353
submitted 5 months ago by petsoi@discuss.tchncs.de to c/linux@lemmy.ml
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 69 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Wait ... is there a perception (or reality?) that most Linux users are programmers?

I'm an introvert, but all programmers I know use Windows (and badly in the sense they aren't power users).

[-] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 44 points 5 months ago

That's a logical fallacy, all dogs are animals does not imply that all animals are dogs. Even if all programmers you know use Windows that could still mean that all Linux users are programmers.

That being said several relatives use Linux because I refused to help with IT unless they had Linux, and since then they mostly hadn't needed IT support. So it's not true that all Linux users are programmers, but a good percentage of us are.

[-] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 12 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I was not explaining my logic nor my beliefs, just describing my smol sample (introvert!), as a btw fun fact.

But I was under the impression that there is no distinguishable difference between which OSs use programmes vs non-programmers (and the other way around).
Perhaps bcs I fail to se any specific connection between the two. But yes, my logic would be that both types use and are used by both to roughly the same extent.

(Haha, exactly same experience with relatives - forced them on Linux, never had anything non-trivial to fix since then.)

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 30 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

There's some hardcore conflation going on that assumes that people with technical skills will tend to be good at everything, or that they'll gravitate towards the uber-geeky stuff.

In my experience it's a very wide spectrum. Lots of programmers are strictly focused on the language they use and don't care to know anything about the OS, or networking, even computers. They are definitely not jacks of all trades.

There are people who can do programming as well as system administration and build a PC and build some book shelves and so on. But that's a very specific type of person who's a tinkerer and happens to be into programming, it's not because they're a programmer.

[-] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 4 points 5 months ago

Yes, a power tinkerer!

And if something needs to be programmed (or just coded, bcs copypasta), then that's what's gonna happen.

If IT won't accommodate my ticket in the way I want Im just gonna write another ticket for access rights.

[-] Grangle1@lemm.ee 11 points 5 months ago

In addition to the perception that you have to be "good at computers" (aka a programmer) to use Linux, in my experience a lot of Linux media outlets (websites, YT channels, podcasts, etc) tend to be heavy on advanced features and tools without much explanation in layman's terms and tend to be geared towards an IT professional/hobbyist audience, which can reinforce that stereotype among those (like me) who are not.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

Linux use among devs is much higher than gen pop.

https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2023/#section-most-popular-technologies-operating-system

Keep in mind, this adds up to more than 100% because it wasn't an exclusive choice question, it was multiple.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] zod000@lemmy.ml 7 points 5 months ago

Most of the programmers I know (including myself) use Linux or BSD, but that all depends on who you associate with. A lot of companies are purely Windows shops and others just throw their programmers mac books and call it a day. At my last company I was only briefly allowed to use Linux until they decided it was no good as I couldn't use whatever resource intensive corporate garbage security software of the year they bought.

[-] spittingimage@lemmy.world 54 points 5 months ago

I'm also not a programmer but here's why Linux is my daily driver:

I like it.

[-] crusty@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 5 months ago

Gnome is so much more cozy than windows

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 22 points 5 months ago

KDE Plasma is so much more snappy and functional than Windows. Linux has lots of good options.

[-] swag_money@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

cinnamon is so uhh default in Linux Mint and i like it

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] tombruzzo@lemm.ee 46 points 5 months ago

I feel like Linux would be easier to pick up and use for a non power user starting from scratch like my mother-in-law. It's so much easier to download programs with the package manager and settings are so much easier to navigate

[-] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 19 points 5 months ago

And to use the computer without being bombarded by ads

Helped my SO fix Sims 4 on her W11 laptop recently; lock screen ads, start menu ads, pre-installed bloatware begging for money

I even asked how she deals with all of that and she basically said “I dunno it just does that, if you can make it stop that'd be nice ig but just get Sims to worl for now”

Needless to say I got Sims 4 to work (removing cachedir did the trick) AND uninstalled the bloatware and turned off ad-related settings

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] gerdesj@lemmy.ml 10 points 5 months ago

I find it amazing that so many distros with volunteers manage to curate a vast software ecosystem, reasonably successfully and yet some of the largest companies on the planet, worth more than $1T each cannot manage to find the resources to do it efficiently.

Imagine firing up a cmd or ps prompt in Windows and tying in: msiexec install adobe-hipster-app and it just works.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] ColdWater@lemmy.ca 35 points 5 months ago

I don't even know how to write "hello world" in python but I use vanilla Arch XD

[-] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 6 points 5 months ago

Same here, I work in the arts and can't code a thing, but I use Arch (btw) as my daily driver.

[-] Epzillon@lemmy.ml 5 points 5 months ago

This goes hard

[-] gerdesj@lemmy.ml 5 points 5 months ago

If I recall correctly Arch has ... ssh into wifey's laptop ... python installed out of the box.

Run up a console and type python, and hit enter. Type in print ("Hello World") and hit enter. There you go!

If you lack a python: $ yay -S python.

[-] Custodian1623@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

Vanilla arch would be pacman -S python 🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] zeroAhead@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

It was my first Linux distro after using Microsoft stuff for ages and let me tell you: it was a big mistake. It was absolutely confusing, had to use terminal for so many things with even msdos commands that I forgot that existed, broke it 3 times by just trying to automount the other drivers and a host of other things.

End up switching to Linux mint and the transition went much smoother after that. I'm going back to it eventually though. I actually like it a lot.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] governorkeagan@lemdro.id 34 points 5 months ago

I’m not sure if this is part of the “frequency illusion”, but I’ve noticed a lot more mainstream media talking about Linux as a viable alternative.

[-] glorious_puffy@lemmy.world 30 points 5 months ago

Probably because you associate more with lemmy, I think most lemmy users use linux

[-] governorkeagan@lemdro.id 11 points 5 months ago

I think Lemmy plays a part in it but also all the stuff with MS recently (and people getting tired of it).

I think most Lemmy users use Linux

I was thinking about this earlier today. I’d love to do a Lemmy wide survey to see how true this is or to what extent.

[-] narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee 9 points 5 months ago

I highly doubt most do, just that the percentage of Linux users may be higher than on many other platforms.

The most used platform for Lemmy is likely still Windows or a mobile OS.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 18 points 5 months ago

It's not, I've been using Linux for 20 years and it's been gradually getting more and more exposure on the main media. I think there was a huge push with Steam Machines and then another one with Proton, then every Windows screw up bumps it a little more. We're probably going to get another bump in popularity in a short while when Windows 11 enables the new feature that will take screenshots of everything you do (credit cards, passwords, etc) and use an AI to search through them.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] glorious_puffy@lemmy.world 15 points 5 months ago

And recent fumbling of msft with recall

[-] RabbitMix 34 points 5 months ago

I can't program, but I only use Linux on both my laptop and desktop. All I really do on my computers is browse the web, light photo/video editing, print the occasional document, organize my photos, and play A LOT of video games. I was dual booting windows for a bit there for the games that won't work on Linux, but I soon discovered that those games weren't really worth dealing with the annoyances I had with windows for how often I actually wanted to play them... except CoD, but I have an Xbox so I just play that there. Deleting my windows partition was a great choice.

[-] vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works 6 points 5 months ago

I am so, so close to doing the same. Still have a small partition carved out for CoD and Windows. I just find myself booting in to it less and less.

Thank goodness MicroVision seems to be keen on continuing to flog that dead horse with a Warzone focus, means I can finally be free.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] FlickeringScreens@lemmy.world 20 points 5 months ago

The most "programming" I can do is make a basic scratch project and print("Hello World!") in python, but linux is great

[-] Entropywins@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

How do you do that in python...

[-] tuhriel@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 5 months ago
print("Hello World")

Save the file as script.py

And then execute it with

python3 script.py

[-] EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

Impressive, you look like a very skilled programmer, management has told me you are now tasked with building a hyper-realistic virtual simulation of a Large Hadron Collider including detailed simulations of the lives of the actual workers and their families, you have a week or you're fired by the firing squad, no you're not allowed to ask why we need it or who we are or why we chose you and it is especially forbidden to ask for more time (and no you can't ask why that is either). See you in a week, have a nice day :).

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] markstos@lemmy.world 19 points 5 months ago

My wife has used Linux for over a decade. She primarily uses a web browser, office suite and a money management app.

Those have all been well-covered by Linux for years.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] Asudox@lemmy.world 17 points 5 months ago

Why is it that people think Linux distros are for programmers or tech people only? This is the reason why we don't get many people on Linux distros.

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 12 points 5 months ago

Because installing a different operating system than the one that came pre installed is a non zero amount of effort.

[-] DNAmaster10@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

I think this here is probably one of the larger reasons. A large portion of users barely know the difference between a browser and a search engine, let alone the operating system they are using, and nor do they care. People just use whatever their computer comes with out of the box. Most people probably couldn't tell you the difference between Windows 11 and a Linux distro customized to look exactly the same.

[-] Petter1@lemm.ee 5 points 5 months ago

Because they live with old news and don’t update tech news knowledge as often as tech savy people do.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] sunoc@sh.itjust.works 15 points 5 months ago

Always love to see article of non programmer people using Linux or Emacs!

[-] lord_ryvan@ttrpg.network 5 points 5 months ago

Meanwhile I'm here still stuck in vim

[-] mfat@lemdro.id 14 points 5 months ago

I'm a video producer and writer, I only use linux.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] eshep@social.trom.tf 8 points 5 months ago

@petsoi Beautifully written perspective; the KDE Activities bit of that was my favorite! Multiple workspaces on a single monitor is probably one of my most advocated features. I'm telling someone about it at least once a week, even if it's just showin em how to use the cut-down one on their windows machine.

[-] darkphotonstudio@beehaw.org 7 points 5 months ago

I'm not a programmer and I've been dual booting for 25 years.

[-] ssm@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I dislike the paradigm that there are "techy people/programmers" and "tech illiterates/non programmers". Anyone can develop the skills to properly use unix interfaces given proper training; and I know that's true because the whole world used to run (mostly) unix on the desktop before corporate took over. Unix doesn't need to be windowsified/macosified to get people to move over; people need to unlearn the interfaces corporate has brainwashed them with for generations. There are so many more interesting user interfaces than just what Windows and MacOS provide; graphical or otherwise.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Sam_Bass@lemmy.ml 7 points 5 months ago

"Workflow". There it is.

[-] FQQD@lemmy.ohaa.xyz 7 points 5 months ago

God I hate what the modern Internet does to my brain. I had to double check if that laptop is AI generated

[-] tombruzzo@lemm.ee 5 points 5 months ago

It's such an old laptop to feature in an article. I even opened the image URL to see if it's one How to Geek just had on file they used. The photo was uploaded last year

[-] Krzd@lemmy.world 5 points 5 months ago

I personally use windows (I play a lot of different games with friends, and setting all of them up in Linux is a lot of work) and I hate it.

However my mum only uses her laptop for browsing and zoom calls, so I installed Linux mint on that and it's been going great, there are soooo much less issues than with modern windows.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2024
353 points (100.0% liked)

Linux

48340 readers
403 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS