The thing is, I don't think a guide is really needed to install Linux. Most of it is pretty straight-forward. (The only tricky bit that comes to mind is making the USB that you've put your distro on bootable. That probably isn't obvious; and it might not be obvious how to get your computer to boot from a USB anyway if you've never done it before.)
Anyway, the way I see it, Microsoft's guide is more about how you can use Linux while still having Windows. If someone is searching for "how do I install Linux?" Microsoft would obviously prefer the answer to involve something that preserves Windows. First preference: WSL, second preference: Virtual Machine, third preference: dual-boot. And after that, you're on your own.
I don't think a guide is really needed to install Linux
I had a guide and it was still a big learning curve. Linus had a guide and he still bricked his machine trying to install Steam. Imagine your parents or grandparents being told without context to mount an ISO to a USB and set up their BIOS - for 90% of people there is no way in hell they're installing Linux without a guide unless they can double click an exe and have an install wizard do it for them.
I agree; but please take my comment in the context of Microsoft's guide - which doesn't tell users how to do any of things that you've mentioned. My point is that the underlying purpose of the guide is not so much about how to install linux, but how you might try linux while still keeping Windows.
The thing is, I don’t think a guide is really needed to install Linux. Most of it is pretty straight-forward. (The only tricky bit that comes to mind is making the USB that you’ve put your distro on bootable. That probably isn’t obvious; and it might not be obvious how to get your computer to boot from a USB anyway if you’ve never done it before.)
It's been awhile since I installed a Linux distro...Have some of them improved guidance related to allocating disk space on install? I remember that was one of the parts that I wasn't entirely confident I'd handled properly the last few times I did so. Something something swap, something /, and the like.
I did a Mint install a few weeks ago, and I'd say that if you want to preserve some existing OS (i.e. dual boot), then it isn't super easy. You have to tell it what new partitions you want - and therefore you have to know something about what partitions you should have. The good news is that you don't actually need any swap or home partition. You can just put it all on one partition - but I don't think it's obvious what to do.
On the other hand, if you aren't trying to preserve something you already have, you can tell the installer to just go with all the defaults, and then you don't have to know anything about it.
Note: Microsoft's guide doesn't mention any of that detail. It basically just says to follow the instructions of the installer.
Ou can dual-boot with the default options, but iirc if you want to choose how much of your Windows partition you want to use you have to do it manually. Haven't done it in ages though so I could be wrong
And after trying Linux inside windows and then inside a VM and realising it runs like shit, they'll be convinced windows is better, but they've been deceived.
You're so right! I feel like I always need to try two programs and I am never doing it often enough to actually remember which works.
The thing is, I don't think a guide is really needed to install Linux. Most of it is pretty straight-forward. (The only tricky bit that comes to mind is making the USB that you've put your distro on bootable. That probably isn't obvious; and it might not be obvious how to get your computer to boot from a USB anyway if you've never done it before.)
Anyway, the way I see it, Microsoft's guide is more about how you can use Linux while still having Windows. If someone is searching for "how do I install Linux?" Microsoft would obviously prefer the answer to involve something that preserves Windows. First preference: WSL, second preference: Virtual Machine, third preference: dual-boot. And after that, you're on your own.
I had a guide and it was still a big learning curve. Linus had a guide and he still bricked his machine trying to install Steam. Imagine your parents or grandparents being told without context to mount an ISO to a USB and set up their BIOS - for 90% of people there is no way in hell they're installing Linux without a guide unless they can double click an exe and have an install wizard do it for them.
I agree; but please take my comment in the context of Microsoft's guide - which doesn't tell users how to do any of things that you've mentioned. My point is that the underlying purpose of the guide is not so much about how to install linux, but how you might try linux while still keeping Windows.
It's been awhile since I installed a Linux distro...Have some of them improved guidance related to allocating disk space on install? I remember that was one of the parts that I wasn't entirely confident I'd handled properly the last few times I did so. Something something swap, something /, and the like.
I did a Mint install a few weeks ago, and I'd say that if you want to preserve some existing OS (i.e. dual boot), then it isn't super easy. You have to tell it what new partitions you want - and therefore you have to know something about what partitions you should have. The good news is that you don't actually need any swap or home partition. You can just put it all on one partition - but I don't think it's obvious what to do.
On the other hand, if you aren't trying to preserve something you already have, you can tell the installer to just go with all the defaults, and then you don't have to know anything about it.
Note: Microsoft's guide doesn't mention any of that detail. It basically just says to follow the instructions of the installer.
Ou can dual-boot with the default options, but iirc if you want to choose how much of your Windows partition you want to use you have to do it manually. Haven't done it in ages though so I could be wrong
And after trying Linux inside windows and then inside a VM and realising it runs like shit, they'll be convinced windows is better, but they've been deceived.
You're so right! I feel like I always need to try two programs and I am never doing it often enough to actually remember which works.