I think the problem with that is that the distros are each essentially personal projects. Some individual or team has their vision of what they think Linux should be and make their own effort to make it. There isn’t just 3 big distros because there’s more than 3 teams that want to make their own. And since no one has control over what distro anyone else can make, each person’s only options are to start their own distro, work on someone else’s, both (and more, since there’s no limit on how many distros you can contribute to), or neither.

Though personally, I think more options is good. Just like with the lemmyverse, if admins for one distro make choices you don’t like, you’re not stuck with them because you can either switch distros or start your own fork if you think it was on the right path before that bad choice.

All I can say for sure is that, from my experience, Fedora is ready for the masses (at least the technically competent who are willing to learn, the others are just as lost on windows, outside of their usual activities).

The downvotes might be because it’s not something anyone can do.

Linux is at a point where we really shouldn’t be using distro specific installers.

what a flatpac is and why people hate it,

Huh, most people actually like Flatpak, and for good reasons too.

If you know what flatseal is and how to set permissions, it gets a lot better.

I tried to like vim. But nano just works.

i’m my case i am using apparently old hardware, i ran into the following issues with my set up:

• my usb cable for the mic was crap. and because the signal was flaky, Bazzite put the port on low priority mode where it only checks in when asked
• the usb cable was insufficient to push the data, i swear it came with the mic. still thing this was a dubious conclusion, but a new cable was 5$
• Bazzite would ask my USB speaker and mic within milliseconds of receiving power what their designation was, and the controllers in the devices responded so slowly that Bazzite gave them new names and put them in passive mode. i had to bake in the command to treat that like legacy equipment (ouch) to sit and listen for a reply however long it takes.
• the speakers are flipped in meat space, due to outlets and the length of available cable, i can not change this, so i had to flip it in software, i was recommended easyeffects, but pipewire hated its guts, and i was better off learning to bake it in via the terminal after i was able to find the devices actual name once i got them out of passive jail above.
• i had to bin the flat pack versions of discord and my web browser Vivaldi. don’t want to get into a browser war i have had enough trying to siphon through redacted reddit posts about that

won’t lie i had to use AI to RTFM though chat GPT bricked my stuff more then i should have let it. gemini was better at this

You say older hardware so just curious if you happen to have an Asus mobo? If we are talking AM4 era, heads up that Asus mobos saw a lot of firmware revisions in 2025 including patches for usb-related issues. I have a b550 board that has been troublesome but seems a bit more stable with the latest firmware.

I know I’m supposed to go that way, but I went the other . I’ve been using micro and it has been awesome working with my mouse when I want. What is more basic than Fisher Price? A teething set of plastic keys?

I mean, obviously I’m not advocating that you install pipewire or pipewire plugins as appimages.

So “the year of the Linux desktop” is just around the corner? Again?

… and all it took was to wait for windows to become unbearably shitty?

You mean like we did with MSDOS?

(Quietly leaves the room)

I wonder if r/Windows11 would agree that “everything works.” Damn near every new update is bringing new issues with them. The entire OS is a privacy nightmare. Microslop is constantly shoving Copilot where people don’t want it. There a plenty of valid reasons why people recommend Linux, Apple, and even Windows 10 over Windows 11.

Why do you prefer them to flatpaks? Genuinely curious. I’ve only used appimages once or twice.

And yet when I use it things break. You guys always act like it doesn’t happen, but it does.

I’d rather have a system that works, is uncomplicated, and requires no maintenance. Where I don’t need to constantly paste shit into a command line to get stuff to work, try system restores, etc.

Funny to see a Star Trek reference in your name and then the comment below is simping for an evil trillion dollar company while shitting on the collective collaborative efforts of the many, too. Talk about missing the point.

You want a pic for proof? Ok, no worries.

Taken: Sat, Jan 17, 2026 • 12:09 PM GMT+01:00

Can’t wait for you to say this was 'shopped now. Go ahead, humour me.

Just because it doesn’t happen to you specifically it doesn’t mean it’s not true.

Sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that! PCs refuse to shut down after Microsoft patch - Lemmy.World

“On systems with Secure Launch enabled, attempts to shut down, restart, or hibernate after applying the January patches may fail to complete.”

(lemmy.world)

It was literally reported on by tech news outlets. You can get your head out of the sand, it is possible, I believe in you.

they’re still just too commonly needed in every distro.

there’s always still basic functionality that just isn’t in the GUI.

Can you give a concrete example?

That is what freedom is about. Anyone can choose to walk their own path to hell as they see fit. Otherwise you just end up with Windows all over again.

What in the fake news is this source ??

I feel like if you made a Venn diagram between Lemmy users and Linux users, it would just be a circle. I say this as also a Linux enjoyer.