this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2022
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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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These people keep bringing up "mArKeT sHaRE"

  1. Linux is free. How would it get market share?
  2. It's quite difficult to get an accurate "market share" since user-agents can be faked.

EDIT: I wonder if Microsoft are making anti-Linux accounts to try and hamper Linux.

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[–] BaumGeist@lemmy.ml 42 points 2 years ago

Might seem a little far-fetched, but i'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the community that basically worships conspicuous consumption of electronics with complete disregard for e-waste and electrical consumption in support of being a better gamer, a consumer identity fabricated by marketing companies, and have thus turned it into an implicit contest might not be interested in practicality, liberty, nor freely available goods unless they're the most visually appealing

[–] rysiek@szmer.info 39 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Well duh. "PC" means "Windows", obviously.

sigh

[–] testman@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

this
I use any chance I get to fight against this misconception

[–] likeaduck@programming.dev 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] rysiek@szmer.info 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Actually, if we're nit-picking, it means "Personal Computer", but the colloquial meaning has shifted somewhat since the good old IBM times to first mean desktop computers (as opposed to laptops), and then to mean non-Apple computers (including laptops), which for most people means "a computer that runs Windows."

Which is the basis of my heavy sigh.

@rysiek
@likeaduck

>and then to mean non-Apple computers

I call Macs PCs to this day becouse of those ads

[–] planish@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

It would have been anything that implements Bios enough to boot MS-DOS, more or less.

But now that's not what anyone actually wants anymore since Windows, the thing people usually boot, wants UEFI instead. So I would say now it is probably anything that can run x86 code and boot Windows, even if it's from System76 and meant to run Linux.

[–] Helix@feddit.de 38 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

The top result I get when I search Linux and sort by Relevance:

a meme with Kelly from the office saying "Linux is the most complicated OS I ever used. I mean, what OS does exactly what you tell it to? What kinda game is that?

How is that anti Linux?

[–] Amicchan@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] Helix@feddit.de 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] Amicchan@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] Helix@feddit.de 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Ratio

the proportion of replies to a [post] compared to the combined number of retweets and likes, where a high ratio usually indicates a barrage of negative replies

In this case, the post has lots (17.9k) of upvotes and fewer comments (2k) because people like Linux. It has a low ratio.

Why do you give a shit about internet comments? On this subreddit in particular?

[–] Helix@feddit.de 25 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Linux is free. How would it get market share?

Not all Linux distributions are free. A market share can also be taken by a product which is free. It's just a piece of the market.

You don't count OS market share by the amount of money you spent for an OS (because then, MacOS would be free, since it's technically given away bundled with Apple hardware) but by the number of installs.

[–] UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago

Dude, the subreddit is named r/pcmasterrace. Even if they aren't anti-Linux, maybe you shouldn't take them too serious

[–] incici@lemmy.ml 15 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Reddit is getting worse and worse. Not sure what happened, but it started losing it's way around 2014-2015.

[–] deepfriedwater@lemmygrad.ml 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

When they announced they would make their codebase proprietary it was definitely a turning point. In hindsight, you can clearly see a shift in their way of doing things from that point on.

[–] incici@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago

Is there anything left on Reddit about Aaron Swartz? It's disgusting how Reddit turned on its finest.

[–] electrodynamica@mander.xyz 2 points 2 years ago

Reddit started as a 4chan clone, sold out to become 4chan but legal, then sold out again to become Facebook. To be fair I think the current version is the least shitty it's ever been, even beating out modern slashdot which is basically a Hacker News clone.

[–] arthur@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 years ago

2% of the population is still 200M. I know not the whole world has access to technology but that's still a huge fucking number.

The market share is fine.

[–] MrGamingHimself@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 years ago

I mean what did you expect, it's a toxic sub that's made out of a meme about how PC players are so superior to everyone else

You're looking for /r/pcgaming

[–] d1tt0@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

As the steam deck continues to push through all the blockades of gaming on linux, there will be a ton of gamers who make the switch.

the whole ideal behind PCMasterRace is exclusionary by default. They'll have to open up eventually or be left behind. I mean even the Apple M1 games well.

[–] Helix@feddit.de 4 points 2 years ago

the whole ideal behind PCMasterRace is exclusionary by default

I don't get why they use a mainstream OS then. Damn peasants.

[–] Ghast@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago

The comments don't seem anti-Linux.

Top commenter says they don't know the commanads. Fair enough for a gaming sub - setting up gaming stuff like Wine can be a headache.

Second comment says Linux is great, but they dual-boot for games. Also fair enough - Windows is the best OS for gaming. Maybe Linux is second best, which isn't bad, but it's not number 1.

All throughout, lots of dual-booters there. I don't know what the issue is - gaming sub's gonna use Windows.

[–] PureTryOut@lemmy.kde.social 6 points 1 year ago

EDIT: I wonder if Microsoft are making anti-Linux accounts to try and hamper Linux.

Lol. No, they're not. Really.

What kind of conspiracy theory is that, Microsoft really doesn't feel threatened by Linux.

[–] ColorIsh@feddit.it 4 points 2 years ago

FUCKING NORMIES REEEEEEEEEEEE

why is linux hated

idk man

[–] s_s@lemmy.one 4 points 1 year ago

/r/PCSlaveRace

[–] sirico@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago

All I ever got for trying to help on that sub was called an elitist and have people go through my comment history to prove them selves and its the linux community thats toxic

[–] planish@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

Probably because they're big meanies.

The market share thing is real though. Computing is like 1% actually making hardware and software and 99% about getting the humans to agree with each other about how the hardware and software is meant to work, how pieces cooperate, and what it is meant to mean when any given piece does any given thing.

Proton et al. are amazing, but swapping out the whole system underneath a program for one it was never tested on, to provide APIs that are not actually expected to vary in their implementation details, and using GPU drivers that weren't extensively tested by the manufacturer in exactly these circumstances and individually tweaked to do specific things for that specific workload, is necessarily going to get you a worse result than doing it the way the program authors expected.

And you don't need very precise numbers to know that Linux is much less used on the desktop.

Maybe with developers targeting and testing on Steam Deck the situation will change, but trying to get two things to work together when only one of them is willing to change for it is extremely hard and I understand why one might compromise principles to avoid having to do it.

[–] triplenadir@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 2 years ago

I'm a bit surprised you're surprised, it's got "master race" in the name. At best it's too soon to be cracking uncritical jokes about the Nazis, at worst it's a deliberate dogwhistle. Another depressing search to do on that sub is find the times people begged for it to be changed.

[–] moobythegoldensock@geddit.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Why are you linking to reddit and not !pcmasterrace@lemmy.world?

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