Mastodawn

I've been using Linux as my daily driver both personally and professionally for about 20 years. I was the weirdo who you hired and the next day, my work PC was running Debian on the metal and I was hassling the AD SYSADMINs to let me bind it to the corporate directory.

I hate that the benchmark so many users have for trying Linux is to 'run Windows games'. I get it, that's a valid thing to want to do, but maybe spend a little while appreciating the basics using native apps that match your DE's widget library, the package manager, etc. first.

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Pseudonymous

Mar 18

@DarcMoughty

I've seen this, too. I'm trying to put together a "training wheels package" I can slap on whatever old laptop I throw Linux on. Do you have any thoughts on what to include? Also: YouTube videos I can bookmark to help them understand why they should care.

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GreenDotGuy

@VictimOfSimony I think the most important part of a 'training wheels' intro to Linux is to explain that while it CAN run arbitrary programs from various sources, the built-in package manager should be the first source. Packages like 'synaptic' can be very helpful in navigating the available software. For distros, I really think most people should start with the latest Ubuntu rolling release running GNOME; they can 'get weird' with other DEs later in their journey. A demo of that with Chromium from the built-in repo and then the downloaded .deb for Chrome would be good.

Somewhere, pointing out that most apps use widget libraries and picking the GTK one if the rest of your system is GTK helps things look and work in familiar ways.

I think the average user would probably be happy with a full featured DE, a browser they know, and the ability to pop open Synaptic and search for "audio editor" and find a few things they can try out.

I think too many people install Linux and reflexively start trying to use WINE to run their favorite Windows apps. Rerouting them to install Audacity from the distro is a better start. If they really want to game, Steam is making things easier, and that might be a starter package for some users.