WetGeek After all, Windows is pre-installed on nearly every laptop and desktop by their OEMs, and it has been that way for so long that there's a lot of inertia built up.

The question then becomes what it would take to pre-install Linux on laptops and desktops for consumer users.

Dell, for example, offers a line of business/developer "Linux Workstations and Laptops" -- XPS, Latitude, Precision -- that come with Linux (Ubuntu and/or Red Hat) pre-installed, and offers excellent support for Linux pre-installed systems, but Dell does not, to my knowledge, offer Linux pre-installed on any of its consumer lines.

What would it take to motivate Dell to expand Linux installation and support into consumer lines? The consumer market is significantly different from the developer market (less sophisticated users) and the business/enterprise market (little or no professional IT support in-house). My view is that the Linux desktop will have to significantly improve Linux "user-friendliness" and significantly reduce post-OOB support needs in order (support in the business/enterprise market is relatively inexpensive for OEM's, but more expensive in the consumer market) for that to happen.

In short, I don't think that the Linux desktop is developed enough for use by consumers, and will, unless something changes, remain the province of developers, tinkerers and enterprise-level business users.

While I agree with Torvalds about the things that need to change in order for the Linux desktop to develop into a consumer product, I'm not sure that widespread adoption by consumers is a good thing or a goal the Linux community should be seeking. It may well be that the optimal market share for Linux desktop is 3-4% or so, staying out of the consumer market for the next few years, anyway. If Torvalds is right about what it would take to expand the Linux desktop market, it would likely come at the expense of @elfprince's "Choices and flexibility, a big plus in Linux's favor."

    tomscharbach The question then becomes what it would take to pre-install Linux on laptops and desktops for consumer users.

    In short, Solus. We need to get folks to stop thinking of Linux as a free version of AT&T Unix, but as something much better suited to consumer use. There's no reason why users who install Solus Budgie can't be up and running from the start, in less time and with less frustration than it took them to learn Windows the first time.

    That will require the major distributions to start to target the non-technical user, as Solus does, as opposed to the computer scientists who had to deal with Unix and it's four-foot-long rack of user manuals.

    OEMs and large PC retailers are in business for their executives and their stockholders, many of whom are the same people. We need to convince them that they can do even better if they would offer more "user friendly" OSs at a better price. That's going to require more Linux distros to begin targeting ordinary folks, not just techno-tinkerers as they do now.

    Maybe a distro could actually offer both? SUSE does that with SLES and SLED for commercial developers and Tumbleweed and Leap for consumers. Red Hat does it with their enterprise products and Fedora. But even their consumer products still require too much of a learning curve for average Windows users.

    Solus comes damned close to being perfect for consumers, but it's just not big enough to take on Windows by itself. However, as Windows continues on its efforts to become Apple, I think more opportunities will appear.

    No large retailer would ever consider dropping Windows "cold turkey" at this time, but if they offered a Solus alternative for their consumer products, eventually their sales might convince them that it was a good move. And maybe they'd stop making it so hard to install competing OSs on their Windows machines.

    It's not going to happen overnight, but Microsoft didn't get where they are overnight, either.

      elfprince years wasted in windows and mac, loathing the appearance, wishing I could change it. I agree with you

      MintSpider How did you control the fan on the Thelio? I have an R2 but without the S76 firmware/power management, the fan is constantly on. I put up with it because Solus is so efficient but every so often I put in a Pop USB and the silence is very inviting.

        I tried out ARTIX-Linux with LXQT-Desk, which is a very lightweigt KDE/Plasma-QT-Desk, and Artix came with RUNIT instead of Gnome's-SYSTEMD.
        I managed to install it on an USB-stick.
        And woaw, Artix is superfast: booting from my slow USB 2.0 stick only needed 30 seconds.
        The whole installed system only consumed 4,5 GigaByte memory on the stick.
        And the desk was running with 450 MegaByte RAM only.

        Compared to that, Solus felt slower because of using Gnome's-SYSTEMD and much more RAM and memory than LXQT.

        With Artix i didn't manage to get along without having a software-center though, and wasn't able to install more than Firefox. so i deleted the stick again...

        A Solus-Version of LXQT would be super nice 😄 And maybe even one without SYSTEMD 😄
        If you want to get rid of all the Gnome-GTK-stuff anyhow, LXQT might be a good option?

          BTO That would be an interesting project. I doubt though, that the developers have an interest going that way.

          WetGeek In short, Solus. We need to get folks to stop thinking of Linux as a free version of AT&T Unix, but as something much better suited to consumer use. There's no reason why users who install Solus Budgie can't be up and running from the start, in less time and with less frustration than it took them to learn Windows the first time. ... As far as I am concerned, Solus Budgie is better suited for consumers than any other distro in the Linux universe. ... No large retailer would ever consider dropping Windows "cold turkey" at this time, but if they offered a Solus alternative for their consumer products, eventually their sales might convince them that it was a good move.

          I think that Solus Budgie is a near-perfect Linux environment for consumers -- designed specifically for consumer users, efficient and free of bloat, fast on low- to mid-end computers, suitable for laptop use, an elegant and sophisticated front end on par with the Windows and MacOS design quality, and so on.

          With that background, I want to try to think through the issues that need to be confronted and the issues that need to be solved in order to turn potential into reality. To focus the discussion, I want to look at a single OEM (Dell), a single consumer product line (Inspiron) and a specific laptop size (15" FHD), coupling that with Solus and Budgie. That limits the focus to three primary stakeholders -- Dell, the Solus Project and the Buddies of Budgie project.

          Looking at Dell, I want to focus on all-Intel implementations of the Inspiron line, specifically a reasonably priced (400-600 USD), reasonably well-equipped, mid-level Inspiron 15-3000 series of laptops:

          Dell need do nothing special to prepare the laptops themselves for Linux use, because the all-Intel specifications are well supported for Linux by Intel and other component manufacturers.

          But Dell will need to make significant investment to support the computers: (1) develop support pages and other infrastructure to deliver BIOS, firmware and driver updates to Solus Budgie users, (2) train support staff to understand and resolve solve Linux/Solus/Budgie support issues, (3) develop tools (similar to SupportAssist for Dell's Windows consumer products) to allow users to keep the computers up-to-date and healthy, (4) develop, in cooperation with the Solus Project and Buddies of Budgie project, a marketing program for Dell Solus Budgie Inspiron computers, (5) obtain necessary licensing and copyright permissions (similar to those worked out with Canonical and RedHat) to allow Dell to modify Solus and Budgie as needed to develop and deploy Dell-based tweaks/tools supporting the Dell hardware (specifically tools/tweaks to manage display resolution, battery life and processor use), and (6) cooperate with Dell-supported peripheral manufacturers (mice, keyboards, printers and so on) to ensure that drivers are included in the Dell pre-installed distribution and maintained for a reasonable period thereafter. None of it will come cheap for Dell.

          Looking at the other side of the coin, the Solus Project and Buddies of Budgie projects are going to have to make very significant changes to make this work, and it isn't clear to me that the changes will be acceptable to either team.

          When Dell sells a computer to a consumer, Dell undertakes to support the OS (provide drivers and so on) after purchase. In the case of Windows, Dell's support coincides with Windows EOL schedules, as is the case with Ubuntu and (I assume) Red Hat. To make that level and length of support a reality for Solus Budgie, both the Solus and Budgie projects will need to make changes to ensure that both Solus and Budgie will remain viable and in production for a minimum of 5 or so years on a rolling, going forward basis, and (almost certainly) give Dell some level of control over the direction of Solus and Budgie development. Dell will not and should not commit to either Solus or Budgie without a reasonable level of confidence that both Solus and Budgie will remain viable, remain compatible with Intel hardware and the Dell configurations sold by Dell, provide, on an ongoing basis, a consumer-oriented distro of quality at least that which exists now, and keep Solus and Budgie up-to-date.

          I'm not sure what form those assurances would take, because neither the Solus project nor the Budgie project is structured like Canonical and Red Hat, with significant financial reserves, professional developer teams, and contractual commitments to/from suppliers and business/enterprise customers. But I am sure that neither the Solus project nor the Buddies of Budgie project could continue to operate as usual, if for no other reason than Dell would demand that both develop professional, paid, full-time development/maintance teams and find a way to fund those teams before Dell commits. Dell and other OEM's got seriously burned by Conexant's abrupt abandonment of HD Audio drivers, and you can bet that Dell is not going to depend on a small community of volunteer developers headed in who-knows-what direction.

          Last but not least, both the Solus project and the Buddies of Budgie project are going to have to bring Solus Budgie up to speed in some respects. A small example from this thread -- Dell 15" FHD displays are set to run at 125%. Currently, that isn't possible under Solus Budgie. This is something that comes to mind, but I am sure that there are other improvements that will need to be made, as well, to get Solus Budgie up to speed

          WetGeek That will require the major distributions to start to target the non-technical user, as Solus does, as opposed to the computer scientists who had to deal with Unix and it's four-foot-long rack of user manuals.

          I suspect that Dell (in particular) and other major OEM's (in general) will offer Ubuntu, if anything, as a consumer Linux operating system. I think that because Canonical is a strong company and Ubuntu has a long track record. But Ubuntu and other major distributions -- Fedora, openSUSE for example -- are offshoots of server and cloud-based services, and I doubt that any of them are going to develop distributions targeting non-technical users. I'm not sure where any of this is headed.

          BTO A Solus-Version of LXQT would be super nice 😄 And maybe even one without SYSTEMD 😄
          If you want to get rid of all the Gnome-GTK-stuff anyhow, LXQT might be a good option?

          Two things:

          1. A Solus edition without systemd is extremely unlikely. It would mean an enormous additional effort to maintain both systems, for little to no benefit (plus of course the already considerable effort of maintaining another DE). Also I personally see no reason for NOT using systemd.
          2. It's the Budgie project that wants to move away from GTK, not the whole of Solus. Now that Budgie is a completely separate project the GTK-removal has even less to do with the OS itself, and will most likely only affect the Budgie edition. There will, for the foreseeable future, always been a e.g. Gnome edition, which of course means including everything GTK.

          jppelt I don't actually "control" the fans, but have no noise issue at all.
          I recently updated the firmware, and sent in a report to System76 as their instructions did miss a step.
          Here is what I sent them:

          Updating my System76 Thelio bios was fun......
          Since my main OS is Solus, I had to follow the 'Updating on Other OS's' section of https://support.system76.com/articles/system-firmware/
          Basically booting from a Pop!_OS live USB and entering a few commands.
          However no firmware update was showing.
          Searched the web and found this:

          Had to start and enable the firmware daemon.
          System76 Thelio-R1 is now bios updated.
          No actual support required but informing you I had to go that extra step to enable firmware updates.

            MintSpider I don't actually "control" the fans, but have no noise issue at all.

            When the two fans in my Dell laptop come on (for a few seconds), that doesn't bother me at all. It just confirms that a temporary situation is being taken care of appropriately.

              Brucehankins you guys must not use Google Meet or Microsoft Teams much

              Nope,never had a reason to use either one. Probably a good idea, now that you mention it.

              It's the Budgie project that wants to move away from GTK, not the whole of Solus. Now that Budgie is a completely separate project the GTK-removal has even less to do with the OS itself, and will most likely only affect the Budgie edition. There will, for the foreseeable future, always been a e.g. Gnome edition, which of course means including everything GTK.

              We can also add that

              • MATE also relies on GTK
              • Tons of applications in the repo are GTK-based
              • Budgie won't move away from GTK in a few months
              • ...

              Efforts for running away from systemd would be just wasting time to replace something that works instead of using it to do something more useful, especially on a small project.

              elfprince I used to run Void in the past. Arch and Void are not similar to Solus.

              I'm very curious about Void. What differences did you find between Void and Solus? Apparently Void assumes that its users have high Linux skills, like Arch. On the other hand, I heard that once installed updates run smoothly in Void, like Solus.

                Avidgamefan Take a quick whack at Feren if you like a simplistic type KDE. The kid does a good job with it

                joluveba
                a-void. User skills and making garbageware usable are two different animals.
                Remember Win 98 ? Remember 2000(only good one).

                The fix for 2000 was 2000 lite. I spent dozens, if not hundreds of hours neutering the registry_old and ditching the proprietary garbage. When we finished it was "almost linux"....so Billy brought Whistler (XP) and fed it to us hacks.
                The only reason I've booted a Window since is for access to the BIOS to get a Linux installed LOL

                Solus is pretty awesome and leaves very little to do after install. Few distros share that ease. MX is up there too.

                  1. Zorin OS,
                  2. Mint OS,
                  3. Ubuntu,
                  4. BBQ Linux, (Tuned for Android Development)
                  5. Windows 7 Pro

                  tilaran , if not hundreds of hours neutering the registry_old and ditching the proprietary garbage. When we finished it was "almost linux"....so Billy brought Whistler (XP) and fed it to us hacks.
                  The only reason I've booted a Window since is for access to the BIOS to get a Linux installed LOL

                  and a random update would restore the corrupt registry, change any and all policy settings you made, turn on garbage services you painstakingly turned off, restore any bloat you gutted, and nuke your security settings....

                  ....using WIN was like being Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill...getting four teeth pulled with no numbing agent at all was more welcoming than using WIN sometimes...

                  I am very lucky, I didn't have to deal with this. 🤣