🐧 Is anyone even trying to make Linux desktops go mainstream? Because it increasingly seems to me that the reason Linux isn't a viable alternative to Windows, is because the communities don't want it to be.

So I'm new to Linux. I built a PC about a month ago and thought to myself, "hey, why don't I install a Linux distro on this thing?". It's FOSS, plus I won't have to pay for Windows, and it's more efficient and customizable... My escapades on the internet had led me to believe that Linux is just superior, and NT-based Microsoft Windows is a bloatware-ridden fossil that needs to die. I was convinced the only reason Linux hadn't replaced Windows was simple user inertia: nobody thought to switch, and most people didn't know they had a choice. But once the final kinks (like those experienced by Linus Tech Tips & Co.) get ironed out, all that can change with a bit enthusiastic publicity! We're on our way to greatness! The Year of the Linux Desktop is just around the corner!

...Right?

Of course not.

I could spend hours listing all the hurdles I ran into, all the old forum posts and documentation I read through, and everything that happened in the interim. When I wondered why everything seemed so half-broken and difficult, the only answer I could find was that "it's just part of this distro's philosophy; try another one instead." I hopped like three different supposedly 'user-friendly' distros and actually found a lot to like about all of them. In most respects they were pretty easy to use, well-built, and intuitive. But there were always several land mines waiting to be discovered. Then it was hours of poking and prodding and googling and reading and trying out four different solutions...

A few times, upon finally solving my problem, I would make a suggestion on a forum to fix it permanently so that future users like me wouldn't have to deal with it all over again. Hey, I was happy to deal with crap now so that others could have an easier time later! Progress is progress.

But that's when things got....weird. It's hard to be specific, but I got the sense that many of the 'user-friendly' distros are uninterested in improving their usability. "You should try a different distro", or "Maybe Linux just isn't for you", they say. Completely missing the point. It's not about me; it's about the hundreds of millions of people out there stuck using Windows because they have no viable alternatives. Those people cannot all be expected to invest the vast time and energy required to "learn Linux" the way it's talked about online -- if they even have the intellect to handle it at all.

It's almost as if the Linux community doesn't care about breaking Microsoft's monopoly. Right now, a clueless layperson like my mother has only two choices: Windows or Mac. Linux has come so far, but it seems like it's stopped at 95%. Why can't the community get behind closing the gap? And why do so many refuse to acknowledge the gap even exists?

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Sincerely, one frustrated engineering undergrad who's taken like two programming classes and cares a lot about making the world a better place.