You're right about meeting people where they're at, but Linux really will improve most people's computer experiences by reducing the amount of failures they have.
This line of thinking is one of the failures of linux evangelism. Let me offer a strained metaphor:
A chain gun is one where the process of cycling the action, loading the next round and firing is all accomplished using a chain driven by an electric motor. In the guns were most familiar with all that stuff is done with energy from firing, either in the form of recoil or expanding gasses.
Chain guns are incredibly reliable. Like an order of magnitude fewer failures than guns that use the power of firing. The reliability comes from not relying on the exact propellant load and series of forces to ensure proper operation. Forget the obvious dud round scenario, consider edge cases like hot or weak loads. If there’s a little too much oomph in the odd cartridge it isn’t gonna make the action operate so fast that the next one jams trying to make its way up to the chamber. If you get a weak load the thing isn’t gonna short stroke and leave you with an empty or already fired chamber.
If there’s a big ol pile of mud in the magazine it’s not gonna stop the process of extraction and loading because of the gunk and extra drag or because the round is too stuck for the precision tuned gas port to deliver enough power to extract and eject the case.
So why don’t regular infantry carry these things if they’re as ahem bulletproof as all that? It’s because they weigh 2-3x as much and have a significantly different manual of arms.
Soldiers do fine with fifteen pounds less load and tap rack bang.
Most people using computers do fine until something breaks. They don’t need a chain gun, they need an armorer and some training to get their rig straightened up and keep ‘em from letting it get like that again.
I’m an ideal world we’d all be enjoying the dictatorship of the proletariat’s free and open source alternative to the information gathering machine that is commercial computing (and the commercial internet we’re all using it for), but right now people just need to be able to find recipes, look at TikTok’s and jerk off with their cia tracking devices.
find recipes, look at TikTok’s and jerk off with their cia tracking devices.
Which of those three things is actually harder on Linux?
I wouldn't call myself an evangelist, I've even posted on this very forum about basically every issue I've had since switching to Linux about a month and a half ago, but my experience with Linux is that 95% of stuff is exactly as easy as Windows and 5% is a lot harder and the average computer user doesn't do those 5% of things (frankly the average computer user doesn't need a desktop at all).
none of those things are noticeably easier or harder on any major platform. the problem is never doing those things with the computer. if it were people would just not do those things.
the problem is when a person is kept from doing those things and needs to remedy that situation.
like the soldier who suddenly finds their rifle jammed, the computer user doesn't compile information about what happened when, under what circumstances, on what website and under what additional factors (or more likely refer to the computers own records of these things).
you just close the browser and reopen it. reset the computer, look up something approximating what you remember as having happened on the internet. tap rack bang.
and let me tell you no matter the relative frequency of problems, the last part of that troubleshooting trifecta is so much easier under macos or windows it's hard to express.
i'll take the example elsewhere in the thread of the poor user who wanted to format their sd card in the steam deck:
you look up how to format an sd card in windows and it's incredibly straightforward and very consistent. nearly the same process from 95 to 11. same story for a mac. even before osx youre pretty much doing the same dance as now.
even though i can list off three ways to rectify their particular issue, all require some level of understanding that most regular ol computer users wouldn't have (the /dev filesystem, difference between filesystems and partitions, etc) or are incredibly dependent on the unique gui and distribution theyre using.
two days between failures the user can rectify is fine if the alternative is two weeks between failures the user doesn't understand how to handle.
Windows MTBF: 2 hours
Linux MTBF: 2 weeks
You're right about meeting people where they're at, but Linux really will improve most people's computer experiences by reducing the amount of failures they have.
This line of thinking is one of the failures of linux evangelism. Let me offer a strained metaphor:
A chain gun is one where the process of cycling the action, loading the next round and firing is all accomplished using a chain driven by an electric motor. In the guns were most familiar with all that stuff is done with energy from firing, either in the form of recoil or expanding gasses.
Chain guns are incredibly reliable. Like an order of magnitude fewer failures than guns that use the power of firing. The reliability comes from not relying on the exact propellant load and series of forces to ensure proper operation. Forget the obvious dud round scenario, consider edge cases like hot or weak loads. If there’s a little too much oomph in the odd cartridge it isn’t gonna make the action operate so fast that the next one jams trying to make its way up to the chamber. If you get a weak load the thing isn’t gonna short stroke and leave you with an empty or already fired chamber.
If there’s a big ol pile of mud in the magazine it’s not gonna stop the process of extraction and loading because of the gunk and extra drag or because the round is too stuck for the precision tuned gas port to deliver enough power to extract and eject the case.
So why don’t regular infantry carry these things if they’re as ahem bulletproof as all that? It’s because they weigh 2-3x as much and have a significantly different manual of arms.
Soldiers do fine with fifteen pounds less load and tap rack bang.
Most people using computers do fine until something breaks. They don’t need a chain gun, they need an armorer and some training to get their rig straightened up and keep ‘em from letting it get like that again.
I’m an ideal world we’d all be enjoying the dictatorship of the proletariat’s free and open source alternative to the information gathering machine that is commercial computing (and the commercial internet we’re all using it for), but right now people just need to be able to find recipes, look at TikTok’s and jerk off with their cia tracking devices.
Which of those three things is actually harder on Linux?
I wouldn't call myself an evangelist, I've even posted on this very forum about basically every issue I've had since switching to Linux about a month and a half ago, but my experience with Linux is that 95% of stuff is exactly as easy as Windows and 5% is a lot harder and the average computer user doesn't do those 5% of things (frankly the average computer user doesn't need a desktop at all).
none of those things are noticeably easier or harder on any major platform. the problem is never doing those things with the computer. if it were people would just not do those things.
the problem is when a person is kept from doing those things and needs to remedy that situation.
like the soldier who suddenly finds their rifle jammed, the computer user doesn't compile information about what happened when, under what circumstances, on what website and under what additional factors (or more likely refer to the computers own records of these things).
you just close the browser and reopen it. reset the computer, look up something approximating what you remember as having happened on the internet. tap rack bang.
and let me tell you no matter the relative frequency of problems, the last part of that troubleshooting trifecta is so much easier under macos or windows it's hard to express.
i'll take the example elsewhere in the thread of the poor user who wanted to format their sd card in the steam deck:
you look up how to format an sd card in windows and it's incredibly straightforward and very consistent. nearly the same process from 95 to 11. same story for a mac. even before osx youre pretty much doing the same dance as now.
even though i can list off three ways to rectify their particular issue, all require some level of understanding that most regular ol computer users wouldn't have (the /dev filesystem, difference between filesystems and partitions, etc) or are incredibly dependent on the unique gui and distribution theyre using.
two days between failures the user can rectify is fine if the alternative is two weeks between failures the user doesn't understand how to handle.