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- cross-posted to:
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Stumbled across this quick post recently and thought it was a really good tale and worth sharing.
A couple of weeks ago, I saw a tweet asking: “If Linux is so good, why aren’t more people using it?” And it’s a fair question! It intuitively rings true until you give it a moment’s consideration. Linux is even free, so what’s stopping mass adoption, if it’s actually better? My response:
- If exercising is so healthy, why don’t more people do it?
- If reading is so educational, why don’t more people do it?
- If junk food is so bad for you, why do so many people eat it?
The world is full of free invitations to self-improvement that are ignored by most people most of the time. Putting it crudely, it’s easier to be fat and ignorant in a world of cheap, empty calories than it is to be fit and informed. It’s hard to resist the temptation of minimal effort.
And Linux isn’t minimal effort. It’s an operating system that demands more of you than does the commercial offerings from Microsoft and Apple. Thus, it serves as a dojo for understanding computers better. With a sensei who keeps demanding you figure problems out on your own in order to learn and level up.
Now I totally understand why most computer users aren’t interested in an intellectual workout when all they want to do is browse the web or use an app. They’re not looking to become a black belt in computing fundamentals.
But programmers are different. Or ought to be different. They’re like firefighters. Fitness isn’t the purpose of firefighting, but a prerequisite. You’re a better firefighter when you have the stamina and strength to carry people out of a burning building on your shoulders than if you do not. So most firefighters work to be fit in order to serve that mission.
That’s why I’d love to see more developers take another look at Linux. Such that they may develop better proficiency in the basic katas of the internet. Such that they aren’t scared to connect a computer to the internet without the cover of a cloud.
Besides, if you’re able to figure out how to setup a modern build pipeline for JavaScript or even correctly configure IAM for AWS, you already have all the stamina you need for the Linux journey. Think about giving it another try. Not because it is easy, but because it is worth it.
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The reason is that Linux usually doesn’t come preinstalled. I’m pretty sure at least 50% of the users wouldn’t even notice they have Mint Cinnamon instead of Windows on their Laptops.
I’m 💯 sure at least 99% of steamdecks run the ootb steam Linux
I’d crank that up to like 80% Linux users somehow always seem to overestimate how tech savvy most people are.
I’d say 50% of users can’t tell you what an operating system is. maybe more. and ya’ll expect those people to be able to CHOOSE a Linux distro and actually install it. no way. that’s way way too much to ask of the average end user.
I don’t use Linux. I’m here from /all. I last attempted Linux probably around 2006 or so. The biggest thing I remember was driver support being awful. I guess it’s a lot better now?
My biggest hurdle to making the switch is that it takes effort. It’s not because I’m lazy; it’s because I don’t see any need to put in effort. Because I already have an OS, and it works fine. I know that to some, particularly in this community, there are a lot of things about Windows to complain about, but the vast majority of users can’t come up with a list of things that bothers them about their daily OS. If my computer already had Linux on it, I’d probably feel exactly the same way.
I just made this same basic point in response to another comment, but this is exactly right. It takes effort to learn anything new, and that effort isn’t always worth it to people. But that alone doesn’t make using Linux “hard.”
Exactly, my wife struugles with tech. She hated windows and how it did unexpected things that made no sense. I put Linux on her computer, she doesn’t bug me with complaints now since it operates the same every day.
Tbh I just care about privacy and do not want surveillance on my system. If you don’t care about that (which I can understand because life is hard and energy is limited), then Windows or Mac is maybe perfectly fine for you. All I am saying is, if Linux would be pre-installed, people wouldn’t care to make a switch to Windows, they would just live with a perfectly fine OS and go on with their lives.
totally this!!! Most users just need a browser and an email client at best. They couldn’t care less about the OS that’s sitting on top of. If they could go to a store and see a $1000 laptop with Windows and $800 laptop with Linux being sold side by side, majority would pick the cheaper one if they could still get online with it.
And Linux isn’t minimal effort. It’s an operating system that demands more of you than does the commercial offerings from Microsoft and Apple. Thus, it serves as a dojo for understanding computers better. With a sensei who keeps demanding you figure problems out on your own in order to learn and level up.
Counterpoint: most people don’t use Linux because the people that evangelize Linux talk about it like this.
I don’t want to “level up,” I want to accomplish my tasks. I’m trying to get shit done, not train for a fucking tournament.
I think people that talk like this overstate the difficulty of Linux. There are easy distros that won’t trouble the average user.
I’m the laziest man on earth and I use Mint, way less hassle than windows for example. So if you have never used either, you can safely go with Mint IMO.
If you gave spent 20 years on windows, then it’s another story.
I’ve spent 30 years on Windows and I let it go almost 2 years ago for Mint.
The only real pain point I’ve found is on a hard power-off (loss of power, OS hangs) I often have to do some CLI drive maintenance using a bunch of commands I can’t fucking remember to save my life. ChatGPT always helps me out (so nice to just take a pictures of logs and error messages on my screen and have ChatGPT tell me what if anything is relevant), but I’m a power user of both computers and ChatGPT so I’m able to push back on ChatGPT when it’s wrong about something, getting side-tracked, or tells me to use tools that non-standard for my distribution. I’m not sure casual users would find AI as helpful, which means they have to call a professional (or relative) for help which can cost money.
Printing isn’t quite the same. Certain PDFs have to be printed to TIFF files before they will print. Some applications don’t offer my printer as an option, so for example I have to download a PDF that is open in Firefox and then print it from whatever the default PDF application is. I haven’t even attempted to set up the scanning functionality of my printer on this computer.
Games for the most part just work. I tend to buy everything off of Steam and I haven’t really had to mess with anything to get them to work on my computer. I did buy one game that isn’t on Steam and it took an hour or two of effort to get Wine working with it
90+% of what low-tech computer users use a computer for is just a browser. I spend probably 1% or less of my time in CLI, maybe 10-20% of my time in specific apps (VSCode, IntelliJ, Joplin, LibreOffice, Discord, Steam games) and almost everything else I do is in a browser.
Moral of my story, I suppose, is if Mint would auto-heal on hard power-off and you can browser and print just as easily as on Windows, I could recommend it to my non-technical folks.
I wonder what the print issue is caused by…
I normally hear that Linux is normally better for printing.
Alas, printers suck
I was really rushed when I set it up. Maybe I missed something. It’s a Brother network laser printer. I think it’s the network printer that needs more handling but I really don’t know. I’ll put some more time in later. At any rate it was more CLI fiddling.
Maybe I just needed to go out and find Brother Linux drivers and install that way.
For your journey, I found this Linux mint thread that looks to be helpful. I’ve not touched cups in a while bc the only printers I have access to only allow printing through some crappy proprietary app that doesn’t have a Linux version, so I can’t attest to its correctness.
Things have also gotten easier since I started 15 years ago
Waaaay easier on a longer timeline too! I first used Linux in the late 90s when the things the author of this piece talks about were true. You really did need to understand more than an average computer user just to get Linux installed.
That hasn’t been the case in a long, long time now, at least not with the easier distros.
What articles like this often fail to discuss is that Windows took effort for everyone to learn at some point too. Same with macOS. Same with your smart phone.
Learning anything requires effort, and not everyone wants to invest that effort - which is totally okay if they already get what they need from whatever they’re already using. But I wish that people would stop exaggerating how hard Linux is to learn simply because it will require effort.
Exactly this.
I’m a software dev and also a Linux user, but that doesn’t mean I want to spend my precious time messing around with the OS trying to solve problems.
I see the operating system as a tool I use to accomplish the things I actually want to do, which is writing my code for my projects, just the same as I see a car as a tool to get me from point A to point B.
If Linux was complicated to set up, or always broken, or requiring constant work then I wouldn’t use it, no more than I’d tolerate a car which is broken down and in the shop every other week. But fortunately, Linux is none of those things.
Modern Linux mostly “just works”, and it’s really counterproductive to talk about Linux like it’s hard or you need to be a deeply invested techie to use it.
See, you have people like you all over saying “Linux just works” and then you have other users here saying “I have to spend an hour fixing my computer running one of the most user friendly distros every single time the power goes out”. I don’t know who to believe but both cannot be true simultaneously so which is it?
Different people have different experiences for lots of reasons. Like I used to have constant problems with Windows that took days to fix, and some people never had any problems. It depends on your hardware, software, settings, what you’re doing with it…with every OS.
Well, they can be simultaneously true if one person has a terrible experience because of Nvidia and another person with an all amd build who happens to have a Linux friendly touchpad (is that still a problem these days?) might have a perfect experience out of the box.
I think that’s a major weakness, that windows will be good or bad in various ways but it’s very consistent - the things that suck usually suck for everyone. With Linux everything depends, not only on hardware but with your use case, the distro you pick, the tools you use, etc.
It’s both. Linux mostly just works, but when it breaks, it breaks in a way which is sometimes difficult for the average person to recover from.
I’ve had a couple of times in the past where something has gone horribly, outrageously wrong, and I decided to just reinstall and start again from fresh, because that was way less time investment than fixing what broke.
Nowadays I’m using Timeshift backups, and I think that’s a positive move.
If you just want to get shit done, allow me to introduce you to Debian…
Path of least resistance is at the electronics store and general support from marketed software. So lack of Linux hardware in stores and lack of well marketed software
20 years ago Apple at least had store presence and had their own software as major draws, Final Cut Pro, GarageBand people loved, and really as a brand MacBook’s are/were fashionable
Linux is widespread in software development and data science. It’s mainstream draw is still developing. Could be games. It could maybe someday be seen as the choice for content creators if the selection of media creation/editing continues to improve and have their Blender/Krita rise. Talking like Kdenlive, Ardour, GIMP, etc
And Linux isn’t minimal effort. It’s an operating system that demands more of you than does the commercial offerings from Microsoft and Apple. Thus, it serves as a dojo for understanding computers better. With a sensei who keeps demanding you figure problems out on your own in order to learn and level up.
I don’t think this is true unless you’re digging in. For the average person doing everyday things, using a Linux Mint installation isn’t going to be any more complicated than using Windows. Just different, with some new patterns to learn. I don’t know about MacOS since I’ve never felt moved to pay the entry fee to use it.
The average person has never installed an operating system in their entire life.
Just the simple act of installing Mint is a lot more effort than the average user has ever put into computing.
it took most users years to reach the minimum understanding that they have of windows patterns. change how one thing that they got down works and they’ll panic.
change how one thing that they got down works and they’ll panic.
Like when they moved some settings out of control panel? Or when they changed the menu? Or when they changed what is shown in context menus?
(Talking about windows here btw)
I’m not saying people didn’t panic, but somehow they managed learning the new way just fine in these cases.
Well yes but also no. There are quite a few distros that are “minimal effort”, they just work for the average person without any more knowledge you’d need on Windows or Mac. The last part that’s still not so “minimal effort” is gaming, most things just work out of the box, some things don’t. Btw Android is Linux.
So I don’t think that the problem is that Linux needs a little more knowledge or effort, because it mostly doesn’t, but the fact that most people who would switch see a billion different distros and don’t know what to do. Having so much choice here actually hinders people from coming to Linux. Doesn’t mean it would be better with less choices, it’s just one of several reasons why we don’t see mass adoption.
Another reason is the outdated thinking that Linux is complicated to use (and this blog fuels just that).
I often see people saying Linux is difficult to install and use, and when people ask for more details it turns out they’re describing an experience from 15-20 years ago, and they haven’t tried using it since. There are several very easy distros around now.
You hit the nail right on the head. Chromebooks got decent enough uptake and many folks just use an ios or android smartphone and don’t really use a computer. In some ways its nice things are like this. At least for me. I used to eat fast food way to often but that bout of inflation hit fastfood hard and now I rarely if ever eat it. Even my once in awhile is a non chain burger, hot dog, beef, gyro, burrito type place and not taco bell or mcdonalds since the mom and pop places are like a buck or two more for higher quality. Still pretty rare though.
I think one of the biggest hurdles for Linux is that Windows comes preinstalled. People are lazy, and want things to just work.
If companies could sell systems at a reasonable, competitive price, with Linux preinstalled; I do believe we could see folks use it.
The average user does not see a computer the same way a tech-savvy individual does. They want to push the buttons and the computer do the thing.
Sure steam has helped make it more viable for game enjoying folks to hop on board, even if it isn’t just click and play for every game; it has made strides.
We also need support from big entities, but that is likely an uphill battle. For as much as I love open source software, and the entire ecosystem surrounding open software standards; we have players like Microsoft, adobe, and I am sure more that will push back. Including DRM and Anti-Cheat from other companies as well.
The average user isn’t going to know, let alone fight things like kernel level anti-cheat, DRM, and closed standards.
Unfortunately not everyone has the will, the time, or the intelligence to learn something new.
And add in many folks inability to deal with change well.
This is just some of my thoughts on the subject…
Worst take ever. Outside of Desktop, Windows gets dominated by Linux. Even on Azure, Linux is the number one OS over MS’s Windows Server. Windows is free on IoT and still Linux dominates. So what makes Desktop different? 30 years of Microsoft’s vendor lock-in strategy. All the OEMs have to invest into Windows because they have to take the volume licensing deal from Microsoft or be priced out. This ensures Windows engineering efforts for drivers, software, and testing. Because the machines were Windows, 3rd party hardware and software had to invest into Windows as well. When there is no vendor lock-in, Linux receives the money for engineering efforts and dominates Windows. Nobody complains about having Linux on their Smart TV. Right, because the money for engineering efforts are not forced to be put toward Windows. How many people are switching their Steam Deck to Windows 80%? 50%? 10%? 1%,? more like ~0.1% switch. The money is there to make a great experience and so there is almost no reason to switch. It’s only the tech nerds that are installing OSes. Average people don’t even know what Windows or Linux is. When Microsoft loses it’s lock-in strategy, Linux will take over. Nobody is choosing Windows for Desktop. It’s just what comes on the machine at the store.
I worry that for 3rd parties to put forth any effort, there needs to be incentives… which would be in the form of demand… which isn’t there yet because they don’t put any effort into it.
MS is playing a dangerous game (for them). If they turn the screws on users hard enough then Linux might gain enough market share for there to be real demand. I’m trying to get people to switch but the lack of third party support makes it a minefield sometimes.
The incentive for consumer Linux is controlling the app store.
Google leverages its control of the app store to make money on Android. Valve has invested in Linux in order to have an alternate OS in case Windows becomes hostile.
Sysadmin here. I use Linux a lot on the job and in my homelab, but it’s true, I don’t wasn’t firefighting exercises off the clock. I just want to use my computer. Also, my systems are used by the whole family, and they sure as hell don’t want to learn Linux and become IT zealots.
dhh isn’t advocating for linux for everybody per se; instead it’s addressed at programmers and similar folk who regard linux as way too complex for everyday use. the background story being that he was an Apple fanboy for the longest time and recently made the switch and now can’t shut up about it. as a result they (basecamp) developed some insane rice setup that has to be seen to be believed, it’s beyond ridiculous.
as an aside, I’ve met those people he’s talking at and they regularly blow my mind. like, how can you utilize a modern toolchain for practically every possible development scenario using an OS that actively fights you every step of the way, the abomination called WSL notwithstanding…
so the idea is the brogrammers will become the early adopters and by way of trickle-down-tech linux will make its way to normies, same way e.g. Android did.
I don’t think that’s gonna happen in the foreseeable future. the options, distros, DEs, whatevers are way too fragmented and fragile and are infested with the most deluded, rabid “fans” there are, each and everyone of them mired in truckloads of “no true scottsman” fallacies.
Apple has a vertically integrated tech stack - there is one DE, one WM, one codebase for every product they sell and they are free to focus their sinister efforts elsewhere, backed by the deepest coffers there are.
contrast this with the myriad of distros, package managers, DEs, WMs, etc. each pulling in a different direction, abandoned paths and duplicated efforts galore, done predominantly with no funds to speak of; and if there are any, they are squandered on… what was it, shamans?
no math in this universe is gonna make team #2 catch up to team #1, let alone surpass it.
I’ve been wanting to switch to Linux for years, but it was always too intimidating for me since I’m not a computer programmer. In the end, it took a roommate who was tech savvy to help install it and answer a few questions. Took about 10 minutes of his time but I still felt like a burden
good take while I love Linux I must admit it has been quite the struggle sometimes. But everything worthwhile in life takes effort. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea and I like it that way actually.
Development led me directly to installing Linux because Windows is bad for dev…
I fell into the warm embrace of KDE and GNOME environments in 2022 and have never looked back.
When I told my father, who has been using computers since the MS-DOS days and is by no mean technology-illiterate, that I switched to Linux, his response was “What’s Linux?”.
I knew it was a lost cause to explain him about privacy, or control and ownership of his own device. He uses Windows 11 and as long as it does what he needs it to do he will never care enough about switching over.
Why don’t people use Linux? Fair question. It’s because people who don’t use Linux are stupid and lazy.
Wow, galaxy brain stuff.
It’s really the egos and superiority complexes of the Linux elitists that are preventing mass adoption.
And a distro that actually lets you use a UI for everything.
Nah. Most people who use computers would never interact with those folks.
It’s not installed by default and when things go wrong you need to fix it yourself.
People just want to use computers to do STUFF. They don’t want to think about the computers themselves.
