5 ms·

Ubuntu is the reason Windows users don't want to switch to Linux

19 points by tartoran 9mo ago

rolph 9mo ago
pre installation for at least the last couple of decades, is the reason most users have no clue how to manage installation and configuration.
- datenyan 9mo ago
  To be fair though, I don't think it's unreasonable for the "average user" to expect that there are sensible defaults for the things they buy / install. Obviously, there's a huge difference between something like a car and your OS of choice (specifically noting the 'of choice' part of that when it comes to installing a Linux distribution), but I feel as though the sentiment is roughly the same.
taylodl 9mo ago
We've been talking about The Year of the Linux Desktop for over 30 years. Now it's clearer then ever that such a year is never going to happen. Meanwhile, Linux has become the server OS of choice - and that's not likely to change for a long, long time. Linux has even become the OS of choice for embedded environments as well, so long as your runtime environment isn't too terribly constrained, you don't need hard real time, and human lives won't be lost if something were to go wrong. That's a lot of places where Linux is running. It's just not going to run on many desktops. I take that as a win.
- bl4kers 9mo ago
  What? Windows' market share has been falling for years with no end in sight
  - taylodl 9mo ago
    Falling to phones and tablets, not Linux desktops. Fewer and fewer people even want a desktop. Normies don't give a crap about Linux and haven't given a crap for over 30 years.
palata 9mo ago
I never understood why some people really, really want others to switch to Linux. I don't really care if many people switch to Linux. If anything, a lot of beginner switching to Linux may well make Linux worse for me. I see a lot of "if you want to convert Windows users, you have to...". I really don't want to convert Windows users. I did not move to Linux to please those who like Windows. Said differently, if a distro managed to please all Windows users, it most definitely wouldn't please me. I don't see why I should hope for that.
- NoPicklez 9mo ago
  I agree with a lot of this. Most people want Windows to be better, not to have to move to Linux. You can't make people convert, especially people that quite frankly might not want to. People just want the Windows they have been using to be better, they don't want to move away from it and that's perfectly reasonable.
- matheusmoreira 9mo ago
  Agreed. Some degree of elitism is a force for good. I want Linux to be the programmer's system. Just enough popularity to be relevant and have people actively developing it. Never enough popularity that we have hordes of computer illiterate randoms. Linux should be a system built by programmers and for programmers.
  - palata 9mo ago
    Totally. And even for developers: many developers will happily ship their program as a docker image, just because they can't be arsed to learn how to properly package it. And that's just one example.
- tryauuum 9mo ago
  Linux is cool and I want more people to enjoy it. I see all these people suffering -- pointlessly -- and I want to tell them "come! suffer for a while! In exchange you get low latency, native docker, no ai or bing or other shovelware, being the master of your computer feels great!"
nilslindemann 9mo ago
The distro for Linux Newbies is Mint.
deterministic 9mo ago
I work with Linux every day at work writing large scale server applications. However I choose Windows at home. It is just a much better user experience for me. Also, Ubuntu often break badly when I try to upgrade. So I only do it as a last ditch effort when something breaks and I can't fix it. I never have that issue with Windows. It just works. Not to mention that my favourite games are Windows only.
- hulitu 9mo ago
  > I work with Linux every day at work writing large scale server applications. > Also, Ubuntu often break badly when I try to upgrade What distro do you use at work ? Did you tried Debian ? Upgrading can cause problems also with Windows.
wetpaws 9mo ago
[dead]
amadeuspagel 9mo ago
> Ubuntu, however, is not playing ball. Canonical has opted to invest in its own packaging format, Snap, which no other distro is adopting natively. Snap is a lot better then the alternatives. Snap was the only way I was able to install CouchDB on fedora.
- pseudohadamard 9mo ago
  I found the opposite, I removed a pile of unnecessary bloatware from a couple of systems and snap kept reinstalling it on every OS update. I just couldn't get rid of them, snap decided it knew better than me what I wanted. Come to think of it, that's a lot like Windows so maybe they are getting closer to the Windows experience after all.

19 points by tartoran 9mo ago

rolph 9mo ago

pre installation for at least the last couple of decades, is the reason most users have no clue how to manage installation and configuration.

datenyan 9mo ago
To be fair though, I don't think it's unreasonable for the "average user" to expect that there are sensible defaults for the things they buy / install. Obviously, there's a huge difference between something like a car and your OS of choice (specifically noting the 'of choice' part of that when it comes to installing a Linux distribution), but I feel as though the sentiment is roughly the same.

taylodl 9mo ago

We've been talking about The Year of the Linux Desktop for over 30 years. Now it's clearer then ever that such a year is never going to happen. Meanwhile, Linux has become the server OS of choice - and that's not likely to change for a long, long time. Linux has even become the OS of choice for embedded environments as well, so long as your runtime environment isn't too terribly constrained, you don't need hard real time, and human lives won't be lost if something were to go wrong. That's a lot of places where Linux is running. It's just not going to run on many desktops. I take that as a win.

bl4kers 9mo ago
What? Windows' market share has been falling for years with no end in sight
- taylodl 9mo ago
  Falling to phones and tablets, not Linux desktops. Fewer and fewer people even want a desktop. Normies don't give a crap about Linux and haven't given a crap for over 30 years.

palata 9mo ago

I never understood why some people really, really want others to switch to Linux. I don't really care if many people switch to Linux. If anything, a lot of beginner switching to Linux may well make Linux worse for me. I see a lot of "if you want to convert Windows users, you have to...". I really don't want to convert Windows users. I did not move to Linux to please those who like Windows. Said differently, if a distro managed to please all Windows users, it most definitely wouldn't please me. I don't see why I should hope for that.

NoPicklez 9mo ago
I agree with a lot of this. Most people want Windows to be better, not to have to move to Linux. You can't make people convert, especially people that quite frankly might not want to. People just want the Windows they have been using to be better, they don't want to move away from it and that's perfectly reasonable.
matheusmoreira 9mo ago
Agreed. Some degree of elitism is a force for good. I want Linux to be the programmer's system. Just enough popularity to be relevant and have people actively developing it. Never enough popularity that we have hordes of computer illiterate randoms. Linux should be a system built by programmers and for programmers.
- palata 9mo ago
  Totally. And even for developers: many developers will happily ship their program as a docker image, just because they can't be arsed to learn how to properly package it. And that's just one example.
tryauuum 9mo ago
Linux is cool and I want more people to enjoy it. I see all these people suffering -- pointlessly -- and I want to tell them "come! suffer for a while! In exchange you get low latency, native docker, no ai or bing or other shovelware, being the master of your computer feels great!"

nilslindemann 9mo ago

The distro for Linux Newbies is Mint.

deterministic 9mo ago

I work with Linux every day at work writing large scale server applications. However I choose Windows at home. It is just a much better user experience for me. Also, Ubuntu often break badly when I try to upgrade. So I only do it as a last ditch effort when something breaks and I can't fix it. I never have that issue with Windows. It just works. Not to mention that my favourite games are Windows only.

hulitu 9mo ago
> I work with Linux every day at work writing large scale server applications. > Also, Ubuntu often break badly when I try to upgrade What distro do you use at work ? Did you tried Debian ? Upgrading can cause problems also with Windows.

wetpaws 9mo ago

[dead]

amadeuspagel 9mo ago

> Ubuntu, however, is not playing ball. Canonical has opted to invest in its own packaging format, Snap, which no other distro is adopting natively. Snap is a lot better then the alternatives. Snap was the only way I was able to install CouchDB on fedora.

pseudohadamard 9mo ago
I found the opposite, I removed a pile of unnecessary bloatware from a couple of systems and snap kept reinstalling it on every OS update. I just couldn't get rid of them, snap decided it knew better than me what I wanted. Come to think of it, that's a lot like Windows so maybe they are getting closer to the Windows experience after all.