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This week’s Weekly discussion thread will be focused on Linux. I know that Lemmy is VERY biased towards Linux and FOSS, but I'm curious what non-technical people feel about it and what your thoughts are.
Some starters:
- Have you used Linux? If so, what was your experience like?
- Would you run it as your primary system? Why or why not?
- What would it take to get you to do so?
- Do you feel it's a solid option?
- Are there any changes that you'd think would benefit consumers and aid with adoption?
Have you used Linux? If so, what was your experience like?
Would you run it as your primary system? Why or why not?
A few years back my computer gave up its ghost at the worst conceivable time. We were in a bit of a financial crunch (having just dropped money on a new home) and a new computer was simply not in the budget. SO set up a "pie" machine he had (Orange Pie?—NOT the Raspberry thing) for me to do some basic stuff at home and for about five months that was my home computer.
The experience was overall mixed, but leaned heavily into the negative. Firefox worked. That was nice. LibreOffice was good enough that now I'm back on a real system I still use it because the newer MS Office UIs (with that idiotic "ribbon") tick me off. Much of the time things seemed fine.
"Seemed" is the key word there.
Because when it was running normally (not including times when its speed was simply not high enough: that's not Linux's fault) it was ... fine. Not great. Fine. I could find files. I could do office stuff. I could even limp along in some online games I played back then (MUSHes), though the tools available for that were utter crap.
The problem is that it would occasionally stop running normally. And that's when the flaws (and flagrant user-hostility!) of Linux came to the forefront.
Some examples:
What would it take to get you to do so?
Its makers remembering that 99.44% of computer users view their computers as tools for getting their work done and not as an end unto themselves. If I have to open up a "terminal" and type random, meaningless bullshit to fix a problem your system has already failed the UX thing. There's nothing wrong with making a system that is its own end for those who want it, I should stress. Just don't then pitch that system as a viable end-user product. It's ludicrous.
(This is about the point someone will say "Android is based on Linux, so you already blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda hur hur hur..." to which I just roll my eyes and ignore—and likely block—the disingenuous nitwit.)
Do you feel it’s a solid option?
No. Not now, and given what I've seen of the community, not ever. The problem with Linux is largely social and cultures don't change quickly.
Are there any changes that you’d think would benefit consumers and aid with adoption?
Hire designers with actual UI and UX expertise. Streamline all the major, important tools based on these designers' inputs. Make sure those designers aren't soliciting input only from the echo chamber of people who already use Linux. Make the tools that don't match the designer streamlining available for those who want or need them, but don't make them the default.
And, above all, listen to your users' complaints. The reflex most Linux users seem to have to any criticism of it, no matter how minor, is to launch into the attack with "RTFM" (as if there even is a meaningful manual to read!) or other such dismissive hand-waving to somehow ... make normal people like Linux better by being treated like shit?
Interesting to see a non-positive take! I always appreciate your write-ups.
I too wish there was more unification with certain elements. I can only imagine what they could do if they combined development resources into a few channels instead of being scattered to the winds. Maybe add an overall design aesthetic (while maintaining the means to change it) instead of just "it works I suppose."
Well, to be fair there were some good things about it. The Pie device didn't grind to a halt because everything was using so much memory that it would throw a tantrum. My Windows PC does that daily, it seems. Some of the UI things were very helpful, especially the way it handled virtual desktops (SO much better than Windows!). And as I said, LibreOffice was so good that I've switched to it on my Windows PC, and away from the ever-increasingly-enshittified Microsoft Office suite. In addition there isn't this alarming trend of moving all applications to Someone Else's Computer¹ to enforce vendor lock-in, user data siphoning, and random UI experiments of the week that fuck up personal workflow all the time.
What's frustrating about Linux is that it's so close to being a contender ... until the nerds (not geeks!, I adore geeks!) get up in arms about how all the useless trivia they've learned to keep their systems working is in danger of evaporating, losing them their special status as gurus you supplicate to to fix your computer. Obviously the Linux-actually-thing (kernel?) works fine given that my Android phones have been mostly great on the UX front. It's the actual useful parts of Linux that suck by comparison.
¹ Sometimes referred to by the twee name "The Cloud".