this is a topic i’ve been heavily involved with because i still consider myself to be someone who prefers using technology at a very beginner friendly level, plus it’s very good when a linux operating system makes you feel right at home when it has a modern desktop environment. this is why i really like gnome, its simplicity and usability is something available for everyone, for beginners and for a lot of other people, but if you had to, say, rearrange xfce or kde for someone who was an elderly person or an absolute beginner so that they wouldn’t have any trouble using linux, how would you do it? (screenshot is my current linux mint desktop, very simple and extremely user friendly!!!)
Even as a (tech literate) teacher who wants to employ Linux, the lack of compatibility (using wine) with a lot of enterprise type programs and the general hodgepodge that Libre Office is, and the memory leak mess that Only Office is, I just can’t stick to Linux for long. I end up using tiny10 to use a reliable unbloated windows that can run my office 2016 and enterprise apps. Microsoft is just so entrenched and heavily serviced by thousands of people that it’s a slow climb for Linux distros to get anywhere.
The idea of elderly people using windows only programs on Linux using the compatibility layer just seems liable to multiple potential failures.
Yes it is, but it’s a necessary one. People aren’t going to go out and learn new tax software. and hell, I still have yet to find a single working crochet program on linux.
Thankfully compatibility now isn’t that bad. I actually did an experiement where I ran entirely in wine’s desktop for a week and it was surprisingly usable.
I don’t think these two groups overlap much, if at all.
What’s hodgepodge about LibreOffice? I use it daily in a corporate job. There are entire governments that use it.