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Honestly for me it was starting Young. I can say wholeheartedly that if I hadn’t been working on operating Linux style systems in high school, there is no way in hell that if I tried starting it today that I would want to put myself through the hassle of not only learning it but also fixing it

So I’d have to say an energetic and perseverance and ambitious Style mindset

Dogged stubbornness. I use Linux because I refuse to give MS any more of my money, and I’m too stubborn to give up.

There are probably a variety of mindsets that will do it.

For me, I think it was just really wanting to get away from being under the boot. Get away from the walled gardens. Like that feeling after using LinkedIn, except for the OS. Hearing the call of freedom, authenticity and humanity.

Just start with something like mint that will probably mostly work.

Patience. Same things will work differently than you’re used to, and that can be frustrating.

Also be really sure to help true beginners understand software centers and package managers. I’ve been helping a lot of young people use Linux for the first time this year. Even though I mentioned it the first day and remind them frequently, if for example I ask them to install Java, half of them will download installers from Oracle’s website or wherever.

These are some rules of mindset I’ve given to others in the past when trying linux-based operating systems.

1. Don’t try to apply the same computing and productivity patterns you’ve learned from Windows. Don’t try to force Windows concepts onto Linux OS, you will confuse yourself and get frustrated.
2. If something doesn’t work the way you expect it to, doesn’t mean it’s broken.
3. Just because something doesn’t behave the same as in Windows, doesn’t mean it’s worse. It’s probably designed that way for a good reason.
4. If your daily work routine or gaming life revolves around the use programs developed specifically for the Windows platform, you’re gonna need to invest time and effort to try to recreate that in Linux. It may not even be possible to fully replicate it. And that’s not the fault of Linux, it’s not designed to be a drop-in Windows replacement.
5. Everyone has their own taste and preferences. Just like some people prefer driving a manual car and some prefer auto. If you try Linux and hate it, that’s okay, that doesn’t make you bad or wrong, but keep in mind that those who do prefer Linux are not weird or daft or wrong either.

I would say willingness to learn and to compromise. And by compromise i’m mainly talking about trying to find alternatives to software that might not exist on linux, and see if those work for you. And if you end up finding a piece of software you need that really has no good alternative to what you need, you can always either go the virtual machine route, or the dualboot route, but i personally think that should be considered a last resort.

Mindset / traits

-Experimental mindset - why not try it out. (Doesn’t look for reasons not to try it out).

-Likes computers/ maths intrinsically (a bit), rather than just uses them.

-Ruined some toys / electronics / appliances in their house because “If it ain’t broke, fix it until it is”. or just, " Well it has screws, so it’s obviously supposed to come apart".

-Prepared to accept that free or cheaper stuff might be adequate. (price is not necessarily a signal of quality)

-Less afflicted by sunk cost - “I already kow how to use windows, or at leady i would if they didnt keep changing stuff”.

-They think Excel is shit for anything but a few basic small tables and know they should be using a proper database and/or code rather than insane fornulae and the odd bit or garbled vba vs the "I am a master of excel, and i love it because , look, i can coerce it to do all this cool stuff , excel can do EVERYTHING if you’re as good at it as me. Nobody needs anything else to do anything. "

-Seen enough BSOD that they’ve got nothing left to lose.

As for change: Number 1 is India by miles, so keep India growing I guess. So outwith India . . .

I don’t know how many of these are intrinsic vs malleable. I don’t think linux desktop (as per current mainstream linux distros) will ever be very widespread. Unless it is packaged into something very sanitised like chrome os, android, steam deck os. or like macos did with BSD.

Create a few enthusiasts maybe by give kids more toys like cheap knock-off lego, and real tools, less pokemon apps. Raspberry pi might be a gateway drug - shame its moved up the price scale. piZeroW2 is still pretty cheap and runs a more or less usable debian/LXDE - for basic stuff. Better to be using GPIO to do fun stuff with motors, gears, pulleys, sensors, solenoids even just blinkys.

Per the last two, that’s mostly up to MS to help. You can get some milage taking someones excel that theyre proud of, cut the calculation time in half within excel (to prove you know what you’re talking about), then tell them excel is shit, this still too slow/inefficient/unmaintainable/unscaleable , there are better ways. PSA - A lot of people will react badly to that method, so learn a few basic self defense blocks first or do that stuff over videoconference. I think this needs to be developed into a more sensitive implementation of the D.E.N.N.I.S system. Maybe that is what bill gates already did to 1 million corporate procurement teams?

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The most effective motivation is intrinsic. It’s very hard to make someone want to do something. It’d take Apple-level marketing, or Microsoft-level outright paying people to use their products.

Id say it’s the mindset of the experienced linux user that matters.

If you’re willing to tell a person, “if you run into trouble, call me”, and then follow up when they do, half the fight is over.

Most people, they try it and it’s fine, as long as the basics are there. You show them where the browser and email are, set up desktop shortcuts to important stuff, and answer questions, and they’ll eventually not even think about the fact that it isn’t windows.

But the first time they run into trouble, and you can’t give them an answer in a reasonable amount of time, they blame Linux, because they forgot how long it took them to figure out windows originally, and aren’t willing to look things up even if that’s what they did when they ran into a Windows problem.

So, you gotta play tech support for a while if you’re the one introducing them.

You aren’t going to change mindsets inside someone else in any realistic timeframe.

I have a “I will not ever go back to Windows” mindset and I think that helps. If I fuck up my system, I have a separate /home partition so I can wipe / and start over without worrying too much. I look for answers to fix things on my phone when my system is inaccessible so I’m not stuck.

I am really not a Linux expert, but I was a Windows power user and I like to fix things myself and understand the basics of why it broke.

Don’t.

Linux isn’t a product sold by a company. If they’re still thinking that somebody else is responsible for how they experience their technology they will not have a good time with Linux. You have to be able to take responsibility for your machine, and in our society of learned helplessness, people would rather give up that responsibility for perceived convenience.