Some push $400 to $600.
This is the same flawed reasoning that people use when they say Linux is easy, the OS doesn’t matter.
You are in a fringe technology forum. Not everyone has the same level of technical competency you do.
“What browser are you using?” yields dramatic inconsistent results in the business world.
“Windows 2010”
“Bing”
“Microsoft Office Windows”
“Do what?”
“Errr… Speak English!”
My additional input would be more industry specific. For industry that has compliance and security standards that get audited, Linux increases that burden as well. The DISA tool works great on Windows, and is updated quickly- meanwhile we have to make drug deals and pull miracles to find out how to make new RHEL builds compliant, work with tools, work with checker tools, get our SME team working on deficiencies etc. We can’t just ‘set it and forget it’, due to distro upgrades to avoid EOL, constant patches etc, the maintenance level is a pain. Make it so its just as easy (or at least nearly as) to validate as it is on Windows and you will have me in your corner in the meeting room when talking about what OS to use on a new VM build- otherwise I’m going to find an alternative, an push back whenever there is a choice other than Linux but the user wants Linux- I’ve gotten really good at knowing when a user is blowing smoke as to why X will only work on Linux.
Its not to say Windows does not require maintenance, but MS being enterprise minded, its much easier.
If someone chimes in “well, you are just doing it wrong” that just proves my point more, it shouldn’t be shrouded in mystery or require grey-beards if its going to get mass-adopted.
I did try to use gnome’s remote desktop some years ago, and I remember it not working properly. I will have to try again next time I get a chance. I am already using gnome so it should be easy enough.
Of course it counts…
Not to mention chromebooks are great for deploying to places, easy to manage.
So OS doesn’t matter…
Ofc, it does. But I would just argue in this fringe case it does not. Because as far as I’m concerned I would not classify it as an OS, but as an application. It’s kinda sorta Linux under the hood sure. But then there is almost nothing you can do with it apart from launching chrome.
I would say even in that price range it’s not so bad actually. When you look at the conventional notebooks you’ll get for the price. The chromebook is gonna have more battery life, start up faster, be better built, be more portable, have a touch screen and so forth. All assuming that a browser is all you need, ofc.
It is 100% Linux. no ifs or buts. And your information may be a bit behind. it doesnt just launch chrome.
Yeah it launches Android too and chrome plugins type of “programs”. It´s basically as much Linux as Android is Linux. Android is a JVM on top of Linux and chromeos is chrome on top of Linux. You can install an actual Linux distribution on it. But that´s back to more advanced things that normal users aren´t gonna get their hands dirty with.
I’d also agree that for older folks it’s hard to recommend. Because they die inside if they don’t have word and excel running “as it always used to be”. But the newer generation is more used to the life in the browser and probably partially more familiar with tablets/phones than with pcs.
Good audiance to sell it too. Google even say themselves I believe they are targetting school education with it. That ain’t your parents buying a chromebook and going to school with it. ^^
You can run bash on it, you can install packages and run containers.
You’re very obviously speaking from a position of either inaccurate or outdated information. I’d recommend you give chrome books another try. They’re actually nice little machines.
Unsuccessfully. All the schools around here are on ipads for various reasons, and the recent information about the data collection on android, that’s not gonna. Help them.
Do you think that we should be focusing on Walmart/Best buy, or should we focus on large companies?
Personal opinion: Neither.
Lack of Linux use in education is a much bigger problem than the fact that you can’t buy a Linux laptop at Best Buy.
By the time most people see Linux in an educational setting, they’re on a University campus, taking some kind of computer science class.
At that point, habits are already well-established, and making a change to anything else requires more effort than it’s worst for most.
The big problem is the communities online. They’re mostly infested with people who are looking to compensate for what they lack in their personal lives. You’ll generally find them stroking their egos going on and on about the same subject (whatever their niche is), and they almost always infer whatever knowledge they have as being the only correct solution for any problem despite better solutions existing.
Some of them play it off as a joke, but most of them truly believe in their own minds they have some sort of higher value than the next disposable sack of skin who is capable of turning on a computer and typing. It’s an ego thing. I don’t personally care for it myself, so I just worry about myself instead of seeking constant approval from random anonymous internet forum members.
They’re cut from cloth of social reject for whatever excuses they make in their own lives. It’s embarrassing to identify on the same level as them at all.
Go at your own pace, and worry about yourself instead of what some jerkoff on a forum tells you to do.
My rebuttal (actually its more agreeing with) would be a great many ‘normie’ Windows users that use Iphones and/or Androids or even Chromebooks. Make it just work, make the ecosystem big (and works when you install an app), make it easy, people will use it. The only frustrating time the roomate had with the chromebook after leaving windows was HP printing not working (still doesn’t)- the troubleshooting was still far more pleasant than the joyful yellow-brick road of a rabbit hole one has to go down into for Linux.
I think simply being an active member on this forum already provides some ethos as to liking technology and within that having an appreciation for Linux, but I know I’m not alone here in having wanted to throw a linux box at the wall countless times. Imagine the experience for someone who goes to Walmart and thinks “oh look, this Linux laptop is cheaper than that Windows one, this will be good enough for school!” Then it becomes a cringe video on youtube as a reason why the student drops out.
Again the above is IRT individual users.
For enterprise, I already made a post as to why I will chuck a Linux request right back at a program’s face.
In my sincere opinion, the only thing Linux is lacking… Is a company willing to put their weight and 100% commit to a Linux desktop offering and, well, guarantee a “just works” experience. Like Windows and OSX does.
There have been pretenders. In the early days, Mandrake/Mandriva and Lindows / Linspire. Ubuntu was the first serious candidate - for a while. Then they started to go off-track with MiR, Unity and a bunch of other side-tracked desktop experiments that, eventually, turned out not to be fruitful, and these days it just feels the momentum is dead. Valve could be this company, but while they do cool stuff I have my doubts about them doing a whole distro proper.
As for current distros, you have Arch, Fedora and Gentoo for the more advanced users enjoying bleeding-edge, Ubuntu and all it’s flavors, as well as OpenSuSE for the less tech-savy, and finally Debian, Red Hat and CentOS for the enterprise crowd wanting more glacial movements.
Ubuntu leads the pack of usable desktop offerings, but seems to be suffering from a mental illness that makes it do retarded stuff from time to time. Pretty much like my uncle. The end user experience is mediocre at best, unfortunately.
I think that the Fedora / Red Hat symbiosis has the right idea, with Fedora being the test bed of Red Hat, meaning Fedora is free to do retarded things while Red Hat picks up the best of the experiment. Unfortunately, Red Hat is not even remotely interested in providing a good desktop experience, instead focusing on their server offerings.
Which means the doors are wide open for a “Fedora+Red Hat-for-the-desktop” distro, if any company is willing to invest a billion dollars or something like that. Not holding my breath though. 
If one or a couple of distros truly go mainstream, all the fragmentation will pretty much disappear. Just look to the browser market how this could work. Same with “silly” usability problems. So, yeah, the only thing I really think is lacking - is serious corporate backing willing to commit to desktop Linux.
Then it becomes a cringe video on youtube as a reason why the student drops out.
True story.
I knew someone would get it haha- I speak truth haha.
There are a couple of problems, and they can become quite circular so it’s hard to pin down what is the biggest issue.
The majority of consumer systems for sale run Windows, and the ones running Linux aren’t marketed.
No public brand recognition for Linux
Who do you even market it to?
The only of these groups that are likely to see increases in adoption, are Casual Users and Power Users. Casual users will have very few problems switching to it, and already are as Android and ChromeOS increases in popularity; their focus is on applications not Operating Systems, they are happy as long as their applications run. Power users I can see switching as Microsoft continues to fumble updates; and considering that Linux is a power-users paradise, it could be an preferrable alternative to many.
I’d argue that certain classes of Professionals would be a good target as well.
If Apple continues to drop the ball (I’m not talking about the Apple Store shenanigans), this is likely to happen in certain industries.
Most places I’ve worked invest in Apple because it plays nicely with the corporate communication software/lock down while having a similar environment to the environment it’s going to be deployed on.
The touchbar and other gimmicks has people nervous, and a company like StackExchange already passed up on buying the new MBPs for their team because of issues with the touchbar.
That’s an excellent point.
I think we should be targeting disappointed apple users.
The problem I see with professionals, is there is usually an investment in a specific workflow. If a video editing professional has their time investment into Premeire, they will have to relearn their workflow in a compatable program like Resolve 15. This applies not only to video, but also audio, etc. I would consider Louis Rossman to be a professional, he uses Openboardview on Windows; he could be using it on Linux but there is nothing to persuade him to (aside from broken Windows updates).
If only KDEconnect was on iOS
To me the biggest issue is software support. Microsoft had a good head start, and got into schools. Everyone (including myself) has a workflow suited to Windows. The software solution just isn’t always there, and even if it is, it isn’t always obvious. In some cases, even a lot of Googling doesn’t always elucidate a simple way to do what people may be used to not even having to think about.