Would it be possible to lower barrier to entry that low?
To the point where installing some Linux distro would be as easy as installing a game on Steam or installing an application on a phone?
There is existing software for installing Linux from Windows.
For example, old WUBI for installing Ubuntu, and linixify-gui (fork of abandoned tunic) apparently does this as well.
So question is, should there be some effort put into making a modern installer of this kind? Something that even the person with the smoothest brain can use to get Linux on their PC?
Are there any existing projects that try to make this happen?
I don’t think it matters so much. It’s possible to test Linux literally in seconds with nothing to install thanks to virtual machines on the Web. It’s risk free.
What prevents people from migrating isn’t technical, it’s mostly FUD and marketing (not to say lies) from MicroSlop.
Asahi linux does this, you run a script and it installs. No USB needed. That’s on apple silicon hardware though.
This used to exist. Anyone remember WUBI? https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wubi
That would a security risk. It would allow the micrsoft kernel to change what is written to disk.
That’s what Secure boot and TPM attestation is for
There’s not a lot of ways to directly do what you are talking about. Closest I can come up with would be a small program that shrinks the windows partition, creates new partitions for the linux install, reboots into the new linux system, kicks off a migration tool that deletes all the data you don’t want to bring over, shrink the windows partition again, migrate data over in chunks to the home folder partition, resize and move more chunks, eventually deleting windows entirely and leaving a fragmented mess of a Linux install with a lot of chances for shit to go wrong.
It’s safer and cleaner to back up, wipe, start over.
There’s nothing easier than booting from a thumb drive and clicking “install”, IMO. Having to load Windows first is just adding an extra step.
Not for those who are not sure about Linux. Installing an app and launching it, is a familiar task and quick to do, to take a look. No need get a usb stick and do unfamiliar steps right just then.
Then if Linux looks good, and you want to keep it, now you have the motivation to sort out how to install it. It’s a different task.
Many people don’t do that, because they dont know what Linux looks and feels like. So they won’t install it.
WUBI did a good job of that.
Run it in a VM. That’s the only way you’re going to accomplish the workflow you are attempting.
I have a hard time imagining a less rewarding user-facing software to be maintainer of. That’s probably why there isn’t one.
Thousands of hours and being blamed for dozens of people softbricking their PCs (which they now probably lack the USB route to recover from) - all because writing an ISO to USB and rebooting is too much friction?
I feel like this may backfire, because people may accidentally replace their OS, get really pissed off, and start talking about how installing Linux is really dangerous and might wipe all your data, etc.
I don’t even think it could work. NT will bsod if the os drive disappears, so unless you install on a different drive or partition, the OS will die.
You could just have a UI that runs you through all the questions and prompts from Windows and then reboots and installs a new OS without any other interaction.
You could even have it ask which files/folders the user wants to transfer over so they don’t lose everything.
You can do that without Windows. What is the benefit?
It’s trivial to make a USB bootable installer.
It’s trivial for you.
The average windows user has no idea what “Rufus” is, or how to enter the bios and change the boot priority
Especialy nowadays with “features” like fast boot that removes the “press f# to access bios” prompt on startup to “speed-up the boot process”… Hell even when disabled (both OS and BIOS wide) some computers won’t ever show me the damn thing anyway.
Until a few months ago, I was a Windows user, and I had been since the 90s.
This was the method I used
Not sure why people are downvoting you. It’s a simple enough task that the risk of LLM hallucination is very low.
Suspect it is just from people who dislike AI but in my experience using it as a replacement search engine for some stackoverflow type questions is about the only useful thing I’ve gotten it to do.
Because a link like that is lazy and sarcastic, a bit like posting a lmgfy link
Nope. The installation menu is more complicated. We used to do it from Windows back in the day no problem.
Yes, this is something that should be taken into account when designing this software.
Set dual-boot as a default / design UI in a way that offers dual-boot as a preferred option.
And many other technical issues will probably appear that will have to be figured out.
But I think that at least even thinking about this is a good start.
Also, this reminds me of 2013, when people accidentally nuked their Windows installs with Linux because they wanted to get the Tux in Team Fortress 2 (Valve gave it to people who played Linux version of TF2).There are reasons this hasn’t been done before.
There are a lot of things you’re not considering. You’d need to potentially re-partition a live mounted window disk(s) to create space for a Linux partition which could fail spectacularly. Or install over a running Windows system which will also fail very quickly.
Also - there are many tools that make it easy to create a live USB drive that one can boot from to get a taste of Linux in a way that is non-destructive and optionally install Linux.
WUBI did it really well. It got a lot of people on to Linux.
It has been done before despite reasons.
We used to do this all the time.
Do what?
Hmmm yeah I wasn’t thinking about a dual boot default. That could maybe work 🤔
I find that live USB drives, like the Linux Mint installer are a fantastic way to show potential converts around. If they like it, all they had to do is click install.
there is and i also think there should be.
but i would never use one or recommend doing so.
You mean something like Operese ?
I heard that one is pretty recent.
This is how we did it before MS enshittified the boot loaders.
Anyone that cannot figure out how to install linux probably shouldn’t be fucking with their operating system in the first place.
You can also just buy a live USB distro and install by doing nothing more than turning off your computer and turning it on again, which is even easier than installing a program in windows.
Furthermore, there is a very real argument to be made that you should NOT be able to EASILY nuke an operating system from within itself. Windows devs would be pretty reasonable to define any program able to easily do that as being malware.
Back in the days of CD Drives you just inserted the linux disk from a magazine or from a bestbuy that sold OpenSUSE and did a restart and it booted from CD ready to install, just like you’d install a game.
USB stick is just as simple but people don’t know the process to make the stick or boot and hit the f key that gives them temp boot device options so it is a “harder” process
