This is how I feel about installing Linux. It never gives you a basic/easy install guide. It’s ways an r/restoftheowl situation
EDIT - A lot of these responses are proving my point. Very easy to understand instructions if you know computers and computer terms. Not so much if you don’t.
Also, people saying Linux is easier to install than Windows, totally forgetting that most people don’t install Windows, it comes pre-installed, so the comparison is irrelevant
2nd EDIT - For the record, took a test and it said to try OpenSuse, Kubuntu or Zorin OS.
Going to go for Zorin OS. So if anyone has a detailed beginner guide to installing this it would be much appreciated.
I was in a Best Buy recently for the first time in over ten years. The poor folks at the Geek Squad counter lined up with their pre-built PCs needing help for the simplest things--yeah, most people don’t have a clue.
In 35 years, I’ve never bought a pre-built PC, I’ve built my own. So, yeah, I’m not a typical user, even though I don’t really know shit compared to many.
Installing Linux isn’t hard if all you want is an OS to open Firefox. However, the minute you venture into gaming and video drivers, networking, mounting and sharing drives, etc. it gets a bit more hairy. The guy standing at the counter asking why the pictures he thought he pulled off his phone don’t show up in explorer isn’t going to be editing an fstab file anytime soon.
I’m a gamer and this is my concern. I have a prebuilt gaming laptop because I travel for work and wouldn’t be able to take a full gaming rig with me for fear of damage or total loss.
I want to build my own rig but never been in one place long enough to warrant it. Hopefully one day
Linux Mint has a full install guide that goes into detail on every point with the click-through links. They are a real good source for people who haven’t done this before.
My suggestion to people is to install Linux on a computer you don’t use every day (old laptop, etc) and during installation have it be the only OS (ie, not dual boot with Windows). After awhile when you feel more comfortable, install it on your main machine. This lets you learn at whatever pace you desire.
And this is what I plan to do with my old gaming laptop. Do a trial run of Zorin OS, work out all the issues and then do install it on my new one and finally be rid of microslop
Heads up, my partner tried Zorin OS for gaming, at the suggestion of distrochooser.de, and did not have a good time. He switched to Fedora and everything was nearly seamless after that.
I’ve literally never installed an operating system. I can pretty confidently say that most of the people I know have never installed an operating system either.
I probably could follow all those steps because I’ve had experience navigating my computer’s BIOS, but most people don’t even know what a BIOS is. To ask them to navigate and make sense of it without detailed instructions is pretty unfair.
The fediverse is a very niche place, and the general tech savvyness that’s common here should not be taken as an actual measure of how tech savvy the general population is.
What’s crazy is you can actually learn how to do things by trying, it’s crazy! I didn’t know how to install Linux either when I was 12, but just searching for information I was able to learn how to do it.
I understand it. My original point was that most guides don’t explain it.
Also, the guide were responding to says ‘download iso’. If you google ‘ISO’ it does not come up with anything to do with Linux. Which proves my point that most guides are not helpful for beginners
It’s literally not even that complicated, I don’t know why the above commenter made it sound like that.
Boot from any live distro USB, and most of them have an installer on the desktop. You just follow the instructions. The most complex part is when it asks you if you want to dual-boot or wipe your drive and replace Windows with Linux completely. Just back up your drives before trying anything.
note on dual-booting:
If you want to dual boot, it’ll need to create a new partition, but it can do that automatically. The only issue is if you already have the maximum number of partitions allowed (I think 4 typically) then you need to do some manual stuff which can get more technical, but otherwise it should all happen automatically. The only decision you need to make is dual-boot or single boot (single boot wipes the existing drive, removing Windows entirely).
Everything else in that person’s comment basically just boils down to “create a live USB and then boot from it.”
If you have a friend who gives you one, you don’t need to make it yourself. Otherwise the process is “Download .iso file → install it on the USB (use Ventoy or BalenaEtcher or something similar)” (note: this will wipe and reformat the USB, so use one you don’t need for anything else; preferably one that’s blank, otherwise back up your files first).
As for booting from the live USB, they also made that sound too complicated. All you need to do usually is plug in the USB and the boot up or restart your computer. It should detect it automatically, and it’ll either boot from it or ask you whether to boot from it or your normal OS.
If it doesn’t do either of those things (which it usually will) then you need to figure out which key to press on boot up to take you to the screen where you can tell it to do so manually. That’s usually either Esc, F2, F6, or maybe Del. It depends on the computer manufacturer, just do a web search for “such-and-such computer safe mode boot key” or BIOS key or UEFI key or whatever. But the point is that probably won’t be necessary 9 times out of 10.
TL;DR, just boot from a live USB and follow the automated installer which probably has an icon on the desktop. It’s really not that complicated. There’s no owl.
I had to indtall windows on my laptop a month ago. I haven’t messed around with windows in a while, but i always thought about tge installer being pretty simple (i remember the insert 35 floppy discs days and windows me sometimes just not working) oh god i hated it so much, everything about it was repulsive to me. I hopped around on different linux repositories last year until i found one i like for my gaming pc, i fresh wiped linux magbe 30 times, and it’s so quick. From working pc to completely wipe and working again it takes less than 15 min or so. Having everything woking on linux as a noob is a different story, installing it has become so easy.
Oh really. The fuck is domain, why do I need two passwords, fuck’s root and why the heck does it ask for my name.
And first of all why the heck did my pc boot into linux to install linux.
For someone used to windows, linux is weird af with it’s installer. Same other way around. I, being a bit more tech savvy, for example managed to almost force myself into using linux because I tried to keep windows like partitions…and, after fidging around in installer format tools, managed to do it.
Windows did not like it when I installed it back and I had to reformat because linux doesn’t care what format (or whatever the BTRFS, FAT etc are called) disk is in, or was it disks table? But oh boy does Windows installer care xD
For non tech savvy folk, last used installer is better xD
This comment is very hard to parse. Is your complaint that Linux is worse because Windows screwed up your partitioning? If you’re talking about partitioning you’re already talking as a technical user, I’m not sure how Windows screwing up your partitions is evidence Linux less usable for non-technical people?
I mentioned main differences in the first two parts of the comment. Domain, root vs user, name and booting into a system being the default are the main differences, that can throw non savvy user off.
I agree I’ve might muddled too much with the linux story, I wanted to use it to show that even if I knew somewhat what I am doing I still kindof fucked myself - someone fully new to that without proper instruction may do worse.
Windows doesn’t ask for domain, for example, last I checked. Same goes for first name and last name. Or differentiating between user and admin by default. At least in 10, didn’t have chance to install 11 yet.
Windows requires you to make an online account that includes your first and last name. I’ve never once added my first or last name to a Linux install, and most distros don’t ask you anything about root anymore, either.
Also, Windows very much asks for a domain, and in fact they’re the originator of it. When it’s asking whether the computer is for personal use or work, it’s deciding whether to request a domain to join to. ActiveDirectory (the thing the domain is referring to) came directly from Microsoft as a Windows feature that you have to pay extra for. Not to mention, if you don’t have a domain, just don’t enter one. There’s not a single distro where that’s a hard requirement, and it never will be.
I am a huge car guy. Removing an engine MAKES SENSE to me, I understand on a fundamental level how to get the best out of an engine and drivetrain but if I have to do literally any custom wiring I farm it out to a spark wizard who can tame the magic pixies that run up and down the rainbow spaghetti. FUCK WIRING.
While I dont understand windows “fundamentally” Ive also been screwing with it since 1995, it makes sense. Linux just doesnt to me.
This is what it is like when you start with Win95 instead of DOS. Windows never made sense because they buried the CLI. After you played around making .bat files learning .sh was amazing.
I even remember playing around with OS/2 which blew Windows out of the water at the time. It really is all a matter of perspective and I think starting before a GUI is so similar to your example. Linux just makes sense on a fundamental level. Like this is the way it should be.
I was drunk and surfing the internet on my laptop when I got frustrated with windows crashing constantly. An hour later I had installed Linux. Half of that time was backing up my files.
If you’re installing Fedora, then I would say it is far easier than installing Windows. I think Linux Mint and Ubuntu are roughly the same difficulty to install as Windows. Arch, Gentoo and a bunch of other distros expect you to know a bunch more and be ready to learn, those are definitely going to be hard for a first timer.
Bro the last 3 times I’ve installed windows, I clicked one button, made a cocktail, and occasionally returned to click a button and by the time I finished my second drink it was done.
You need to sign in to your Microsoft account - and if you don’t want to do that there’s a convoluted workaround. You need to untick all the tracking they enable by default. Opt-out of copilot and some other shit. It hasn’t been one button and walk away in a long time.
I’ve installed quite a few linux distros and windows versions for my job, and windows 10+ has one of the worst user experiences. Of course this doesn’t include arch or any other “build it yourself” distro.
That is also exactly how you install Fedora. They’ve stripped away so many options and turned it into a nextnextnextdone thing. I’m not here to advocate that people should swap to Linux. I am just frustrated when the myth that linux is hard to install keep getting thrown around. I often get the impression that people talk about linux with 10+ year out of date information.
Honestly it’s just a comment about 1 video I watched years ago. I didn’t expect this much of a response. I’m planning in pitting Linux onto my old laptop as a test soon so hopefully it will go well.
Is arch an easy distro to use? I’m looking for something super simple to use. Also, is smth an acronym?
Nope, it’s not very user-friendly but a great distro otherwise (and that’s why there are so many others based on arch which aim to be more user-friendly)
It’s ofc not perfect but it suggested me some distroes that i actually do like so maybe it can work? Some people also told me that they were suggested distroes they like so it could work i guess
Cachy is way easier to install, the installer offers a wide range of DEs and some other convenience stuff, it’s totally different to tell a begginer to install Arch vs Cachy
This is how I feel about installing Linux. It never gives you a basic/easy install guide. It’s ways an r/restoftheowl situation
EDIT - A lot of these responses are proving my point. Very easy to understand instructions if you know computers and computer terms. Not so much if you don’t.
Also, people saying Linux is easier to install than Windows, totally forgetting that most people don’t install Windows, it comes pre-installed, so the comparison is irrelevant
2nd EDIT - For the record, took a test and it said to try OpenSuse, Kubuntu or Zorin OS.
Going to go for Zorin OS. So if anyone has a detailed beginner guide to installing this it would be much appreciated.
I was in a Best Buy recently for the first time in over ten years. The poor folks at the Geek Squad counter lined up with their pre-built PCs needing help for the simplest things--yeah, most people don’t have a clue.
In 35 years, I’ve never bought a pre-built PC, I’ve built my own. So, yeah, I’m not a typical user, even though I don’t really know shit compared to many.
Installing Linux isn’t hard if all you want is an OS to open Firefox. However, the minute you venture into gaming and video drivers, networking, mounting and sharing drives, etc. it gets a bit more hairy. The guy standing at the counter asking why the pictures he thought he pulled off his phone don’t show up in explorer isn’t going to be editing an fstab file anytime soon.
I’m a gamer and this is my concern. I have a prebuilt gaming laptop because I travel for work and wouldn’t be able to take a full gaming rig with me for fear of damage or total loss.
I want to build my own rig but never been in one place long enough to warrant it. Hopefully one day
Download iso
Load iso onto usb.
Insert usb into machine.
Spam del and all f-keys on boot because for some reason there is no standard ‘enter bios’ key.
Ensure usb boot is enabled and higher priority than internal disk.
Restart.
Follow simple installer guide.
This is literally my point.
I don’t know how to do a lot of these things and usually the guide doesn’t explain these points.
If it’s labeled ‘beginners guide’ it should explain how to do all these extra steps
Linux Mint has a full install guide that goes into detail on every point with the click-through links. They are a real good source for people who haven’t done this before.
My suggestion to people is to install Linux on a computer you don’t use every day (old laptop, etc) and during installation have it be the only OS (ie, not dual boot with Windows). After awhile when you feel more comfortable, install it on your main machine. This lets you learn at whatever pace you desire.
Thank you. I’ll take a look at this.
And this is what I plan to do with my old gaming laptop. Do a trial run of Zorin OS, work out all the issues and then do install it on my new one and finally be rid of microslop
Heads up, my partner tried Zorin OS for gaming, at the suggestion of distrochooser.de, and did not have a good time. He switched to Fedora and everything was nearly seamless after that.
Good to know. Thank you.
I’ll do more research and maybe go Fedora first if that’s a common problem
This is also how you install windows. Theres nothing special/difficult about Linux here.
Most people don’t install windows. It comes preinstalled
That’s how you install literally any operating system
I’ve literally never installed an operating system. I can pretty confidently say that most of the people I know have never installed an operating system either.
I probably could follow all those steps because I’ve had experience navigating my computer’s BIOS, but most people don’t even know what a BIOS is. To ask them to navigate and make sense of it without detailed instructions is pretty unfair.
The fediverse is a very niche place, and the general tech savvyness that’s common here should not be taken as an actual measure of how tech savvy the general population is.
What’s crazy is you can actually learn how to do things by trying, it’s crazy! I didn’t know how to install Linux either when I was 12, but just searching for information I was able to learn how to do it.
This is a much better explanation of what my point.
Everytime I’ve tried to do anything in my BIOS the guide has an option to do something that doesn’t exist for me
Which parts do you not understand? I can expand on those points if needed.
I understand it. My original point was that most guides don’t explain it.
Also, the guide were responding to says ‘download iso’. If you google ‘ISO’ it does not come up with anything to do with Linux. Which proves my point that most guides are not helpful for beginners
Most of that is the same for installing Windows lol
It’s literally not even that complicated, I don’t know why the above commenter made it sound like that.
Boot from any live distro USB, and most of them have an installer on the desktop. You just follow the instructions. The most complex part is when it asks you if you want to dual-boot or wipe your drive and replace Windows with Linux completely. Just back up your drives before trying anything.
note on dual-booting:
If you want to dual boot, it’ll need to create a new partition, but it can do that automatically. The only issue is if you already have the maximum number of partitions allowed (I think 4 typically) then you need to do some manual stuff which can get more technical, but otherwise it should all happen automatically. The only decision you need to make is dual-boot or single boot (single boot wipes the existing drive, removing Windows entirely).
Everything else in that person’s comment basically just boils down to “create a live USB and then boot from it.”
If you have a friend who gives you one, you don’t need to make it yourself. Otherwise the process is “Download .iso file → install it on the USB (use Ventoy or BalenaEtcher or something similar)” (note: this will wipe and reformat the USB, so use one you don’t need for anything else; preferably one that’s blank, otherwise back up your files first).
As for booting from the live USB, they also made that sound too complicated. All you need to do usually is plug in the USB and the boot up or restart your computer. It should detect it automatically, and it’ll either boot from it or ask you whether to boot from it or your normal OS.
If it doesn’t do either of those things (which it usually will) then you need to figure out which key to press on boot up to take you to the screen where you can tell it to do so manually. That’s usually either Esc, F2, F6, or maybe Del. It depends on the computer manufacturer, just do a web search for “such-and-such computer safe mode boot key” or BIOS key or UEFI key or whatever. But the point is that probably won’t be necessary 9 times out of 10.
TL;DR, just boot from a live USB and follow the automated installer which probably has an icon on the desktop. It’s really not that complicated. There’s no owl.
xD
There’s no owl. It really is that dead simple. This isn’t windows where everything is super complicated, unintuitive, and hard to do.
I had to indtall windows on my laptop a month ago. I haven’t messed around with windows in a while, but i always thought about tge installer being pretty simple (i remember the insert 35 floppy discs days and windows me sometimes just not working) oh god i hated it so much, everything about it was repulsive to me. I hopped around on different linux repositories last year until i found one i like for my gaming pc, i fresh wiped linux magbe 30 times, and it’s so quick. From working pc to completely wipe and working again it takes less than 15 min or so. Having everything woking on linux as a noob is a different story, installing it has become so easy.
Oh really. The fuck is domain, why do I need two passwords, fuck’s root and why the heck does it ask for my name.
And first of all why the heck did my pc boot into linux to install linux.
For someone used to windows, linux is weird af with it’s installer. Same other way around. I, being a bit more tech savvy, for example managed to almost force myself into using linux because I tried to keep windows like partitions…and, after fidging around in installer format tools, managed to do it.
Windows did not like it when I installed it back and I had to reformat because linux doesn’t care what format (or whatever the BTRFS, FAT etc are called) disk is in, or was it disks table? But oh boy does Windows installer care xD
For non tech savvy folk, last used installer is better xD
This comment is very hard to parse. Is your complaint that Linux is worse because Windows screwed up your partitioning? If you’re talking about partitioning you’re already talking as a technical user, I’m not sure how Windows screwing up your partitions is evidence Linux less usable for non-technical people?
I mentioned main differences in the first two parts of the comment. Domain, root vs user, name and booting into a system being the default are the main differences, that can throw non savvy user off.
I agree I’ve might muddled too much with the linux story, I wanted to use it to show that even if I knew somewhat what I am doing I still kindof fucked myself - someone fully new to that without proper instruction may do worse.
Widows also asks all those questions though …
What did you expect it to boot into? MacOS?
Windows doesn’t ask for domain, for example, last I checked. Same goes for first name and last name. Or differentiating between user and admin by default. At least in 10, didn’t have chance to install 11 yet.
Windows requires you to make an online account that includes your first and last name. I’ve never once added my first or last name to a Linux install, and most distros don’t ask you anything about root anymore, either.
Also, Windows very much asks for a domain, and in fact they’re the originator of it. When it’s asking whether the computer is for personal use or work, it’s deciding whether to request a domain to join to. ActiveDirectory (the thing the domain is referring to) came directly from Microsoft as a Windows feature that you have to pay extra for. Not to mention, if you don’t have a domain, just don’t enter one. There’s not a single distro where that’s a hard requirement, and it never will be.
So you can tell it your name is Seymour Butts
People like this make $60,000 a year fml
Its literally easier than installing windows.
Do we really need to spell out “click next until it’s done” for you?
I am a huge car guy. Removing an engine MAKES SENSE to me, I understand on a fundamental level how to get the best out of an engine and drivetrain but if I have to do literally any custom wiring I farm it out to a spark wizard who can tame the magic pixies that run up and down the rainbow spaghetti. FUCK WIRING.
While I dont understand windows “fundamentally” Ive also been screwing with it since 1995, it makes sense. Linux just doesnt to me.
This is what it is like when you start with Win95 instead of DOS. Windows never made sense because they buried the CLI. After you played around making .bat files learning .sh was amazing.
I even remember playing around with OS/2 which blew Windows out of the water at the time. It really is all a matter of perspective and I think starting before a GUI is so similar to your example. Linux just makes sense on a fundamental level. Like this is the way it should be.
I was drunk and surfing the internet on my laptop when I got frustrated with windows crashing constantly. An hour later I had installed Linux. Half of that time was backing up my files.
Fediverse gonna be mad I’m saying it, but AI can be really helpful for this. It’ll give you the how and the why if you ask it to.
It’s useful for finding answers onlime but please don’t do just copy paste from AIs, it’s a great way to get new problems
For sure. Especially if you’re very new to doing things in a terminal.
I think you’re choosing shite distros if that’s true mate
There’s a like 10 page manual on the download page for all of the various ones that are using Kwin
FreeBSD has the best manual I have even seen but that’s still a take out the engine moment
Have you tried to install arch or smth? Because otherwise i can’t explain why you find it hard, as the other comment before me says, it’s pretty easy
If you’re installing Fedora, then I would say it is far easier than installing Windows. I think Linux Mint and Ubuntu are roughly the same difficulty to install as Windows. Arch, Gentoo and a bunch of other distros expect you to know a bunch more and be ready to learn, those are definitely going to be hard for a first timer.
Bro the last 3 times I’ve installed windows, I clicked one button, made a cocktail, and occasionally returned to click a button and by the time I finished my second drink it was done.
You need to sign in to your Microsoft account - and if you don’t want to do that there’s a convoluted workaround. You need to untick all the tracking they enable by default. Opt-out of copilot and some other shit. It hasn’t been one button and walk away in a long time.
I’ve installed quite a few linux distros and windows versions for my job, and windows 10+ has one of the worst user experiences. Of course this doesn’t include arch or any other “build it yourself” distro.
That is also exactly how you install Fedora. They’ve stripped away so many options and turned it into a nextnextnextdone thing. I’m not here to advocate that people should swap to Linux. I am just frustrated when the myth that linux is hard to install keep getting thrown around. I often get the impression that people talk about linux with 10+ year out of date information.
I’ve edited my comment to explain.
But to answer your question. No.
Honestly it’s just a comment about 1 video I watched years ago. I didn’t expect this much of a response. I’m planning in pitting Linux onto my old laptop as a test soon so hopefully it will go well.
Is arch an easy distro to use? I’m looking for something super simple to use. Also, is smth an acronym?
Nope, it’s not very user-friendly but a great distro otherwise (and that’s why there are so many others based on arch which aim to be more user-friendly)
Edit: i suggest Linux Mint or Cachy, if you don’t like them i suggest to also try this quiz: https://beta.distrochooser.de/en
It’s ofc not perfect but it suggested me some distroes that i actually do like so maybe it can work? Some people also told me that they were suggested distroes they like so it could work i guess
It’s a shorthand for “something”
Thank you.
OpenSuse Kubuntu Zorin OS
Top 3 distros the quiz suggested
Worth noting that there really is not much point in using cachy over vanilla arch unless you have a zen 4+ cpu.
Although I often feel like I am in the minority for preferring arch over cachy.
Cachy is way easier to install, the installer offers a wide range of DEs and some other convenience stuff, it’s totally different to tell a begginer to install Arch vs Cachy
Yeah I completely forgot that you can boot into cachy off of a usb