 Hey everybody welcome back to the channel today I'm going to be talking about why Linux hasn't gone mainstream now I've talked about this before on the podcast with either Martin or Ricky and Really, I think my opinion hasn't changed much, but I thought I'd make a video about it because Every so often I get asked why don't you think more people use Linux and There are many reasons why Linux hasn't gone mainstream and I Guess before we jump into it, we just talk about what going mainstream Would really entail I think when people think mainstream They think that it would compete with Windows like have the same kind of market share which is Ridiculous because Windows has like 85 86 percent market share There's gonna be no competing with that is just never gonna happen, but When I think about mainstream, I think people know what Linux is if you walk up to an average person on the street Say, hey, do you know what Linux is? They'd say yes. That's when Linux has made it. I Think in order to get to that point there are several things that obviously need to happen But I think the biggest thing is that Linux is too hard to install Now for you or me the people who watch this channel, you're probably saying like Matt You're dumb. Linux is easy to install. I mean even arch is easy to install for the most part I mean if you can follow instructions but for People who don't watch this channel I mean for your mom or your dad or your grandma or grandpa or any Luddite out there who doesn't really know what they're doing with it for those people who Use computers as just methods of getting work done not for enjoyment who aren't interested in learning the ins and outs of how computers work Linux is too hard to install If I went up to my mom my mom's I don't know 76 years old now if I walked up to her and say hey burn this ISO ton to a USB key she first asked me what a USB key is Or us a USB drive it should ask me what a USB drive would be to if I use the you know the other term for it And then she wanted one ISO is and then she'd want to know why or maybe she'd want to know why first I don't know But I mean there'd be all these questions because you wouldn't know how to do it. That is the point is For everyone who uses Linux taking an ISO and burning it or whatever or transferring it on to a USB drive is a simple task. It's not hard. You can use etcher. You can use You know, whatever you could use DD if you wanted to you know, take your life in your own hands But for normal people for normies as Luke Smith would say That's not a simple task because they don't even know that that is a thing that has to happen If you ask them to install windows, they would probably still have just as much of a hard time But it'd be easy for them to overcome that hurdle because it's just a matter of getting into your settings and you know hitting You know reinstall or whatever or going to the Microsoft website and following the four steps It takes to download the installer and then the installer just does it for you. You don't have to go through and burn The ISO you don't even see the term ISO anywhere I mean, you can obviously find a windows ISO, but you wouldn't be installing it that way because you're already on windows So In order for Linux to go mainstream or even become more popular It has to become easier to install and it has to get past this hole. Let's add in these steps where you have to Download an ISO. You have to figure it. I mean, let's just pause there for a second Every distro you have out there out there every distro Has like five isos to download Ubuntu itself has the LTS from 2018 I think you can download it has the most recent One that came out in October and has you know the last LTS which 2004 You know, you can download all these things and that's just a boon to Same thing every single flavor of boon to has the same amount of downloads mint has three downloads I think as cinnamon X FCE and LMD, right? if You go to the arch page the arch page has a ton of different isos on it and they're confusing because they're all in like You press the download button you get this gigantic page of Mirrors and stuff and I mean you'd have to know what a mirror is first of all I mean new people aren't going to be installing arch anyways But they're all kind of like this and you go to man jar mark man jar was more user noob friendly and they have three main isos and they have like nine or ten Community editions, which one are you supposed to choose? So even just choosing an iso if you can get past the idea of knowing what an iso is is hard and Then once you've chosen the hopefully the appropriate iso for you you've chosen one that makes sure it's you know works on your processor You know because you didn't download the arm version or something maybe Then you have to know how to get that onto a USB key that actually works and well You know is appropriate and then there's the whole check something where you have to make sure the Iso that you've downloaded is proper and stuff. I mean nobody knows how to do that I mean no normal people know even why you should have to do that You don't have to do that with Windows. I mean maybe you should have to do it with Windows But you don't have to The then the whole if you can manage to get it onto a USB key then you have to Deal with BIOS and figuring out how to you know if you're gonna use UEFI or if you're gonna You have to disable curaboo or you know what whatever I mean, that's just an entirely hard and stupid mess that you don't have to deal with if you're installing Windows because Windows is certified for whatever and it will work just out of the box If you're installing Windows actually if you already have Windows on your computer well You go into the settings and you can you know reset it to a per you know factory defaults It's done right there. You don't have to do any you know burning over If you're installing if you have already have Windows, but you download it from the web They have their own installer. It's just it goes through download stuff And then it reboots your computer installs in which you're right into the installer there's no Extraneous stuff now. Obviously there's ways that you can download the Windows ISO and have to put it on a on a USB key and do it you know the way you do it with Windows so that you know But they've made it so easy to install if you've had to install but most people I mean We talk I mean I've been talking about having to install Windows most people the vast majority people will never install Windows because it just comes pre-installed That's the hurdle that Linux kind of has to to You know get towards and I think the solution to that is more hardware that comes with Linux pre-installed because then you don't have to deal with any of this stuff you just have You know a Dell or whatever comes with Ubuntu or you have a pine book, you know or whatever For people who are maybe maybe have heard of about Linux and Don't know any of this stuff What is the Linux community to do? Ideally if you wanted to go through and install Linux There'd be a script or something that's not even a script like a program that you download from the distribution You've chosen from the website of the distribution. You've chosen you Hit a few keys It would download a script in the background you wouldn't even see it It would ask you to reboot and then as you boot back up it take you right in the installer. There'd be there'd be no ISOs there'd be no Dealing with UEFI or choosing how to boot into the boot menu. There'd be none of that stuff It work exactly the same way as installing Windows would if you already had Windows installed That's that'd be the idea now technologically, I Don't know that it's possible because you yet UEFI and secure boot and all those kind of things are Hard enough to get around, you know, manually, you know, if you know what you're doing doing it automated, you know In an automatic way, you know, I don't know that it's possible I don't know enough about coding to you know, know that it's possible but I think that'd be the ideal solution because in Somebody learns about what Linux is they could go through and you know download this thing from the internet hit a few buttons It reboots reboots it boots you into the installer and you install it because once once you've gotten past the whole, you know in ISO and USB key thing and the UEFI and all that stuff once you've booted into the installer It's easy anybody can do it for most distros obviously You get to the text-based terminal-based installers Those are a little bit different, but you know, if you're Ubuntu or Mint or Manjaro or anything that uses Calamari's It's very easy and there's unless something goes catastrophically wrong. It's just gonna install it's that hurdle of getting people to download an ISO and burning it that I That that's the thing that really for me That I really think is holding Linux backs. I know that's a really specific thing I mean, obviously there are so many other things we could talk about we could talk about how Linux doesn't do any Marketing because I'm you know, there's not Ubuntu commercials on the TV You know, or they're not buying Google ads for Ubuntu laptops or whatever I mean, so there are other problems preventing Linux to from going mainstream But I think the biggest technological hurdle is the installation. So That's just what I want to talk about today really briefly Personally, I don't think that Linux will ever go above three or four percent in terms of market share And I don't think that that's a big deal I think for the most part as long as it doesn't tank, you know, like everybody stops using it Then we'll be perfectly fine and there's also the idea that maybe we don't want it to go to 20 30 or 40 percent market share because then it'll be more targeted towards malware and all that stuff, but Those arguments, you know Kind of mute because we're never gonna get there. It's just not gonna happen. Now. I'm obviously in the Enterprise space in terms of servers and stuff. Linux is already there. It's be it's one Like all the super computers in the world. They run Linux. So Maybe if everything was a super computer, we'd want to use Linux. So anyways, that is it for this video Make sure you follow us on Twitter at the Linux cast on Facebook at the Linux cast you could also follow us on Odyssey the link is in the video description For some reason I have like three the Linux cast channel on Odyssey in library. I Will link in the video description the appropriate one. Hopefully this video will be automatically transferred over there Otherwise, I'm gonna have to do that manually. I don't know how it works. I'm just getting dipping my toes into that You can also support us on patreon at patreon.com slash Linux cast and with that in mind I would like to thank our patrons Devon Marcus America Thanks for the support. Thanks everybody for watching. I'll see you next time