To be fair though, I don't think it's unreasonable for the "average user" to expect that there are sensible defaults for the things they buy / install.
Obviously, there's a huge difference between something like a car and your OS of choice (specifically noting the 'of choice' part of that when it comes to installing a Linux distribution), but I feel as though the sentiment is roughly the same.
We've been talking about The Year of the Linux Desktop for over 30 years. Now it's clearer then ever that such a year is never going to happen. Meanwhile, Linux has become the server OS of choice - and that's not likely to change for a long, long time. Linux has even become the OS of choice for embedded environments as well, so long as your runtime environment isn't too terribly constrained, you don't need hard real time, and human lives won't be lost if something were to go wrong. That's a lot of places where Linux is running. It's just not going to run on many desktops. I take that as a win.
Falling to phones and tablets, not Linux desktops. Fewer and fewer people even want a desktop. Normies don't give a crap about Linux and haven't given a crap for over 30 years.
I never understood why some people really, really want others to switch to Linux. I don't really care if many people switch to Linux. If anything, a lot of beginner switching to Linux may well make Linux worse for me.
I see a lot of "if you want to convert Windows users, you have to...". I really don't want to convert Windows users. I did not move to Linux to please those who like Windows.
Said differently, if a distro managed to please all Windows users, it most definitely wouldn't please me. I don't see why I should hope for that.
Most people want Windows to be better, not to have to move to Linux. You can't make people convert, especially people that quite frankly might not want to.
People just want the Windows they have been using to be better, they don't want to move away from it and that's perfectly reasonable.
Agreed. Some degree of elitism is a force for good. I want Linux to be the programmer's system. Just enough popularity to be relevant and have people actively developing it. Never enough popularity that we have hordes of computer illiterate randoms. Linux should be a system built by programmers and for programmers.
I see all these people suffering -- pointlessly -- and I want to tell them "come! suffer for a while! In exchange you get low latency, native docker, no ai or bing or other shovelware, being the master of your computer feels great!"
Disagree. It is good for users of all operating systems, if Linux becomes so usable that it threatens Windows. Then Windows has to improve and we have a race to the top.
1. It's a moral good (free as in freedom). Wider Linux adoption makes software more free for everyone and creates a feedback loop: more users means more engineering effort, which improves the many many projects we colloquially call Linux, which (i++) attracts more users. As a corollary to #1: do you really want Billy G spying on your mom?
2. It's often better for the environment to keep old hardware running (manufacturing emissions usually dwarf operational ones for consumer devices).
And a more personal corollary to #2: I love old hardware and don't want to see it die (and I'm not talking about vintage tech). A 16+ core Haswell Xeon (that riiiing) and Polaris RX 480 (HWS, why yes) remain perfectly useful in the modern world. I like knowing both are out there, somewhere, just chugging away long after they were retired from some server or mining operation.
I work with Linux every day at work writing large scale server applications.
However I choose Windows at home. It is just a much better user experience for me.
Also, Ubuntu often break badly when I try to upgrade. So I only do it as a last ditch effort when something breaks and I can't fix it. I never have that issue with Windows. It just works.
Not to mention that my favourite games are Windows only.
I found the opposite, I removed a pile of unnecessary bloatware from a couple of systems and snap kept reinstalling it on every OS update. I just couldn't get rid of them, snap decided it knew better than me what I wanted.
Come to think of it, that's a lot like Windows so maybe they are getting closer to the Windows experience after all.
16 comments
[ 4.7 ms ] story [ 46.6 ms ] threadObviously, there's a huge difference between something like a car and your OS of choice (specifically noting the 'of choice' part of that when it comes to installing a Linux distribution), but I feel as though the sentiment is roughly the same.
I see a lot of "if you want to convert Windows users, you have to...". I really don't want to convert Windows users. I did not move to Linux to please those who like Windows.
Said differently, if a distro managed to please all Windows users, it most definitely wouldn't please me. I don't see why I should hope for that.
Most people want Windows to be better, not to have to move to Linux. You can't make people convert, especially people that quite frankly might not want to.
People just want the Windows they have been using to be better, they don't want to move away from it and that's perfectly reasonable.
I see all these people suffering -- pointlessly -- and I want to tell them "come! suffer for a while! In exchange you get low latency, native docker, no ai or bing or other shovelware, being the master of your computer feels great!"
2. It's often better for the environment to keep old hardware running (manufacturing emissions usually dwarf operational ones for consumer devices).
And a more personal corollary to #2: I love old hardware and don't want to see it die (and I'm not talking about vintage tech). A 16+ core Haswell Xeon (that riiiing) and Polaris RX 480 (HWS, why yes) remain perfectly useful in the modern world. I like knowing both are out there, somewhere, just chugging away long after they were retired from some server or mining operation.
However I choose Windows at home. It is just a much better user experience for me.
Also, Ubuntu often break badly when I try to upgrade. So I only do it as a last ditch effort when something breaks and I can't fix it. I never have that issue with Windows. It just works.
Not to mention that my favourite games are Windows only.
Snap is a lot better then the alternatives. Snap was the only way I was able to install CouchDB on fedora.
Come to think of it, that's a lot like Windows so maybe they are getting closer to the Windows experience after all.