I guess that’s kind of what’s going on with the Steam Deck, as in, it’s already set up and configured for Linux so you don’t need to make any choices or do anything especially, you just turn it on and away you go.
(Of course, you can install other distros and stuff on it, but I’d assume the vast majority of people don’t)
You’re right, pre-installs are the way for real adoption. That’s what Steam Deck, Android, ChromeOS, and macOS (Unix) all have going for them. But they also have users in mind, which is also a key.
I think of the community ever wants Linux on the desktop to be a thing, they need to collectively tap one distro to be the one and drive to make that as easy to use as possible (which doesn’t mean power users need to sacrifice, the CLI will still exist, and niche distros can still exist). For OEMs, it would give them an easy choice if they want to offer Linux as an option on pre-built systems. For existing systems, it would give users an easy place to start. Instead of people saying “install Linux”, they could say “install Debian”, or whatever the community picks. It really doesn’t matter what they pick, they just have to pick something.
Ubuntu, during it’s heyday was similar and seemed like it was going to be the one. People didn’t say “use Linux”, they would say “use Ubuntu”. There was a lot adoption and people trying it out during that time because new users weren’t being told to make a million decisions just to start… and Ubuntu was sending out discs like they were AOL. I remember dozens of them floating around the office.
The current situation of ultimate freedom with all these different distros, with all these different desktop environments, with all these different window managers, with all these different package managers and application packages… the rabbit hole just gets deeper the more you look into it. I’ve been using Linux in some capacity for over 20 years, and it’s as bad now as it ever was, probably worse. This isn’t the path for mass adoption, if anyone actually cares about that. Their words say yes, but the actions say no.
I guess that’s kind of what’s going on with the Steam Deck, as in, it’s already set up and configured for Linux so you don’t need to make any choices or do anything especially, you just turn it on and away you go.
(Of course, you can install other distros and stuff on it, but I’d assume the vast majority of people don’t)
You’re right, pre-installs are the way for real adoption. That’s what Steam Deck, Android, ChromeOS, and macOS (Unix) all have going for them. But they also have users in mind, which is also a key.
I think of the community ever wants Linux on the desktop to be a thing, they need to collectively tap one distro to be the one and drive to make that as easy to use as possible (which doesn’t mean power users need to sacrifice, the CLI will still exist, and niche distros can still exist). For OEMs, it would give them an easy choice if they want to offer Linux as an option on pre-built systems. For existing systems, it would give users an easy place to start. Instead of people saying “install Linux”, they could say “install Debian”, or whatever the community picks. It really doesn’t matter what they pick, they just have to pick something.
Ubuntu, during it’s heyday was similar and seemed like it was going to be the one. People didn’t say “use Linux”, they would say “use Ubuntu”. There was a lot adoption and people trying it out during that time because new users weren’t being told to make a million decisions just to start… and Ubuntu was sending out discs like they were AOL. I remember dozens of them floating around the office.
The current situation of ultimate freedom with all these different distros, with all these different desktop environments, with all these different window managers, with all these different package managers and application packages… the rabbit hole just gets deeper the more you look into it. I’ve been using Linux in some capacity for over 20 years, and it’s as bad now as it ever was, probably worse. This isn’t the path for mass adoption, if anyone actually cares about that. Their words say yes, but the actions say no.
xkcd: Standards