Why has Linux not seen mainstream adoption?

[DnFx91]

13 minutes ago, noahdvs said:

A lack of consistency across distros is not a problem. Just keep using the same distro.

 

The learning curve varies wildly depending on the kind of user you are. I've given Ubuntu to elderly people who found it easier to use than Windows while a gamer using Gentoo as their first distro will probably have a hard time.

 

Intuitiveness is completely subjective, but it's true that some distros will be more difficult to use.

 

It's true that there is a lack of support from game developers, but support for Linux is getting better and not too slowly either, partly thanks to Valve developing the Steam machine. Out of the 108 games I own on Steam, 56 can be played natively on Linux. I don't focus on buying games for Linux either and most of them are well known.

 

Kdenlive is actually a pretty good free video editor. It even looks somewhat like the old Windows Movie Maker from Windows XP (but prettier), so it didn't take me too long to figure it out when I was trying to edit a video for a bug report. DaVinci Resolve is also available on Linux, but only if you pay for it.

 

As for DAWs, there's Ardour, Renoise and Bitwig. There are more, but these are the best.

 

Windows users don't need to get used to apt-get. Synaptic Package Manager and the Software Store exist, though I actually prefer using apt since it's faster.

 

Windows is very easy to break too if you don't know what you're doing. Maybe more so than Linux.

you sound very linux biased.

1) that's the issue there are multiple distros and telling the entire world to use just one is silly. linux guys will always argue better distros enhancing the problem.

2) that argument is totally valid for heavily UI based distros like Ubuntu and Mint.

3) totally subjective, but 90% of subjects know the windows way and nothing else.

4)Native linux gaming is shit and always will be, but the steamlink/streaming argument is a real strong one, super low power linux machine for couch gaming is a great use case for linux.

5) Kdenlive actually looks pretty cool, ill give you that. and isn't paying for linux software kinda against the point ?? if you gotta pay, pay for the program on a better platform that handles that workload better.

6) Ardour looks like garbage, and the other 2 are as expensive as windows or OSX DAW's, once again why are we paying for linux software ?

7) At first maybe not, but everyone will at some point come across a program that isnt in the REPO and then we have a situation where granny joyce has to run apt through a terminal to get her scanner software or some shit, at which point it all falls apart because granny joyce has never seen a terminal and types with one finger on each hand.

8) Very true, but dude i work with a linux technician who refuses to use windows and even he accidentally formats his home partition on his linux laptop, like once a week. At least windows is kind enough to point out when you are doing things that might break you PC. Linux will happily nuke itself while its running if you tell it to.

[Spawn0202]

14 minutes ago, DnFx91 said:

you sound very linux biased.

1) that's the issue there are multiple distros and telling the entire world to use just one is silly. linux guys will always argue better distros enhancing the problem.

2) that argument is totally valid for heavily UI based distros like Ubuntu and Mint.

3) totally subjective, but 90% of subjects know the windows way and nothing else.

4)Native linux gaming is shit and always will be, but the steamlink/streaming argument is a real strong one, super low power linux machine for couch gaming is a great use case for linux.

5) Kdenlive actually looks pretty cool, ill give you that. and isn't paying for linux software kinda against the point ?? if you gotta pay, pay for the program on a better platform that handles that workload better.

6) Ardour looks like garbage, and the other 2 are as expensive as windows or OSX DAW's, once again why are we paying for linux software ?

7) At first maybe not, but everyone will at some point come across a program that isnt in the REPO and then we have a situation where granny joyce has to run apt through a terminal to get her scanner software or some shit, at which point it all falls apart because granny joyce has never seen a terminal and types with one finger on each hand.

8) Very true, but dude i work with a linux technician who refuses to use windows and even he accidentally formats his home partition on his linux laptop, like once a week. At least windows is kind enough to point out when you are doing things that might break you PC. Linux will happily nuke itself while its running if you tell it to.

3) true but not willing to learn is sad or? I mean evolving just in one direction is that good?

5) lightworks, blender, cinelerra come to mind and they are very good.

7) If it is not on the Repo what I just not really experienced (I used e.g. packman) you can pull the source code und compile it yourself. Yes not easy but possible.

8) I cannot understand how that works.

Yes under a command line there will be no warnings that true too

Formatting your Home partition is stupid because you lose all your personal Data. If you split up the home partition from the root the system will still run (Splitting Root und Home Partition is a standard Install with Linux)

And if you do not understand that starting a command with “sudo” or becoming “root” is dangerous using it in a command line you have not understood the Linux way. In my opinion you should know what you are doing as “root” or “sudo”. If you do not know the syntax use “-h” ore “—help” this gives you help on the command you are using.

 

[KuJoe]

The biggest obstacle for home users is work and school, if you primarily use and learn on Windows it's hard to adopt something else at home.

[Spawn0202]

1 minute ago, KuJoe said:

The biggest obstacle for home users is work and school, if you primarily use and learn on Windows it's hard to adopt something else at home.

can you explae that a bit more ? i can undersand if you are learning and working only with the OS windows

if you go on and learn with office e.g there is Libre office.

 

[noahdvs]

16 minutes ago, DnFx91 said:

you sound very linux biased.

1) that's the issue there are multiple distros and telling the entire world to use just one is silly. linux guys will always argue better distros enhancing the problem.

2) that argument is totally valid for heavily UI based distros like Ubuntu and Mint.

3) totally subjective, but 90% of subjects know the windows way and nothing else.

4)Native linux gaming is shit and always will be, but the steamlink/streaming argument is a real strong one, super low power linux machine for couch gaming is a great use case for linux.

5) Kdenlive actually looks pretty cool, ill give you that. and isn't paying for linux software kinda against the point ?? if you gotta pay, pay for the program on a better platform that handles that workload better.

6) Ardour looks like garbage, and the other 2 are as expensive as windows or OSX DAW's, once again why are we paying for linux software ?

7) At first maybe not, but everyone will at some point come across a program that isnt in the REPO and then we have a situation where granny joyce has to run apt through a terminal to get her scanner software or some shit, at which point it all falls apart because granny joyce has never seen a terminal and types with one finger on each hand.

8) Very true, but dude i work with a linux technician who refuses to use windows and even he accidentally formats his home partition on his linux laptop, like once a week. At least windows is kind enough to point out when you are doing things that might break you PC. Linux will happily nuke itself while its running if you tell it to.

I am Linux biased, but I recognize there are valid reasons why people wouldn't use Linux. I just think when people say Linux is not good, they often use outdated info or arguments that are not universally true. Given how diverse Linux is, I also don't think it's fair to generalize a whole lot when talking about it.

 

I'm not telling the entire world to use just one distro, I'm saying people should pick a distro (usually an easy one) and stick with it. They should move on to something else if they get bored or need something on the bleeding edge. I don't think the number of choices you get with Linux are a bad thing as long as you don't tell newbies to install Arch. You might say that's exactly the problem, but I'd argue that there are people who will give bad advice to newbies on every platform.

 

The biggest problem with native gaming on Linux is the GPU drivers. They're pretty obviously inferior to the Windows drivers. If Valve manages to make the Steam Machine profitable, I don't think that'll be a problem forever and they're still usable as they are.

 

I edited my previous post. Davinci Resolve is actually free for Linux now. Paying for software isn't against the point of using Linux in the same way that paying for games isn't against the point of using Linux. You still get Linux for free and all the good things about Linux. If you don't like Linux, but came for the free software, I think you're wasting your time.

 

Ardour actually came in at #16 on the annual MusicRadar top 20 DAWs contest, ahead of GarageBand and just behind Renoise, though it's just a popularity contest. I haven't used it, but it can't be too bad if it came that far. Professional DAWs are expensive and that's just something you've got to live with if you want to use them. Ardour is probably the best you'll get if you want a free DAW, unless you count Reaper's WinRAR style free trial. The price relative to your OS is irrelevant. I haven't used it since I'm an FL Studio guy (unfortunately Windows only), but I've heard Bitwig is actually pretty good and has pulled in users of Ableton Live. It came in at #10 just behind Pro Tools on the MusicRadar contest I mentioned.

http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/the-20-best-daw-software-apps-in-the-world-today-238905

 

Apt is only used for adding repositories and managing packages from repositories. Programs you install from outside the repository are usually available as a package you can install by double clicking on it (like Windows), or as an archive that you can extract and immediately use by double clicking on the executable. Sometimes it's only available as source, which is the worse case scenario, but not very common these days. Installing and using software for a printer is generally easier on Ubuntu than Windows since you can just pick your printer drivers from a list to get the right software installed and use one simple program for scanning on all your printers (it's called Simple Scan). Granny Joyce will probably need help regardless of what OS she uses though.

 

As for that technician... How??? I'm seriously flabbergasted. I don't know what he does with his laptop, so maybe he has an excuse, but... How??

[DnFx91]

1 minute ago, noahdvs said:

I am Linux biased, but I recognize there are valid reasons why people wouldn't use Linux. I just think when people say Linux is not good, they often use outdated info or arguments that are not universally true. Given how diverse Linux is, I also don't think it's fair to generalize a whole lot when talking about it.

 

I'm not telling the entire world to use just one distro, I'm saying people should pick a distro (usually an easy one) and stick with it. They should move on to something else if they get bored or need something on the bleeding edge. I don't think the number of choices you get with Linux are a bad thing as long as you don't tell newbies to install Arch. You might say that's exactly the problem, but I'd argue that there are people who will give bad advice to newbies on every platform.

 

The biggest problem with native gaming on Linux is the GPU drivers. They're pretty obviously inferior to the Windows drivers. If Valve manages to make the Steam Machine profitable, I don't think that'll be a problem forever and they're still usable as they are.

 

I edited my previous post. Davinci Resolve is actually free for Linux now. Paying for software isn't against the point of using Linux in the same way that paying for games isn't against the point of using Linux. You still get Linux for free and all the good things about Linux. If you don't like Linux, but came for the free software, I think you're wasting your time.

 

Ardour actually came in at #16 on the annual MusicRadar top 20 DAWs contest, ahead of GarageBand and just behind Renoise, though it's just a popularity contest. I haven't used it, but it can't be too bad if it came that far. Professional DAWs are expensive and that's just something you've got to live with if you want to use them. Ardour is probably the best you'll get if you want a free DAW, unless you count Reaper's WinRAR style free trial. The price relative to your OS is irrelevant. I haven't used it since I'm an FL Studio guy (unfortunately Windows only), but I've heard Bitwig is actually pretty good and has pulled in users of Ableton Live. It came in at #10 just behind Pro Tools on the MusicRadar contest I mentioned.

http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/the-20-best-daw-software-apps-in-the-world-today-238905

 

Apt is only used for adding repositories and managing packages from repositories. Programs you install from outside the repository are usually available as a package you can install by double clicking on it (like Windows), or as an archive that you can extract and immediately use by double clicking on the executable. Sometimes it's only available as source, which is the worse case scenario, but not very common these days. Installing and using software for a printer is generally easier on Ubuntu than Windows since you can just pick your printer drivers from a list to get the right software installed and use one simple program for scanning on all your printers (it's called Simple Scan). Granny Joyce will probably need help regardless of what OS she uses though.

 

As for that technician... How??? I'm seriously flabbergasted. I don't know what he does with his laptop, so maybe he has an excuse, but... How??

about the technician, he is incredibly talented with computer systems, and a great guy to have around, but my god is he clumsy. He cut through a live 32A 3-Phase cable with hedge cutters once and somehow didn't explode. But yeah he always fucks up his linux machine

[Spawn0202]

34 minutes ago, DnFx91 said:

about the technician, he is incredibly talented with computer systems, and a great guy to have around, but my god is he clumsy. He cut through a live 32A 3-Phase cable with hedge cutters once and somehow didn't explode. But yeah he always fucks up his linux machine

OK that explains a lot und I bet the hedge cutters had a melt down

[Donut417]

On 3/17/2017 at 11:39 PM, Sirgeorge said:

I'm just curious as to what others think on this particular issue. Thoughts?

 

(EDIT: forgot to say, yes I meant desktop. I know it is very dominate in practically every other format. I was generalizing).

In my opinion its because 

A) The average user is afraid of the command line

B) Take a little bit of research and knowledge to get some things working 

C) Game availability and performance 

D) Not much in the terms of commercial software (In terms of Home users) 

E) Most people have used Windows and people hate change. 

F) To many different distros to choose from. 

G) Driver support can be sketchy at times 

 

Microsoft made themselves the OS of the worker, While Apple is kinda gear the creative people. Linux is kinda the OS of servers. I mean Linux does have a 33% Market share in the server OS market, mostly due to Redhat. I think the big issue is there really isnt a big mega corp behind Linux. I mean Redhat corp caters to servers. Canonical who does Ubuntu is kinda big, but they really havent pushed hard in to the desktop market. As it stands we have two very strong competitors in Desktop market. Just like we got two strong OS competitors in the phone market. Its nearly impossible to break in. 

[DnFx91]

4 hours ago, Spawn0202 said:

OK that explains a lot und I bet the hedge cutters had a melt down

 

incredibly he didnt even short anything, he didnt even realise it was live after he cut it. magic

[KuJoe]

6 hours ago, Spawn0202 said:

can you explae that a bit more ? i can undersand if you are learning and working only with the OS windows

if you go on and learn with office e.g there is Libre office.

 

If you're in class and they teach you how to use Windows and only Windows from kindergarten to college then it makes sense that a student will be more familiar with Windows. If your work only uses Windows then it wouldn't make much sense for the person to go learn another OS. Basically children learn what they are taught and employees use the tools that work. A good example is for my job, up until a year or two ago Windows was the only option if you wanted to work at the company (both local and remote, people who used Linux at home had to have a Windows VM or a work issued laptop if they wanted to login from home). The VPN and Citrix desktops didn't work on Mac or Linux and a good number of our in-house tools only work on Internet Explorer with specific in-house add-ons (not even Edge works right now).

[ChalkChalkson]

17 hours ago, DnFx91 said:

lol WINE sucks man, it totally works if you are trying to run super simple shit like notepad.exe, but any windows program that tries doing backend stuff or run services will fall over in WINE every time

As I said, it sometimes works. I am always super surprised and happy when it works, but never expect it to. Kinda like if you tell a baby to say "mama" 

[EPENEX]

I use Arch + i3, and I set one of my desktop enviroments to Virtualbox with Windows 10 in scaled mode and with guest additions installed so I can share my home folder. It just works beautifully. I get all the features of Linux, and I can use Windows for things like Photoshop (I don't like using Wine). White box on the left is only there to show that it's a virtual mmachine.