Very interesting and thought provoking message. I have a friend who
used to be very involved with linux in the early days. He was also
involved with unix systems and many other things and now works for a
company that uses windows so he's using that. I think he might be
interested in getting involved with linux again and I am certainly
curious about it but then there is still a lot I don't know about
windows as well and i am a relative apple newbie too so can't do
everything at once but it is certainly food for thought and I would like
to learn more about it at some point hopefully soon like this summer
when I have more time.
Marda
On 4/3/2023 9:15 PM, Travis Siegel wrote:
Yeah, fair, but there's too many people that say they have no
experience with linux, then come up with some silly reason why this is
so. Linux is free, it runs on just about any pc or device you can
think of, and it's been around longer than windows 95. Anyone who
actually wants to have experience with linux can do so for free, and
with very little setup if so desired. It's truly astounding the
number of people who say they'd try linux if there was an easy to do
so, then promptly ignore the fact that most linux distributions have
cds you can buy or burn yourself that allow you to run a copy of linux
without even installing it. It doesn't get any easier than that.
Windows doesn't have that option, and yet, folks always complain linux
is harder to learn, when in actual fact, the learning curve on linux
isn't truly any worse than that of windows, especially since linux
doesn't redesign it's operating system every few years making it
difficult or impossible to find things you've been using for years.
Windows does this all the time, and yet, folks continue using it, when
in actuality, switching to linux is simpler now than it has ever been,
what with skins that make your linux box look like a windows system.
The amount of free software on linux dwarfs the free software on
windows, and (finally), even companies are beginning to realize that
the TCO (total cost of ownership for linux is only a small subset of
the cost for running windows. And, yet, it still sits so under
utilized by those who could benefit from it the most.
There's truly no reason not to give linux a try these days. The
biggest decision you need to make is which distro to try first.
No reason why you can't try them all, though that would be a tall
order, since there's so many of them, but it's certainly possible.
Generally, I recommend ubuntu to folks who don't want to be bothered
with fiddly details like keeping the system up to date, or don't know
how to do most things on the computer. For those who are more tech
savvy, I used to recommend slackware, but unfortunately, they haven't
updated in a while, and although I still use it, I can't in good
conscience recommend it to new users, even ones who want to know how
it all works. For that, I'd suggest one of the mandrake distribution
clones, although to be fair, Ubuntu really does do most of what a new
linux user needs, even those who want to know how it all works, since
you can use as many or as few of the we do it for you apps built in as
you like.
Linux has software to do just about anything you want. Even game
creators are finally getting the idea that hey, with the game engines
we use, we can release a linux version too, so that puts those
complaints that there aren't any gamess for linux to bed as well.
It's all about choice with linux, and it's all up to you to decide how
much you want to accomplish.
On 4/3/2023 9:51 PM, Marda wrote:
Well I am aware of linux's roles in those areas but was speaking as
an end user who is not tech savvy. I used to have a frfiend (we have
since lost touch) who did a lot with programming in linux
environments and with screen readers for it and all that but when I
was referring to popularity I should have made it clear that I was
talking about us average paeon end users who have little tech
background and limited to no experience or at least limited to no
positive experience with linuxx.
Marda
On 4/3/2023 2:50 PM, Jude DaShiell wrote:
Many end users pick the wrong distribution for themselves and run
into a
bad learning curve then give up.
Those of us who have been using Linux for a while know not to ever
recommend Gentoo to new users. Other easier options exist. Linux is
very
popular although not necessarily with the home users. Linux runs
google
and runs most of the servers on the internet be they corporate or
Government. So it depends on which sector of the internet is cherry
picked. Without Linux, an internet to run ecommerce and windows
wouldn't
be around today since the hackers would have over-run it long ago.
Make
no mistake Linux is under attack from the hackers and so far it has
managed to stay a few steps ahead of them but Windows no matter the
version is a virus magnet.
-- Jude <jdashiel at panix dot com> "There are four boxes to be used in
defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that
order." Ed Howdershelt 1940.
On Mon, 3 Apr 2023, Marda wrote:
Yes but then why isn't linux more popular? It's got a lot of
wonderful
qualities but it's not as intuitive or easy for a new end user to
use. There
are developers for windows machines, smartphones and so on that do
have free
games, even for amazon echo devices, google devices and so on.
They may not
be always as fancy or exactly what a person wants and I know it's
frustrating
if you want a specific game and it's out of your price range but
some people
develop games as a side thing on their own time as volunteers and
some do it
for a full time living and those people expect to be paid as any
fulll time
paid worker would.
Marda
On 4/3/2023 3:48 AM, Jude DaShiell wrote:
The full-time developers need to be paid but the ones that make their
money doing other work and do part-time development are another
story.
That's how linux got where it is today. The payment the linux
developers
got and get is they often learn more about programming doing their
linux
development than they manage to do in the careers where they make
their
money. A loss for employers but our gain.
Aside from that, the linux developers get to work on the best
supported
operating systems on the planet. Microsoft can't match that level of
support.
-- Jude <jdashiel at panix dot com> "There are four boxes to be
used in
defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that
order." Ed Howdershelt 1940.
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