Subj : Re: Windows vs Linux
To   : boraxman
From : tenser
Date : Thu Apr 21 2022 03:37:26

On 20 Apr 2022 at 07:33p, boraxman pondered and said...
 
 bo> The real value proposition with Linux, is configuration and the ability
 bo> to mould your computing environment as you wish it to be.  Ease of use
 bo> is not one of them, and shouldn't be.

This is just wrong.

The value of Linux is that it's a highly configurable kernel
that can run just about everywhere and drive just about any
hardware you may care to throw at it.  It's used everywhere
from the world's fastest supercomputers to cell phones and
thermostats.  It presents a highly capable kernel interface
that provides useful services to user-space programs; it can
be parameterized with a number of filesystems, schedulers,
memory management policies, etc.  In other words, it is a
flexible toolkit for building useful things.

People lose sight of the idea that computers are tools.  For
most people that means using them to do useful work.  When
those tools are overly complex, users are inhibited from doing
what they really want with the computer.  Scientists working on
climate models aren't dumb; they just aren't interested in the
minutia of futzing with the computer.  They'd rather just get
their HPC jobs running.  And most of them could care less about
window managers and shells and garbage like that; they want to
visualize the results and not sweat the small stuff.  Those use
cases are important, and claiming that efforts to make systems
more user-friendly are "dumbing down" computing are misguided at
best and frankly facile and reek of elitist snobbery.

 bo> Efforts to take Linux mainstream are misguided.  Ferrari sells cars
 bo> precisely because they DON'T compete with Toyota, Nissan and Mazda. 

Ferrari makes money on the margins; the others make it on volume.
The nifty thing about Linux is that it does both, though it's
imperfect.

 bo> They understand their market.  Linux devs seem to not understand their
 bo> market.  They seem to think it more important that "mom" uses it, than
 bo> those that actually want the freedom and technical capabilities it
 bo> provides.

Mom's have been using Linux on cell phones for a decade perfectly
capably, similarly with kids using Chromebooks and people who just
want to set the temperature in their home or watch a movie on an
airplane.  Linux developers understand this very well.

They also understand that Linux actually runs on a small fraction
of the overall computer and that almost no one has the "freedom"
to actually see into the rest.

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