Just wondering if a main objective of Linux and its distros is to have more people use these OS(s)?
ONCE a Linux distro is set up and working, its fine, but its the fact that if the distros hasn't been installed on a computer for the bulk of folk, they will never get to the 'try it you'll like it' stage. Linux (all distros) has a very 'geek' reputation that sadly isn't going away.
That's hard to answer, sure we Linux as a distro would love to see more users, the more the merrier, but not on the terms to compromise what Linux is (like turn it into Windows as an example).
I think if people should install Windows and its driver by themself, instead of coming pre-installed - they will come to short as well.
Stallman (despite my despise of his misogynistic views) sums it up in one word,
'freedom' - the freedom to do what you want with an OS that you own. Windows and Mac give you a licence to run their OS - you never own the software. GNU/Linux is the proper term - Stallman wrote the OS, GNU but was struggling to develop a kernel - enter Linus Torvalds and the Linux kernel - Linux is the kernel, GNU is the OS hence GNU/Linux - you can't have one without the other.
This video by Stephen Fry sums it up nicely:
I would argue that GNU/Linux is not as geeky as it has in the past where you would install via a command line interface, not knowing what you were doing. Things have moved on pretty much with most distributions these days. However, I have a strong distaste of systemd as Red Hat forced it on to other distros which is why I chose Devuan that uses SysVinit. I also despise Pulse Audio which was also pushed out by Red Hat, by the same dev. ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) is far more superior.
I enjoyed reading your comment Storm. I agree, the more one 'earns' (works with own hands/mind) something, the better it is appreciated as well as understood it is.
I am not denigrating your English - its excellent! (and certainly I could not manage at all in your native language!) However I am not clear what your meaning was with this phrase -
" they will come to short as well."
Thanks for your response!
Swarfendor - I VERY much enjoyed listening to the Fry video. And I agree with your line -
"I would argue that GNU/Linux is not as geeky as it has in the past where you would install via a command line interface,"
I have found that to be true with my own experiences with Linux Mint. However the 'gap' between doing some/most with Linux and 'nothing' with Windows/Mac remains like a Grand Canyon to Windows/Mac users. How to bridge that gap is the challenge increasing Linux use faces? Certainly the question of privacy is a big lure for some of the unenlightened 
. But not sure what else is as strong a draw factor for those interested but not investigating? Perhaps more discussion will reveal potential other elements.
Thanks again!
I believe Storm was saying that the other OSs would fall short if people had to install them. Being one of the most powerful operating system companies, Microsoft has made deals with most of the computer manufacturers to ONLY offer and install windows. There are manufacturers that offer Linux preinstalled, but they are not as well known and must be searched to find. Ideally, large manufacturers would offer the option as well, but that would mean losing contracts and ultimately, money.
Well I can speak from personal experience. When lock down came in in March 2020 I was working from home. My goto OS for work was FerenOS and I could do everything I needed to do that I would at work with one exception, and that was the shared mailbox that resource preparation staff had access to, so to begin with this meant using Outlook365 Web application which I also used for work e-mail. I also looked at running Windows 7 as a VM to access the private web address of the school to access the shared server drive. In December 2020 I moved to Devuan 3.0 a much more secure GNU/Linux. I then taught myself how to configure Evolution to receive my work email via Office 365. The works IT Department had 'masked' the settings screen for Outlook365 (IMAP and SMTP) settings but all I had to do was click on the mask to remove it! Job done. I now faced two items that I needed Windows for and because Windows 7 VM Ihad transferred from Feren OS using Virtual Box, I imported into Virt Manager, a much better experience with cleaner graphics for the VM. I needed Windows 8.1 pro for shared mailbox in Outlook, and the Braille Blaster GNU/Linux program would not run in Devuan as it needed a library only found in 'major' distributions, so had to use the Windows version for that which means I also had to search for a 32-bit version of Okular, an old Spanish installer was found but once installed was in English. My work involved modifying educational resources for students with low or no vision. So I had a wealth of Software, all free to use, with one exception. 4 months before lockdown I had purchased a 5 machine licence of SoftMaker Office 2018 at the bargain price of just under £25. The workflow of the Ribbon was much more fluid than that of Word and my workflow was much faster using it compared to Word, it is German Software engineering at it's best and still is.
I had to modify a substantial amount of work from pdf source documents. This main program used here was Okular, so much more than a pdf viewer. You can extract text, imagess and tables into a text processor. If it was an image of text all I had to do was use the command line tool in GNU/Linux,
ocrmypdf [name of pdf] output.pdf
If partial OCR (usually first page of past exam paper then:
ocrmypdf --force-ocr
Other tools used for pdfs:
LIOS (Linux Intelligent OCR Software) with 3 differen OCR engines; pdf arranger.
Proprietary Software, pdf Studio Pro 2020 (upgraded to 2021) - one-fifth the cost of Adobe Acrobat and no rental!
To access the private website I no longer needed Windows 8.1 VM apart from copying the small executable to access the shared drive to USB, shutdown VM, launch Remmina Remote (comes already with Zorin) and point to the Executable which meant I could access the shared drive and Desktop of my work machine in Devuan, no need for Edge in Windows VM anymore and only one time login, compare to the 3 times needed via Windows.
Further proof of the power of Linux is indicated by the animation "Elephant's Dream". Elephants Dream - Wikipedia
A member of the local city forum who runs an engineering business gave up on Windows, migrated to Fedora Workstation and uses CNC software that runs on old Windows as a VM (Virtual Machine) in Fedora Workstation.
Thanks Harvey for that explanation. I didn't want to misinterpret Storm's meaning but I sort of figured it was something along those lines.
Positive proof that 'where there's a will (aka need) there's a way' Swarfendor! Your uses are more specific than the general user of a 'windows' type computer needs access to IHMO. The likes of Zorin seem to me a good potential to 'bridge' the current 'jump' to Linux.
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