3 ms·

> but hundreds of broken functionalities remain. And since pretty much forever, even more so on Windows. The difference is that windows users are used to thos

> but hundreds of broken functionalities remain. And since pretty much forever, even more so on Windows. The difference is that windows users are used to those defects, they pretty much probably didnt realize there was a choice, so that is always the baseline for them. On the whole, if you took a blank computer, gave linux and gave windows, people who had never used a computer before would find themselves more helped with linux than windows. Hell, for nearly a decade it was impossible to install windows on a sata disk(which was by far the standard) without breaking out a floppy drive.

sagarm 4y ago
Oh come on, I had the most basic request of Windows: keep the laptop on while it's connected to a screen and power and I close the screen. It failed. Seriously, how is that not working out of the box in 2022? Even macs get this right. And that's not even getting into the install process and driver downloads, printer configuration, setting up containers, a proper posix shell out of the box, local accounts, and on and on. Windows is basically good for running Steam and has many more OEM supported hardware options. What other advantages does it even have?
jayd16 4y ago
Is this satire? People just think Windows has majority market share by chance? You can't beat free except in the OS space and not with quality? Users will shop around for web browsers and everything else but settle for Windows because... why?
- headsoup 4y ago
  No, the point is just because something became popular doesn't mean it was because it was a high quality product technically or in UI. The early iPods sucked in usability (controversial!) And functionality, but became popular anyway. I had to support them, they, coupled with iTunes, we're horrible. People just learn to use them and eventually one quirky way of doing things becomes 'the norm.' The 'Linux Desktop' is just as solid as Windows... depending on what you do with it. Just as Windows could be horrible compared to Linux... depending on what you're doing with it
- kaba0 4y ago
  Network effect, relative difficulty of switching an OS and familiarity . It even heavily effects OSX, which has the marketshare it has due to its platform integration, more than anything. It is not a fair competition.
- cycomanic 4y ago
  You said it yourself, free beats everything else. For the vast majority of people the OS is free, they either buy a Mac (OSX already installed) or a Windows PC with Windows already installed. So installing Linux is actually not free (it requires extra work). I would actually not be surprised if the market share of Linux exceeds the market share of Windows where Windows was installed by the user (let's exclude corporate environments because the discussion is much more complicated)

sagarm 4y ago

Oh come on, I had the most basic request of Windows: keep the laptop on while it's connected to a screen and power and I close the screen. It failed. Seriously, how is that not working out of the box in 2022? Even macs get this right. And that's not even getting into the install process and driver downloads, printer configuration, setting up containers, a proper posix shell out of the box, local accounts, and on and on. Windows is basically good for running Steam and has many more OEM supported hardware options. What other advantages does it even have?

jayd16 4y ago

Is this satire? People just think Windows has majority market share by chance? You can't beat free except in the OS space and not with quality? Users will shop around for web browsers and everything else but settle for Windows because... why?

headsoup 4y ago
No, the point is just because something became popular doesn't mean it was because it was a high quality product technically or in UI. The early iPods sucked in usability (controversial!) And functionality, but became popular anyway. I had to support them, they, coupled with iTunes, we're horrible. People just learn to use them and eventually one quirky way of doing things becomes 'the norm.' The 'Linux Desktop' is just as solid as Windows... depending on what you do with it. Just as Windows could be horrible compared to Linux... depending on what you're doing with it
kaba0 4y ago
Network effect, relative difficulty of switching an OS and familiarity . It even heavily effects OSX, which has the marketshare it has due to its platform integration, more than anything. It is not a fair competition.
cycomanic 4y ago
You said it yourself, free beats everything else. For the vast majority of people the OS is free, they either buy a Mac (OSX already installed) or a Windows PC with Windows already installed. So installing Linux is actually not free (it requires extra work). I would actually not be surprised if the market share of Linux exceeds the market share of Windows where Windows was installed by the user (let's exclude corporate environments because the discussion is much more complicated)