Speaking for myself, but I suspect this applies to a lot of people, the factors that are enabling me to run Linux as my personal computer are:
The browser experience is now on par with other operating systems. For many people, almost everything they do on their computer is through the browser so this is important.
Games now work. Every game I’ve wanted to play has worked on Linux.
If I want to do word processing or spreadsheeting and I absolutely need the formatting to be correct or want to use the more advanced aspects of Excel, I now have a work device to do those things. This wasn’t the case a few years ago, when most people worked on a company desktop machine at work.
Putting that together and subtracting all the annoyances of Windows - nagging notifications, updates that take forever, Windows trying to make my default browser Edge, the greater threat of viruses - why wouldn’t I be on Linux? Why wouldn’t a lot of people be on Linux?
Latex is what made switching to linux possible for me during college. I had multiple lab classes that required their own very specific formatting. One of them required latex, and I was the only person who ended up learning latex in my lab group. Between that semester and the next one, I installed linux and used latex exclusively for all my reports, and I can certainly say that my papers actually looked good. I spent no time on formatting after the first lab report when I made my template.
Because dumb people like me are too scared to leave what we know and have always heard that you need to actually know a thing or two instead of just relying on modern user-“friendly” systems to do it all for you.
@IndiBrony
I’ve come to the conclusion that the user friendly part is just plain wrong. how many times have i struggled on Windows with something but managed fine on linux.
of course there are actual things that are more difficult but that’s only because so much more is possible with linux.
advanced users wouldn’t notice a difference and advanced user appreciate the difference. @CoupleOfConcerns@linux
It’s all about documentation. If something goes tits up in Linux it’s rare that it takes me more than 15 or 20 mins to find a fix. Windows, if something happens, it could be hours to find an answer, longer if the first bits I find don’t work anymore. I’ve had a few occasions where I just straight up reinstalled windows because I couldn’t find a solution to an OS breaking situation. The only times I’ve reinstalled a Linux distro is when I’m hopping to a new one, decide I don’t really like it and go back to the last one I had installed.
@SturgiesYrFase reinstall windows… yeah its amazing that even with linux’s many distros. the solution is usually achievable compared to Windows that has only one version to maintain but still manages to have parts not working. even with direct vendor support for drivers
Well, being top dog doesn’t really lead to innovation usually. When you already have such a massive market share why spend to pull in new customers? Easier to just make things slightly shittier over time and hope no one notices.
That’s not really true nowadays. Linux Mint is easier to learn than Windows. Unless you want to play certain games, in which case you might have to tinker with Wine and Lutris.
Well there’s the fact that it’s somewhat true as for example if you use a chromium based browser on Linux hardware acceleration isn’t enabled by default and borderline doesn’t work a lot of the time.
Doesn’t sound so bad till you realise what it does to battery life on a laptop.
I love Linux and we are so close but it’s small things like that, which prevent me getting friends and family to use it consistently.
Remember that MS removed office from chromebook’s play store, you can imagine why, they are pretty scared now.
Apart from office I see the Cad industry offered briscad to Linux , the video editing industry offered davince and lightworks, the 3d modeling one has blender which is just industry-grade per se, I guess office and adobe are the only grandparents reluctant to switch to the new world.
Speaking for myself, but I suspect this applies to a lot of people, the factors that are enabling me to run Linux as my personal computer are:
Putting that together and subtracting all the annoyances of Windows - nagging notifications, updates that take forever, Windows trying to make my default browser Edge, the greater threat of viruses - why wouldn’t I be on Linux? Why wouldn’t a lot of people be on Linux?
As a latex user, reading “… and I absolutely need the formatting to be correct …” and using word is a joke
Latex is what made switching to linux possible for me during college. I had multiple lab classes that required their own very specific formatting. One of them required latex, and I was the only person who ended up learning latex in my lab group. Between that semester and the next one, I installed linux and used latex exclusively for all my reports, and I can certainly say that my papers actually looked good. I spent no time on formatting after the first lab report when I made my template.
As someone who wishes he could use CSS for full-blown typesetting, do I need to get off your lawn?
Because dumb people like me are too scared to leave what we know and have always heard that you need to actually know a thing or two instead of just relying on modern user-“friendly” systems to do it all for you.
@IndiBrony
I’ve come to the conclusion that the user friendly part is just plain wrong. how many times have i struggled on Windows with something but managed fine on linux.
of course there are actual things that are more difficult but that’s only because so much more is possible with linux.
advanced users wouldn’t notice a difference and advanced user appreciate the difference.
@CoupleOfConcerns @linux
It’s all about documentation. If something goes tits up in Linux it’s rare that it takes me more than 15 or 20 mins to find a fix. Windows, if something happens, it could be hours to find an answer, longer if the first bits I find don’t work anymore. I’ve had a few occasions where I just straight up reinstalled windows because I couldn’t find a solution to an OS breaking situation. The only times I’ve reinstalled a Linux distro is when I’m hopping to a new one, decide I don’t really like it and go back to the last one I had installed.
@SturgiesYrFase reinstall windows… yeah its amazing that even with linux’s many distros. the solution is usually achievable compared to Windows that has only one version to maintain but still manages to have parts not working. even with direct vendor support for drivers
Well, being top dog doesn’t really lead to innovation usually. When you already have such a massive market share why spend to pull in new customers? Easier to just make things slightly shittier over time and hope no one notices.
That’s not really true nowadays. Linux Mint is easier to learn than Windows. Unless you want to play certain games, in which case you might have to tinker with Wine and Lutris.
Honestly with things like Heroic it’s unlikely that you really need to “tinker” much regardless.
Well there’s the fact that it’s somewhat true as for example if you use a chromium based browser on Linux hardware acceleration isn’t enabled by default and borderline doesn’t work a lot of the time.
Doesn’t sound so bad till you realise what it does to battery life on a laptop.
I love Linux and we are so close but it’s small things like that, which prevent me getting friends and family to use it consistently.
Remember that MS removed office from chromebook’s play store, you can imagine why, they are pretty scared now. Apart from office I see the Cad industry offered briscad to Linux , the video editing industry offered davince and lightworks, the 3d modeling one has blender which is just industry-grade per se, I guess office and adobe are the only grandparents reluctant to switch to the new world.