That doesn’t stop any of them. Windows users still go, willy nilly, traipsing around the internet downloading and installing random things. There is no money, no checks and balances. I’m sure you’ve read Windows converts complaining, “Linux isn’t ready for the average user because it’s too hard to install programs, they want to be able to download an installer, then click next next next and have the application installed.” They think the security of package management is too much for the average user.

Sure, FOSS could get some bad actors. It would be no different than the closed source community. At least with FOSS, there is still opportunity for people to find and eliminate the bad code. The world runs on Linux and FOSS. The place where you would want to sneak in some bad code the most. You’d have a much bigger impact. And, it does happen on occasion, people notice, and the bad code is removed. Compare that to the much smaller, Windows world, where you need anti-virus checkers and maleware checkers.

It sounds like you have the computing world inverted. You believe Windows and closed source is the most dominant computing paradigm. It’s not.

Nobody is expecting them too. That’s all in your own head.

Average users don’t install OSes. They don’t care about OSes. Nobody would ever expect an average user to even think about looking for a gaming distro. I think you need to retune your idea of what an average user is.

Well, at least you got that far. Imagine if you tried migrating to MacOS.

He said nothing. Then he explained that all he had was a bunch of unfounded fears and once he gave it a shot, it wasn’t that hard. i.e. training wheels not required, so nothing.

I wouldn’t.

My bad, it’s been a decade. The key should actually be HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image. That’s the key I was thinking of.

Not sure if this can help. Seems like you might have it covered for now. But, just in case, If you go to the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run you can add a key for the name of the executable that gets run, Ai.exe and the value gets set to another program you want to run. Maybe you can set it to empty. Haven’t used Windows for over a decade, but I do remember setting that value to open an nPipe for debugging with WinDBG.

100% agree.

I could see that being the case. But definitely not the case where the average user needs/uses CAD. That’s a wild one.

Correct, and it’s the same for any OS, and figuratively every user. The average user has no clue how to install an OS nor cares to do so. Few people switch the OS on their phone. Few switch to Windows on a Steam Deck. Nobody it trying out different OSes on their SmartTV. It’s the tech nerds that install OSes, they are the ones that switch. That’s why it’s always hilarious to read them complain about Linux needing to be made easy to install for the “average” user.

the only reason people are using windows is because they are pre installed, that’s the only truth.

This couldn’t be more true.

What average user uses CAD? I think you are conflating what an average user requires.

Agreed.

Yep, makes sense. 1500 dollar Mac or a 100 dollar USB dongle. Logic checks out.

cheap USB dongle

Little guys like this one were 5 dollars over ten years ago now. I know because this is the one I would tell folks upgrading from win7 or win8, to win10, to use when their wifi nic wasn’t supported. I also used them for my crypto miners.

Or he could just go back to an OS that works.

Shocking, use the OS that is compatible with your hardware. If you are on XP or Win7 and you want to go to Win10, guess what you have to do. Make sure you hardware is compatible. Same difference. If you want Win10, and your NIC isn’t compatible, you buy a new NIC. Nobody seems to complain about that. People want MacOS, they buy new hardware, no one complains about that. But for some reason, with Linux, “this free OS better work work with my cheap Chinese network card or I’m going straight to the electronics store and buying a Win11 machine”.

Long time Linux user here. I’m definitely in the Linux just works camp. That’s why I use it. I do see some of the posts, “I have to spend an hour fixing my computer running one of the most user friendly distros every single time the power goes out”, I know you are being tongue and cheek but some of the posts sound like they haven’t tried Linux for 20 years, some sound like they never tried Linux and they are just repeating some stereotype from 30 years ago. The ones that seem legit, seem more like they just didn’t have compatible hardware or only partial supported hardware.

A lot of recent Linux hardware compatibility has come from OEMs trying to save money on WHQL certification costs from Microsoft. They are all reusing the same chipsets. Then someone like Intel or AMD writes a Linux driver for that chipset and suddenly a bunch of machines that have that device become more compatible. That’s given the new Windows converts a false reality. Then they say, ‘yeah, install, it’s great (which it is)’. To be fair, it does seem like most hardware is supported these days (it surprises me), but it’s not quite that good yet. Just make sure your hardware is compatible before you install. You can create the install media and boot the entire OS off the install media before you ever install and you can see if your hardware works or not. Just remember, if you have slow install media, Linux would be slow running initially.

Also, Nvidia is not fully supported with all configurations yet (mostly laptop from what I understand). Nvidia is making a lot of ground over the last year. So just keep that in mind.

Your solution was to buy a whole other computer instead of just switching to a stable distro?

Can confirm. I started on Slackware 3.6. I did need to know stuff about computers. The same stuff I had to learn about Windows. We all helped each other out. And there was never an average user installing Windows, ever. Average users would just ask for help. It seems to so moronic to read, “Linux needs to be made easier for the ‘average’ users to install if you want people to use it.” Windows isn’t easy enough for the average user to install but somehow Linux needs to over come that feet. So ridiculous.

Reminds me of that Linus Tech tips video where they try Linux for gaming. Linus, says something like, “We are all tech people, Linux shouldn’t be this hard”. Right, so I’m good with Linux so I should just be good at every other OS out there. Every MacOS techie should know everything about Windows and Linux and every other OS floating around on the internet?! Makes total sense.

I’ve never used Mint, but you don’t have to update in all those places. The system should cover it all for you. Even deb files you download manually can (if the developer does this) register with secure repositories to be auto updated by the system itself. You should be able to just download those and double click to install them. The software store will handle the install for you. Good example would be Brave Browser. It’s there, just not common to download .deb files manually.

A 5 to 15 dollar USB dongle was too much for you? There used to be a time when people understood they would need to buy compatible hardware for the OS. We’re not just talking Windows to Linux here, this same thing happens between Windows versions. Imagine switching to MacOS from Windows or to Windows from MacOS. “Guess MacOS doesn’t work on my Windows hardware. Whelp, back to Windows.”