this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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Linux
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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.
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ah, i see now. it's more about things just working and it being right there
even what distro to choose is already a thing people have to actively research. most people are more interested in just having the thing simply work, than they are having it work in a way that they've customized, if that road takes more than minimal effort. i think that the divide is actively growing now, and that the easy access of smartphones and most apps not having much customization is probably part of it.
Things on Windows and Mac rarely just work, especially when you're talking about kernel extensions. In fact, one of the first things you do when troubleshooting a Mac is to start up without extensions by holding the shift key.
And this is almost entirely the fault of the hardware manufacturers. They could write drivers for Linux that would work as well as their drivers for Windows. They don't do it, so amateurs have to reverse engineer the hardware and try their best to get it to work.
If, like with Mac and Windows, hardware manufacturers offered actual support for Linux you would not see these issues. The problem isn't with Linux, it's with the hardware makers.
I will agree that smartphones have made people know less about how computers actually work while increasing usage. And this is because they've obfuscated things to the point where they "simply work" with "minimal effort." Maybe we should stop doing that.