this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
908 points (98.4% liked)

Linux

52880 readers
329 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
nooter692@lemmy.ml
AgreeableLandscape@lemmy.ml
MarcellusDrum@lemmy.ml
cypherpunks@lemmy.ml
cyclohexane@lemmy.ml
d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz
908
Linux Desktop Share keeps increasing, 3.13% now. Narrowing the gap to ChromeOs 3.24% (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by Kaped@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml
185 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] CoupleOfConcerns@lemmy.nz 30 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (8 children)

Speaking for myself, but I suspect this applies to a lot of people, the factors that are enabling me to run Linux as my personal computer are:

  1. The browser experience is now on par with other operating systems. For many people, almost everything they do on their computer is through the browser so this is important.
  2. Games now work. Every game I've wanted to play has worked on Linux.
  3. If I want to do word processing or spreadsheeting and I absolutely need the formatting to be correct or want to use the more advanced aspects of Excel, I now have a work device to do those things. This wasn't the case a few years ago, when most people worked on a company desktop machine at work.

Putting that together and subtracting all the annoyances of Windows - nagging notifications, updates that take forever, Windows trying to make my default browser Edge, the greater threat of viruses - why wouldn't I be on Linux? Why wouldn't a lot of people be on Linux?

[–] IndiBrony@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Why wouldn't a lot of people be on Linux?

Because dumb people like me are too scared to leave what we know and have always heard that you need to actually know a thing or two instead of just relying on modern user-"friendly" systems to do it all for you.

[–] Acid@startrek.website 2 points 2 years ago

Well there’s the fact that it’s somewhat true as for example if you use a chromium based browser on Linux hardware acceleration isn’t enabled by default and borderline doesn’t work a lot of the time.

Doesn’t sound so bad till you realise what it does to battery life on a laptop.

I love Linux and we are so close but it’s small things like that, which prevent me getting friends and family to use it consistently.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)