- cross-posted to:
- linux@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- linux@lemmy.ml
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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.
A lot of people just need to get shit done and it’s easier to just use the tool they know than to relearn how to use a computer.
I think relearn how to use a computer is a real stretch. Like colossal. Plenty of distros and DEs make it even easier than Windows, can look exactly like either, and are far less accident prone.
I don’t think it’s a stretch. I’ve been using both for >15-20 years.
Lots of people don’t even know how to install windows. While linux is easier to install IMO (and has been for years) I’d say a significant amount of the population doesn’t even know how to control computer boot behaviour. Linux is not preinstalled on a significant amount of computers due to Microsoft’s monopoly on the PC market. After you get past this, everything looks different. SameButDifferent.gif.
KDE Plasma for example, sure it looks close at a glance but the icon is different for the menu. This is enough to trip up some. Dolphin looks similar but behaves a bit differently than Explorer. “I want to install adobe photoshop. Hey, why can’t I open this installer?” - how software is managed on Linux is quite a bit different since windows still doesn’t really have a good package management method.
Then hardware compatibility, distro choice, and stability. I’ve been running nvidia for years and I cannot tell you how many times I’ve rebooted my various systems over the years after patching it and I’m greeted by a shell and an error message. Good luck, majority of the population.
I can’t tell you the amount of hours I’ve burned trying to fix my GUI using a spare computer or my cell phone to look up error messages.
Of course, for all those instances there are computers that work just absolutely flawlessly. But the software and DEs all still have some of a learning curve.
That all said, most people will just see the firefox icon and be like “durr - internet!”
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.
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.
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