Most of your comment is about changing os in general and not Linux particularly. It's certainly a factor but you have to admit some of them like Mint is dead easy for anyone who can out some effort. Download Linux Mint, install a burner like Rufus, select iso and click burn, boot into it from BIOS and just clock threw most of them with default settings which is good enough for someone who is not tech savvy. The only time I had trouble installing Linux was with nixos GUI installer which had a broken setting but never had any issues with Mint, fedora or Debian.

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Download Linux Mint

From where? Which download? Where should I save it? Where did I save it?

install a burner like Rufus

What's a burner? What's rufus? How am I supposed to know what any of this means?

select iso and click burn

What does iso mean? You mean the file from earlier? Where did I save that? Why do I click burn? I don't want to start a fire. I'm not burning a disc!

boot into it from bios

Now you want me to kick my computer with a boot? I don't think you know what you're talking about, that seems wrong. The fuck is a bios? How do I get there? What do I do once I'm in there?

I'm obviously exaggerating but holy shit you have to realize that even being able to begin to understand your shorthand instructions through context clues requires a level of domain knowledge far beyond the average user.

[–] RogueBanana@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You do realise you can just look up every single one of that qn? And you proceeded to completely ignore the main point that this isn't an issue with Linux but switching OS in general. Not my problem if you completely miss the point and choose to ask question about the obviously simplified steps made to show how easy it is when you actually spend some effort.

Also there are thousands and millions of articles explaining exactly this step by step that anyone literate can follow. You don't need to understand what it is or how it works, simply following the instructions from an article with photos and that will do. You cannot fuck up an Linux Mint installation if you just use your eyes and read without messing with defaults.

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 19 hours ago

Yes, I'm well aware. I didn't ignore your point just because I used your own streamlined instructions for my stupid joke about how clueless the average user is.

You're correct that the complexity of installing an OS isn't Linux specific, and that certain Linux distros are significantly easier to set up than say, Windows.

But just because the instructions are straightforward if you already have some familiarity with computers, or are driven enough to look up shit and learn, doesn't make them accessible to the average joe. That's the point I was making.

I did tech support for my school in my youth. I've tutored and led lectures for a freshman intro to programming course (two separate semesters). I have roughly 5 years of corporate internal IT under my belt, and over 4 (and counting) years of sysadmin/engineering.

In all that time, at the absolute most generous estimate, maybe half of the people/end users would have been capable of installing even a simple to install OS like Mint. Yes, including the new Computer Science majors. Less than that would be willing to put forth the effort (to learn the terminology, search and read to clarify confusion, etc).