No, according to Jack Walen, show, don’t tell. After that, it’s up to whoever you show, isn’t it?
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For me, it’s not the Apple hardware I have an aversion to, it’s the early attitude of Apple’s user community, as if somehow, using a Mac (or other Apple product) made them superior. The primary reason that Apple products have their reputation for being so rock solid is because their ecosystem’s so tightly buttoned down, but just look at what users sacrifice for that (freedom of choice, individuality, ability to build your own, etc.).
Ernie
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Maybe so, but as long as there’s still even one distribution, or a Windows OS available, I’ll use that instead. I prefer to make whatever I’m using do things that work with my way of doing things. I refuse to bend my workflow to fit some remote OS running in a VM somewhere, unless I put it together.
Ernie
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Agree. Since I have wandered blindly into my 90’s, very unlikely I will see the day.
Soldier on!
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For most countries , internet issues rule it out. It is simply too slow and unreliable.
We had the whole country go down for half a day this week.
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When I tried Win, I thought the support was remote and unfriendly. ? Definitely not easy.
Linux has a whole spectrum of support sites, where anyone can ask questions.
Did you perhaps mean , easier to get a support person?
Yes , most computer shops have Win expertese.
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Yes, you can only show to someone who will look.
What attracts attention?
- what peers are doing
- rewards … promised or real
- need to get some task completed
- some unique feature seen by accident
- some ethical argument … Linux is sustainable, Linux is green, join the Linux movement for a free World..
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The population of Windows users has a lot of inertia.
“People often underestimate the inherent momentum of a stock. It takes a long time for populations to grow or stop growing, for wood to accumulate in a forest, for a reservoir to fill up, for a mine to be depleted.”
Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer
It is quite uncommon for a large population of anything to change quickly. Geneticists call it homeostasis… buffering against change.
The dinosaurs did not die out overnight . Windows may decline, but it will do so slowly. Anything more dramatic than that would require a computing catastrophe.
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Both. There are bazillions of windows forums as well as “expert” sites. You can even find them without AI, although they may answer with it these days. When I “retired”, a shop took over the IT work and solve almost everything remotely. Got some very strong techs. Reasonable price. I still do the ESXi support (remotely) and the virtual servers supporting the P9 applications as well as the surveillance cameras. We/I maintain an off line mirror server for DR (also running ESXi). I am a strong advocate for Linux, but it will never (IMO) take over the desktop until there is a large technology change. Paradigm shift? Perhaps we go back to mainframes and station wagons? 
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I should add that my main personal efforts these days have to do with Raspberry Pi’s. I have 5 active now, one was hosting 3 web sites for a while. Had to give up my service with static IP’s. Several in “desktop enclosures” running with SSD’s.
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I did not know that. I only ever tried official support.
Linux will not change the DIY mode. Some dustros like REL might add paid support on top of that.
Linux is a starter kit. If it shifted to being a product a lot of current Linux users would look elsewhere, probably to BSD.
You are doing really well. I continued doing some things when I retired, but there were new challenges too.
It is important to do some physical and mental activities.
Cheers
Neville
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Hopefully, over time, as technology improves, such issues will fade into a distant memory, even so, I still won’t choose any OS that tries to make me do things its way, when on a local machine, I can make either Windows or Garuda Linux do things my way.
Ernie
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Agree. I will do the same but with Debian.
Alas, I submit that we are outliers.
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Its not just windows vs linux it is also the tools available to the user. I converted all our association computers to linux, no big deal and done to have a standard desktop for all, no virus issues etc. Set up gmail accounts for all, using google sheets set up membership lists activities list… gave rights of access when and where needed.
But this year our membership secretary MUST have excel for members listing not sheets, its a simple data list no calculations nothing complex but he only knows excel so wants us to buy a new windows computer then rent excel my argument is everything works why pay out for something not needed. But I suspect I will loose the discussion.
User demands and fixed software ideas. Btw excel will run under wine but not all versions and excel on internet works.
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Simple. Give him Excel in a bottle.
That is what ‘bottle’ is supposed to be for.
They are all available in Linux
Your friend is like a workman argueing about which brand of shovel. … they all do the job.
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But its renting the excel software or using an illégal copy.
I can remember “users” demanding Microsoft Office Professional - because they “needed” MS Access RDBMS and Excel…
Turns out they didn’t - their spreadsheet / database needs could have been sorted with a simple table in MS word - no logic, no formulae, no table relationships or keys…
Just flat tables with like 3-4 columns and maybe 30-40 rows…
But they know best - they “KNOW” they need a relational database application or a spreadsheet application (or both)…
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Do you mean you have to pay for this rubbish?
I thought it came with Win.?
I think it has more to do with history. When the majority of corporations began using PCs, Microsoft, with its DOS, then Windows OSes, was the only real game in town. Then when other, smaller companies entered the world of digital management, they followed what looked like the trodden path. As this evolution continued, Microsoft and their MS-DOS, and later, Windows OSes became the de-facto choice for the enterprise, so when the use of PCs in the home became more commonplace, home users chose what they’ve heard of - MS-DOS or later, Windows.
When Linus Torvalds introduced what we now call the Linux kernel, the Microsoft ecosystem was thoroughly entrenched as the de-facto choice in the global marketplace, and this new GNU/Linux OS was very rough around the edges, and for the common user, involved a nearly insurmountable learning curve. When compared with MS-DOS or Windows, where hardware support was wide-spread, and the learning curve was no where near as steep, if you ask me, it’s entirely understandable why Windows so dominated the market, and still does. It has been, and is the de-facto choice for most computer users, so any change will be inexorably slow, and we may not see it happen in our lifetimes.
Ernie
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Even in view of the fact that they shot themselves in the foot by ending support for Windows 10, albeit that they’ve recognized their miscalculation, and extended security support twice now, and I’m expecting a third iteration, going forward - but not before seeing an exodus in the making.
Ernie
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