• @kernelle
    link
    11 year ago

    Exactly, I’m not saying it’s a good or bad thing the general public only knows of two flavours but Linux doesn’t even cross their minds.

    Also, you vastly overestimate the technical skills and the want thereof of the general public. I can assure you people struggle even with Windows like you wouldn’t believe, where opening a terminal window breaks their collective minds.

    ChromeOS, tablets and certain smartphones have the ability to replace laptops, all running a variation on the linux kernel, but that’s the closest we’re ever going to get to mainstream Linux.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      31 year ago

      I dont think I overestimate peoples technical skills. Just a week ago I had to explain to my university lecturer how to mirror screens and the concept of having multiple screens was just as new as using them for the same thing at once. Thing is that the design for a lot of functions is the same in linux and windows. Some examples: Search menu, right click, desktop, files, drag and drop, task bar and its widgets and application shortcuts. Sure there are many differences too but I would argue that using some sort of app store is easier than finding an executable online. What I want to say is: For very basic usage like using a web browser or searching files you will have the same or very simila patterns between OSs.

      • @kernelle
        link
        11 year ago

        Oh yeah I agree with everything you said. But unless laptops start shipping with a fully open-source Linux distro, you will never see a technically illiterate person use one.

        The only significant change within OS distribution in the last 10 years was the rise of ChromeOS, and that’s only because of Google making sure they are dirt cheap and marketing the ever-loving shit out of them.