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What are the main challenges in Linux adoption for New users, and how can it be addressed?
(lemmy.ml)
this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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A lot of people have already talked about the onboarding/installation experience, so I'll just chime in and say a lot of new users are unfamiliar with using a terminal for commands and instead favour a GUI experience solely for their tasks. Most modern and commercially appealing distros are moving in this direction (ie applications running the same terminal commands in the background with an easy to understand UI at the front) but I'd still say the community's insistence on terminal over all other forms of executing a command may be a turn off for the layman trying it for the first time after Windows and MacOS.
Almost makes me think it would be more ideal to reduce the stigma associated with executing commands in the terminal and find some way to get people more comfortable with using it, both via Linux and also CMD for Windows as well.
I agree with this more than trying to make Linux more GUI oriented overall. GUI's are great for certain interfaces like phones and tablets for obvious reasons. GUIs are also great if you don't exactly know what you're looking for and need a lengthy list of available interactive elements you would have to read and parse a lengthy man page to find in the terminal.
Honestly I think that when learning computers in early age education systems, the terminal should be taught alongside GUI applications so the general public would have an understanding that there is this very powerful tool they can use to quickly execute commands. It is a pre requisite to demystifying computers regardless of which OS you use, and it makes working with your computer a lot less of a headache when you have this bare bones tool that can assist you in finding out the answer to your problem via a verbose error output rather than a cryptic message to call your sys admin or send a notice to the OS provider that likely will not solve your problem in a timely manner.