3 ms·

> Linux is not accessible Linux is extremely accessible. Most popular linux variants can be downloaded for free, and it's easy to find solutions to most commo

> Linux is not accessible Linux is extremely accessible. Most popular linux variants can be downloaded for free, and it's easy to find solutions to most common issues you run into. I'd be surprised if there isn't a StackOverflow post or two that have solutions to the issues you ran into, and even if there aren't, you can usually get answers just by asking. Some linux variants are better than others, and YMMV per use case, but saying "linux is not accessible" is incredibly inaccurate.

at_a_remove 5y ago
I refer to this technique as the Distro Distract. I first ran into it during my first experience with Linux in the mid-nineties. I install a distro, I experience problems, there's not a lot of info out there. I hit #linux or some forum and I am told that what I really have is an XY problem, and the real problem is that I am running the wrong distro. So I install Distro #2. And my problems have vanished! But ... but there are new problems that were not there in the first distro. So I hit the forums again and get someone nearly identical telling me that what my actual problem is is that I just have no idea how to pick a decent distro, and what I should really be using is ... People do not want to cycle through one distro after another. That is not accessible. It takes time to pick out the next one and install (less now), and then you go through your stuff until you hit yet another brick wall.
- walteweiss 5y ago
  You describe Windows approach, when a reboot solves a weird problem. In the Linux world you don't solve your problems by just mindlessly doing the same things again and again until it works. The best approach is to explore and learn, the longer you do that the simpler it becomes. That’s how Linux is best to be treated.
  - phendrenad2 5y ago
    What if my life is finite? What if I want to accomplish something with my time, rather than "learn linux noob"? Rebooting Windows is 10 seconds of my time. Learning Linux took me hundreds of hours. Hours I want back, frankly.
    - walteweiss 5y ago
      The thing is you are going to spend less and less time on that after you get through the basics. It is not as huge as you think, especially if you work with computers.
dlivingston 5y ago
Accessible for power users, yes. Not the average person. Linux is great and an incredible testament to the power of open source. But my god, it’s made by nerds, for nerds - which is great for folks like us, but there is absolutely no taste or consistency in UI/UX in any of the distros I’ve seen. ElementaryOS is perhaps the prettiest Linux distro, yet it is so much uglier than even the perennial virtual corporate suit, Windows. I just want an OSS Linux distro that’s beautiful, intuitive, and deeply customizable when I want to put on my power user hat. Is that too much to ask?
- walteweiss 5y ago
  I was in the same boat, as a Mac user. The thing you need to understand is that the beauty is not in the visual aesthetics of the GUI, but in other things. ‘It’s not how it looks like, it’s good it works’ is the phrase we believe Steve Jobs kept saying. Well, here it is. Linux is very ugly from the beautiful UI standpoint. But at some point you may realize you just don’t need any interface, and that’s where the beauty starts.

at_a_remove 5y ago

I refer to this technique as the Distro Distract. I first ran into it during my first experience with Linux in the mid-nineties. I install a distro, I experience problems, there's not a lot of info out there. I hit #linux or some forum and I am told that what I really have is an XY problem, and the real problem is that I am running the wrong distro. So I install Distro #2. And my problems have vanished! But ... but there are new problems that were not there in the first distro. So I hit the forums again and get someone nearly identical telling me that what my actual problem is is that I just have no idea how to pick a decent distro, and what I should really be using is ... People do not want to cycle through one distro after another. That is not accessible. It takes time to pick out the next one and install (less now), and then you go through your stuff until you hit yet another brick wall.

walteweiss 5y ago
You describe Windows approach, when a reboot solves a weird problem. In the Linux world you don't solve your problems by just mindlessly doing the same things again and again until it works. The best approach is to explore and learn, the longer you do that the simpler it becomes. That’s how Linux is best to be treated.
- phendrenad2 5y ago
  What if my life is finite? What if I want to accomplish something with my time, rather than "learn linux noob"? Rebooting Windows is 10 seconds of my time. Learning Linux took me hundreds of hours. Hours I want back, frankly.
  - walteweiss 5y ago
    The thing is you are going to spend less and less time on that after you get through the basics. It is not as huge as you think, especially if you work with computers.

dlivingston 5y ago

Accessible for power users, yes. Not the average person. Linux is great and an incredible testament to the power of open source. But my god, it’s made by nerds, for nerds - which is great for folks like us, but there is absolutely no taste or consistency in UI/UX in any of the distros I’ve seen. ElementaryOS is perhaps the prettiest Linux distro, yet it is so much uglier than even the perennial virtual corporate suit, Windows. I just want an OSS Linux distro that’s beautiful, intuitive, and deeply customizable when I want to put on my power user hat. Is that too much to ask?

walteweiss 5y ago
I was in the same boat, as a Mac user. The thing you need to understand is that the beauty is not in the visual aesthetics of the GUI, but in other things. ‘It’s not how it looks like, it’s good it works’ is the phrase we believe Steve Jobs kept saying. Well, here it is. Linux is very ugly from the beautiful UI standpoint. But at some point you may realize you just don’t need any interface, and that’s where the beauty starts.