Wait … is there a perception (or reality?) that most Linux users are programmers?
I’m an introvert, but all programmers I know use Windows (and badly in the sense they aren’t power users).
That’s a logical fallacy, all dogs are animals does not imply that all animals are dogs. Even if all programmers you know use Windows that could still mean that all Linux users are programmers.
That being said several relatives use Linux because I refused to help with IT unless they had Linux, and since then they mostly hadn’t needed IT support. So it’s not true that all Linux users are programmers, but a good percentage of us are.
I was not explaining my logic nor my beliefs, just describing my smol sample (introvert!), as a btw fun fact.
But I was under the impression that there is no distinguishable difference between which OSs use programmes vs non-programmers (and the other way around).
Perhaps bcs I fail to se any specific connection between the two. But yes, my logic would be that both types use and are used by both to roughly the same extent.(Haha, exactly same experience with relatives - forced them on Linux, never had anything non-trivial to fix since then.)
I’m a programmer! I use Linux and Windows. In fact, I’m now in my second job in a Microsoft shop (and no, neither were/are .NET…). And I’ve had exactly zero jobs where I was issued or allowed to use a Linux machine.
allowed
Yeah, wtf, what did Linux ever do to
the great furry communitysys admins?Our group is still fully on Windows all the things (except like two virtual servers), desktops all run W10.
I will again plead in this years strategy to not upgrade to W11, if for nothing else ‘moral reasons’.
I’ll be the only one tho.
I would want to « force » my relatives to use Linux. My wife had an unsupported MacBook Pro from 2012, so I managed to convince her it would be safer to switch. Since then, she hasn’t used macOS, but she also hasn’t used Linux because she can use her work provided windows laptop 😅
I also proposed to my mom to provide IT support remotely to her via Linux, but she prefers using windows and relying on an old friend who is forcing her to buy a lot of Microsoft products otherwise he refuses to help her.
I hope I’ll at least be able to teach my kids that Linux ain’t scary 🙏
In addition to the perception that you have to be “good at computers” (aka a programmer) to use Linux, in my experience a lot of Linux media outlets (websites, YT channels, podcasts, etc) tend to be heavy on advanced features and tools without much explanation in layman’s terms and tend to be geared towards an IT professional/hobbyist audience, which can reinforce that stereotype among those (like me) who are not.
Yeah, this explanation makes the most sense to me.
Just a generalisation that “good at computers” is a programmer. So no Apple programmers :P (joking ofc)
Linux use among devs is much higher than gen pop.
https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2023/#section-most-popular-technologies-operating-system
Keep in mind, this adds up to more than 100% because it wasn’t an exclusive choice question, it was multiple.
note if you sum up the linux distros here (excluding ChromeOS) you get 58,4% for personal use and 54,54% for professional use (of course keep in mind that there’s some godless bastards who dual boot 2 linux distros that could skew these statistics).
Also note how that implies Linux is the most popular OS for professional use.
Anyways, I wish these stats wouldn’t split Linux into distros, at least not by default. Linux distros are mostly the same and you’re still using (GNU*/)Linux splitting it makes it seem less popular tan it actually is.
*unless you’re using something like Alpine ig
Except it wasn’t an exclusive choice question, it was multi-selection. So you could choose more than one OS (or distro). So this really doesn’t give much of an idea what the main OS is that people use. But it’s still going to be way higher than general users.
duh, still a useful statistic IMO
Most of the programmers I know (including myself) use Linux or BSD, but that all depends on who you associate with. A lot of companies are purely Windows shops and others just throw their programmers mac books and call it a day. At my last company I was only briefly allowed to use Linux until they decided it was no good as I couldn’t use whatever resource intensive corporate garbage security software of the year they bought.
I’m also not a programmer but here’s why Linux is my daily driver:
I like it.
Gnome is so much more cozy than windows
KDE Plasma is so much more snappy and functional than Windows. Linux has lots of good options.
cinnamon is so uhh default in Linux Mint and i like it
I love the diversity in this thread
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I have no formal tech background, but I’m pretty damn good with it. And I like Arch and Debian with XFCE.
I feel like Linux would be easier to pick up and use for a non power user starting from scratch like my mother-in-law. It’s so much easier to download programs with the package manager and settings are so much easier to navigate
I find it amazing that so many distros with volunteers manage to curate a vast software ecosystem, reasonably successfully and yet some of the largest companies on the planet, worth more than $1T each cannot manage to find the resources to do it efficiently.
Imagine firing up a cmd or ps prompt in Windows and tying in: msiexec install adobe-hipster-app and it just works.
Have you tried Chocolatey? https://chocolatey.org/. It’s a package manager for Windows and works great, much like brew for Mac. Or, if you prefer portable installation of programs without requiring admin, try Scoop (https://scoop.sh/). Of course, I’d rather use paru or yay on Arch, but I’m glad these options exist.
I find it hilarious that Microsoft even suggests these tools on their own GitHub page for the Windows Terminal.
I don’t even know how to write “hello world” in python but I use vanilla Arch XD
Same here, I work in the arts and can’t code a thing, but I use Arch (btw) as my daily driver.
This goes hard
It was my first Linux distro after using Microsoft stuff for ages and let me tell you: it was a big mistake. It was absolutely confusing, had to use terminal for so many things with even msdos commands that I forgot that existed, broke it 3 times by just trying to automount the other drivers and a host of other things.
End up switching to Linux mint and the transition went much smoother after that. I’m going back to it eventually though. I actually like it a lot.
EndeavourIS is the Arch for people like you 😉 (and me)
If I recall correctly Arch has … ssh into wifey’s laptop … python installed out of the box.
Run up a console and type python, and hit enter. Type in print (“Hello World”) and hit enter. There you go!
If you lack a python: $ yay -S python.
Vanilla arch would be pacman -S python 🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸
You can get yay on arch too
And I recommend that very much!
Stephen Fry the comedian/tv presenter is also a huge linux advocate. Specifically Ubuntu. He’s been using it for decades at this point.
As if I needed more reasons to love Stephen Fry!
Why is it that people think Linux distros are for programmers or tech people only? This is the reason why we don’t get many people on Linux distros.
Because they live with old news and don’t update tech news knowledge as often as tech savy people do.
Terminal inputs seems like coding. Back in the day you can mess with everything by coding. Having to spend time on forums and searching Google to fix problems that are Terminal inputs only is not something people want to do and what people are passionate about a thing or it is their hobby do.
Most people use what is in front of them, works, and what they are use too. I don’t have time to fix the wifi issue on my 10 year old linux laptop I just plugged it in. Other option is to reinstall windows every 6 months
Linux used to be for nerds, programmers and tech people.
Now, it’s probably easier to use Linux than Windows.
My wife has used Linux for over a decade. She primarily uses a web browser, office suite and a money management app.
Those have all been well-covered by Linux for years.
The most “programming” I can do is make a basic scratch project and print(“Hello World!”) in python, but linux is great
How do you do that in python…
Impressive, you look like a very skilled programmer, management has told me you are now tasked with building a hyper-realistic virtual simulation of a Large Hadron Collider including detailed simulations of the lives of the actual workers and their families, you have a week or you’re fired by the firing squad, no you’re not allowed to ask why we need it or who we are or why we chose you and it is especially forbidden to ask for more time (and no you can’t ask why that is either). See you in a week, have a nice day :).
Always love to see article of non programmer people using Linux or Emacs!
“Workflow”. There it is.
I’m not a programmer and I’ve been dual booting for 25 years.
I personally use windows (I play a lot of different games with friends, and setting all of them up in Linux is a lot of work) and I hate it.
However my mum only uses her laptop for browsing and zoom calls, so I installed Linux mint on that and it’s been going great, there are soooo much less issues than with modern windows.
Really? I have migrated to Fedora Linux and have had 0 issues playing games. Literally just installed steam then heroic launcher for my games on GOG and Epic. I did have a little issue get ea games to load but that was as my as blocker blocked ea games from fetching the librsry. Which in fair EA faorness EA sucks and should be vlocked.
Had some issues with EAC and getting games to run OOTB which was an issue with spontaneously playing weird and obscure games. If I or we would plan our sessions properly it wouldn’t have been a problem though
Fully agree on the EA thing, as well as ubishit constantly being buggy and a pain to work with though.
Why are so many Linux posts about “Why Linux” these days? We already use Linux. Isn’t there news on Linux anymore or what?
I started using Linux prior starting programming…
But knowing some programming languages will not help much maintaining a linux distribution, tho
