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?

  • testman@lemmy.mlOP
    51·
    6 days ago

    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).

    • atzanteol@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      11·
      6 days ago

      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.

      • ian@feddit.ukEnglish
        1·
        5 days ago

        WUBI did it really well. It got a lot of people on to Linux.

        It has been done before despite reasons.

          • ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            1·
            10 hours ago

            Previously it was possible to boot from live disc, but install, non directly in, but from Windows. Actually I think maybe we did try it directly from the Windows OS now that I think about it. How long ago!

            But yeah, just click in D drive and you go to live disc or installer. My memories are old though. I remember the the word Wubi but would need a refresher to exactly recall.

            Basically, Microslop screwed up the boot loader at one point in an anticompetitive practice they were never penalized for. Afterwards you couldn’t dual boot without having two drives. You also could no longer access full Linux in Windows. There was still Cygwin and WLS way later, but it wasn’t as cool.