[plug] Linux on the desktop; Re: Introduction + broken links

[Alastair Irvine]

On Fri, 09 November, 2018 at 06:55:36PM +0800, Richard Jones wrote:

Welcome!

[snip]
> I've always been puzzled when I see linux people talking about that
> other transition, from Redmond malware to linux, as difficult. When
> I first made that switch, the primary motivation was to get away
> from a broken OS that could only be made to work by CS experts,
> likewise could possible be made as secure as linux but again only by
> experts.
> 
> Once I bit the bullet, I had a system that is normally working
> instead of normally broken, and if I had difficulties help was only
> a search away, in contrast to the ridiculous amount of time wasted
> trying to deal with multiple hassles on a daily basis.

I think the perspective that a lot of people who like Linux lack, is
that people who are used to Windows or Mac experience a steep learning
curve when starting to use a different system.  So all of the techniques
that they've learned for finding their way around and getting things
done, have to be replaced with a whole set of equivalent (albeit not
very different) techniques.  This produces a high cognitive load for
people who are not naturally explorers or tinkerers, but who use
computers only as a tool to achieve an end result.  This leads to the
user experiencing self-doubt and fear, which results in distrust of the
system and the people who recommended it.

I'm of the opinion that the vast majority of people will never have the
desire to learn Linux, on the desktop especially, and that encouraging
them to do so is always doomed to failure.  (Unless they are an
explorer/tinkerer type already.)  Another factor contributing to this
lack of motivation is that that an even larger proportion of people
don't understand enough about the systems they use to be able to
appreciate the benefits of greater freedom, security and privacy.

On a positive note, a mitigating factor for some of the above pessimism
could be that, under controlled circumstances (e.g. a new job
environment), if a sufficiently user-friendly system is already in place
that is used for a specific purpose, it could act as a "soft entry" to
Linux.  Be aware that this is a special case, that does not apply to
situations where "general purpose computing" is a reqirement.

It's also worth noting that if people are already used to using open
source software like Firefox and LibreOffice on proprietary OSes, this
can make the transition to desktop Linux easier, but I suspect that this
would be helpful in only a minority of cases.