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Fedi is famously a ravenous hotbed of Unix geeks waxing poetic about the endless virtues of free software (present company included). From this perspective, I feel that it is really easy to overlook just what a huge ask it is for everyday people to even consider Linux as a viable alternative, let alone actually switch to it for every day use.
The End Of 10 Campaign has recently revived a old talking point and pseudomeme phenomenon: that this is FINALLY the year of the Linux Desktop™. So while we're here, I feel like this is a good time to take stock as a community and come together to make the free software ecosystem the single best place to be in light of the current circumstances.
And this conversation comes at a good time because now, more than at any other time, people in my family are actually curious about the idea of owning computers that don't spy on them, share their personal information, steal their identity, or make them go broke.
I've recently helped two relatives try and convert their digital lives over to Linux to avoid the widespread enshittification that was headed their way. Both had old computers on the verge of dying, and looming system upgrades that they weren't thrilled about. Both had a laundry list of both technical and personal needs that Linux needed to serve, of which about 90% were met perfectly. However, the last 10% were non-negociable. Both attempts ultimately failed. That said, I think it's worth exploring the factors that led to my family being interested in a free operating system in the first place and why my attempts to help them didn't work.
I think it's really tempting, as Computer Touchers, for us to forget or ignore the absolutely monumental upheaval that switching to an alternative operating system causes the average person. It is a huge shift in perspective for most people to even consider that a volunteer made software is actually good and not just virus ridden boiled dog shit. Free software doesn't have a great reputation among commercial OS users, especially since vendor lock-in and SaaS is pretty much the norm now.
A big sticking point for my relatives was the concept that open source software is actually safer than closed source software. As a software developer, I had the ability to talk them through how the open source model works, how it gets funded, who contributes to it, why, and how security patches get reported and fixed.
That knowledge, laid out in an easy to digest format, is surprisingly hard to come by on the internet. Instead, as many of us Unix users have found out, you as an individual have to have an outsized (maybe even manic) desire to try things out and learn on your own. This is not the norm. And there are not many comprehensive guides to make it any easier. Instead, we have tons of content comparing and contrasting distros. It's entertaining content, but not all that useful.
One good thing that has come out of the End Of 10 campaign are all of the Linux install cafes and local groups that have donated their time to provide this much needed education service for people. It helps our community look more legitimate, helpful, and knowledgeable, and it gives new users a built in support system.
A not insignificant part of the marketing and packaging of commercial software is designed to underscore feelings of trust, consistency, purpose, and professionalism. This is something the Linux community struggles with because we're a ton of tiny communities working on different things, mostly technical in nature.
My mother in law, a life long Apple user, was especially skeptical of the idea that random people just make useful software for the fun of it and that they actually know what they're doing.
She was deeply interested in the ethics and motives of the people involved in FOSS development, and what they were getting out of it. She spent a lot of time asking me how to differentiate trustworthy software from scams. I explained to her about how the Linux software distribution system works for most distros: package maintainers and dedicated users often port their software to a specific system; distro maintainers verify, test, and fine tune the port; and then regular people download it from a single trusted repository. Telling her some commercial contributors helped in these efforts because it served their bottom line actually helped her feel better about it.
Another concern for her was the form factor. She wanted something that felt familiar and didn't come with a learning curve. This is HUGE and I think we overlook it way too often. Joking about Liquid Glass aside, Apple (used to) spend a huge amount of energy and effort to make their computers easy to use. The computer taught you how to use it because the UI was so meticulously designed.
The Linux community also struggles with these first few touchpoints, and I feel like a lot of it has to do with the desktop. I've long felt that a barrier to adoption is the fact that you can't just walk into Best Buy or some store and just try out a Linux computer in person. The physical interaction is key to helping people really FEEL like they understand what Linux is about.
Screenshots are great, but they lose out on a lot of subtlety. DistroSea has been an incredible asset recently to help people try out a real computer for a little while. It would be cool to see this service grow and get a little more promotion by distro maintainers.
My MIL's main concern was getting lost or confused, or being unable to keep up with updates. Remember, updates on most commercial OSs are kind of dangerous and put people on red alert. The model is just so different than Linix. Updates break stuff, they cost money, and people are often forced into using them against their will.
This struck me as interesting. She was clinging to an old install of OSX Mavericks on an ancient iMac, and for her, the classic Mac era of design was all she knew. Plus, she couldn't upgrade without endangering her living or stretching her limited income (more on that later).
I told her about Elementary OS and now they've done such an excellent job building an intuitive, cozy, and beautiful desktop environment that would be easy to use. This, predictably started up another conversation about customization and what a desktop environment even is. It was probably a mistake on my part to even bring that idea up because it's difficult to convey just how modular Linux is in comparison to corporate OSs. I'd recommend not getting too deep into this topic becuase it's a little too inside baseball for most people.
Thankfully, Elementary has an unusually good website among Linux distros that explains, visually, what new users are getting themselves into without introducing a bunch of new ideas. Many more distros could learn a lot from how well that team communicates their message with good design. The fact that Elementary goes out of it's way to spell out the moral and ethical considerations of free software is also unique. It think the pay-what-you want model was really easy for her to get on board with, and it helped her trust the OS more than, say, stock Ubuntu.
The reason she never upgraded her ancient Mac was because she relied on a very unique set of graphic design software to pick up odd jobs and make a living. She's semi retired, so she can't afford to buy a brand new computer because that would require her to buy new software, almost all of which is now on a subscription based model.
She was running the last lifetime license version of Adobe Creative Cloud you could use and was on her last licensed install. Upgrading meant, unequivocally using a subscription for Creative Cloud. She could theoretically sell enough photography on Adobe's marketplace to qualify for a discounted license, but that meant that she would have to consent to Adobe to user her art in training AI, which was a nonstarter. She did have jobs coming in to help pay for a full license, but it wasn't enough to justify the monthly expense of paying for software she wasn't even allowed to own.
I set up a test computer for her to try out Elementary OS, pre-installed with the best free graphic design tools out there, including the GNU Image Manipulation Program, Krita, Inkscape, Darktable, Wacom Tablet drivers (thanks again Elementary), and color profiles. I also set up Wine because a lot of her old software that couldn't run on anything else had installers for both Mac and Windows burned on the CD. I figured, at the very least, I could get Adobe working using Wine and the FOSS stuff could be a fallback.
She was open to this idea, though wary of just how useful these new programs could possibly be, so I let her loose on the test computer. She immediately identified a few problems.
First of all, the free software did not have a consistent drag and drop interface. Selecting a design in one program and dragging it to another had mixed results: some things worked, and some were horrendously broken. There was a total lack of interporabolity with more complex designs. One advantage of Adobe is that everything is designed to have a shared API, which made drafting designs in multiple programs totally seamless.
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