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this post was submitted on 22 Sep 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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a good product is the best advertising. make linux usable as a daily driver, and people come flowing in from the shithole that is windows.
Linux is a usable daily driver if you're tech savvy enough. Some distros are even kind enough to be daily driveable by non tech savvy, at least for the normal stuff.
At this point, it's possible, but no normie is ever going to know what distros are easy and won't be getting through an OS installation anyways.
Linux is a usable daily driver if you’re tech savvy enough.
A daily driver shouldn't need you to be tech savy. There should just be an added benefit for being tech savy.
Windows is not usable if you aren’t tech savvy. See young people who grew up on iOS/Android.
I think Linux is very good already and only improving.
Pretty sure those users you're talking about don't understand desktop controls in general, and would be even worse on Linux. Because when we talk about tech savy we're not talking about basic controls.
I don’t agree in a broad sense. Windows is much harder to use in some ways, like drivers are a mess compared to Linux (sans Nvidia). It’s harder to maintain over time, less robust, like immutable OSes are much more simple.
There are very few days I use windows and think “wow that was straightforward”. Maybe that’s just me though.
Nah, it's not you. In their efforts to make Windows more dummy friendly, they've SOMEHOW managed to make it worse and keep it that way over several major versions.
We STILL have two different settings schemes in Windows, but don't worry, they're still 'innovating' with ads in the start menu!
Windows is actively regressing while Linux is only getting better.
Ironically, one of Windows' biggest 'innovations' in years has been adding Linux to it with WSL...
like drivers are a mess compared to Linux
Maybe but if you google (which most users use for their daily driver, even on IOS/Android) you get pointed to the manufacturers who have the driver installers as simple as possible. These also come with auto updaters.
I mean you could not use the tools the manufacturers are providing, but at that point I'd argue you're trying to be a tech savy user when they offered a way not to.
And very, very, very few edge cases are more difficult than that. most are plug-n-play (which to be fair, Linux has as well)
If you try to google a result for Linux you get a bunch of results for distributions that might not be yours. if you try to google a result for your distro you might get a result from years ago that is strongly not recommended anymore (especially if it leads to that Ubuntutalks website). And then the absolute worst case scenario, where you google and don't actually find what you're looking for, because the manufacturer does nothing with Linux and nobody cares about the problem.
A lot of windows was made around things that non-savy users were breaking. Nowadays a lot of the major issues I see people talk about are because they tried to do something that was very clearly something that they didn't want to be done.
You say this as if it’s good. On Linux you don’t install drivers, they are just included and work. (Except Nvidia…)
I mean, if you're biggest argument is, "they might Google the wrong distro", then I think that really goes to show how few actual concerns there are against Linux.
Anyone who has to install the entire OS will know what distro they're on. Hell, half of the distros come witha default background with the name on it...
I mean, if you’re biggest argument is, “they might Google the wrong distro”
if you don't think that's an issue, you probably are in the tech-savy category
I meet people on a daily basis who can't even say what browser they're on.
Yes, but that sort of user is also immediately stumped when any program fails to update in any OS. Hell, they call others to connect printers.
I'm not sure it's fair to judge linux by the standards of the least capable when they are equally stupid about any OS.
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Many distros are actually very easy to install and setup. The problem is that Linux is not preinstalled on most computers.
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To be fair, my husband is about as far from tech savvy as they come, and he's been running Linux for years on his laptop. Every 2-3 years I upgrade him. Sometimes just within distros (Ubuntu 12.04 to 16.04 say. Other times, I've moved him distros (to fedora) or back to Ubuntu. Otherwise? I don't touch his system. He's been happy for years.
I disagree while agreeing. The biggest reason people use windows is simply because its pre-installed. That's the same reason people use Edge on Windows or Bing as their search engine. They get it preinstalled and don't know how to change it.
If you install anyone Linux and give them a simple and easy distro preinstalled they're usually fine with a few words about how to use it, update it and install stuff. Especially if they're not tech savvy because in this case they wouldn't know exactly how to use Windows either. I mean look at companies: how many employees use Windows in their daily work but still don't know how to actually usw windows? They get teached to use their software and tools but not the OS itself and have to figure things out on the OS level if they would want to change something on Windows too.
My observation was that people that are not tech savvy find it easier to understand some beginner friendly Linux distros than Windows.
If on the other hand a person is used to use Windows and knows how to actually use Windows it's harder for them to switch because things are just different on Linux. For me it's hard and annoying to use Windows which I have to do at work since February. Before that I used Linux in private my whole life, I used it in school because my school never used Windows as one of the few schools in my country and my last employer also used Linux. And from that perspective I can say that Windows is hard and not intuitive. It's just being used because it's being used. I guess you could compare it to Whatsapp vs Signal. From an objective standpoint Signal is better but most people still use WhatsApp because others use it and because it comes preinstalled on some Android phones.
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It won't get more normie than SteamOS, it is literally console kind of simplicity with the option to switch to a full blown DE.
Is it really really easy to install? Several distros are extremely smooth experiences if you don't have completely weird hardware to support, but their installation is still an actual OS install procedure. As easy as Windows to install, but almost no one HAS to install their Windows like with Linux.
If steam OS is coming with Wine et. al. already set up (and it'd be silly if it didn't) that definitely gives it a leg up on most distros for normies, at least.
You'd have to check one of the side-distros. SteamOS itself has no official installer yet, only available pre-installed on steamdeck.
There are distros that are organized to recreate it for normal installation though.
Though to be fair, that's pretty "normie" to not have to experience the installation process at all. Most people will just use what shipped with their PC.
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Normies don't install any OS, they buy devices with it pre-installed and if they fuck their installation up, they search someone who does it for them. Which is (almost) impossible for them to do when the OS has it's root partition as read-only, like the SteamOS
It's also really difficult to get into if you don't already have an "in". Yeah, some distros are pretty easy to use but others aren't and figuring out which is which is pretty impossible for an outsider.
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After I bought steam deck I installed linux on my desktop as a daily driver. Really happy with the results
i currently run linux mint on an old laptop and try to use it every once in a while. it really is getting more competitive everyday. not ready to switch just yet, but i'm already mostly using open source software which could run on linux natively.
This platform is the best thing to happen in the computing landscape in a very very long time. If the Deck can become the target platform for developers due to the install base, we're going to see more legitimate gaming hardware and software come out alongside it.
There are a glut of gaming handhelds out there running android or windows but there are a few that rise to the top as the pinnacle of the platform. When a clear winner emerges, everyone else tries to be like it enough while having something new to offer.
This problem with windows (one of the many) is almost all the value ads like game hubs (i.e. ROG Armoy Crate) detract from the experience and almost provide a superficial "ooh she diff'rent" appeal.
With the contribution of their work back to the Linux community, imagine Asus deploying their own Linux OS that ran steam. They too would be inclined to contribute back to the larger ecosystem while providing actual added value of substance!
I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here but I'm just so happy about the success of the steam deck that it makes me want to evangelize it in my spare time!
I cant even tell Steam Deck is Linux, it actually runs really well.
Oof
Right in the feels
Yeah. There are a few things like that. Other than catching the but screen you'd never know what OS is under the hood
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Microsoft: "Oh. Be a real shame if...Someone fucked that up, wouldn't it?"
Microsoft is a big contributor to the Linux kernel. It would probably not be in their interest to tank it as they'd lose customers from Azure.
But who knows, they might be stupid enough to try.
They have no reason to hurt the kernel. They can continue making sure the desktop isn’t successful though. They continue to embrace DRM in Windows.
Thousands of selfless individuals contribute to FOSS
Tech journos: 🥱
Some profit-driven business contributes to FOSS
Tech journos: ✊🍆💦💦💦😩
This is the best summary I could come up with:
This shouldn't come as any surprise to any longtime Phoronix readers and dedicated open-source/Linux enthusiasts, but Valve with their work on the Steam Deck and SteamOS have been lifting the open-source ecosystem as a whole.
A talk this week at the Linux Foundation Europe's Open-Source Summit highlighted some of the great and ongoing contributions by Valve and their partners.
Alberto Garcia of the open-source consulting firm Igalia, which continues to collaborate with Valve on some of these Linux ecosystem improvements, talked at length around how SteamOS is contributing to the Linux ecosystem.
SteamOS is built atop Arch Linux with a GNU user-space and systemd, the desktop mode features KDE Plasma to which Valve has funded some improvements there, Valve's Steam Play / Proton that leverages Wine has been immensely valuable to Linux gamers and enthusiasts along with related open-source projects like DXVK / VKD3D-Proton, and then there's also they work they are doing around AMD color management / HDR.
Not just to the AMD graphics drivers for benefiting the Steam Deck's hardware but also to Zink OpenGL-on-Vulkan and then other common infrastructure.
There has also been other efforts Valve has been involved in such on expanding case insensitive file-system support on Linux, various other kernel features, their Gamescope Wayland compositor, immutable software updates, and Flatpak.
The original article contains 366 words, the summary contains 215 words. Saved 41%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Google, Meta and Samsung too. You can be 90% FOSS, 10% complete tracking. Thats enough
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