We all have opinions on how to procedurally get someone started using Linux. To mixed effect. I wonder if we could be more successful if we paid closer attention to the machine between the seat and the keyboard. What mindsets can we instill in people that would increase the likelihood they stick with it? How would we go about instilling said mindsets?
I have my own opinions I will share later. I don’t want to direct the conversation.
Dogged stubbornness. I use Linux because I refuse to give MS any more of my money, and I’m too stubborn to give up.
Scarred by abuse, but resolved to escape instead of developing Stockholm syndrome.
Linux is dirt easy. Same desktop interface as Windows except easier and way way less bullshit.
A proper mindset would be a desire for a free, easy operating system.
So you grab a cheap old computer. Download the latest version of Debian. Install it (selecting the “Mate” desktop option, it’s my personal fave). And that’s it. Google any further questions.
For me it was that I don’t want a goddamn spying, AI infested, laggy, ugly, rounded, babysitting win11, so I need to get out of the bill gates ecosystem. And I did, quite easily.
Linux isn’t a product sold by a company. If they’re still thinking that somebody else is responsible for how they experience their technology they will not have a good time with Linux. You have to be able to take responsibility for your machine, and in our society of learned helplessness, people would rather give up that responsibility for perceived convenience.
Back in the mid 2000s, we (my company) were on Windows, including three Windows 2000 Server licences. And we needed to upgrade. But it wasn’t sustainable for the small company to pay for all these licences, when a free option was available.
So we slowly moved all applications over to cross-platform alternatives, Outlook to Thunderbird (called Firebird in those days), office to OpenOffice (now LibreOffice), Internet Explorer to Firefox, Corel Draw to Gimp, Company software like accounting to a XAMPP stack etc.
Once this was established and running well, we just changed the underlying platform from Windows to Ubuntu/Gnome, cursed for a few days and went on with our lives. And it worked for the past 20 years and counting. Now I am cursing, when I am forced to use Windows and can’t find my butt using it.
So the mindset, if you want, was that of methodical planning and going slow, step by step. This is likely different if you’re a gamer, or you need some very specialised apps, but for me, this was not the case. The games that I play, like Sudoku and Solitaire, work on any platform.
