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This week’s Weekly discussion thread will be focused on Linux. I know that Lemmy is VERY biased towards Linux and FOSS, but I’m curious what non-technical people feel about it and what your thoughts are.
Some starters:
- Have you used Linux? If so, what was your experience like?
- Would you run it as your primary system? Why or why not?
- What would it take to get you to do so?
- Do you feel it’s a solid option?
- Are there any changes that you’d think would benefit consumers and aid with adoption?
Well, to be fair there were some good things about it. The Pie device didn’t grind to a halt because everything was using so much memory that it would throw a tantrum. My Windows PC does that daily, it seems. Some of the UI things were very helpful, especially the way it handled virtual desktops (SO much better than Windows!). And as I said, LibreOffice was so good that I’ve switched to it on my Windows PC, and away from the ever-increasingly-enshittified Microsoft Office suite. In addition there isn’t this alarming trend of moving all applications to Someone Else’s Computer¹ to enforce vendor lock-in, user data siphoning, and random UI experiments of the week that fuck up personal workflow all the time.
What’s frustrating about Linux is that it’s so close to being a contender … until the nerds (not geeks!, I adore geeks!) get up in arms about how all the useless trivia they’ve learned to keep their systems working is in danger of evaporating, losing them their special status as gurus you supplicate to to fix your computer. Obviously the Linux-actually-thing (kernel?) works fine given that my Android phones have been mostly great on the UX front. It’s the actual useful parts of Linux that suck by comparison.
¹ Sometimes referred to by the twee name “The Cloud”.