Why isn't linux more popular?

Why isn't linux more popular?

I thought most people like free shit

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because people like gaymen

Most computers come installed with Windows, and for a very long time that was the only option (besides spending a bunch of money for a Mac).

...

Because it's UI is very lacking / non-existent.

Try again. Both Gnome and KDE are aesthetically pleasing, feature complete DEs.

What's not how mouths work

Windows is free too, silly! It comes with the computer!
Why should I go and change it if it already works?

most people go for convenience uber alles. They'll pay more money before they mess with anything themselves.

Also it's easy to hide the cost from them. The laptop is more expensive because the manufacturer pays for a windows license for every one of them it sells, but the normie doesn't see that part of the final price.

here's some anime technology for you

>free shit
Self-answered question. You get what you pay for.

Stop derailing threads.
Y'all must be newfags. Lurk more.

Learning isn't free. You need to earn it.

1. The UI is garbage
2. The UX is garbage
3. Free means "it's garbage" to normal people

So what happens?

In the rare case Mr. Norm Normie actually tries to install Linux of any flavor:

>Well, let's see how bad this free OS is
>Okay it's kind of like a knockoff windows
>How the fuck do I install my windows programs?
>I have to compile stuff?? What does that even mean?
>Fucks' sake my soundcard isn't even working, fuck this, no wonder it's free.
>Mr. Norm Normie installs windows instead

The above situation has been true for 25 years now. It will be true for 25 years more.

Until linux developers wake up and actually fix the core user-experience issues that drive normies away, Linux will never go mainstream. The problem IS NOT gaming. The problem is that linux operating systems are designed around this stupid notion the user has some kind of idea what they're doing.

Just installing Linux is already a very arduous and risky endeavor for a normie. If they have to EVER touch the CLI, or google how to do ANYTHING - that's it, your OS is in the garbage. These people are already familiar with Windows. So Linux has to work BETTER than windows does. There is no room for this kind of garbage user experience in Linux. It has to work fucking perfectly out of the box 99.9999% of the time even for complete retards.

Manage that and Windows is literally fucking finished.

I don't know why this is such a hard pill for linux devs to swallow.

Windows became good.

linux distros are not user-friendly which makes people avoid them. they break a lot too if you're not careful

also people don't like linux because you can't play a lot of pc games on linux

Tbh if it wasn't for the two games I play I'd be on Linux fully.

the normie-centric distros like Ubuntu and Mint generally Just Werk straight off the bat these days. But most normies are too afraid of breaking something to try.

This

I'm super experienced with computers and I still physically disconnect my important harddrives when I'm installing linux cause I feel like at any point i could go and fuck something up. When installing windows i leave them plugged in because it's impossible to fuck up when you can see on the gui which ones your actual ssd

The sad thing is, none of the stuff you're talking about is even that hard to do. Systemd has taken more effort to write, put together and implement than "dumbing down" the UI for retards would have.

Here's one suggestion:
- Magnet links for programs. Joe blow googles for whatever program just like he would on windows. He gets to a website goes to the download page, clicks the download link. The program automatically downloads and installs via his package manager. No compiling. No special snowflake zip files. No CLI commands.

it's GOOD that linux isn't more popular. without exception, open source projects that get popular get fewer features, more bugs, and developers leave in droves. opening the gates to "normal people" would completely destroy the linux ecosystem as it exists today.

don't believe me? go to the ubuntu help forum, read the first couple pages of questions, and see what the average linux "end user" actually is. keep in mind these are the "smart" people who try new OSs by themselves.

now imagine if linux became popular.

>1000000x more noobs on forums everywhere
>these noobs aren't even "smart" and feel entitled to your personal time
>people get fed up and stop helping
>developers get fed up and stop contributing
>project grinds to a halt

the Year Of The Linux Desktop happened about a decade ago, everything since then has been icing on the cake.

Why did you post a picture of Yukiko eating ants?

this, just look at firefox

the vast majority of windows users arent gamers. gamers are just the people who consciously choose windows over linux, most everyone else isnt even aware that theres another option.

whos really interested in that though? i mean it would be cool if linux got more widespread adoption but who the hell is going to dedicate their dev time to dumbing down the os for more people to use? no ones making money from getting X normie to use linux so people would rather spend time developing things that improve THEIR experience.

They're plenty user friendly, just not preinstalled on any computers. Do you think the average normie knows how to install windows?
And only arch breaks all the time.

Just do it and sell it

Is there something in the GPL or whatever that says you can't sell the product?

Sell USB's for $60 that let people install your normie brand linux painlessly.
On your website link to a download page or torrent where people can get your normie brand linux for free.

It's open source, it's free for non-retards, for normies it actually costs money so it's automatically better than free knockoff software just because paying for it = better quality. (don't question how normies think alright)

I mean shit, this is exactly what I'd be doing if software development were my thing. Make linux genuinely easy to use for all the tards out there and make assloads of money in the process. Freetards can still get your flavor of linux without paying a dime. Literally win/win/win for everyone.

you wouldnt be able to sell it for very long or attain any amount of popularity before some media outlet characterizes it as a scam bc the os is free elsewhere.
also there are already places selling install media for ubuntu and they havent rose to prominence really.

They haven't 'rose to prominence' because they never actually tried to make linux usable.

ubuntu is plenty usable. the installer is just as if not easier than the windows installer and it literally just werks.

Yeah it's easy to install

but it still suffers all these issues:

you shouldnt have to compile on ubuntu, and if someone uses a specific program enough for it to be a dealbreaker they would have researched more before installing a new os. the type of people were tlaking about capturing would be fine with a browser since everything is done there nowadays. also driver support is great, im doubtful anyone from this demographic would have hardware obscure enough to give them problems and if they did they probably know more about computers than your average user.

Both Gnome and KDE are fucking bloated DEs, also at least gnome has systemd dependencies. I don't care enough to know about KDE. Both are ugly, buggy and slow. Use XFCE for ducks sake

more bloated than windows? all of those complaints except for the ugly one doesnt affect the average consumer and youre not even right about it being ugly.

- Most laptops come with windows already loaded on them. Also due to 20+ years of total market dominance Windows PC is the defacto go-to product when buying a computer.

- Linux has no marketing. The only way you learn of linux' existence is by hearing about it from someone else. Even after you do learn about it, there's the issue of distros. Even if someone finds out about linux, they don't necessarily know that solus is the distro they should be installing how to even install it.

- Change is scary. People don't wanna fuck with their PC if its not broken.

- Games. Yeah. It matters.

- People don't care about privacy. If you point out to windows users that their OS is spying on them and exploiting their trust they either dont care or dont believe you

- Lack of software. Regardless of games, people have gotten used to using their adobe suite or whatever and don't want to go without. WINE is trash.

- Distro developers don't understand teh concept of "just works"... although solus is getting there. Shit works out of the box and updates dont break the fucking OS.

Free =/= Good

The worst things in life are free.

goddamit, kevin

marriage isn't free

Because people give up on drivers installation.

>the vast majority of windows users arent gamers.
Wrong.
>gamers are just the people who consciously choose windows over linux
Again, wrong.
>most everyone else isnt even aware that theres another option.
True.

It's a pill that needs to be shoved up their asses.

No they don't. When you install Ubuntu, you get a buggy UI that does literally nothing, and Firefox. If you want to do more than that, yo're fucked.

And I remember spending hours on learning some low-level stupid shit for my system to continue working, even on Ubuntu.

The UX on Linux desktop is _total crap_.This system isn't and will never be made for normal desktop users.

>I thought most people like free shit
Well mate, windows is the de-facto standard OS and it is cheaper than free due to Microsoft cash back programs.

sounds like the last time you used linux was in 2010 or you're exaggerating to help your point.

Most distros actually do work out the box and give you a web browser, office suite, and a software center to find more software without having to touch terminal. The user experience on a modern distro is fine.

Except for the fact the Windows is the one overwriting stuff from linux, when you install it.

The only reason you might fuck up other drives is because you'd format/choose the wrong partition during installation. Which is also possible on windows, since you also have to do that manually.

The vast majority of Windows users are OEM buying soccer moms, kids, and white collars. They could care less about GNU/Linux so as long as they can make a Powerpoint and use Twitter. Gamers are a niche market, albeit a profitable one. Windows is already losing ground with Chromebooks (which run Linux) on it's heels and OS X attacking on the UI/UX design front, Windows will probably be a vastly diminishing demographic. There really isn't much of a point of "the year of the Linux desktop" anymore as there's not that much that consumers stand to win with that - everything is going mobile.

Regardless, the UI/UX situation is not the problem with modern Linux, it's a combination of historical irrelevance in the mainstream (no one ships it OEM and no marketing), lagging hardware support (mostly because many old hardware companies don't care about Linux), and disintegrated environments. In Windows, everything, the file explorer, browser, kernel, dwm.exe are designed internally. For Linux every application is developed by someone different and their miscommunication results in poor integration, unfortunately a lot of this is due to ideological standpoints.

>2017
>Have screen tearing
>Laptop won't boot up from suspended state if I have USB stick plugged in

I wonder why...

um linux is extremely popular. Never heard of android or chromeos?

?

>I thought most people like free shit

They like free shit that isn't also just shit

linux fags can't into user friendliness.

It's a system for techies not for normies.

Fucking this!
Also the Viruses programmed for Linux would be rocketing.

Okay. What happens when the normie tries to install Office or iTunes?

Normies like spending money

>I don't know why this is such a hard pill for linux devs to swallow.
unwarranted elitism perhaps

eloquently put, user

You're essentially moving the goalpost from "user-friendly" to "program compatibility"

it's okay if you haven't

It's poorly advertised

Program compatibility has always kept normies away from other OSes, not limited to Linux. Also not being able to install mainstream software without messing around with WINE technically makes it less user-friendly

Still not well supported enough.
Still buggy.
(most distros that is)

>most distros that is
Well obviously, since any idiot can make their own special snowflake port. But that doesn't mean anyone uses it or is forced to use it.

- You can say anything about aesthetics, but the Windows UI is more stable and functional in every version compared to the Linux counterparts at the time.
- There is nothing you can do on Linux one cannot do at Windows, but that is not true backwards.
- Linux has a bad reputation as a not user friendly OS, which can still be true in some cases, when you need to use the terminal or configuration files to achieve something.
- Virtually Linux provides no advantage to the casual users

sorry, was trying to dodge the pasta

To elaborate though, I've been dual-booting for years now, but my soundcard is still not properly supported, screen-tearing is still a common problem, sometimes I can't even shut down without switching to a terminal and doing an init 0.
There are still shitloads of core problems "linux" needs to get fixed before it can even try to compete with commercial desktop OSes.

Not many people know what a Linux is.

More like they know what it is, but they think it is shit.

Because linux is just one giant nuisance. It's like asking why stubbing your toe isn't more popular, you don't have to pay for that either.

I am a proud Windows power user. I can do anything you do and maybe faster too. :)
Also, I can play games. I like games.
And who cares about NSA and shit, If they wanted to, they could look into my linux system too.

Source for anyone that's interested:
gelbooru.com/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=3512076

I agree
The other user mentioned changing subjects.

But compatibility goes hand in hand with ease of use.

And even the newbie friendliest distributions of linux are far from perfect.

Doesn't help matters that libre office (works both on linux and windows) can display an extra page (which is empty) on some ms office made documents.

youtube.com/watch?v=KOjCJXHJhPg

most people aren't able to install linux using a usb device or cd. Their computer comes with windows and they buy a new one when it starts "getting slow".

This guy makes some amazing videos, but sometimes they are just hour long swearing.

Linux is only free if your time is worthless.

10 year old memes are illegal on this site.

Best post on Sup Forums

>super experienced with computers
>he is scared that he will choose wrong patrition on linux that same thing can happen in windows


You probably panic when you se /dev/sdb, dev/sda instead new volume (D:)

Linux requires some essential knowledge about how computers and software which runs them, work.

Because most people are retards.
Take me for example. I made the mistake of updating openssl on arch Linux today while trying to get Civ 6 working. Spent hours trying to fix it.

Because Linux fags said their product was good enough with software dependencies and package manager hell. They gave up on improving it long ago and expect people to spend hours fixing non existant issues on other platforms, or wait for software to repackaged by some random guy weeks to months after the universal Windows and Mac installer files have been released. You want it to compete, release a version without access to the command line. There's good reason Windows doesn't fallback to the command line anymore, because the problem is so critical that you'll need to reinstall Windows if safeboot doesn't work, and thus command line bullshit is a waste of paid worker time.

I really really like japan's ant eater fetish

>go to ubuntu help forum
>99% of suggested resolutions are open command line or edit config files.

Until a popular distro releases without a command line, it doesn't matter.

>paste commands
>move files and download dlls

>Because Linux fags said their product was good enough with software dependencies and package manager hell

werks on my machine ;)

>go to windows help form
>open powershell and use this shady batch file to fix ;)
>bonus round:doesn't even fix it

Until Windows releases without a command line, it doesn't matter.

Because normies fear the cli.
And that's actually a good thing.
The GNU/Linux community would collapse if it was popular because people wouldn't agree on anything anymore.

Windows is free Shit if you know what I mean

Nope, literally never and no one else has done that either. Command line can't fix shit in Windows by design.

That's what the Microsoft pajeets told me to do when one of their "can't fail updates" failed to install.

And surprise, it didn't fucking work and that was the extent of what could be troubleshooted because the only error messages you get are "oh no it didn't work :(" What a fucking joke

Fuck off. I don't want my OS to run itself, I'm the one in control. If someone is so stupid they can't figure how to use a search engine, then that's their problem. Stooping to the lowest common denominator never solves anything.