Why Linux is no substitute for Windows 7

Lately in the Linux community people have hyped the idea that following the Windows 7 end-of-life people should replace their Windows 7 installation with a Linux installation. I would like to show why this is a bad strategy for Linux as a platform and while understandable, this will only make people angry and suffer.

The idea

Linux can run on all kinds of hardware and this is one of the reasons why it is such a good software platform to build your personal or business IT structure on. It is reliable, it is stable and cost-effective.

This also means that Linux can run on older systems. You can install Linux on any old PC that now runs Windows XP or even older.

There is a trend towards 64 bit PC hardware. Recently Canonical announced that from the latest version (20.04 LTS) onwards, Ubuntu does not support all 32-bit packages anymore, only a select few. This does not mean all 32 bit systems are left in the cold, this does imply that in time, 32 bit PC hardware will lose Linux support.

The problem

People that are new to the Linux operating system tend to get frustrated when installing it to replace their Windows 7 installation. On the website LinuxQuestions.org a Linux loving community tries to support people that are new to Linux in their first steps in the open source world. And while they're trying to help the "newbies" often these new Linux users are put off because of various reasons and can even react agressively when they get answers.

Why?

A simple answer: these are the wrong people trying to install Linux!

While installing Linux is infinitely less complicated than it once was, it does require going through an installation process that needs some level of comprehension of how a computer actually works. And it needs some tenacity and some learning skills to get going with a new operating system. The software running on Linux is comparable to a lot of offerings on Microsoft Windows but not exactly the same.

So what kind of people still run Windows 7 on their main computer in 2020? Are they the kind of people that are ready to try something new? Are they the people that love to try out new software and learn how to use it? I guess not.

Moreover, the ageing hardware they're still using will never offer a good experience anymore. Old hardware running a new operating system will still be old hardware. And while it can still be usable, it might not meet the high expectations of people that now still run Windows 7 on their PC.

So what advice to issue?

People that are still using Windows 7 might be the ones that do not care what operating system their ageing PC will run on. They don't care for new software or hardware and probably don't want to spend money, time or effort. Some even admit this publicly.

In my opinion these are not the people to recommend using Linux to.

I would issue the following advice:

1. If they want or need to keep using their old software I'd recommend buying a new computer running Windows 10. Sure, it sends all your personal data to the Microsoft cloud. However that is the price one pays for this kind of pampering. Probably even good for them, because having a copy of all your data in the cloud gives some level of data protection. 
2. If they want or need a simple system that does not require investing a lot of time or money and can be learned very quickly, I'd recommend buying a Chromebook. They are quite safe but do not rank high on the data privacy scale. However Chomebooks are stable (they do run the Linux kernel, after all) and well maintained by Google.
3. If they want a simple system that does not require investing a lot of time but are wary of going all-in with Microsoft or Google, I would tell them to buy an Apple Mac. You plug everything in, flip the switch and you're in. The downside is that Apple currently charges just too much money for their offerings. 
4. If they want a simple solution that does not require investing time, money or any effort, any effort others are willing to put in will be a complete waste of time. When people themselves do not even want to put in much effort, why help them? I can only tell such people to buy a backup drive, install it on their current hardware and hope for the best.

The bottom line

The truth is that Linux is no perfect solution for everyone. It takes people that want to spend time and effort to learn a new computing experience. People that are using old hardware running old software for a large part are not those kind of people.

That is why Linux is no substitute for Windows 7.