hardware compatibility is only one part of the problem. the other is binary compatibility. vendors are not going to ship binaries for a range of linux distributions and versions. vendors are not going to ship source code. and if they do, it's going to be a pain to get it to compile (e.g. trying to compile epson scan 2 on arch right now and grappling with a boost version that is too new).
this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2025
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The fundamental issue is that the desktops themselves are inferior products. Linux desktop developers spent years arguing which bad solution is better for a solved problem.
The gap is closer now but that's only because Windows is killing itself.
Huh? Linux has had the superior desktop experience for over a decade.
Windows just recently managed to get the basics like an actual clipboard, tabbed file management.
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For years and years the barrier to entry was mom or gramma buying a clipart CD for $4.99 at the grocery store, bringing it home, and expecting it to work.
Now that's not a thing anymore, but they still aren't using it. So I guess the barrier to entry now is they see that ad for the casino app that "pays you real money" and they expect to download it and expect it to work.
Until mom and grandmom can load up the computer with all sorts of malware that breaks everything, they really aren't interested.
- Game studios support - most games don't support Linux natively (and no, I don't want compatibility layer upon layer).
- "Default" Linux distribution for average consumers. Average consumers don't want 2000 distro choices as they will rather stick to one Windows that having to think between many Linux distros and pick one.
- The "default" Linux needs to have the consumer-marketing name of simply "Linux OS".
Who would make this "default" Linux? Who would be in charge of it? What power would they have over directing development of the kernel? What happens when this centralization that's so important to soothing the confusion of people who aren't even using the OS yet inevitably causes it to enshitify and brings us right back to the Windows problem?
No, I'm sorry - there may be some things that would make Linux more palatable to non-techies, but this just recreates the Windows problem again. The same dichotomy that's been at play for the past 30 years is still at play - you can have it easy or you can have freedom and control, but you can't have both.
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Get all my games working and, more importantly, my video editing software. I had the video editing software working, updated the OS, and it broke. This is not something that has happened to me under Windows, as much as I dislike it. I work two jobs and have home maintenance; I don't have time to sit and troubleshoot and manually tweak things. Solve that and I will be on linux full time.
I truly wish to see the day when any computer can easily run Linux painlessly.
I think the easiest ones I've seen are Linux Mint and all the vanilla installs of other mature distros, but I still see cases from time to time with friends and strangers who still somehow manage to get their setups in some issue or another, whether it's their hardware's fault or factory defaults / configs getting in the way or their own.
I'm just glad that these are getting much better than ever as time goes on.
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I'm a Windows User (Hello, there are dozens of us)
My laptop is Kubuntu (KDE+Ubuntu)
My college laptop was Linux Mint
My main PC is Win-10 LTSE.
Why: I need exceptional anti-cheat support because I play competitive online PvP shooter games religiously, and Virtual Desktop (VR Streaming Application) doesn't run under Linux.
Should I think about not doing that and install Bazzite instead?
Well there's the problem, huh?
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