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I've become convinced that the same things that make GNU/Linux good for us are exactly the same things that make normal people dislike it. Freedom means respons

I've become convinced that the same things that make GNU/Linux good for us are exactly the same things that make normal people dislike it. Freedom means responsibility, in this case the freedom to configure your computer means the responsibility to understand its behavior, something people naturally avoid. They don't even mind learning things to avoid it; Microsoft and Google completely rearrange everything twice a decade meanwhile I still have my FVWM2 config from when I was 15. This whole effect even predates Linux: You can watch the archives of the "Computer Chronicles" from the late 80s to see it. You have everyone bringing in the fanciest new software wearing suits (because TV used to cost a zillion dollars a minute) and explaining state of the art OOP abstractions in the GUIs so that the machine "does the right thing" when you drag x onto y and the user "doesn't even have to think about it" (an idea that disturbs most of us because we know it's going to do the wrong thing probably 30% of the time and then you're going to have to untangle the mess.) Then they pan over to the guy at SCO who's got 5 Xclocks/Xterms on the screen who says "look, we've got graphics now! That's why people haven't been using Unix on the desktop in the past." It's not about the graphics, it's not even about learning new UIs or paradigms like shell scripting. People genuinely do not like personal computing.

agumonkey 5y ago
These are interesting aspects of it. I cannot disagree with the burden of responsibility. I felt it, and I have a sweng diploma (at the same time I don't consider myself that smarter than average and I cringe hard at the fake complexity of programs we force people to use). We all want freedom .. if we get what we want easily. Otherwise we enjoy sharing the duty and going back to a consensus (market / companies search for what is 80% best and I'll accept that because I don't have to care). Anthropology, ergonomics, pedagogics and economics all matter for an object. I've been seeking joy and productivity in software for a while, but for people computers are rarely that. - a requirement (especially since the web re-rooted society and administration) - a confusing toy (you pay 1000 to click and consume music/film) - a strange tool at work another thing is that the computing field has either a glowing magic aura, or a dark cloud around it. Some people will be amazed by things that are not especially amazing relatively speaking [0] and some will be scared by any software or keyboard. [0] it's easy to forget the intricacies, subtleties, beauty of pre-computer things.
DaedPsyker 5y ago
I don't disagree, there is a level of difficulty that comes from Linux being so configurable. I would say though that it doesn't discount sensible defaults that work for the majority of people. I only briefly used it but it seemed like elementary was on its way to towards that goal (before what seems like an implosion on the side of the company). That's never going to eliminate the problem, the user can always screw something up or bugs rear their ugly head. The one thing is though there has to be a reason to most non-tech people outside of conceptual ideas like Freedom. Like if my dad doesn't want to spend the money for a new rig but not have the OS slow to a crawl, then I might suggest Linux. If everything is working fine, then I probably wouldn't bother.
- agumonkey 5y ago
  It kinda links to Alan Key 100kLoC OS. Nobody wants to learn 34 different sub systems, languages, scripts, etc etc. Some say BSDs are saner in that regard, the core is smaller, more integrated, better documented etc..
arboles 5y ago
Your comment reminds me of a talk that was on LibrePlanet 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQM-GWKdHsU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQM-GWKdHsU There's a point at which complexity becomes irreducible. Computing freedom requires that the user elevate themself by learning (not the other way around).

agumonkey 5y ago

These are interesting aspects of it. I cannot disagree with the burden of responsibility. I felt it, and I have a sweng diploma (at the same time I don't consider myself that smarter than average and I cringe hard at the fake complexity of programs we force people to use). We all want freedom .. if we get what we want easily. Otherwise we enjoy sharing the duty and going back to a consensus (market / companies search for what is 80% best and I'll accept that because I don't have to care). Anthropology, ergonomics, pedagogics and economics all matter for an object. I've been seeking joy and productivity in software for a while, but for people computers are rarely that. - a requirement (especially since the web re-rooted society and administration) - a confusing toy (you pay 1000 to click and consume music/film) - a strange tool at work another thing is that the computing field has either a glowing magic aura, or a dark cloud around it. Some people will be amazed by things that are not especially amazing relatively speaking [0] and some will be scared by any software or keyboard. [0] it's easy to forget the intricacies, subtleties, beauty of pre-computer things.

DaedPsyker 5y ago

I don't disagree, there is a level of difficulty that comes from Linux being so configurable. I would say though that it doesn't discount sensible defaults that work for the majority of people. I only briefly used it but it seemed like elementary was on its way to towards that goal (before what seems like an implosion on the side of the company). That's never going to eliminate the problem, the user can always screw something up or bugs rear their ugly head. The one thing is though there has to be a reason to most non-tech people outside of conceptual ideas like Freedom. Like if my dad doesn't want to spend the money for a new rig but not have the OS slow to a crawl, then I might suggest Linux. If everything is working fine, then I probably wouldn't bother.

agumonkey 5y ago
It kinda links to Alan Key 100kLoC OS. Nobody wants to learn 34 different sub systems, languages, scripts, etc etc. Some say BSDs are saner in that regard, the core is smaller, more integrated, better documented etc..

arboles 5y ago

Your comment reminds me of a talk that was on LibrePlanet 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQM-GWKdHsU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQM-GWKdHsU There's a point at which complexity becomes irreducible. Computing freedom requires that the user elevate themself by learning (not the other way around).