this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Literally not true. It's all handled for you. You could use a stable system like Debian or Gentoo for years without updating or only getting security patches or use a rolling system and get all the updates easily. No one says you've gotta reinstall your system all the time. Every distro has some way to keep up with updates. It's not like you've gotta compile every program yourself and pull the git repo every few days or reinstall your OS every year.
If you are scared of the options available for Linux, you are ignorant. It's understandable some people get anxiety when presented with too many equal options, but the thing is they have to be equal options. This is not the case in the Linux world. The options are all different. You as a user will want different things than other users. You may not have thought about what you want, but you do have wants. You have an idea of how you want to use your computer. It's a matter of doing a Google search to find what option provides your choice. It's not like choosing between 5 ice cream flavors you all like; it's like choosing what to eat between ice cream, vomit, feces, a rock, and a block of wood. There's a clear right choice. If you really believe that there are an overwhelming amount of choices of Linux, you are simply ignorant of the most basic UX differences. Like, you haven't even tried to compare. You just heard "there are 2 things" and panicked.
I'm really tired of this stupid myth of too much fragmentation in Linux that gets passed around. There's a reason for the fragmentation; it's not arbitrary, so it doesn't hurt to have it. We're talking bare minimum looking stuff up or asking a question.
Only true if you mess with stuff. If you're a newcomer and just want stuff to work. Pick some common, stable OS like Ubuntu, use flatpaks or snaps, and it will just work.
Ah okay, this article was written nearly a decade ago. That checks out. There were several significant improvements to Linux around 5 years ago or so.
But also, "nothing out of the ordinary?" Installing a totally new desktop environment is "nothing out of the ordinary?" It's something you can't even do on Mac and Windows!
Just untrue. There are tons of fantastic FOSS apps out there with better UX than I get even from proprietary apps. Another myth that has 0 Google searching behind it. I mean look at the GNOME apps. They're all really really good for the most part.
This probably also comes from the age of the article too. A lot of that came like 5 or so years ago. There were some big pushes.
There are some important proprietary apps that are unavailable with no great alternatives like Photoshop, that's fair, but for FOSS apps that are just trying to do what they want to do, there's some with great UI.
No, they absolutely don't. That's not what the psychology says at all. They merely have to be difficult for you to distinguish at a quick glance. The fact that there are right and wrong answers for each person, while identifying what those right and wrong answers are is difficult is exactly the problem.
The idea that "it's obvious; you're not trying" isn't just laughable horseshit. It's also obscenely disrespectful. Because the people making the comments obviously don't know, and many of them have actually tried. The differences are way deeper than surface level.
That's what I'm saying though. You're just mincing words. If you look at GNOME and then look at KDE, you're not going to see very many similarities. The choices are clear.
They're going for drastically different things. So yeah, it's obvious; they're not trying. They haven't done a single search.
No, the choices are absolutely not clear in any way. The literal only way to learn the differences in function is to use them.
That's a ridiculous thing to say. You're being disingenuous.
I'm absolutely not. You're projecting your experience onto people who don't have it.
The idea that the average user can learn literally anything about how an OS works from a screenshot of a desktop or a table of features that means nothing to them is delusional. They have no frame of reference for any of it. It's completely and utterly meaningless.