Top 5 Reasons Why Linux isn't Popular - Linux Market Share - Chris Titus Tech
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Date: 2022-03-20
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Comments and reviews: 10
Nml45
OK, so here's my two cents, I started in the mid-range and mainframe world (if you don't know what a mid-range is, you're not old enough). To me, linux today (and forever for that matter), is like the mainframe world used to be. To run a mainframe shop you had to have -system programmers-. These guys were the gurus of the mainframe and only they had the knowledge and authority to do -system- stuff (and they guarded that with their lives). While still in the mainframe world, I was introduced to the client-server concept, not for the mainframe work, but for interaction with other team members. That client-server was of course Windows. We used it to email each other and such. I became spoiled with the -apps- available to me in Windows, email, word processing, Excel, etc. Then I left the mainframe world and went to a strict client-server environment (SAP, not gonna explain what that is if you don't know, look it up). Now the version of SAP that I worked on was client-server based (there was another version that was mainframe, but I never got close to that). In most cases, the client server was running on linux. So I got my first taste of it. And low and behold what a disappointment, -What! no wysiwig editor!!!, you must be joking. I have to use -VI-, what the f--k is that-. Fortunately, my job did not entail getting down and dirty in linux.
So here I am retired, and with the pandemic, mostly stuck in the house. But I do have a laptop running Windows 10, a desktop running Windows 10 and the old desktop that was replaced with the new desktop, and it is running linux. Why? well because I have the time and curiosity. Now, I'm no linux expert, I'm a newbie, but I gotta tell you, linux sucks compared to Windows. Yeah it's free and most of the stuff you can get to put on it is free, but you certainly get what you pay for. Case in point, I just spent several hours trying to get my network printer to print from linux, still no success, even the YouTube videos tell you it ain't easy.
So if a guy like me who's been in IT for decades has these kind of problems, imagine joe-six-pack who goes to Costco and buys a linux based laptop, then gets home and needs to install stuff on it like his brother-in-law did on his Windows laptop and discovers, he actually has to have some tech knowledge to do it. Now this scenario of course isn't real, Costco doesn't sell linux laptops, but I hope you get my point.
Linux is NOT for the average computer user and THAT is why it will remain where it is until it changes, and we know that's not gonna happen.
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OK, so here's my two cents, I started in the mid-range and mainframe world (if you don't know what a mid-range is, you're not old enough). To me, linux today (and forever for that matter), is like the mainframe world used to be. To run a mainframe shop you had to have -system programmers-. These guys were the gurus of the mainframe and only they had the knowledge and authority to do -system- stuff (and they guarded that with their lives). While still in the mainframe world, I was introduced to the client-server concept, not for the mainframe work, but for interaction with other team members. That client-server was of course Windows. We used it to email each other and such. I became spoiled with the -apps- available to me in Windows, email, word processing, Excel, etc. Then I left the mainframe world and went to a strict client-server environment (SAP, not gonna explain what that is if you don't know, look it up). Now the version of SAP that I worked on was client-server based (there was another version that was mainframe, but I never got close to that). In most cases, the client server was running on linux. So I got my first taste of it. And low and behold what a disappointment, -What! no wysiwig editor!!!, you must be joking. I have to use -VI-, what the f--k is that-. Fortunately, my job did not entail getting down and dirty in linux.
So here I am retired, and with the pandemic, mostly stuck in the house. But I do have a laptop running Windows 10, a desktop running Windows 10 and the old desktop that was replaced with the new desktop, and it is running linux. Why? well because I have the time and curiosity. Now, I'm no linux expert, I'm a newbie, but I gotta tell you, linux sucks compared to Windows. Yeah it's free and most of the stuff you can get to put on it is free, but you certainly get what you pay for. Case in point, I just spent several hours trying to get my network printer to print from linux, still no success, even the YouTube videos tell you it ain't easy.
So if a guy like me who's been in IT for decades has these kind of problems, imagine joe-six-pack who goes to Costco and buys a linux based laptop, then gets home and needs to install stuff on it like his brother-in-law did on his Windows laptop and discovers, he actually has to have some tech knowledge to do it. Now this scenario of course isn't real, Costco doesn't sell linux laptops, but I hope you get my point.
Linux is NOT for the average computer user and THAT is why it will remain where it is until it changes, and we know that's not gonna happen.
reply
Goran
Among all reasons stated here, as an -average- user (but still, MD in STEM), I don't like to use Linux based OS... Tried on several occasions (and today too, 2 versions - Xubuntu and Zorin). And guess what... Xubuntu stuck at installation..., Zorin stuck at Wine installation... All that 4hr work ended with Windows image restoration :). Most people use computers as a tool to do their job, most people use it to surf on the web. nobody cares for command line, nobody cares how stuff works. And they don't have to! When you got to a doctor you don't ask him how he will perform this or that and why. You will just come, he will give you treatment, and you will happily go home. When you drive a car, you sit in it, put key, turn it on. SIMPLE. You don't open hood, check valve distances, check belt tensions, check injections... you just sit, turn key and viola, off you go. Just a simple program installation is waaaay simpler in Windows environment - double click, next, next and DONE. If linux wanna have desktop users, AVERAGE ones, it must become simpler. Very few amount of people will accept complexity of it. AD by market share (
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Among all reasons stated here, as an -average- user (but still, MD in STEM), I don't like to use Linux based OS... Tried on several occasions (and today too, 2 versions - Xubuntu and Zorin). And guess what... Xubuntu stuck at installation..., Zorin stuck at Wine installation... All that 4hr work ended with Windows image restoration :). Most people use computers as a tool to do their job, most people use it to surf on the web. nobody cares for command line, nobody cares how stuff works. And they don't have to! When you got to a doctor you don't ask him how he will perform this or that and why. You will just come, he will give you treatment, and you will happily go home. When you drive a car, you sit in it, put key, turn it on. SIMPLE. You don't open hood, check valve distances, check belt tensions, check injections... you just sit, turn key and viola, off you go. Just a simple program installation is waaaay simpler in Windows environment - double click, next, next and DONE. If linux wanna have desktop users, AVERAGE ones, it must become simpler. Very few amount of people will accept complexity of it. AD by market share (
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Serious
3:13
I believe that's the thing, Linux is naturally not for the uninterested. Unlike Windows or Mac, who are commercially and influentially dominant are able to dangle their systems on people who are newly born into the virtual world. Linux is rarely the standard for students and newcomers, almost all those who switched to Linux must have a certain degree of interest which unfortunately the majority of the populace does not.
We can however, recommend Linux to users who are not chained to any working standard such as Grandmas/Grandpas, writers and etc. Who's working application has a just as good or even better alternative in the Open Source world. But as for those who work in offices, students who are specifically required to use a proprietary software. They are chained onto those and cannot make the switch. The rest just doesn't care, let's be real. Switching to Linux was never easy (for the norm), Seriously, I was an interested user who struggled the first two months (my whole vacation) just to know how bootloaders work! Let alone people who have less interest and are less likely to take on the effort.
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3:13
I believe that's the thing, Linux is naturally not for the uninterested. Unlike Windows or Mac, who are commercially and influentially dominant are able to dangle their systems on people who are newly born into the virtual world. Linux is rarely the standard for students and newcomers, almost all those who switched to Linux must have a certain degree of interest which unfortunately the majority of the populace does not.
We can however, recommend Linux to users who are not chained to any working standard such as Grandmas/Grandpas, writers and etc. Who's working application has a just as good or even better alternative in the Open Source world. But as for those who work in offices, students who are specifically required to use a proprietary software. They are chained onto those and cannot make the switch. The rest just doesn't care, let's be real. Switching to Linux was never easy (for the norm), Seriously, I was an interested user who struggled the first two months (my whole vacation) just to know how bootloaders work! Let alone people who have less interest and are less likely to take on the effort.
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Lurker
I keep hearing things like -Ubuntu is for noobs-. I've been using it since at least 2012, and I say Ubuntu is for those who'd rather do work with their computers than mess with the OS. A distro that has pretty much every application directly available in the repository, and is easy to install would be a good -mass market- distro, and the Linux community being what it is, there's still room for the Arch -build it from source- crowd. I have MythTV systems based on Arch (It's called LinHES) and I love them. However, when I tried to build a server on Arch and install one application, I got so buried in building from source and then finding all dependencies that I just gave up and did it with Ubuntu. (Sudo apt install xxxx, and I was done.) Plus, if you like to tweak, you can still do that with Ubuntu to get the experience you want. (I've never run the default Ubuntu desktop, and currently use MATE.) I do believe, however, that it would be great if applications pretty much had the same interfaces and adapted standard shortcuts. (Why can't every app just keep the traditional -File, Edit, View...- menu structure?)
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I keep hearing things like -Ubuntu is for noobs-. I've been using it since at least 2012, and I say Ubuntu is for those who'd rather do work with their computers than mess with the OS. A distro that has pretty much every application directly available in the repository, and is easy to install would be a good -mass market- distro, and the Linux community being what it is, there's still room for the Arch -build it from source- crowd. I have MythTV systems based on Arch (It's called LinHES) and I love them. However, when I tried to build a server on Arch and install one application, I got so buried in building from source and then finding all dependencies that I just gave up and did it with Ubuntu. (Sudo apt install xxxx, and I was done.) Plus, if you like to tweak, you can still do that with Ubuntu to get the experience you want. (I've never run the default Ubuntu desktop, and currently use MATE.) I do believe, however, that it would be great if applications pretty much had the same interfaces and adapted standard shortcuts. (Why can't every app just keep the traditional -File, Edit, View...- menu structure?)
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Lake
My guess is that Linux advanced users are living in a buble. Here is why.
All, i mean all the explanations found on -Ask Ubuntu- given are NOT for beginners.
-Trying to understand how to be able to write on USB stick -you're not the owner-, again, explanations are terrible complicated.
Why not a simple right click allow me to enable writing on disk ?
- Mouse wheel scroll speed is too low, guess what, explanations given, are not only complicated, but noone was able to give me the solution when i asked that on forum. Is that so hard to put wheel speed option in Settings?
- I have new laptop (Lenovo), which by the way is not compatible with Linux Mint and i want to preserve the battery, again explanations can not be used for beginners.
(Titus, in your presentation you forgot to mention this problem of explanations not suitable for beginners.)
I just can not recomend Linux to any friends. Windows try to -help- users move on another platform, but so does Linux.
Linux just don't care about newcomers, in 2021 it keeps being so unfriendly to them.
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My guess is that Linux advanced users are living in a buble. Here is why.
All, i mean all the explanations found on -Ask Ubuntu- given are NOT for beginners.
-Trying to understand how to be able to write on USB stick -you're not the owner-, again, explanations are terrible complicated.
Why not a simple right click allow me to enable writing on disk ?
- Mouse wheel scroll speed is too low, guess what, explanations given, are not only complicated, but noone was able to give me the solution when i asked that on forum. Is that so hard to put wheel speed option in Settings?
- I have new laptop (Lenovo), which by the way is not compatible with Linux Mint and i want to preserve the battery, again explanations can not be used for beginners.
(Titus, in your presentation you forgot to mention this problem of explanations not suitable for beginners.)
I just can not recomend Linux to any friends. Windows try to -help- users move on another platform, but so does Linux.
Linux just don't care about newcomers, in 2021 it keeps being so unfriendly to them.
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Vivian
I was, like millions of others in the country where I live, forced into computer use for reasons that cannot be divulged . I built my first and subsequent machines as branded machines were way beyond my purchasing power.. At that time -95 was on the way out and -98 was what was being installed left right and center. I found -98 a real torture with the ridiculously designed partitioning, and formatting process . Windows xp proved to be an answer to everyone-s prayer and remains to this day the world-s most user friendly OS. Anyone with a modicum of ordinary intelligence and skill is able to install and use this Rolls Royce of operating systems. With xp becoming obsolete, I have been searching for the next os . Windows 7 was the first step towards the coming user unfriendly os-s . I have been trying ,without success to find information detailing the installation process of a beginner version of Linux. Could you be kind enough to give me a link or links to a video or pdf or published book or booklet suitable for a total beginner Linus user? Thank you.
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I was, like millions of others in the country where I live, forced into computer use for reasons that cannot be divulged . I built my first and subsequent machines as branded machines were way beyond my purchasing power.. At that time -95 was on the way out and -98 was what was being installed left right and center. I found -98 a real torture with the ridiculously designed partitioning, and formatting process . Windows xp proved to be an answer to everyone-s prayer and remains to this day the world-s most user friendly OS. Anyone with a modicum of ordinary intelligence and skill is able to install and use this Rolls Royce of operating systems. With xp becoming obsolete, I have been searching for the next os . Windows 7 was the first step towards the coming user unfriendly os-s . I have been trying ,without success to find information detailing the installation process of a beginner version of Linux. Could you be kind enough to give me a link or links to a video or pdf or published book or booklet suitable for a total beginner Linus user? Thank you.
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Gettriggered_Ian
Part of it I think is because of fragmentation. You have so much third party things and services to install that aren't meant for each other, and different mirrors can get introduced leading to outdated and too new packages, as well as the pulseaudio driver. There's like 20 different sources. Just Show me my audio devices! And open-source also has its downfalls. It means people are doing this as a hobby and you're not going to get updates always and people may not be as motivated to make things work or look polished. I swear a lot of Linux apps have outdated and ugly layouts and icons. I think being backed by a corporation can make things more, er, simple and polished. Distros also make things fragmented. There are different distros and if you type in -Linux tutorial- you may get instructions for say, apt, when you want a pacman install. For most people, Windows already does everything they want. For linux as a desktop, there are long ways to go.
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Part of it I think is because of fragmentation. You have so much third party things and services to install that aren't meant for each other, and different mirrors can get introduced leading to outdated and too new packages, as well as the pulseaudio driver. There's like 20 different sources. Just Show me my audio devices! And open-source also has its downfalls. It means people are doing this as a hobby and you're not going to get updates always and people may not be as motivated to make things work or look polished. I swear a lot of Linux apps have outdated and ugly layouts and icons. I think being backed by a corporation can make things more, er, simple and polished. Distros also make things fragmented. There are different distros and if you type in -Linux tutorial- you may get instructions for say, apt, when you want a pacman install. For most people, Windows already does everything they want. For linux as a desktop, there are long ways to go.
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Andrew
I was driven to Linux by the lack of support for W7 and I really don-t like W10. As a Linux newbie, I think reason number 5 comes nearest. I-m enjoying my first two months with Mint 20 but I think amateurish software and poor printer support are the big problems for me. Most of us just want to get the job done. We don-t want to mess about downloading new packages for adequate office software or to get our network or our video camera to work. My Canon Pixma printer works but its Linux software is a joke compared with Windows. We definitely don-t want to go back 40 years to DOS command lines! In my view, if Linux is to break into the Windows monopoly it has to be a lot less divisive and techie. It needs one solid and reliable distribution so retailers and computer manufacturers can standardise. Computers have long since moved into the category of consumer goods and there are very few users who still want to look under the hood/bonnet.
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I was driven to Linux by the lack of support for W7 and I really don-t like W10. As a Linux newbie, I think reason number 5 comes nearest. I-m enjoying my first two months with Mint 20 but I think amateurish software and poor printer support are the big problems for me. Most of us just want to get the job done. We don-t want to mess about downloading new packages for adequate office software or to get our network or our video camera to work. My Canon Pixma printer works but its Linux software is a joke compared with Windows. We definitely don-t want to go back 40 years to DOS command lines! In my view, if Linux is to break into the Windows monopoly it has to be a lot less divisive and techie. It needs one solid and reliable distribution so retailers and computer manufacturers can standardise. Computers have long since moved into the category of consumer goods and there are very few users who still want to look under the hood/bonnet.
reply
abruptly
i know this video is a couple years old but the subject is still relevant so it's worth commenting on. the points being made in this video are all valid ones which if correct would remove some of the major barriers stopping Linux's growth unfortunately, to correct even just one of those issues, Linux and everything Linux stands for would be destroyed. marketing, support, standardization, those are all things done by corporations, corporations whole reason for existence is profit, the only way to create profit is by having complete control over something, there is no way to profit off of something that is given away free. Linux was created for the people by the people and we need to make sure that bottom feeding cesspool corporations like google and microsoft are never allowed to get their greedy life sucking tentacles on it, no matter what!!!
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i know this video is a couple years old but the subject is still relevant so it's worth commenting on. the points being made in this video are all valid ones which if correct would remove some of the major barriers stopping Linux's growth unfortunately, to correct even just one of those issues, Linux and everything Linux stands for would be destroyed. marketing, support, standardization, those are all things done by corporations, corporations whole reason for existence is profit, the only way to create profit is by having complete control over something, there is no way to profit off of something that is given away free. Linux was created for the people by the people and we need to make sure that bottom feeding cesspool corporations like google and microsoft are never allowed to get their greedy life sucking tentacles on it, no matter what!!!
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Mark
When you-re 'into computers' you think the rest of the world is and take as much interest as you do. My wife has a laptop she uses for storing photos, playing Candy Crush going on Facebook and eBay/Amazon. No matter how much I try to persuade otherwise, laptop shopping with her is ''The cheapest will do'' and the cheapest carries Windows. Also my Ubuntu, like the vast majority of people's, is on an old Windows machine, did anyone strike a point off Windows and add it to Linux?
As an aside is the Google Chrome OS counted as Linux? Though it flies in the face of what Linux stands for it is based on the kernel. As a newbie I-m finding the whole Chrome OS thing confusing as I admit to hating Google even more than Windows.
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When you-re 'into computers' you think the rest of the world is and take as much interest as you do. My wife has a laptop she uses for storing photos, playing Candy Crush going on Facebook and eBay/Amazon. No matter how much I try to persuade otherwise, laptop shopping with her is ''The cheapest will do'' and the cheapest carries Windows. Also my Ubuntu, like the vast majority of people's, is on an old Windows machine, did anyone strike a point off Windows and add it to Linux?
As an aside is the Google Chrome OS counted as Linux? Though it flies in the face of what Linux stands for it is based on the kernel. As a newbie I-m finding the whole Chrome OS thing confusing as I admit to hating Google even more than Windows.
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