As many of you know, I really enjoy using Linux as my primary desktop operating system. Because of that, I can get quite annoyed when people say they've had a bad first experience with it, when also trying the most insane things as their entrypoint.

This time, it was a writer from XDA Developers, which proposed that their Linux experience was bad and unpolished...whilst using a project built in the free time of a friend of mine as a hobby.

Specifically, I am talking about their use of HoloISO, made by TheVakhovske - an old friend of mine. They've put tons of work into getting SteamOS to run as good as possible on Non-SteamDeck devices until Valve releases their own, official ISO. This is made by him in his free time, as a hobby, and he doesn't have huge development resources, like a bigger company (e.g RedHat, Canonical) would have.

In the end, this means that some part of the software are not as polished as Valve themselves would ship it, or that some of the tooling is made to work around some missing components or features.

Where he gets it wrong.

The XDA writer proposed that he doesn't like Linux on his Desktop because he dislikes having to fiddle with things, and getting a secondary SSD to be the installation disk required "modifying a hidden file" and is "plug and play on windows". Not only is the proposed "hidden file" probably mentioned on the README or other documentation, but also is HoloISO not a good choice for a first Linux-based OS to install on your desktop computer. Again, Vakhovske doesn't have the resources of a company and can only put a limited amount of his time away to work on HoloISO, so despite his best efforts, it isn't going to be a plug-and-play experience on the level of SteamOS from the deck.

So what they are essentially saying is that Linux doesn't work on the desktop because they couldn't be bothered to setup a ""proper"" distribution that has been around for longer and is intended to be a stable and more plug-and-play experience, but that supposedly isn't his fault.

The Bigger Picture.

This is not something new. Commonly we see people trying things like Arch Linux as their first and primary Linux Distribution, which in some cases can work, but more often than not this approach simply doesn't work out. What we end up with is a flood of new users which are disappointed because they didn't understand a Linux Distribution that doesn't fit their needs (yet).

When you start to look for a distribution, you want to look something that fits your needs, which for a first one will probably be good support, stability and software availability, not how fancy you can/have to make it look. And HoloISO - as much as I love the project - doesn't meed those needs nearly enough to qualify.

So please, stop using distros which don't fit your needs as your entry point.

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Thanks for reading! I wish you a good rest of the day, evening, night, or whatever other time you're reading this!