this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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Linux

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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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looks like 2023 is finally the year! (linuxiac.com)
submitted 1 year ago by chicagohuman@lemm.ee to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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[–] Laser@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm loving the comments on the article.

Things that should have disappeared 30 years ago are still problems in the operating system. Not least of which is the handling of locales. I cannot transfer Excel files from my Windows machine to my Linux machine because my Windows machine uses points to denote decimals (as in most companies and homes in South Africa) while Linux does a hard-enforce of the documented standard in South Africa which is a comma for decimal. This breaks my files and I am unable to perform calculations on Excel files due to this. Ridiculous, relevant and sad.

I was previously unaware of the kernel doing such things.

People are indifferent, unknowing, fearful, or just plain lazy to learn new apps. Got to get Office, QuickBooks, Quicken, Adobe, and other major apps to run on Linux.

Most of these are fringe cases nowadays, and often used in environments where the user has no control over the OS anyways. I don't really use Office at home (for the three times per year, LibreOffice is good enough and that's what most Windows users I know run at home anyways).

Also it's not as easy as to just "get Office, QuickBooks, Quicken, Adobe, and other major apps to run on Linux". The wine project is doing miraculous work already IMHO…

While I agree with you on the advantages (performance, stability, reliability, security, customization, privacy, lightweight nature, no corporate bloatware, etc) of Linux, its rate of adoption is considerably weak and consistently weak because of various reasons and causes that your article does not mention.

"Your article doesn't mention the real reasons, which conveniently enough I won't list either."

[–] Valmond@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Windows chance , and . depending on the language settings, so yeah so so simple and helpful :-/

[–] Laser@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While I do like Excel, its handling of values as dates is also a big issue that has hit a lot of people in the past – the format is just not very portable or exchangeable. It's not just an issue from Excel to other solutions… my point was rather that it's not a "Linux" issue and the way it was worded sounded like the kernel had something to do with it.

[–] squaresinger@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I get your point, but the guy you quoted also has a point. For a non-techy person it's really hard to understand the boundary of the OS, so where the OS ends and Apps begin. And tbh, even to a techy person, there isn't really a hard border there.

For example: Is the DWM part of the OS? On Windows, definitely. It's not the kernel, but it is the OS. You cannot remove or replace it.

On Linux, maybe, maybe not. It's definitely part of the Distro, but you can replace it. But on the other hand, on Linux you can even replace the kernel if you really want to. So maybe replaceability is not the criterium? But if it isn't, wouldn't that make everything that came in the distro part of the OS?

On Windows, that's kinda the case, with e.g. Edge being an integral, non-replaceable part of the OS.

And then you get into the territory of the "Linux is only the kernel" purists, that follow Stallmans fever dreams. They might say, Linux isn't actually an OS at all.

And at the latest once Stallman's speech has been quoted will anyone who is not a hardcore Linux philosopher say "Screw you guys, there is no point to this".

[–] Cypher@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The reasons aren’t worth listing because they’re all known but here we go

You need to use linux shell to get anything done.

There, that’s the reason.

Linux will never be popular until you can do everything, and I mean, everything without entering a single command in a terminal.

[–] Laser@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

As someone else has said, on distributions that go for ease of use, the terminal isn't really needed.

However, I do consider it a convenience feature even for users who are not savvy with it: You can either troubleshoot an issue by giving instructions like "Open application X, navigate to Option, open Tab, press Button, then enter Text, hit OK and repeat for each" or "copy and paste this command into your terminal". The amount of work on both sides is likely lower plus there's less room for error.

[–] Fryboyter@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

according to StatCounter's data

Our tracking code is installed on more than 1.5 million sites globally.

Source: https://gs.statcounter.com/faq#methodology

Such statistics are always to be taken with a grain of salt.

There are more than 1.5 billion websites worldwide. Statcounter therefore covers only a small fraction of them. So chances are good that you as a Linux user do not use any of these 1.5 million websites that Statcounter uses to create their statistics.

Furthermore, I suspect that many Linux users use tools like uBlock Origin or Pi-Hole, so that the things that are used to track users are blocked.

Apart from that, I have several Linux installations with which I never access a website. Sometimes they have no direct connection to the Internet. Thus, they are also not recorded.

But now to the most important. 3 percent of what? Percentage numbers don't tell anything if you don't know the number of users behind them. Let's assume that there were 2.8 percent Linux users in May. In June, only 2.6 percent. Nevertheless, it is possible that there were more actual users in June if the total number of all users increased accordingly.

[–] BanthaFood@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

Yeah man that's how statistics work. It's not a census. The people behind statscounter make calculations and approximations based on the data they get from they trackers. I think they know that there are people with tracking-blockers. And not only on windows.

They don't just present simple numbers they get. They polish them and that's literally their job.

[–] Crow@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m a new Linux user since the start of the year. Windows has become so stressful to use for a pc I just want to game on. Before I was stuck using windows, but proton has changed the game so much I don’t feel like I’m missing anything now using Linux.

ChatGPT has also helped a lot by giving me all the technical support for Linux I could ever need. It’s taught me a ton while also helping me with all my problems.

[–] Konlanx@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you feel performance is good while using Linux to game? How is it compared to windows?

I would love to switch, the only two things keeping me away is potential performance decrease and the fact that my GoXLR doesn't work with Linux and it was way too expensive for that.

[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.de 0 points 1 year ago

You can try dual booting and see if you can get it to work. If it doesn't than you can just ditch Linux and otherwise you can ditch Windows.