If you want Linux for the masses, you've got to do some hand holding

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If you want Linux for the masses, you've got to do some hand holding

Christopher Thomas<br>Jun 17, 2026

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I’ve been reflecting on the recent AUR security nightmare. I love Linux; I’ve been using it on and off since I was a teenager, and every single day in my life as a working software engineer. I am currently writing this post on a CachyOS machine. But the response of some people folks in the Linux Community to what has happened has been driving me crazy.

What bothers me about the recent AUR situation is how many people asserted that users of Arch-based distros just “read the PKGBUILDS.” I think this is an acceptable piece of advice if your distro is for technically sophisticated people who knowingly accept the risks of running a footgun level operating system on their PCs. It’s not acceptable for a distro with aspirations of being user friendly. These are not compatible perspectives. One precludes the other.

Do you think my grandmother is going to read the PKGBUILDS? My father in law? Anyone who sees a computer as a means to an end, and not a hobby?

Steve Jobs once compared computing to the automotive industry. In the early days, to be a car owner implied that you were at least an amateur mechanic. You needed to know how your car worked, in a deeply technical way, to drive one. But eventually the automotive industry had to appeal to everyday people, and in doing so, turned cars into something more akin to a washing machine or a dishwasher: an appliance. You press a button, and it works.

That insight is probably why Apple, which also provides a Unix based software product, is so dominant in technology among normies, at least here in the US.

If you want a distro to appeal to normies, you have to compromise on one of the things that makes Linux appealing to enthusiasts — the parts of the OS that make it so power-user friendly. That’s the trade off. There’s no getting around it.

If that sounds depressing to you, at least Linux isn’t a single distro; we have user-friendly distros, and traditional enthusiasts ones. But don’t fool yourself into thinking that one kind can be the other.

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