Just sharing this really well produced video on Linux’s public perception (since this channel has suprisingly not a lot of subscribers)
I remember a post on reddit asking for a SteamDeck alternative because SteamDeck uses Linux, the guy never used the SteamDeck or Linux before… The way media treats Linux is really fucking important, maybe if Linux was from a big player like Android is from Google, people wouldn’t make such a fuss about it.
honestly the biggest problem with the media is. Linux represents the very thing corporate culture in those media empires just can’t fathom. the idea of cooperation for the greater good that Linux represents and not being 100% profit motivated. They just don’t get it and worse they see it as a threat. Microsoft can be a competitor to them but the idea of open source is a competitor to the whole system and that is a far greater threat to the people on top.
Doesn’t stop people from using Android.
The problem is that the Linux brand is tarnished by the Linux product. If you are making something for consumers, don’t use the word Linux.
In what way? Why? I’m not saying there aren’t hurdles. Like familiarity to get around. But for 90% of people and if they bought a piece of hardware designed to run Linux. It would fulfill their needs 100% of the time with very little problem.
Mainly falling apart around things like hardcore gamers. Which again are pretty Niche themselves as most gamers are on Console these days.
But they don’t know that. They only know “Linux is complicated nerd stuff”.
It’s about brand.
You may be echo chambering there a bit. Places like this many of us are pretty tech literate at a minimum. Go out on the street and ask random people their opinions. The answer you’re most likely to get back is “What?” Most have no knowledge or opinion unless they’re an acquaintance with someone who uses it. And even then it’s probably misleading or outdated.
Outside groups like us I’d hazard there is little brand let alone brand image issue. Though I’m open to being wrong.
Well, steam deck os is from valve, a big player.
The majority of users don’t make any fuss about it.
Steam OS is but part of the media as shown in the video, just call it Linux and Linux itself does not come from Valve.
Technically, the Nintendo Switch uses Linux, and Android is Linux, so its kind of absurd the pushback Steamdecks are getting from these people. They aren’t afraid of Linux; They are afraid of the posibility of running a terminal and interacting with a Desktop Environment that isn’t Windows or MacOS. Doesn’t make any sense.
It comes from valve as much as anyone. No distribution Developers actually develop Linux themselves in the same way Microsoft develops windows. Or to an extent the way Apple is building on top of BSD these days.
Linux comes from valve as much as it comes from Debian or Ubuntu, Arch and Redhat. Valve compiles their kernel the same as all the others do. So it’s no less Linux than any other Linux distribution is. And frankly with the work valve do on proton etc. They actually contribute a lot more to the underpinnings of the Linux ecosystem than most other distributions do.
This is, sadly, accurate. Telling someone to use an OS/platform that isn’t connected with a brand they recognise seems to send many people into a tailspin.
I’ll refrain from the obvious “They Live” cynicism…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXJI-G7ulsg
For those who got an immediate ear worm.
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Android is practically Linux (but is not GNU/Linux, somebody post the Stallman rant)
Yeah and no one puts Linux as downside in reviews for a new android smartphone.
Well most people don’t notice, and that is frankly a good thing. I care what kernel my phone is running, but I’m a fucking nerd.
I haven’t checked, but I bet iPhones are running Darwin, which is more Unix than Linux is
It is very well produced but there is very little actual content. He kept showing the same clips and saying the same thing over and over.
Bottom line is “in Steam Deck reviews, media is claiming Linux is complex without any proof or example.” You don’t need 5 full minutes to say that.
Youtube in a nutshell
windows is a pain in my glass
pane
FTFY
I agree with most of it. But Linux can just be a pain, and is not always obvious. Specially if you have no real knowledge of Linux and just wat to use it like Macos or windows. I would say it just is not a drop in replacement. Just starting out and choosing a distro can be overwhelming
This is sort of a self fulfilling prophecy Cause Linux is confusing because it’s not used enough for people to make more user friendly applications
I’d say just bite the bullet and hope for a better future
exactly, i read histories from 2004, and was midbloggling how a pain linux was, today is 1000x easier lmao, and each day it’s becomening better, more companies are growing because of it(system76, tuxego, valve) more money flowing in, hell we hit 4% market lmao
Nah, Linux is confusing because it’s software. I have a well-paying job in large part because Windows and macOS are confusing as hell, too.
linux at least gives you the information you need to slowly untangle things, sure you’ll be presented with a screen of inscrutable text, but you can just search that text online and get results that you can make sense of
meanwhile with other OSes they just say “there was a problem” and you have no earthly clue what the fuck the actual issue is, if there even is one and the OS isn’t just being spiteful
100%
And then you find a tread of a dozen people apl having exactly the same obscure problem, with the only advice being “update drivers”.
Can you tell us what you find difficult while using Linux? (After the installation).
PS: Not a rhetoric. Just trying to understand the friction.
Just annoying things like missing video codecs in fedora. Why the heck do I have to install something just to watch a video online?! Or the fingerprint reader in Ubuntu only works for the one session, after that it forgets all my prints again. Or using proton and missing dx11 drivers in pop os, I know they are crappy Microsoft software, but are required for some games. Or that Ableton, fusion360, affinity are not available for Linux. I know it’s not Linux fault, we need big companies to invest in Linux in order for it to gain more traction. Or all the package managers. Which should I use? Snap comes with Ubuntu but people say it’s bad and flat pack is better. Or that there is no sound output selection or mixer in the gnome top bar, I need to install an gnome addon for that. There are just little things compared to Mac or windows that Linux is missing or has difficulty with. Don’t get me wrong, I use Linux full time on my laptop now and try to move to Linux on my desktop as well. Those are just things that tech savvy people would struggle with, and I can’t blame them form calling Linux difficult then
Why the heck do I have to install something just to watch a video online?
MPEG-LA licensing or the legal hell of USA-based organisations is a risk to small projects like Fedora, so where possible they cut the risk and lay it on users decision to use propriatory licenses.
At least that is how I understood it. I don’t know how Arch Linux and Debian (i.e. pacman and APT) don’t have that problem.
Uugh I’m so sick of proprietory licenses and software… all this licensing shit… I’m just fed up
Part of the problem also has to do with corporate-backed distros. Fully community-driven distros don’t suffer from that nearly as much, if at all.
I like Fedora, but stuff like that makes me worry about how it’s going to be as time goes on.
This is why I’d steer clear from Fedora. Even as an experienced user, it’s quite a pain to setup.
I’d go with Linux Mint instead.
I use Ubuntu at the moment. Where are the differences?
More comtrol on how you want to install your packages.
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If you try to run Windows on a system it was not designed for or that was not designed for it you will have a worse time. If you go out and buy a system designed to be compatible with and run Linux. You will have to work real hard to have issues. About the worst you’ll get is some proprietary software that you may or may not be able to replace doesn’t support it. Which is not a Linux problem itself. Or some Niche game uses some anti cheat system that supports Linux but the developers specifically chose not to support. Again not a Linux problem.
Honestly about the biggest complaint I get for my parents whom I’ve largely switched over on compatible systems. Is it my father can’t install the latest malware some random site was advertising to him.
This is a really good point - us “believers” probably don’t glance at the negativity because we know it’s (generally) incorrect, but how others perceive it can be hard to convince if all they read is negativity.
Consider that most people know a laptop runs an OS, so they can distinguish “Dell” from “Microsoft”, so I’m often baffled why people stuggled when moving from WinXP to Vista / 7 (ie a whole new experience… and often asking where to get a hacked version for free), but when I suggest putting <insert distro here> then they run away.
Btw, is there something like fwupd, except to install drivers fitting your hardware, install packages and config for video acceleration, etc?
Not quite the same thing, but
nixos-hardware
has community-support configs for non-self-built machines (namely notebooks & SBCs) as well as some generic configurations you can import for CPUs & GPUs. These tend to fix quirks or enable hardware that may have been seen as optional.
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