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Comment by cogman10 | Hacker News Reader

I've been seeing it a lot on reddit as well, with a lot of non-technical users asking "how do I get started with linux?"

I think this is a real thing and I think a combination of MS demanding everyone get new hardware and Valve really polishing a lot of linux has gone a long way to get non-technical users to start seriously considering linux.

It's a huge added bonus that old hardware simply flies with linux. I have a 5 year old laptop that feels about 10x more responsive since I killed the windows install and put linux on it.

And I know that laptop will continue to fly because, unlike windows, it's never going to get any sort of serious bloatware added on as I update it.

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Yeah, I think a big part of the momentum toward Linux is from the end of Windows 10 support, and Windows 11's increased hardware demands.

Given how rough and uncertain the economy is, this creates a large group of people who can't or aren't comfortable upgrading their computer, but at the same time don't want to be stuck on EOL Windows 10 forever either.

Anecdotally I’ve seen among my non-tech friends more questions about VPNs. Several of my friends own Steam Decks which is pretty wild to me given they are just normie gamers.

It’s literally the ads and bloatware. Windows is horrible unless you are technical enough to strategically disable the bloatware, and keep on disabling it as the updates continually reenable it. And if you are technical enough to disable it then Linux isn’t a problem.

Microsoft really is enterprise, cloud, and GitHub / AI tools. Windows for personal users is harvesting as much cash as possible from boomers and gamers, but the gamers are leaving en masse now. Software professionals only use macOS or Linux unless they are a MS shop that has to use Windows stack.

It is an incredible shift for those of us who have been around forever. But it’s a true look at how impossible things shift, bit by bit, until all of a sudden it all washes away. Never believe the tech cos on top today can’t be beat. It can and will happen someday

> It’s literally the ads and bloatware

I hope more companies and MBAs open their eyes to this: that the long term cost of user-hostile changes is negative compared to respecting users and building good products.

Also currently it helps to stand out from the sea of crap products.

Play the long game. Make good products. Bring joy and positive experience to peoples lives. Sleep well at night.

I’m a big fan of staying private. I own a company that took VC many years ago but we strategically stayed private for a decade now and made peace with the VC. You just keep being honest, stacking customers, playing the long game. I see the value of being public but as a 100 to 500 person company that grows steadily, you keep it private and remove the quarterly earnings. The constant drive to hit the quarterly nut at all costs causes so many stupid short term benefits that hurt long term value. There is an enormous number of small companies you have never heard of like this. It’s just so short sighted to kill the golden goose to juice some profit

That’s awesome! I want to do the same if I start a company.

Indeed quarterly earnings make people think short term, disregard long term. Focus on growth above all else

How did you manage to agree with VC?

Bought them out

It won’t help, because once those MBAs take VC money, the incentives push the product toward enshittification sooner or later.

What we’re seeing instead is open-source becoming the real alternative. People used to look for other proprietary tools, but now open-source options are getting good enough, and more people are building personal software that fits their needs instead of bloated do-everything apps.

That’s the shift. Open-source is rising, and I don’t think these companies can reverse course fast enough.

> Several of my friends own Steam Decks which is pretty wild to me given they are just normie gamers.

I would say that’s absolutely the most normal gamer way of playing PC games. As someone who is mostly given up on playing games on a computer and prefer consoles, I’ve thought of doing the same thing.

I agree it’s really impressive that lots of people have decided to try Linux, far more than I remember ever before.

But I’m worried this is “the moment“. Possibly the best shot that’s gonna happen for a long time. And if people find things aren’t as ready as they think from what they hear they’re going to be burned and they’re not coming back. The next time around not only will they not come, they’ll push other people away from trying.

I don’t know if we’ve reached that magical inflection point or not. I think some people are using rosy glasses again though. The real momentum has never been this strong. But it’s not a done deal.

I was never really a serious gamer and don't do it much at all any longer.

But one of my senses is that the sort of games that really benefited from a desktop system--primarily Windows--like serious simulations and resource allocation games are increasingly fringe.

Certainly there are games on Linux today but I also wonder if a lot of people won't decide, as you say, that consoles are just easier.

Their point was that Steam Deck is a gaming console with Linux on it.

That’s true. You’d have to be a little picky. I know you can plug in a KB and mouse but… why?

Still there are a huge number of games from indies or small publishers that may not make it to console but would still work fantastically with a controller. Or maybe they’re successful and they will make it over, you just don’t want to wait the two years.

Those kind of games are the ones that make me consider getting a Steam Deck.

I'm one of those non-technical users. For the past week or so I've been messing with getting a servarr stack going with a vpn. Mapping a network drive to the host device, configuring the docker images, port forwarding, etc., is all foreign to me and I'm still not sure I understand what port-forwarding is. I used portainer since I like having the GUI. I can just view the dashboard and poke around to explore, rather than staring at a terminal wondering what to do, searching a vague description of the problem, and pasting some cryptic command I find. Instead, I notice the "logs" button and click that.

All that to say that I am interested enough in a Linux machine, but don't feel I have the requisite knowledge to drive one.

> It's a huge added bonus that old hardware simply flies with linux. I have a 5 year old laptop that feels about 10x more responsive since I killed the windows install and put linux on it.

I fact, Linux is much easier to run on somewhat older hardware because drivers are often a bit slow to land and Ubuntu and its derivatives always lag in kernel versions.

Older hardware becoming more valuable because price hikes doubly benefit Linux.

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