You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments
148 points

#1 is just not being the default for 99% of devices. If someone gets a new computer, why would they go through the effort of installing a new os when the one it comes with works fine? Hell, I bet at least 50% of people in the market for a pc don’t even know what an OS is.

permalink
report
reply
44 points

Agreed. Android and chrome os are used happily by 10s of millions without any idea it’s a Linux distro

permalink
report
parent
reply
15 points

Which actually means Linux is being successfully adopted by the general public in a similar way to windows as a general use system that doesn’t require a lot of technical knowledge.

Fully customizable distress will never be popular with the general public. They want systems that just do the general stuff and have it work automatically.

permalink
report
parent
reply
27 points

I bet if small, cheap netbooks came out running mint or fedora or something people wouldn’t even or know or care that it was Linux.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Indeed, many Netbooks come with a firmware dual boot. Besides the crappy Windows lite edition, there’s a tiny instant-on Linux too. Most people don’t use that, but it’s there.

permalink
report
parent
reply

In middle school I had a USB drive with Linux Mint installed on it which I was using on school PCs. We only used those PCs for internet browsing and office. Not a single soul noticed it wasn’t Windows. Teacher only noticed 2 differences, “You have different version of Office installed here.” and also gave me a note for “Changing wallpaper” which was strictly prohibited for some reason.

permalink
report
parent
reply
12 points

So… the Steamdeck?

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Indeed, many Netbooks come with a firmware dual boot. Besides the crappy Windows lite edition, there’s a tiny instant-on Linux too. Most people don’t use that, but it’s there.

permalink
report
parent
reply
16 points

Of course they know what an OS is. There’s only two of them: Apple and Microsoft.

permalink
report
parent
reply
12 points

I bet at least 50% of people in the market for a pc don’t even know what an OS is.

70%*

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

my first thought actually pointed to common OS on work devices, being Windows i’d assume a majority of the time, i’d imagine a large portion of the older population were introduced to computers in a workplace setting. But your answer makes a bit more sense.

permalink
report
parent
reply

Linux

!linux@lemmy.ml

Create post

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

  • Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
  • No misinformation
  • No NSFW content
  • No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

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

Community stats

  • 7.5K

    Monthly active users

  • 6.6K

    Posts

  • 179K

    Comments