1472
submitted 1 year ago by OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] eochaid@lemmy.world 155 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Enough with the fan wars. Let's be perfectly honest for once. Windows, Linux, MacOS - they all suck. Sometimes in similar ways, sometimes in different ways. But they all suck.

Windows users - I get you, you use it because it sorta works 40%, of the time and sucks in the way you understand.

Linux users - I get you, you know all of the arcane incantations you need to quickly install, update, and troubleshoot your os in a terminal window. It works - once you apply your custom bash script that applies every change you need to get everything exactly how you like it. But again, it sucks in the way you understand.

MacOS users - well I don't really get you. You know what you've done.

We deserve better than this, guys. We deserve an os that just works, is easy to use, easy to configure, doesn't require an IT degree to use, and that we can recommend to our grandma without a second thought.

[-] Boogeyman4325@reddthat.com 26 points 1 year ago

just works, is easy to use, easy to configure, doesn't require an IT degree to use, and that we can recommend to our grandma

TempleOS satisfies all of these conditions

[-] eochaid@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

Okay, this quote from the Wikipedia page made me laugh.

TempleOS received mostly "sympathetic" reviews. Tech journalist David Cassel opined that "programming websites tried to find the necessary patience and understanding to accommodate Davis".

[-] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 23 points 1 year ago

MacOS users - well I don’t really get you. You know what you’ve done.

I laughed hard on this one hahahahaha

[-] MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago
[-] Oz_Collector@aussie.zone 4 points 1 year ago

You know exactly what you did!

I'm not sure, but the statement made me laugh.

Personally, I love that there are so many choices. And, while I don't like Apple products, I'm glad the choice exists, so that people who do like them (like you) are able to enjoy them.

[-] monkey@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

Probably an unpopular opinion on here, but the OS I recommend for grandparents and parents is ChromeOS. It's so locked down that it's almost indestructible, and they almost never need any specialized software that you'd use Windows/MacOS for. If you're savvy enough you can also use Linux on it in a container, which is how I prefer to use it for day to day stuff (in my case, data related workflows).

[-] TurboDiesel@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Yep. I'm in IT, so every time my parents' computer "does something weird," I get a call. Bought them Chromebooks a few Christmases ago and the calls have all but stopped.

[-] eochaid@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

No that's fair. It just assumes that everything you'll ever need is on a browser, which in the case of grandparents, is probably true.

I would just um....never tell them about the Android app store because that can get real messy real quick.

[-] bam13302@ttrpg.network 2 points 8 months ago

As much as i dislike google, chromebooks are perfect for anyone tech illiterate that just need a simple web browser that works. Every family member I've recommended a chromebook to has not needed additional tech support for it, which IMO, is a truly impressive accomplishment on google's behalf.

[-] socsa@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago

Macbooks just make really nice ssh terminals for accessing your Linux dev environment. Though these days there are decent options for Linux terminals with a similar form factor, they just don't tend to be much cheaper.

[-] Asymptote@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 year ago

I think that something like 20% of what's keeping me using Mac is iTerm2's integration with ‘tmux -CC‘

[-] chomskysfave5@lemmy.film 10 points 1 year ago

It kinda felt like you were gonna break into song about the Year of the BSD Desktop for a second there!

[-] gianni@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

macOS is BSD-based—so technically that’s been true for about 22 years

[-] Beliriel@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Originally but afaik they rewrote basically the whole OS over the years and nothing of the original BSD remains. That's what I heard but I never verified.

[-] chomskysfave5@lemmy.film 1 points 1 year ago

It's barely recognizable if you look at it as BSD. People like to say that ChromeOS is not "acktually" Linux, but MacOS is waaayyyyy further from BSD than ChromeOS is to Linux.

[-] gianni@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Look into Darwin BSD and the Mach kernel. Still alive and kicking.

[-] AzPsycho@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

When I worked as a IT Tech at a University years ago we had a lot of MacOS users who believed they could just pick it up and use it like their iPhone. It was absurd how well their marketing worked because those users either forced themselves to learn it or dropped it and went back to Windows.

I know a lot of iOS users who have iPads and iPhones but still have windows PCs because they don't have to worry about compatibility issues.

[-] Fangslash@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I'm one of those guys, IOS phone with windows PC. There really isn't much out there that is as convenient as IOS, but theres no way I would use a Mac, as compatibility issues and more expensive hardware will ultimately hurt functionality.

[-] seananigans@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I know you made a joke about MacOS, but I am genuinely interested with what issue you have of it.

[-] Beliriel@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It sucks in the way you understand and know because nothing else even exists. No one is interested in having to cater to their walled garden unless there's money to be made. Meanwhile both Linux and Windows have many open source projects and hobbyists working on things. So you might get a mac driver for something you buy but most of the time macos is an afterthought at best in many hobby projects. Also lol mac gaming is a joke. Even Linux is getting better support now than macos in that regard since the Steamdeck.

[-] eochaid@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah it was just a joke because I love to piss off the MacOS guys. But its like a brotherly teasing. Like, I love you guys, but I gotta rib you, you know.

I think Apple's biggest sin is that everything works as long as all of your hardware, software, and co-workers have an apple emblazoned on their back. But the moment you have to work with anything or anyone that doesnt use Apple, you have problems. And Apple seems to encourage this because it gets their users to dread working with Windows or Linux users.

The sad thing is that I like a lot of their software. But using their OS is like having Steve Jobs standing over your shoulder and smacking you on the head when you try to shift outside of their intended workflow. I keep running into situations where Windows and Linux would let me go left or right (after finding a hidden and misnamed switch or running a well researched and crafted bash command), and MacOS just put a roadblock on the left because fuck you we said no.

I know that my ideal of a perfect OS is unrealistic. MacOS is more stable because it's more rigid. Windows and Linux prove that the more flexible you are, the harder it is to use. But settling for one option and looking down at everyone who chose different isn't going to help. We should all keep criticising our chosen option and root for others that are criticising their own. Because it seems like Apple, Microsoft, and the Open Source community are all in a rut, safely ignoring basic fucking usage issues because of an implicit assumption that their user base isn't going anywhere.

I live in a mixed OS household. My wife and I both use windows and Apple machines for various purposes (my wife's work requires both, my mac is just for dabbling) and I have some linux boxes for streaming or storage or whatever. And while that gives me the benefits of all three, I also have to deal with the problems of all three. And its a lot, guys. Not to mention they all refuse to work together.

[-] doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

I haven't used macOS in years, so now it might actually be the golden pie in the sky "it just works" OS that Apple's fans have always pretended it was. But Apple's condescending "we know what's best for you" attitude that they take into iOS (and nearly everything else they do) puts me off from giving them a second chance.

[-] vreraan@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

This is a pointless argument even saying that everyone sucks, linux runs worse on the desktop because it doesn't get even 1/10th the investment from consumer hardware manufacturers compared to windows or mac to make it compatible. nevertheless linux is undoubtedly less difficult and more efficient to integrate than windows, for example the steam deck is done very well but it could be done better since KDE, wayland and arch do not have the same number of employees as microsoft.

[-] kyub@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It depends. It could also be a better idea to introduce a sort of "IT driver's license" for everyone to have basic understanding/skills to use their devices. Sure, modern software stacks are ridiculously complex and no one understands every detail down to each machine code/assembly instruction, so there's always a big amount of abstraction or simplification needed, but I don't think it's a good idea to request that someone with literal zero knowledge whatsoever should be able to perfectly use an OS or device. That's also not even possible. I see it with my mother, she started from zero knowledge but she had to learn some basics to be able to do the few things she needs to do. Of course she uses Linux. No prior Windows knowledge means a much easier start with Linux of course. She wouldn't have been able to use Windows either with zero knowledge. So this is a point that some forget: even Windows users need knowledge to be able to use Windows, and they probably already earned that knowledge in much earlier years. This Windows knowledge also works against you building up Linux (or even OS X) knowledge because Windows works quite differently from a Unix-like OS. This is not irrelevant: a Windows user who spent like 30 years in Windows has a much harder time learning Linux, than someone who didn't have that. But, again, not really the fault of Linux that you indoctrinated yourself with Windows-only MS product specific knowledge over the last decades. This is probably the biggest problem there is, because almost everyone on the planet has already acquired some amount of Windows knowledge in the past. This works against you when trying to switch. Windows knowledge is mostly Windows-specific. When learning about IT, you should make sure that you learn things in a preferably OS agnostic way. Which is also the reason why schools etc. should never teach "using MS products". They should always teach fundamentals, irrelevant of what you use afterwards. And those fundamentals should of course not be taught using commercial products, but rather open source software.

Then there are some fantasies which MS and Apple could establish in the broader population which aren't true, for example that CLI/terminal usage is archaic and has no place on modern desktops anymore. CLI usage will always remain as a fast alternative to a lot of tasks which are hard or even impossible to do via GUI. Even MS has realized this and introduced Powershell, a new terminal, and winget, for example. As well as WSL (which was originally and still mostly is being used to have access to powerful Linux-based CLI utilities). Yet still a lot of people seem to think that CLI is obsolete or that it's "hard". Sure, if you do some scripting or complex one-liners, it can be too hard for someone without strong IT knowledge. But most commands are really basic and easy to understand. Even my mother is able to use basic commandline utilities, and she even prefers it sometimes over clicking around in the GUI. To claim that this is impossible or too hard to learn for a Windows user is, I don't know. At least untrue. Probably even an insult to your own intelligence. And the main reason why most Linux users suggest doing things via commandline is that this is an almost distro- and desktop-independent way of doing things.

Also, not a big fan of the "fan" label here. Regardless of whether or not you like Linux (I like Linux as an OS more than Windows, because I think the Unix-way is better, but it's also about so much more), I see a neutral, free/libre open source (FLOSS) operating system as the base for our digital lives as a necessity, and so I see Windows or OS X as intrinsically worse. I don't see it as a kind of war between different products on equal footing. One product denies you any rights and control (and in more recent times, also extracts even more value and data from you than just the price you paid for the license to use it), and one that gives you full rights and control (and pretty much never extracts any more from you). It's not OK that we use our devices for so many things in life nowadays, that all aspects of your life are being done via digital means nowadays, and yet the most popular operating systems are still 100% proprietary black boxes fully controlled by big US companies. This needs to change, and it should have happened a long time ago already. And Linux is simply the most mature and most well supported FLOSS operating system out of all of them. I actually wouldn't care if it would be FreeBSD or OpenBSD or whatever instead, but I see Linux as being the most mature, well-supported and mainstream-viable option here. I only care that it's not a damn black box I don't have any real control over.

We need (almost) everyone on such open technologies like Linux, because the future (or even present) for Windows users looks like this: no control, no privacy (plus AI being trained on your work/data as well), big vulnerability when (not if) MS gets hacked (and they're a huge, juicy target, and we already saw them being compromised twice in the last couple of years), pricey subscription to MS' services which continues to get pricier once you're successfully vendor-locked-in (once all your servers, desktops and data is in MS' cloud, you won't be able to easily leave their services anymore, so they are free to increase prices until it hurts you). Even if you happen to like the offering MS gives you, does that really seem like "the future" of computing to you? To me, that's backwards. Or mainframe history repeating itself. Moving into proprietary clouds with vendor-lock-in only really benefits the cloud provider, which is why they want all users to join the "party".

I'm not a big fan of Stallman in general, but his fundamental propositions e.g. that FLOSS software is intrinsically better than proprietary black boxes, is true. I wonder how long we still need as a society, to arrive at that realization. I assumed that the Snowden revelations as well as the desaster that Windows 10 was for privacy, would have already started a change in thinking about such things. But that probably wasn't enough (strangely). I'm not sure what else would need to happen, but I guess something like first MS shoving all their users into their cloud, and then MS being hacked (again) but this time with malicious auto-updates being pushed to all MS software users as well, impacting tons of businesses. Then, maybe, people will start thinking whether this was such a great idea to begin with to play along with what MS envisioned as the "grand future". Unfortunately I see parallels with the human behavior concerning climate change here as well. It's like we have to first destroy our climate and suffer the consequences, before we realize it's a bad idea and we should do it differently RIGHT NOW. We are just incredibly short-sighted and we only learn AFTER disasters, which were even announced long before. It's tragic.

And for those people who know or think they could start using Linux but still use Windows because it's more "aesthetically pleasing" or whatever else irrelevant aspect they make up to "justify" still staying on that sinking MS ship in 2023, please reconsider your priorities.

[-] eochaid@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Uh huh.

please reconsider your priorities

Ngl, I laughed pretty hard when I saw that you ended your giant rant with this line.

[-] vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 year ago

Let me introduce you to FreeDOS!

[-] akippnn@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

But do they have a varying degrees of suck?

[-] stewie3128@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

The OS I direct the technologically-illiterate to when I don't plan on supporting it myself is invariably iOS. Boomers don't need anything more anyway.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

ReactOS is promising.

[-] AlternActive@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Havent had issues with my Windows PC in years. I dont have time to deal with linux stuff at this ppint in my life but used to play with it as a teen.

[-] gamma@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago

My Linux review: 10/10, would recommend, but would not install for someone and let them use it for the next 5 years.

[-] eochaid@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I guarantee you've had "problems" but you're so used to Windows now that you have the muscle memory to deal with it without thinking much about it.

Using all three in my household kinda highlighted for me how much I was just ignoring or working around the ugliness of Windows every single day.

[-] AlternActive@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Sure thing buddy. I'll say it again: no issues at all in ages.

[-] unwantedpamphlet@mastodon.social -4 points 1 year ago

@eochaid @OsrsNeedsF2P yeah… I’m sorry but that’s like saying all screwdrivers suck. If you don’t take the time to learn how to use a tool you will always have a negative experience using said tool. You are never going to find an advanced technology that’s been dumbed down to the point where you can’t break it.

[-] eochaid@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Except that there's a ton of actual competition in the screwdriver market that has forced innovation and improved screwdriver functionality that it is essentially "solved".

Even cheap screwdrivers are easy to use and will do the job, they just might break after a few years. Expensive screwdrivers add extra features and are built to a higher quality. You can absolutely look up reviews and find "the best" screwdriver.

You also don't need to learn to use a screwdriver. They're all built to be self explanatory. If they have advanced features that need explaining, they'll include a manual that explains each feature at a high school reading level because that's their target market.

Also, there is no locked in loyalty to screwdriver brands. If a brand releases a shit driver, they'll get roasted. If a new contender puts out a screwdriver that's better than the rest, tradespeople will flock to it.

I would love it for OSes to be treated like screwdrivers are.

this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
1472 points (95.7% liked)

Linux

48654 readers
431 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