postscript : the guy who said everything was broken, seemed to just have had a broken filesystem, ironically the advantages of a microkernel like hurd led to him even being able to boot without a kernel panic() 🤯 🤔
Debian guy could have just downloaded the nonfree installer that includes some common wifi and other hardware firmwares. There are some pragmatists at Debian.
Well… Say that to my live USB I tried booting off of a machine with a very modern nVidia card. I had to create a new boot entry to disable nouveau and install nVidia proprietary graphics into a persistent partition.
I understand nVidia is shit, and doesn’t play nice with others. But my point is - it’s not always that easy. (I thought it would be! I lost many hours, and pulled out lots of hair!)
Not in the good old days. Back in 2000something I built a custom installer image with a backported kernel from testing and some firmware to get debian installed on a new laptop.
Agree but Debian is still damn manual compared to many Fedora quality of life improvements.
Meanwhile, removing snaps and replacing with flatpaks on a set up ubuntu system is crazy! All those loop mounts suddenly start showing up when snapd is gone
Something similar is happening to me on Manjaro. Semms the newest pipewire update made it so it doesn’t auto-route devices to the main sound output anymore…
Linux runs on literally anything. The hardware doesn’t matter too much these days, but which distro you pick does. I would say to just load a flash drive with a live image of a distro you think looks cool and see how you like it on a trial basis. Try a couple of them before you reqlly make a decision and then load the full image
Nvidia cards can still be tricky, especially on optimus laptops. It’s not nearly as problematic as it used to be, but I still run into occasional issues with it. If I ever buy a new computer for gaming, I’m going to go with AMD.
I don’t mind telling the game to use a dedicated graphics card and I don’t mind tinkering in general, but I want the graphics driver to work as expected. For example my Nvidia optimus setup doesn’t always play nice with the external monitor and I’m currently dealing an issue where an nvidia specific setting is needed to get some games working, but that same setting causes issues in other games.
Chrome is literally the same shit as Chromium but with (more) spyware. Like, there are no other added features. And some people still choose to download Chrome. WHY!?!?!?
Win 7 64-bit handily beats any distro of Linux at .69% (nice). Comparing only to 32-bit isn't a fair comparison. Not that I'm against using Linux, I use Pop_os on a spare computer as a Linux test bed for gaming.
Does distro breakdown matter that much though? It only really matters on windows because each version has significant compatibility changes. AFAIK as long as you update your system Linux compatibility with tools like wine/proton shouldn’t change much between distros.
0.69% (nice) on windows 7 64bit. That’s 0.75% total or 0.91% including windows 8 which is also dying. This is slightly under half of the linux user base according to these statistics
I think the 1.91 also includes the stream deck, but for some reason it isn’t included in the list (it is included if you select only Linux). It is about 5.5x Arch so around 0.8% of the total installs.
So the discontinue versions are around the same number as Linux desktop installs.
I hate when people say “oh we had 100% growth!” Ignoring the fact they went from 4 to 8 clients. Meanwhile the one that only shows 0.5% growth considers 8 people a rounding error.
I’ll feed the troll… it’s very relevant with the bottom part of the graphic. It’s touting that it’s got the biggest increase of traffic change at ~32%, however overall it still only has a 3.2% share. That ties in exactly what what I’m stating and the xkcd that was posted too. There was nothing anecdotal or that was irrelevant in my post.
Okay, so here’s some more easily interpreted numbers. In addition to having the largest change in traffic share relative to its previous share, Linux actually had the largest change in actual traffic share. It was just BARELY above Mac OS. If more significant digits were allowed here, Linux rose 0.0085 while Mac OS rose 0.0082.
The relative percent change for “other” is not reported in the graphic. There is a remainder of 0.005 in the Share Change which is, presumably, attributable to change in the “other” category.
Last year’s results
I just found last year’s results. It looks like my math bears out, though it appears that they rounded differently.
Notably, last year’s changes were very different.
OS
2022 Share
2021 Share
Share Change
Windows
0.647
0.646
0.001
Mac OS
0.284
0.273
0.011
Linux
0.028
0.028
0.000**
Chrome Book
0.025
0.025
0.000**
Other
0.011
Unknown***
0.015***
** Linux and Chrome Book’s absolute change was less than 0.0005.
*** As with 2023, the percentage change for “other” is not reported in the graphic. There is a remainder of 0.012 in the Share Change which is, presumably, attributable to change in the “other” category. This seems large, though, given that the total traffic share for “other” is only 0.016. That would imply a change from 0.001 to 0.012. Looking at the 2021 numbers this doesn’t appear to be correct.
Here comes Arch Linux with the parts for a steel chair! Now they’re pulling out the instructions for putting it together! Uh oh, the instructions say what kind of bolts they need, but not how many! Arch is trying to fit it all together anyway! Hmm, looks like some of the assembly steps are missing… ok, Arch has got something that looks like a chair constructed… now they’re going to test it by sitting down… oh, and the chair frame has held together but the seat has fallen off. Arch forgot about not breaking user space again!
And now here comes Gentoo with a… a coal forge? Oh my God he’s forging a steel chair from a metal blank! But what’s this? Hes pulling out a smaller forge to forge a hammer for the bigger forge! The humanity!
The bit about the small forge forging a forge is skewering the Gentoo concept of toolchain bootstrapping.
Problem: how can you claim to have compiled the entire system on your own local machine if you need a compiler to compile a compiler? Where do you get that compiler from?
Solution: Use an external compiler to compile a compiler. Then use that compiler that you just compiled to compile itself again. Then use that second compiler to recompile the rest of the system.
I briefly experimented with it ages ago. And I mean ages ago, like 20+ years ago. Maybe it’s changed somewhat since then, but my understanding is that Gentoo doesn’t provide binary packages. Everything gets compiled from source using exactly the options you want and compiled exactly for your hardware. That’s great and all but it has two big downsides:
Most users don’t need or even want to specify every compile option. The number of compile options to wade through for some packages (e.g. the kernel) is incredibly long, and many won’t be applicable to your particular setup.
The benefits of compiling specifically for your system are likely questionable, and the amount of time it takes to compile can be long depending on your hardware. Bear in mind I was compiling on a Pentium 2 at the time, so this may be a lot less relevant to modern systems. I think it took me something like 12 hours to do the first-time compile when I installed Gentoo, and then some mistake I made in the configuration made me want to reinstall and I just wasn’t willing to sit through that again.
Compiling your own kernel was often useful or even necessary back in the day. I think it was the only package I regularly compiled for myself back then, and I think I was on red hat
And oh my god, here comes Windows with a steel chair! Its a fine chair that almost anyone can sit in, as long as its updated regularly and paid for, or else they take off two of the legs. She whacks you with it, but only with the long end of the chair by default, which really stings. If you prefer to be hit with the flat of the chair, she desperately tries to convince you that being hit with the Edge is better.
We overestimate what most people do with their computers.
Most people that buy one never touch the re-installation of the OS. I wouldn’t be surprised if I learned 99% of PC users haven’t even done it once.
People buy a PC and use whatever it comes with. They don’t uninstall bloat. They might use a different browser. And then they’ll stick with it until they’re done with it.
It requires knowledge to use different Operating Systems. Most people either don’t have the time or don’t care to learn it. I can’t say I blame them, I never cared to learn about my car. I don’t ever really want to! Yet, I use it every day.
Is reloading PCs really still a thing anymore? I’d been told that it stopped being necessary (unless you fucked something up) somewhere around windows 7.
Great way to remove crap you have completely forgotten about.
My friend does it atleast yearly out of habbit. He says it runs better but I think it’s tge placebo effect and I am a data hoarder (no the bad kind) so don’t.
For 3 years now I originally bought about half a dozen desktops from Intel gen 2, a couple C2D’s and an AMD IDK what is offhand and yet after offering a FREE computer (FREE as in FREEDOM that happens not to cost any money but rather in time to learn…etc etc.) if any of them sat down long enough to learn how to use GNU/Linux enough to run GPG and write encrypted messages and read software signatures…
Included keyboards, monitors, mouse, etc. and more (even USB3, NVME etc.) for boys educations being fulfilled, that is NO FINANCIAL COST.
Yeah, half a dozen acceptances and only one actually going through to finish and learn. My wife.
I’m trying to figure out how to teach people and learn such myself but despite claims no real acceptance. I don’t write software and even my father who does…fucking Apple. facepalm
You might have more success if you dial it back, average users don’t need that deep of an understanding. They just need a functional system that does what they expect it to.
I’ve converted several family members to Linux to ease my own role as their tech support. And it was as simple as preloading things they’d need, showing them what the new browser/email/whatever looked like, showing them the new “app store” (KDE Discover), and telling them to call me if it breaks. Some of them explored further and learned how the system works, others were just happy to click the buttons I showed them. None of them regret the change.
I don’t give a fuck about those people. I’ll be honest to anyone. The offer is an exchange. My computer for education upon me on how to talk to people. If you can’t tell, I know lots of words but not very well upon how to use them.
I wouldn’t accept something like that either, you can’t force people to just waste (in their view) countless of hours on something they don’t care about.
People can use whatever they like, and I’m guessing your dad only wants to use Apple more because of everyone telling him to stop using it.
It’s not that at all. Maybe its what it sounds like when I say it but what I’m offering is a computer in for education. My education on how to talk to people.
Because I explain all this and you fuckers downvote me. Wtf? Lmfao. You fucking humans deserve to fucking die for being selfish idiots who don’t devote to learning what our true messiah this age spoke of. Let alone what he coded.
You probably should learn the basics of your car, or develop a relationship with someone who is good at/knows cars and pick a few things up from them.
You rely on it working correctly to not die and the company that makes it would happily let you die if they calculated it was more profitable that way.
Like it’s a good thing to have basic knowledge of the stuff we rely on. You don’t need to be an expert but total ignorance is a very vulnerable position.
I’ll second this by saying that most people will just buy a new computer when their current one becomes “slow”. For me, a slow computer is easy to find a solution for. It’s almost always the install drive is a hard drive and too many background applications. For other people the only solution in their eyes is a brand new PC because even the operating system is part of the whole PC.
Not sure why the Linux community is convinced macOS is better than Windows. macOS has the same big issues Windows has (Spyware, ads, and the inability to delete the built in browser) while having worse issues like not supporting openGL/Vulkan, not allowing the user to install old apps, the inability to install hardware, and the small issue of only a select few Linux distros that work with it. Windows isn’t good, but it’s still better than macOS in most regards.
I bought a Mac laptop once and lasted about 3 months before running back to Linux. Mac OS may be great for some people, but it’s definitely not for everyone. It was also hell to pull my photos out of their damn software.
(Spyware, ads, and the inability to delete the built in browser)
Ads for Apple services, yes. I don’t approve of that. But this is otherwise bullshit. I can delete any app I want. And I have to opt-in for Apple to get my crashlogs. And there aren’t ads for third-party bullshit.
And Linux is even better. Both OSes are great by comparison. And good on their own. We will never have perfect software.
Honestly I’d love for more Linux-only apps to be available on Windows, so, when I’m forced to use it, I can still get the same awesome libre apps I’m enjoying on Linux.
Despite that, I still haven’t had the balls to open a single issue anywhere to support Windows 👀
There’s probably some random config file on a forum post 18 years old where half the images don’t load cause the hosting service they used for image went down
I’ll try again some time to check, but last time I had trouble with some apps installed on openSUSE WSL, like some theming issues and some apps not opening (probably relying on system components as you say)
as long as you don’t try to pass it any flags, that is. M$ defined ls etc. as straight aliases to the equivalent PowerShell commands that have their own flag system, so if you ls -l it will puke
I want to be high and mighty and dislike Snaps for all the technical reasons but the single most irritating thing is definitely all the loopback devices.
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