Yeah, it’s weird to talk about OpenSuse MicroOS and Fedora Atomic when they are not even the flagship desktop distros of their respective families. I guess the author drank the atomic kool-aid and thinks that’s a killer feature for a consumer OS.
That said, Ubuntu is not really aimed at beginners anymore. Canonical has shifted hard to enterprise offerings over the past 5 years or so. Take a look at their web site — they barely spare a word for desktop Linux anymore. This is what you’ll see on the main page:
“The complete guide to RAG”
“Modern enterprise open source”
A “Products” dropdown with thirteen items, maybe one of which is comprehensible to a beginner.
For all the hate Snaps get (and rightfully so), they make a lot more sense in the context of enterprise deployment. It’s like Flatpak but for headless servers and with professional support. It took me a long time to understand Canonical’s game there, because I couldn’t shake the idea of Ubuntu as a beginner’s distro.
I guess it would be cool to have an atomic OS designed for beginners, since the current crop are more complex than traditional distros, not less. But I don’t think atomicity itself really matters, especially if you’re talking about systems that are mostly locked down to begin with.
Ubuntu is still too complex for the average idiot who just needs a web browser.
Most Linux distros, even Ubuntu, have a “it’s up to you to figure it out” mentality. ChromeOS is a “we know better than you” mentality which is honestly needed for the average Joe to keep their machine safe. Everyone hates auto updates. But lets be honest, the average user isn’t going to do them unless it’s basically forced on them. Ubuntu can do live security updates, but only if you opt into Ubuntu pro or whatever it’s called.
Eh, I would have agreed a few years ago. But now default Ubuntu boots up basically looking like MacOS with the browser (firefox by default, not Chrome) right there in your face ready to launch. For someone truly not aware how to use a computer beyond a browser it couldn’t be much easier (except booting directly into the browser). The only thing preventing that from catching on is that those people don’t even know what an operating system is, let alone that it could be changed.
We are getting there, and snap auto updating is a great step for basic users. There just needs to be less asking of questions, and more assuming defaults and just doing it.
Everyone hates auto updates. But lets be honest, the average user isn’t going to do them unless it’s basically forced on them.
If there’s auto-updates, they don’t have to. This is what I don’t understand about Linux, every distro requires you to go in and, at the very least, click several buttons. Then 5 minutes later another notification pops up to do it again. Why?
Basically every Linux distro that exists is designed for “enthusiasts”. Nobody really makes a Linux distro targeted towards the tech illiterate that will handhold them the entire way.
Immutable distros with something like Snap or Flatpaks that auto update are a great first step. They just need to go a bit further with the hand holding before they’re completely dummy friendly. The problem is that hand holding pisses off enthusiasts. And since nobody wants to piss off 90% of the existing Linux user base that’s probably why something like this doesn’t exist (yet).
How they managed to write an article about easy to use Linux OSes without mentioning Ubuntu once is beyond me. :D
Yeah, it’s weird to talk about OpenSuse MicroOS and Fedora Atomic when they are not even the flagship desktop distros of their respective families. I guess the author drank the atomic kool-aid and thinks that’s a killer feature for a consumer OS.
That said, Ubuntu is not really aimed at beginners anymore. Canonical has shifted hard to enterprise offerings over the past 5 years or so. Take a look at their web site — they barely spare a word for desktop Linux anymore. This is what you’ll see on the main page:
“The complete guide to RAG”
“Modern enterprise open source”
A “Products” dropdown with thirteen items, maybe one of which is comprehensible to a beginner.
For all the hate Snaps get (and rightfully so), they make a lot more sense in the context of enterprise deployment. It’s like Flatpak but for headless servers and with professional support. It took me a long time to understand Canonical’s game there, because I couldn’t shake the idea of Ubuntu as a beginner’s distro.
I guess it would be cool to have an atomic OS designed for beginners, since the current crop are more complex than traditional distros, not less. But I don’t think atomicity itself really matters, especially if you’re talking about systems that are mostly locked down to begin with.
Ubuntu isn’t a good choice
Ubuntu is still too complex for the average idiot who just needs a web browser.
Most Linux distros, even Ubuntu, have a “it’s up to you to figure it out” mentality. ChromeOS is a “we know better than you” mentality which is honestly needed for the average Joe to keep their machine safe. Everyone hates auto updates. But lets be honest, the average user isn’t going to do them unless it’s basically forced on them. Ubuntu can do live security updates, but only if you opt into Ubuntu pro or whatever it’s called.
Eh, I would have agreed a few years ago. But now default Ubuntu boots up basically looking like MacOS with the browser (firefox by default, not Chrome) right there in your face ready to launch. For someone truly not aware how to use a computer beyond a browser it couldn’t be much easier (except booting directly into the browser). The only thing preventing that from catching on is that those people don’t even know what an operating system is, let alone that it could be changed.
And you can’t stop the browser from updating, since it’s deployed via snap. 😆
We are getting there, and snap auto updating is a great step for basic users. There just needs to be less asking of questions, and more assuming defaults and just doing it.
If there’s auto-updates, they don’t have to. This is what I don’t understand about Linux, every distro requires you to go in and, at the very least, click several buttons. Then 5 minutes later another notification pops up to do it again. Why?
Basically every Linux distro that exists is designed for “enthusiasts”. Nobody really makes a Linux distro targeted towards the tech illiterate that will handhold them the entire way.
Immutable distros with something like Snap or Flatpaks that auto update are a great first step. They just need to go a bit further with the hand holding before they’re completely dummy friendly. The problem is that hand holding pisses off enthusiasts. And since nobody wants to piss off 90% of the existing Linux user base that’s probably why something like this doesn’t exist (yet).
My dad uses Ubuntu on his htpc and its always out of date when I visit. I think Mint or PopOS may be friendlier in that respect.