I have used MS for years and also interacting with linux based server systems daily. I do stick with windows, but I also disable most of AI related features (I used auto captioning in some cases). While I use AI daily it is a local sandboxed instance. I think they should focus on other areas, but every tech company is FOMO on AI.
Finally converted the last computer in my house from Windows to Linux. My wife was the last holdout and she's been loving her Linux machine.
Like apparently everyone else, I moved to Linux Mint and have been loving it! It really is easy to use, but I've also realized that my technical knowledge is at a point where I really don't need it to be easy. Like, I've always considered myself kinda tech illiterate in comparison to the people I'm around (I'm a software engineer who specializes in JavaScript/React, but I'm around Rust devs and people who set up docker containers for fun) but apparently just being comfortable using the console is far above what the average user will do. I think there was an xkcd about this kind of phenomenon
I just tried out the long term service branch option, which is fine for now.
yess, that's exactly the one I had in mind!
This is the absolutely perfect way to describe what it's like listening to Linux fans give advice to newcomers.
Eh. I installed Linux Mint this weekend because I was sick of Microsoft's bullshit and I had to connect my PC to my router with an Ethernet cable to install a driver for my wifi adapter from the terminal. I am quite tech savvy and was very comfortable with this whole process and it took no time at all, but my wife who knows barely anything about computers would have probably given up the moment the Internet didn't work when Mint installed. Most people use routers that they rent for too much money from their ISPs and don't even know you can plug shit into the backs of those routers yourself. The moment the wifi doesn't work on the new OS even though the password is right, it's game over for their ability to troubleshoot it. That is why Linux won't get normies on it anytime soon. After that my experience has been extremely smooth and I have been able to do anything I've wanted to do without touching the terminal (although I prefer terminal commands), but that initial hurdle is just way too much to expect from the average person who just wants to get on Netflix and Facebook asap.
I'm not a computer person at all and the most I did with my Windows laptop was gently prodding the drivers to fix themselves. I have experience with basic C++ and Javascript but thats back when I was in high school and I was never really good at it. I would love to move to Linux but honestly yeah the hurdle seems too big. The thought of rendering my laptop unusable for a few days and fucking it up even further to the point of no takesies backsies scares me.
But oh well, I need to save up for a new laptop first before worrying about these things lol
Por que no los dos? Dual boot until you're comfortable, or as a fail safe for yourself.
Yeah, the average user doesn't want to do scary console shit. Linux won't replace windows until people don't need to type console commands.
Which is kinda sad. The console always feels like a more precise way to deal with a problem. So it's like people are saying "Using a mouse is too scary, I'd rather use a WiiMote while wearing mittens"
People don't need to type console commands. They're just the easiest way to tell someone how to do something in text.
Every computer on every operating system, will inevitably face an issue of some kind at some point. Something you need to troubleshoot.
And if 100% of the troubleshooting is to copy/paste commands into terminal? Yeah. It IS necessary to type things into terminal.
This isn't a case of "Terminal is the easy way, but you can find help tutorials using the GUI."
This is a case of every tutorial is "copy/paste these commands into your terminal, and if something goes wrong you better know what the errors are even saying"
So when a non techie sees "python error", their reaction will be "THERE ARE SNAKES INSIDE MY PC??? THEY'RE CAUSING ERRORS!!!"
Some of my favourite ones from trying to learn this new system include:
invalid argumentUh... I just typed in a magic incantation that takes up two lines on this text thing.
Which. Fucking. One!?
no such file or directoryThe final three words above apply here too. I got this one because a file I downloaded that was supposed to do something had ...insert long string of technobabble from SO that included the word shahbang, I swear! It took him over ten minutes to find whatever all the treknobabble he uttered meant and then half a second to fix.
So it's not even fear that's at issue. It's blank incomprehension when the error message is about as useful as those dummy lights in '80s-era cars that just said "ENGINE".
It's more than that, too. Even when there are GUI things (like the network manager in my system now) the GUIs are badly designed (because it turns out that UX design is an actual, learnable, technical field!), and, further, inconsistent from one piece to another so there's little in the way of shared learning. When you learn one of these little GUI utilities you've learned ... that one ... GUI ... utility.
At that point you might as well be typing stuff like ls -laR ~/Documents | awk '{print $9}' | grep -v '^\.' | xargs -I{} file {} | grep -i 'ascii\|unicode\|utf' | cut -d: -f1 | xargs -I{} sh -c 'head -n 5 "{}" | nl -ba -s": " | sed "s/^/$(basename {}): /"' | less -N
(Fake command line supplied by long-suffering SO who got a kick out of making something incredibly stupid.)
I'm glad you've had a good go of it. I've been very unimpressed with Linux Mint. I expected it to be fiddly, I didn't expect it to just...not work out of the box. Like freezing up on the initial screens as part of the welcome tour? Baked in features like linking up with Google drive just...not working? Losing sound in games when messaged on discord, the de facto standard for side by side gaming audio? And all of these issues reported multiple times in multiple forums, with like 8 different solutions proposed depending on who you asked, with a healthy amount of "well that's not a problem, it must be your machine's fault" when it's happening to multiple people?
I fixed some of the issues after serious googling, and I'll get it working fully eventually, but I could never in a million years recommend it to someone unless they shared my desire to go mostly open source with high privacy, or were very tech-savvy. I even thought it would be a scenario like, I play admin and get things set up, then can hand off a working computer to my wife or daughter. Not a chance for the wife, and we are going to really need to keep leaning into programming for the kiddo. Maybe she'll be a tech whiz who likes fixing things, but if she needs something reliable for school some day it'll be a Chromebook or (gross) a Mac.
It's customizable as hell, it's free and open-source, and it's helping my computer skills, so I'll keep going with it for sure. But if I didn't love learning and problem solving and simultaneously have HUGE issues with privacy and Windows whole direction... I can't imagine sticking with it.
Linux is written by doctors? It's all in your head, mate!
I had the same impression with Mint and it was the one my distro research led me to believe I would be the happiest with. I think my first mistake was using current generation parts for my build so I couldn't get the GPU drivers to load or the monitor settings to detect properly. After troubleshooting for several hours and totally breaking my system at least twice messing with xorg.conf, I updated the linux kernel and that finally fixed it. A week later I realized I was spending 2-3 hours of troubleshooting for every hour of gaming or basic use and I finally made the switch to Fedora 43 Workstation.
Now everything works like I needed it to and I have been installing what I want to use with no more hanging, crashing, or horrendous screen tearing since v-sync doesn't seem to work very well on X11. My takeaway is that Mint is probably ideal for older hardware but it definitely was a chore to make it happy with an RX 9060 XT and newer stuff which isn't supported by the default kernel. My use case was more gaming oriented so YMMV.
I've been ~~here~~ improving the whole time
FTFY
It's probably been good enough for non-gamers for ages. There have been a number of attempts to make wine personable enough to run games for the average user. I think Valve finally nailed it.
Now we just need enough marketshare to break through the kernel game protection bullshit and for Adobe/Autodesk to get on board.
It's a reference to Game Changer.
i need to go back and watch that
Man MS,…
-W8=> dude, we just want an OS that works
-Voice commands=> please don’t give hackers that kind of acces through our speakers
-Vista=> just fkn work already
-Onedrive all over the place=> nope
-365=> no thx
When will these assholes learn? If this is the straw that breaks multiple camels then good.
Windows users want a menu button in the lower left corner and shit to work after a short installer. How the fuck do you keep messing that up?
🐧
Windows users want a menu button in the lower left corner and shit to work after a short installer. How the fuck do you keep messing that up?
Capitalists are literally Mt Krabbs:
"Squidward! New rule! All customers must fill in this survey about the details of their day before they order!" Drops a giant stack of papers on the counter
Squidward sighs "Why are we doing this?"
"Because then I can sell their information for more MONEY! Hyukukukukuk!"
I‘ve switched to Linux mint. 95% of my time I am using it instead of Windows and this is just because of that stupid kernel anti cheat software…
Moved 5 home PCs from Win10 to either Mint or Bazzite this year. No complaints from the family; we'll not be going back to M$.
I used windows 11 for too damn long before switching to Mint. I feel like I already damned myself.
There’s nothing I do with my home computer that warrants that AI is integrated to the OS. I browse the web. Play games. Occasionally I work on some personal projects.
I can never see myself say ” Hey Cortana! I want to play Megabonk!”. I see much less reason for the OS to constantly record everything I do to do this.
Please don’t shove AI down my throat.
Huge numbers of Windows users are refusing to upgrade to Windows 11 -- and many of them are citing its AI features as the reason why.
Spoiler: They're not. They're postponing. Eventually, they'll almost all give in to the bullying :(
"We did it, Patrick! We made a technological breakthrough!"
A place for all those who loathe AI to discuss things, post articles, and ridicule the AI hype. Proud supporter of working people. And proud booer of SXSW 2024.
AI, in this case, refers to LLMs, GPT technology, and anything listed as "AI" meant to increase market valuations.