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Comment by peter_retief | Hacker News Reader

Why do people still use Microsoft is a great mystery to me.

That's obvious. It's much less expensive to buy a Windows PC than a Mac. Linux on the desktop is still quite terrible in a number of ways (particularly if you are ever unfortunate enough to deal with drivers and kernel modules for your slightly uncommon hardware). Chromebooks still don't rate that highly and haven't really entered the public consciousness as a result. Not to mention that many people are using Windows at work, in education or in plenty of other places where they ultimately don't get to choose.

I am surprised people on hackernews are still regurgitating talking points from 20 years ago - Linux on Desktop is quite terrible ? When was the last time you used Linux ..

I have been using Linux systems from the past 10-15 years and they have been my daily driver for almost everything - and I live on my computer. Never have I faced any issue that can't easily be solved. (If at all there were issues)

I am surprised people on hackernews still don't seem to understand that, on the whole, happy Linux users are a self-selecting group based on their own skills, understanding and tolerances.

I'm not saying that people don't have good experiences with Linux desktops. I'm saying that those experiences are still nowhere near universal, especially when you start to involve people who aren't really power users. The most common desktop environments are still wildly inconsistent at best and frequently an accessibility nightmare at worst. Trying to work out whether a given piece of hardware will be well supported (or supported at all!) is difficult. Resolving package manager conflicts, handling non-free firmwares, building and managing kernel modules, these things are _not trivial_. That's before we've even addressed the software that people are often forced to give up. I use a Linux desktop frequently and there are papercuts _everywhere_.

I'm really not sure where this prevailing mentality that you can just install Linux and ride off into the sunset comes from.

Yes.. but are we really saying that people can install Windows and ride off into the sunset?

IME there are always people who "get stuck" with their computer or end up in "nuke from orbit" situations.

> When was the last time you used Linux

Yesterday and it was terrible.

> Never have I faced any issue that can't easily be solved. (If at all there were issues)

Good luck viewing hdr content.

What was so terrible about it?

Off the top of my mind; mouse & trackpad, sound stack, bluetooth stack, hd/4k content streaming, no hdr at all, using multiple displays with different dpis... I tried every recommended driver&setting for mouse&trackpad. They are all terrible compared to Macos. The whole story of using multiple displays with xrandr, xinerama etc. is a joke. Agreed; you get a better experience with Wayland regarding that but then you lose the ability to do screenshare for the most part (without doing hacky stuff instead of doing work).

> Never have I faced any issue that can't easily be solved.

Which doesn't mean others didn't have issues, huh? Also some people might have not specific knowledge to solve the issues.

FreeBSD is also an option. MS desktop is almost unusable, bloated slow and clunky. (I have an MS boot) I imagine people are just used to it, it really is terrible

So true. If anything, something broken on Windows puts you in a worse position.

> Linux on the desktop is still quite terrible [...] for your slightly uncommon hardware

You have revealed your point of view. However, for the great majority of Linux users, Linux on the desktop has been a reality for well over a decade.

You are saying why people are stuck in MS, not choosing it.

You didn't say anything about "choosing" Microsoft. You said "use".

It was implied

1. It comes preinstalled on most PCs. It is just there.

2. Work in general (Office 365), and for software development "microsoft shops" although that is now more cultural with .NET5 running on Linux etc.

3. Games? (I am not a gamer)

It takes a bit of effort to switch to Linux, for most people's lives they are probably not aware of Linux, or even if they are don't see the point because Windows just works and does what they need.

I'd say convenience is the topmost reason. For most, it's not a matter of choice, Windows is preinstalled, they have been provided experience with it in schools, and Microsoft is often the standard choice in offices, with doc/docx, xls/xlsx being the de-facto standard document formats. For many, Windows is synonymous with a PC. Windows, in this context, is a low-level utility, beyond the boundary of care, like the manufacturer of car tyres.

https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~reinholz/freebsd/3reasons.html....

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