Or users could maybe learn how to do things without having their hands held and treated like babies every step of the way; or at least how to search for information to find what they need... 🤷🏻♂️
this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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They could. But you and I both know they won't because most people don't care about anything beyond 'make the magic box work so I can do my job / play my game / etc.'
Because we keep feeding them stupid pills and encouraging them not to think. Microsoft was a pioneer of the whole "water down software and call it user-frienfly'" thing.
That's not it at all. You don't think accountants who juggle numbers and Excel formulas all day couldn't learn? Lawyers whose entire job involves absorbing and filtering vast amounts of information? Doctors who diagnose machines that are far more complex than computers (people)? Of course they could; I worked around these people in IT for 20 years, I can tell you that despite how stupid these folks seem around computers they feel the same way about your capabilities in their field of expertise, only they don't have the arrogance to assume that everyone should learn to be a mechanical engineer or dentist in order to understand their job.
What they are is too busy doing other shit that they care more about. They don't have the time or interest to be farting around with a computer to do anything more than the absolute minimum requirements needed to do the shit they actually care about. Human society functions because people specialize, and people who don't specialize in making computers go just don't care enough about them as anything other than as a tool and maybe an occasional source of entertainment to waste their time learning. Just like you don't waste your time learning about how to run a nuclear power plant.
And I say this as someone who used to love tinkering with computers, turned it into a career, and slowly grew to hate it (never turn your hobby into a career if you want to keep that hobby.) I too no longer care about optimizing or fiddling or tweaking, I just want the magic box to work so I can do the stuff I care about (writing, gaming, etc.)
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Yeah I love linux, but it's user experience , while light years ahead of what I used in the late nineties and early aughts, is still clunky compared to others.
That being said, honestly most of linux's issues are GUI related, when it comes to going mainstream. The capabilities and efficiency are far ahead of windows and mac os but most users don't care.
Directions, examples and mundane work should all be seamless for mainstream consumers.
A good rule of thumb is, " if a user has to look for it to fix it, or open a terminal window to install software, then it won't be accepted fully.
Mainstream users don't want to type commands in a prompt. Why does everyone think windows blew DOS out of the water in sales? It wasn't because DOS wasn't working. It was, hell early windows ( I started on 3.11 so that's my limit of knowledge ) still used DOS.
So bottom line. Start putting the non tech consumer first or we'll forever be stuck in this "almost mainstream" category forever.
I don’t see them as mutually exclusive - can’t Linux be user friendly for the non-techie while also offering a techie lots of flexibility and command-line joy? 🤷♂️
They can and should. But they don't. They really only cater to the techie, because that's who uses it
Then they got pissed when their "marketing" efforts fall shorts.
Stop acting like non Linux users are dumb. They aren't. they've used the time others spent learning other thing, while others spent their time on techie things . Their priorities were different. Or maybe their poor and don't care about that as they need a PC but have to work 80 hours to feed their family.
But no. Instead of making life better through foss for those who need it, you're making Linux some unattainable nerd toy.
We can tell ourselves we don't care. But we do. Or the thread wouldn't be here
I agree. It’s not constructive to call non-techies “dumb.” Nor is it helpful to demand they”just” spend 30 min searching for solutions online. If you love tech, this is worthwhile - if you’re, say, a rights activist you’d rather spend that time reading an important report or meeting with people to advance your work; if you’re a retiree with limited means, then it might be overwhelming to “just go online”; and if you’re a musician working on an album, why should you need to spend time on tech when you could be spending that time mixing? I see examples of Linux becoming pretty user friendly compared to days of yore (eg Mint, Ubuntu), but has that improvement somehow compromised the techie side of Linux?
Idk mainstream users should learn to learn and empower themselves with knowledge.
The enshitification of hardware and software by constantly catering to the dumbest of people is hurting everybody.
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My concern is we are solving a wrong problem from the beginning.
GNU/Linux is an OS designed by hackers for hackers(at least in my age). The target users should be admin, not end users like grandma. That's why Linux desktop is never mainstream despite our community put so much effort on the user experience (but the effort has not wasted)
Before you yell at me, on the other hand, android (shipped with Linux kernel) has a great success because it's dummy proof design. Even a 2 years old can mess around tablets by his/her own. We can invent million theories, argue and hate each other all days. But there is only one fact. The fact is that mainstream users enjoy the fruit of open source is brought by Android from tablets. Unfortunately, tablets' gui toolkit is dominated by big corps.
When do we start to put focus on gui toolkit for tablets? We did try, but far away than enough. When do we able to admit new generation use tablets way more than desktop? Seeing the open source communities keep heading the wrong direction make me sad.