Subj : Re: Windows vs Linux
To   : Arelor
From : boraxman
Date : Thu Apr 21 2022 22:45:32

 Ar>  > Efforts to take Linux mainstream are misguided.  Ferrari sells cars
 Ar>  > precisely because they DON'T compete with Toyota, Nissan and Mazda.  Th
 Ar>  > understand their market.  Linux devs seem to not understand their marke
 Ar>  > They seem to think it more important that "mom" uses it, than those tha
 Ar>  > actually want the freedom and technical capabilities it provides.
 Ar> 
 Ar> I agree that trying to turn a given tool into something it isn't is most
 Ar> often a bad idea. You see this with many non-technological products: they
 Ar> have a small loyal userbase, and they change the product to attract a
 Ar> different sort of user. The end result is that the old users get angry
 Ar> and the new users don't like the modified product anyway.
 Ar> 
 Ar> People who likes Windows is going to use Windows. There is no way Linux
 Ar> can be a better Windows than Windows. What Linux can do is to become a
 Ar> better Linux.
 Ar> 
 Ar> I like the smaller BSD projects because they don't want to be something
 Ar> else. They want to be BSDs and to hell with everything else. Sometimes
 Ar> it is hard because some FOSS program starts depending on Linuxisms, but
 Ar> the BSD position is that if some FOSS program becomes Linux-only and
 Ar> won't accept patches to run on any other system, it is better to give it
 Ar> the boot than to try to make the BSD into a Linux copycat full of
 Ar> Linuxisms just so third party software can run.
 Ar> 

I was tempted to put BSD on my Laptop, but ended up with Debian because of hardware and software support.  I'm still open to BSD.

People complain that Linux has too many gui options, toolkits, too many choices, but this is the strength.  You can build a system to work how you want it, and I can build one that looks completely different to you, fundamental different, and we can still share software and an underlying Unix base.  Even when GNOME do something silly like with GNOME 3, you can avoid their "take it or leave it" attitude without having to move house.

Linux won't compete with Windows, and will always be a second rate copy.  Getting people to use "Free Software" isn't that important, not if the software doesn't give users the lived experience of being free.  A Linux locked down, where you have fewer choices, doesn't give you freedom, regardless of what the license says.

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