course, whether a given person is capable of installing an OS manually (be it macOS or Linux Mint), is going to vary. You may have to ask a friend if what you want isn't pre-installed)
Either they all turned to tech pros because of their Linux usage or they don't have the maintaining issues that were common 10 years ago anymore.
But the reality is that most everyone, including very experienced users, have never and never will install an OS. It’s not a question of difficulty, they just cannot wrap their heads around it.
I do not know one way or the other how easy it is to daily drive Linux.
As for the "but the installation is so difficult" point, perhaps, but would you trust them to install Windows or macOS onto an otherwise empty SSD? I've had more trouble getting Windows onto systems without needing a CD-RW and corresponding CD drive than I ever did installing Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Crunchbang, and perhaps more I forgot. Only Arch was more difficult, but then it's meant/advertised to be that way so no surprise there. I've also tried installing macOS and succeeded eventually, but the system was quite dysfunctional. I'd not be surprised if you do a study with 60 random people and it turns out most of them actually get it done for Linux distributions with lower success rates for the OSes that expect to be pre-installed by commercial deals with the hardware vendor
And all this only applies if you didn't buy a laptop that comes with a FOSS distribution out of the box. I see it as an advantage that you can pick nearly any hardware and run on it what you want, but if you want to limit it to pre-installed systems then there's that option, too
It's not a question of trust. It's a question of commerce. People buy computers, and they use the OS on it. If the Linux community really wants to drive adoption by normies, the focus shouldn't be on ease of use, or ease of installation. They should fight to break Microsoft's monopoly and demand to be an optional selection during every purchase.
I have come across one unsupported printer where you were advised to pick a driver for a similar model number, and even that didn't work for me, but I'll trade that outlier for all the other times where it was so much easier than Windows ever was. One can check the model before purchasing if it's about your own printer (I don't own one anymore, cartridges aren't worth it at the 5 pages per year that I need for outdated transport companies nowadays; copyshops exist)
I'm not into printers and their drivers so I've got no idea what changed or who made this happen, but whoever did this for printers on Linux is a real hero
"Sadly", I recently helped my dad get set up on a new Windows 11 and that seems to have this behaviour now, too, so Windows does seem to be catching up in usability
> (don't let me start on laptops & battery usage)
That one is a real trade-off indeed. It's not all sunshine and roses
Another one is GPU drivers and WiFi chips, but it's a one-time hardware check and setup thing, so for those issues you could ask someone else to install your system to a functional state and anyone can use it from there with the same learning curve as when they'd use macOS for the first time (Cinnamon looks a whole lot like XP, if that's what they're coming from like I was)
No doubt. But it no doubt required a SIGNIFICANT time investment to get to the point where they can just use their machines “without wasting time”.
I install Linux on families computers for years now. And maintaining is zero at this point. The majority of computer usage of a normal user is within their browser and maybe office programs and some gaming. All perfectly fine with Linux.
Possibly true, dependant on what you're trying to develop.
> better digital audio system
ProTools Linux?
Cubase Linux?
Ableton Live Linux?
The vast majority of plugins for above DAWs?
If you're talking about purely the system, then it's all moot without having some software for audio professionals to run on it.
> better game platform
Now I know you're trolling. edit: sorry I forgot the "Compared to Mac?" part at the beginning, this is probably true, but I have zero experience gaming on Mac or Linux.
Basic system tools have been broken on macs for a few major releases now. And I'm familiar with fixing up lots of Darwin-specific issues in software packaging by now. There's seriously a number of downsides here unless you have to use Xcode.
I wrote digital audio system for a reason. Pipewire is currently the best implementation out of the 3 major systems. Whether you want to use it with a DAW or in a different way that requires a Mac-only application is orthogonal here. For a lot of DAW work, you don't even need a fancy sound system to begin with. But also there are DAWs which do work on Linux and there are people preferring them.
> The vast majority of plugins
Yabridge is there for embedding windows VSTs. It's not that bad.
Ex. I've lost a complete day because I didn't know you need to open xcode to confirm the policy of an update I did in the console. I never used xcode before that day.