Fuck AI

Eh. I installed Linux Mint this weekend because I was sick of Microsoft's bullshit and I had to connect my PC to my router with an Ethernet cable to install a driver for my wifi adapter from the terminal. I am quite tech savvy and was very comfortable with this whole process and it took no time at all, but my wife who knows barely anything about computers would have probably given up the moment the Internet didn't work when Mint installed. Most people use routers that they rent for too much money from their ISPs and don't even know you can plug shit into the backs of those routers yourself. The moment the wifi doesn't work on the new OS even though the password is right, it's game over for their ability to troubleshoot it. That is why Linux won't get normies on it anytime soon. After that my experience has been extremely smooth and I have been able to do anything I've wanted to do without touching the terminal (although I prefer terminal commands), but that initial hurdle is just way too much to expect from the average person who just wants to get on Netflix and Facebook asap.

Yeah, the average user doesn't want to do scary console shit. Linux won't replace windows until people don't need to type console commands.

I'm glad you've had a good go of it. I've been very unimpressed with Linux Mint. I expected it to be fiddly, I didn't expect it to just...not work out of the box. Like freezing up on the initial screens as part of the welcome tour? Baked in features like linking up with Google drive just...not working? Losing sound in games when messaged on discord, the de facto standard for side by side gaming audio? And all of these issues reported multiple times in multiple forums, with like 8 different solutions proposed depending on who you asked, with a healthy amount of "well that's not a problem, it must be your machine's fault" when it's happening to multiple people?

I fixed some of the issues after serious googling, and I'll get it working fully eventually, but I could never in a million years recommend it to someone unless they shared my desire to go mostly open source with high privacy, or were very tech-savvy. I even thought it would be a scenario like, I play admin and get things set up, then can hand off a working computer to my wife or daughter. Not a chance for the wife, and we are going to really need to keep leaning into programming for the kiddo. Maybe she'll be a tech whiz who likes fixing things, but if she needs something reliable for school some day it'll be a Chromebook or (gross) a Mac.

It's customizable as hell, it's free and open-source, and it's helping my computer skills, so I'll keep going with it for sure. But if I didn't love learning and problem solving and simultaneously have HUGE issues with privacy and Windows whole direction... I can't imagine sticking with it.

Wash yourself in the soothing glow of Mint's DE and be born again!