Reality Check on Why People Don't Use Linux

calendar Nov 5, 2023 · 2 min read · Prattle Linux

I cannot fathom why anyone debates this topic, because the answer sits plainly in front of you.

  1. Shops
  2. Schools
  3. Advertising
  4. Games
  5. Precedent

Before you use a computer, you must buy it. You buy it from a shop. The shops have no Linux laptops. Linux laptops only come from very recent, and still entirely obscure, computer manufacturers.

If people could buy Linux laptops in shops, most still wouldn't. They know Windows from school, because Microsoft has wormed their way into every school system on the planet, and ensured - with the usual corporate black-magic - that every child knows Windows.

When I went to school, we had an old Apple computer, so people still know Apple from the 90's, and from their adverts. Apple use advertising to push their products because advertising works. Linux, having none except that one advert with Captain Cisco, has fared less well, because not-advertising, does not work.

Now, if we narrow down to the customers who know things about computers, we will find a group consisting of 99% gamers. They find that Microsoft have already convinced a good chunk of game developers to develop on Windows some time ago, and since then the infrastructure has the weight of its own momentum behind it.

So the gaming aspect has precedent, and shops having Windows PCs means that people know Windows, which then again means shops stock Windows, and so on, with each aspect creating its own loop.

No, it's not...

It's not the UI. Nobody checks the UI. People don't walk into shops and ask what kind of package management tools the laptop comes pre-installed with.

It's not the terminal. Nobody complains about having cmd, two Powershell interfaces and a terminal on Windows. Linux hasn't required using a terminal for almost a decade.

It's not the hardware. It works on Windows hardware far better than IOS works on Windows software. It's works on IOS hardware better than Windows too. Nothing has better hardware compatibility.

Glad we could all put that to rest, and finally settle this once and for all.