I thought I’ll make this thread for all of you out there who have questions but are afraid to ask them. This is your chance!

I’ll try my best to answer any questions here, but I hope others in the community will contribute too!

  • I Cast Fist
    link
    fedilink
    217 months ago

    Why does it feel that Linux infighting is the main reason why it never takes off? It’s always “distro X sucks”, “installing from Y is stupid”, “any system running Z should burn”

    • Linux generally has a higher (perceived?) technical barrier to entry so people who opt to go that route often have strong opinions on exactly what they want from it. Not to mention that technical discussions in general are often centered around decided what the “right” way to do a thing is. That said regardless of how the opinions are stated, options aren’t a bad thing.

      • @wolf@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        37 months ago

        This.

        It is a ‘built-in’ social problem: Only people who care enough to switch to Linux do it, and this people are pre-selected to have strong opinions.

        Exactly the same can be observed in all kind of alternative projects, for example alternative housing projects usually die because of infighting for everyone has their own definition of how it should work.

    • @bloodfart@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      77 months ago

      Because you don’t have an in person user group and only interact online where the same person calling all mandrake users fetal alcohol syndrome babies doesn’t turn around and help those exact people figure out their smb.conf or trade sopranos episodes with them at the lan party.

    • @ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      77 months ago

      Linux users are often very passionate about the software they put on their computers, so they tend to argue about it. I think the customization and choices scares off a lot of beginners, I think the main reason is lack of compatibility with Windows software out of the box. People generally want to use software they are used to.

    • CyclohexaneOPM
      link
      fedilink
      67 months ago

      Doesn’t feel like that to me. I’ll need to see evidence that that is the main reason. It could be but I just don’t see it.

      • I Cast Fist
        link
        fedilink
        27 months ago

        I mean, Wayland is still a hot topic, as are snaps and flatpaks. Years ago it was how the GTK2 to GTK3 upgrade messed up Gnome (not unlike the python 2 to 3 upgrade), some hardcore people still want to fight against systemd. Maybe it’s just “the loud detractors”, dunno

        • CyclohexaneOPM
          link
          fedilink
          47 months ago

          Why would one be discouraged by the fact that people have options and opinions on them? That’s the part I’m not buying. I don’t disagree that people do in fact disagree and argue. I don’t know if I’d call it fighting. People being unreasonably aggressive about it are rare.

          I for one am glad that people argue. It helps me explore different options without going through the effort of trying every single one myself.

          • @billgamesh@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            17 months ago

            I’m using wayland right now, but still use X11 sometimes. I love the discussion and different viewpoints. They are different protocols, with different strengths and weaknesses. People talking about it js a vitrue in my opinion

            • ObliviousEnlightenment
              link
              fedilink
              27 months ago

              I can only use x11 myself. The drivers for Wayland on nvidia aren’t ready for prime time yet, my browser flickers and some games don’t render properly. I’m frankly surprised the KDE folks shipped it out

            • Captain Aggravated
              link
              fedilink
              English
              17 months ago

              Being I’m on Mint Cinnamon and using an Nvidia card, I’ve never even tried to run Wayland on this machine. Seems to work okay on the little Lenovo I put Fedora GNOME on. X11 is still working remarkably well for me, and I’m looking forward to the new features in Wayland once the last few kinks are worked out with it.

    • msch
      link
      fedilink
      47 months ago

      It did take off, just not so much on the Desktop. I think those infights are really just opinions and part of further development. Having choices might be a great part of the overall success.

      • I Cast Fist
        link
        fedilink
        27 months ago

        just not so much on the Desktop

        Unix already had a significant presence in server computers during the late 80s, migrating to Linux wasn’t a big jump. Besides, the price of zero is a lot more attractive when the alternative option costs several thousand dollars