If Linux is so great why isn't everyone using it?
If Linux is so great why isn't everyone using it?
Curious why more people aren’t using Linux if it’s so awesome? This article breaks down what Linux is, why it's great and how it secretly powers most of your favorite devices, from smartphones to servers.
First of all, many webpages use Linux, so everyone is actually already using it remotely.
For PCs it is, because ppl are lazy and MS made deals with hardware vendors to ship it preinstalled and Apple even have their own OS to preinstall.
Android contains a modified Linux though and also comes preinstalled. So to some degree many people are using Linux on their portable devices, too.
Actually back in the early days of Microsoft before the huge antitrust case, their deal was if you want any computers to license windows, you can’t offer anything except windows on any computers.
Most people grew up using windows. Familiarity has a huge part. Why isn't everyone using macos?
Very different questions though. Linux offers massive and plentiful advantages over both of those.
I am not disagreeing with the familiarity idea, though; change terrifies most people.
Btw: Linux use on the desktop seems to be on a steep rise. StatsCounter claims 4.5% market share now. And I see lots of people complaining about what Microsoft does lately. Like the advertisements in the menu, fake news. And wanting to take screenshots every few seconds. People seem to start questioning things.
And I mean it's correct that this is a desktop computer thing. If you own a smartphone, tablet, internet wifi router, embedded (smarthome) device, modern car, chances are you're already use Linux and don't even know. And you'll likely be talking to Linux servers and network infrastructure all day if you're using the internet. And I guess quite a few people are using internet services in 2024...
Ease of use when switching over. The average person just wants a personal computer to work. If they are using or interacting with new technology they will learn that new thing (we saw this with smart phones). If they are interacting with technology they are already nominally used to they want familiarity.
As someone who uses both Linux and Windows, I'm gonna say that going from windows to Linux has a bar to entry as far as it being intuitive that a lot of people just are not going to bother with.
It does not help that a lot of vocal Linux users pretend they are superior in every way to those who use anything else.
I'm sure there are a lot of complex reasons. Frankly, I don't really care why other people don't use Linux, I use it. Exclusively.
From my experience, an average user goes to a local "walmart" and buys whatever laptop they like visually. It has Windows pre-installed. They just use it.
It's already a big step forward if they install Chrome instead of Edge. If they install Firefox or LibreOffice, they are a highly advanced average user.
Do you think anyone would care to change the OS? There should happen something really big for it to happen.
Uh… pretty much everyone is except for end-users. Even then we’ve got Android and other Linux-based phone operating systems, and let’s not forget that Apple devices are UNIX-based (which in my mind is way different than Linux, but c’mon, it’s essentially the same concept in the end with tons of varying compatibility between the two).
It feels like most people here are only reacting to the title. If you actually look at the article, it talks about commonly mentioned advantages and examples of Linux.
It's really not that interesting to me as an article, but from scrolling through some others there might be more interesting stuff here. Or am I missing something?
No, I read the same article as you did. The title is over the top. At least the first sentence clarifies it, it's just "What is Linux?"
And I guess at this point everyone heard about Linux. At least here on Lemmy, I suppose. We don't really need to expain this underneath a clickbaity title.
I think it's an interesting question, why people predominantly use Windows, out of all of the (better) opportunities. But I guess we also know the answer to that: Prejudice, lack of education and just being familiar with it. If new computers came with a free operating system preconfigured, and people were taught in school how to write their letters with LibreOffice and fix their small computer woes within Linux, I guess that'd own the major market share on desktop. But that's not how it is.
I think things are changing. Gaming got better during the last few years. You can do all the office tasks at ease for quite some time now. Programming is way easier on Linux and it's already the target platform for lots of applications, so you might as well use it while developing, even if you don't like it. Linux is like 33 years old at this point and rock solid, let aside the usual minor issues with everything where computers are involved... And people seem to be noticing. Linux is on the rise, judging by the numbers. Meanwhile Windows gets worse and filled with advertisements and silly things. But we still have the same chicken and egg problem going. Most commercial programs are exclusive to Windows. People still are familiar with that operating systems. And last time I visited a computer store, the machines still all came with Win 11. Change is tough and takes a deliberate effort to get away from Windows, if that's someones desire in the first place.
People use what they use at work, because they want to use what they know, and most people don't care enough to learn to use use two different OSes.
Companies still use Windows because most companies still use Windows, and compatibility is important. And, Microsoft is slick, with professional and aggressive salespeople. And it's "safe", and the people making these decisions are old fucks who are used to Windows because that's what they've always used through their careers.
Some people use Macs at home, and are also high enough level at their company to get Apples approved as a supported product by IT, but this goes back to point #1: people prefer to use only one OS both at work and at home. When execs do get Macs approved, they tend to get approved only for management, because IT groups want to really only support one OS, and they want to hire as few people who can provide support for both OSes.
Linux doesn't even play into this game. Few executives are going to force IT to support it, and so the window of Linux desktop being an option for the drones is limited. And nobody's going to make Linux the only option. And so, most people are never going to be motivated to use Linux at home for the reason that they use it at work.
It's a different world in software development organizations, where a lot off these pressures are different, and you find more Linux, and Linux at home, and people willing to know their way around multiple OSes. But that's an edge case: most of the time the pressures of status quo hold sway.
Won't be like that much longer. Windows continues to become worse, Linux (desktop) is on a steep upwards trend. I've been using desktop Linux since 1998 and desktop Linux has always been at or around 1% market share, for 15-20 years it was just flat basically, which tells the story that only geeks and nerds used it, which is the story that everyone's familiar with.
But these days? It's approaching 5%, and most of that climb was just in the recent 5 years. That's insane. At the same time, Windows continues regressing from about 95% market share in 2009 or so to something like 70% these days. And this tells the story that people are growing increasingly fed up with Windows (and rightfully so).
In all other areas, Linux is already the dominant OS. It dominates servers, supercomputers, mobiles and embedded systems. Since Microsoft doesn't appear to get their sh!t together, it'll soon dominate the desktop as well.
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