Why More People Dont Use Linux

Recorded live on twitch, GET IN

### Article

### My Stream

### Best Way To Support Me
Become a backend engineer. Its my favorite site

This is also the best way to support me is to support yourself becoming a better backend engineer.

MY MAIN YT CHANNEL: Has well edited engineering videos

Discord

[jakubpodhaisky]

read time => 3 min
Prime => 18 min

A true 6x developer

[jsonkody]

In the Czech Republic in 1999, the largest tech e-shop at that time, Mironet, started offering PCs without an OS and PCs with Linux preinstalled. One of Microsoft's top managers for the country fabricated a false accusation, leading to a police raid. They seized all the computers and effectively shut down the company's operations for several years. During this period, new stores like Alza and Czech Computer completely dominated the market. Mironet never fully recovered and is still in court today, suing the state for hundreds of millions. At that time, Microsoft behaved almost like a mafia.

[benfurstenwerth]

About not setting your mom up to use Linux... I set my grandmother up with Debian to replace her old Mac and she never had a problem. She was in her nineties. She was blown away how I could get her a system that cost 300 bucks that ran better than her old iMac

[Bedge]

TCP sends data in order, but it does not guarantee that packets will arrive in order at the recipient. However, the TCP header has a sequence number field that allows the recipient to reorder the packets correctly. The correct order of packets cannot be guaranteed over the internet because it is possible for packets to take different routes to the recipient, even if they are sent from the same source.

The reliability of the TCP protocol primarily comes from the acknowledgment (ACK) response for each packet. When a packet is received, the recipient sends an ACK back to the sender, confirming successful receipt. If the sender does not receive an ACK within a certain time, it will retransmit the packet. This mechanism ensures that all packets are delivered reliably, but it is not specifically about guaranteeing that packets arrive in order, as TCP handles reordering at the recipient side.

[KTSpeedruns]

"As a consumer, we are not caring" <- That's why. You need to get the consumer to care. They don't care if the software was written in C, C++, Java, or Rust. They don't care. Nobody ever chose adobe over open source due to how it was written, or how many comments are in the code, or how many if trees are in the code. They don't care if one piece of software uses libpipesofstuff 1.1 and another uses libpipesofstuff 1.2. They don't care if one software uses DLLs and another uses json files.

However, they will get very very angry if they are installing software, and it says "Sorry, you need some random other software thing before you can use this." What? Yeah, they are definitely going to dump that software and try something else. "Oh sorry, we don't play MP3s unless you download a 3rd party codec because we legally can't put it in because of licensing." That'll make them very mad and they won't understand that Mac and Windows have MP3 support because of licensing. If you have them in settings, and they can't find a setting because you actually need to download some other program to change that basic setting, they will get pissed. This is the kind of BS that gets people to switch from Linux back to Windows or MacOS. They didn't choose Adobe for its programming language or license agreement, but they might choose adobe simply because you pay, you install, and it works without asking you to install other crap. It deals with everything for you, like MOST program installers.

[michaelplaczek]

Simple: it doesn’t come preinstalled in computers
Usually, it’s Windows

[dothesick]

Why don’t more people switch to Linux? Because most people don’t ever even THINK about what an operating system is. 99% of people on this planet have no clue what it is.

[industrialvectors]

About the mom anecdote.
I think as for all tools, it's about being adapted to the user and their needs.
My mom was complaining about her computer becoming very slow and about multiple warnings about security (W7 in 2024).
She is not computer literate and is easily confused when interfaces change.
I sat down with her and we made a list of everything she does on her computer, we even went through most of them. My assessment was that almost all her needs were handled by a web browser. Being able to explain that to her, to show her the icon she is using was very important.
Then, I gave her an option like only GNU+Linux can offer. We'll set a Live USB for her and she can test and confirm that everything works without installing anything. I even had her take notes on how to access the documents on her HDD.
After a week of her using the new OS, she too felt good.
Next step, I bought her a 3.5" SSD and an external usb3 SATA enclosure. Swapped the disks and installed Lubuntu on the SSD. I showed her how to access the old HDD, explained that if at any time for any reason she wanted to revert to W7, she could just swap the HDD and restart. I sat with her while she copied her files from the W7 install to the new file system.
That long text just to say that given the use case GNU+Linux can be a solution that won't be hard to give to an older person. The only thing she had to learn was to accept updates when prompted and type the password to install them.

[slugbtye]

I’ve used Linux as fulltime for over a decade, arch fer years - void fer years, now pop os fer years… and I absolutely love it for developing web stuff, building clis, and experimenting with different dev tools and programming languages ... But if I want to print, connect a Bluetooth speaker, or even just get normal audio working out of a headphone jack, I still expect to loose several days pulling my hair out and then i expect the solution to work for no more than 6 months … I love Linux, but I completely understand why more peoples don’t use it.

[Titere]

Hey, I'm a dev and have been using linux for more than a decade (dual booting with windows cause of games and some music software). But I feel if you have to ask this, then you haven't used Linux or have a little common sense. Linux is not more widespread because a) it's not standard (many different flavours, folder structures, rationale, desktop environments, etc), b) it doesn't often come preinstalled, c) even on something as plug-and-play as Ubuntu, sometimes you still have to tweak things manually, editing config files as superuser, typing obscure commands in a terminal and piping it through grep and whatnot, which would be stressful and difficult for a non-technical user, d) shit hardware often has trouble in Linux, even if you have a driver, e) some proprietary professional hardware (in any field) just won't work because of no driver support, f) many proprietary software have no Linux versions and no equally comfortable alternative, g) Linux tends to have more hiccups than Windows after updates... we all know it, we've all lived it, and we continue to live it. And those are just off the top of my head. And I'm a Linux nerd, I just try not to be a hypocrite or act all surprised at why granmas everywhere aren't using Linux on their own.

IMO it's a bit like asking why don't more people build their own car, or why isn't Rachmaninov more widely listened to. Well, Linux was never designed to be for everyone, and it still isn't. It's for technical nerds like us. Some may try to make "user friendly" distros, but the moment something goes off the rails, you still gotta fix it the Linux way, if you know what I mean

[WandileSibewu]

"Some people deploy on Windows", was that a Crowdstrike reference?

[ScottHess]

I stopped running Linux on the desktop because I got tired of having to understand how to debug the os for stupid reasons. The first time, it’s a puzzle to be solved. But the dozenth time, it’s just unnecessary friction preventing me from getting things done.

[Fandiril]

2:20 Just feel like clarifying: I dont think the implication there is that Linux is necessarily good for you, but rather that the argument of "If linux is so good why is nobody using it" -> "If linux were good more people would be using it" doesn't make much sense, since there is no 1:1 correlation between what people do and whats objectively good for them, as evidenced by the fact that exercise is objectively good for you, but not everybody does it. Subtle difference, but still pretty important. Basically, low user numbers cannot be the sole argument against the quality of a product.

[DJenriqez]

My attempts for Linux:
1. ASUS laptop - installed mint - everything amazing - the Brightness buttons not working - spend 2 days installing drivers, nothing helped
2. Lenovo laptop - installed ubuntu, everything amazing - wifi not working....
3. MS Surface - installed ubuntu, everything amazing - touch screen not working
4. My Desktop PC - installed ubuntu, everything amazing - my PCI Wifi module not working, ... (no idea who is card manufacturer, text is not there, so no driver)

[MFDoomguy]

Most people don’t want to voluntarily suffer. Regular folks *already suffer* with Windows. Linux is like superhell for regular windows users.

[SirFlukealot]

Just switched to the funny penguin OS. WoW runs fine via Lutris and discord has a native app. Everything a growing gamer needs

[BreetaiZentradi]

People get sorted into 3 categories in my world of "providing support to people I know".
1. Chromebook - Everything you do needs to be done in a web browser
2. Linux - You need local storage or want to play/use some more powerful local applications
3. Windows - There is some app you depend on to make your living.

The truth is most folks I know I try to get on Chromebooks.

My wife has been on Kubuntu since Feisty Fawn. Every time KDE makes changes I have to go in and customize things to her liking again. With that said, her KDE setup is very much now as it was in 2007. The best way for me to get into a knife fight at home would be to try to move her from Kubuntu.

Great Grandma runs Windows. She is the one person I am willing to have a hole drilled in my head for to keep their windows rig working....for email and to print a recipe.

[derpina]

I am a graphic designer. what is linux

[Hamstray]

17:40 "And then you go and you look at how libraries do it, and how other people do it ..." this is usually where your horrible experience starts

[_nickthered]

This article is a good example of begging the question