Hacker News Reader

Comment by ranger207 | Hacker News Reader

One common complaint with the idea of the year if the Linux desktop is that Linux simply doesn't "just work" in the way MacOS and even Windows do. I think that's becoming less and less a barrier though for both the fact that Linux is getting closer to "just working" (especially as Windows and MacOS get further away), but also because more and more of the people still using Windows are power users and aren't as intimidated by the command line or manually resolving library dependencies or whatever. Like, there's a lot of PC gamers that'll happily spend hours on messing with their system to eke out another 5 FPS, or doing manual dependency resolution to get 200 SkyDome mods to play nicely together. "Doesn't just work" isn't as big a deal to power users that are more likely to be annoyed by Windows and MacOS's trajectory anyway

View on HN

The idea that Windows "just works" is pretty recent. 20 years ago, any time I visited a relative who had a Windows PC, I was installing Firefox, fixing a driver, and removing spyware, if not outright malware. Either you were a power user, or you were having a bad time.

It's also still not true. My son has a Windows machine that he's responsible for, after a long time running ChromeOS. He's reported all kinds of weird driver things, and having had to watch YouTube tutorials to figure out how to fix issues.

At least the vendor writes a Windows driver, no matter how bad it is. If your device doesn't work on Linux, you're simply SOL.

The main difference is that with Windows the work is mostly front loaded. From 2000/XP forward, as long as you set up the correct drivers post-install, they for most intents and purposes, barring shitty hardware, really did “just work”.

There’s something to be said for “Windows creep” though, where the install decays over time and a reinstall is required. Back in the 2K/XP/Vista days this could be pretty bad, but that improved with 7 onwards. It still exists today, but the decay takes years to become noticeable instead of months.

Linux isn’t without its own issues there however. Even on a more friendly distro like Ubuntu or Fedora, eventually one will end up with things like config files that slipped through the cracks and didn’t get migrated correctly, very slowing degrading the desktop experience.

That more or less matches my experience. A quality PC with NT5+ preloaded and not too much bundled crapware would mostly just work when it was fresh, but it would not be working well a year later if not maintained by someone with a modicum of technical knowledge.

I don't disagree which is why the level of effort needed to use Linux has always seemed overblown to me lol, but that is the relative popular perception

"Just works" in computing is an illusion. Modern computers have enough complexity and potential failure where their internal (usually software) components interact that they must be maintained and sysadmin'd. And if you're not doing that yourself, you're delegating that task to someone else—typically the OS vendor. That's why Microsoft considers Windows a "service" and will force updates at the least convenient possible time. That's why Apple has set up restrictions on running arbitrary software, even on Macs but especially on iDevices. The cost of having a device that seems to "just work" is a device you don't really own.

Even on idevices, just works is more marketing and mental gymnastics than reality.

Not far off though. My mum's been on iphone for a decade and I don't think there have been issues with it not working. There are issues with figuring out how to work it though and Apples magic hidden gestures and the like.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com