Global marketing initiative he says…? 
I’d just like to interject for moment. What you’re refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.
There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!
I usually just show people https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/ and they jump to the 
very quick 
5 Likes
kinky. 
@Beardedgeek72 No matter what if you want to start with a linux based system there is a certain learning curve. Most people I know are unwilling to invest the time and their focus for such a task. I am not talking about install Arch from scratch but even finding out how to update a running system is beyond some people’s capability.
An if you look at the trend for the current technology it is alway to dumb it down. Not many linux distributors are willing to go that path, in my oppinion.
Also I think most people don’t care which OS they are running. It’s not important. What is important is the interwebz, social media, movies, games, …
Combine that with the fact that over 90% laptops came with OS preinstalled in my country who is then willing to reinstall it?
1 Like
That is something that definitely is highlighted in the comments to the video; the very fact that you have to install it at all. Especially since 95% of the time you have to understand how to get into the boot menu of your computer to even boot from an USB to begin with.
(That is actually one thing that has made it more difficult; back when most people had CD or DVD burners installed in their laptops and you burned the ISO on a an optical disc it was more likely than not that you didn’t have to go into the boot menu in “BIOS”, just reboot your computer and it would automatically boot from the CD / DVD if there was a bootable one in the drive.
1 Like
I have been saying many of these points for years. Linux is fragmented. It is not a single corporation who decides on branding, eco-systems, etc. It will always be fragmented, and as such, will probably never be a fully adopted desktop by the masses who as a majority, ‘just want it to work’ without much fuss (command lines.)
The only solution that might change it, is to create some sort of round-table appointed group by all the distros that can unify certain agreed-upon protocols that work cross-platforms, like an eco-system, etc. I don’t have high hopes to ever see this, but it works in my head. 
3 Likes
It may work there - but even Windows can’t unify its userbase! There are still plenty of XP systemns out there, not to mention Windows 7… (and even some Win98SE I’m sure)
2 Likes
Well in theory if some Linux foundation style organization can get every hardware manufacturer to include option with:
- Choosing Linux as OS
- Then choosing from pre-installed distro drop-down of ALL currently available Linux distors
Ok ok…Let’s be reasonable, 20-30 major / popular ones
DEFINITELY include Linux from scratch, Gentoo and Suicide Linux
That would help to solve problem, if people really identify this as a problem.
Certainly that would trigger big time competition to be in that 20-30 list for distros and DEs, which we probably would benefit…
But if you ask me…I’d prefer everyone to just get tech-literate enough to install a freaking OS 
3 Likes
The ultimate solution and pipe-dream. 
2 Likes
That… is not really true.
W10 is very dominant; almost to XP / 7 levels.
It is very easy to see what versions that never took off: Vista, 8 and 8.1. A LOT of people stayed on XP until windows 7, a lot of people stayed on Windows 7 to about v1709 of W10. Now W10 has about 85% of the Windows market and unlike what some people think the few people still on W7 are not “tech savvy”, but the opposite; it’s the people so ignorant they never upgrade but run their computers to the ground, buy a new one, and in 6 or 7 years when that computer physically cannot start anymore they run whatever is pre-installed on the new computer they buy.
There are so many contributions on the internet about this topic I can not see or hear it anymore. It is just boring.
Nevertheless I want to give my 2 cents here:
If you analyze why Windows is so strong on the market you know why Linux is so weak. Consumers first look for the application before they look for the OS. That means as long as there is no Photoshop, Games, MS Excel, MS Word on Linux it will never reach higher numbers.
And Microsoft is very good in preventing more applications on Linux (conspiracy?). They are giving software vendors incentives to not support Linux. These incentives include things like reduced Windows license fees, early access to new Windows features, Microsoft promoting the product of the vendor etc. etc. That makes it very hard for vendors like Adobe to actually support Linux. They do not want to mess with Microsoft.
The diversity in Linux distro should not be an issue for the software vendors because of flatpak and snap.
TL;DR
When it comes to important life decisions, just about every option a person is faced with has costs (real and perceived) as well as benefits. To resolve your ambivalence you have to believe that the benefits of pursuing a path dramatically outweigh the costs—that the advantages of one option are clearly superior to the advantages of others.
1 Like
To call it a “conspiracy” is extremely far from the mark.
That said you are not far off on the rest, it’s even pointed out in the video: To expect the average user to learn a new OS, new ways of doing things and new apps just to save a couple of hundred bucks up front on a machine he or she will use for about 5-7 years (most users who are not gamers won’t buy a new machine until it’s physically broken) is beyond unrealistic.
Somebody once compared it to reinventing the control scheme for a car: If you have a new type of car, where there are no pedals, or the pedals are in a different order, or you there is no steering wheel but a joystick or whatever… It is not a “conspiracy” that 99% of car manufactures, authorities and others use, and promote, the old standard. In fact, it is to be expected.
You, as a promotor of this new type of car might be viewed of the few adopters as the new “genius” and the “right way to do things”, but it will not take off. It just won’t. And it is nobody’s fault, really.
Add to this that for almost 100% of the users “Open Source” is either unheard of, period, or something they think of as “less reliable, less trustworthy, probably poorly maintained and no support”.
And they are not exactly wrong. Unless you go for Gnome on a major (Fedora, Ubuntu maybe Suse) distro, you either won’t get a supported system (as in phone support, actual professional support personnel etc) OR you won’t get a convenient system but you will have to start patch it to get full functionality).
(Not getting into politics here, but this is very closly linked to the fallacy of “voting against your interests”; It all boils down to what you deem is your major interestes. Let’s leave it at that and not go into any kind of details 
)
1 Like
What? 
Seriously what?
1 Like
Oh come on, let Linux people have some fun, will ya?!
IKEA style pre-installed lol 
We’ve pre-inserted USB drive…Here’s commandline…Here’s instruction…
1 Like
So just dump github to a disk and call it and install media. 
1 Like