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?
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
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.
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.
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?
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.
The topic is specifically about installing Linux, so that’s what I was considering. If a person just wants to see what it’s like, then booting into a live image still seems easier than booting into Windows first and then running Linux in a vm or some other type of software that can run one OS inside another.
Many will already have a running Windows system. And running an app is an every day task for people not experienced in IT matters. Setting up and booting into a live image involves several steps completely foreign to many people. Maybe not to you. But there is a massive difference. These things matter if you’ve never done it before. Barriers like that are putting people off installing Linux.
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.
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.
This is how we did it before MS enshittified the boot loaders.
there is and i also think there should be.
but i would never use one or recommend doing so.
There does exist a tool that does it. The creator posted about it on the fediverse. It only supported ubuntu at the time but looked extremely promising.
I cannot remember it’s name. :/
Maybe it’s linixify? But I remember seeing a post on lemmy with a youtube demo?
I can swear Ubuntu was able to just do this out of the box years ago, as long as you were okay with the Ubuntu partition being FAT32…
you’d still have to boot from cd, but i do recall one of the early versions happily moving everything from your old windows install. i’m still moving around my wife’s files from her xp install every time i need to set up a new /home part for her.
Run it in a VM. That’s the only way you’re going to accomplish the workflow you are attempting.
You mean something like Operese ?
I heard that one is pretty recent.
we had it back in the day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZipSlack
