Subj : Re: Community
To   : tenser
From : boraxman
Date : Thu Oct 06 2022 00:11:07

 te> I am, but that rather misses the point.  You asserted
 te> that Linux is "niche" and that this is good because it
 te> prevents large corporations from defining it's direction.
 te> 
 te> Perhaps you meant to say, "Linux on the desktop, as used
 te> by me with my preferred distro, is uncommon in my line of
 te> work and among my peers."  That statement may well be
 te> true, but the original argument, that Linux is "niche"
 te> as a prima facie statement is simply incorrect.  Again,
 te> Linux is used everywhere, and again, most Linux development
 te> is done at large corporations.  If someone wants to get
 te> a major feature pushed, it almost has to be done with
 te> corporate sponsorship.  This isn't really a debatable
 te> statement, either; plenty of evidence is readily available,
 te> including the history in the Linux git repository.  Sorted
 te> by domain, the top twenty contributors come mostly from
 te> commercial organizations.  Granted, the #1 _is_ "gmail",
 te> but a) many Linux developers contribute using their personal
 te> email address, and b) the next three entries combined are
 te> nearly double the total number of gmail-using contributors.
 te> 
 te> So this idea that Linux is sort of the "people's OS" and a
 te> quirky obscure niche thing is just not true.
 te> 

Take random people off the street and ask them if they've used Windows, MacOS or Linux, and tell me the result.  Ask them what they use at home, what they know.

Linux won't come up all that often.  
 te> So, first of all, this is a strawman in the context of the original
 te> discussion.  Second of all, lots of people _do_ understand that when
 te> they run an Android device (which, by the way, can be installed on
 te> a desktop; lots of ARM-based devices run Android in that configuration)
 te> they're using Linux, and third of all, so what?  Whether someone
 te> realizes that they're using Linux or not (like the millions of
 te> school kids using chromebooks) that doesn't mean that Linux is niche.
 te> 

Ask those people off the street if they know what kernel Android uses.  If you get more then 20% saying "Linux" I'll eat my underpants.  I'll make it easier, you only have to ask the question to those who have an android phone.

 te> That is entirely subjective, but is also irrelevant to the original
 te> point.  Let's focus on that; I'll say it again: Linux is not
 te> "niche" by any reasonable definition (it runs everywhere; the
 te> average person at this point _probably_ has multiple devices
 te> running Linux in their home whether they realize it or not) and
 te> it is mostly developed by large corporations.
 te> 

This is now just wasting my time.  Do the poll, tell me the results.

Far more people use Linux than they think.  My argument was based on what people chose to use for their computing.

You're either being unnecessarily pedantic, deliberately taking my argument in bad faith, or genuinely not understanding it.

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