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Comment by Forgeties79 | Hacker News Reader

I feel like this is a little nitpicky. Clearly they are talking about mainstream for the average home computer user as a daily driver OS. Even with the steam deck it’s barely touching 5%. It’s still obscure and mysterious to the vast majority of the population in a way windows and macOS aren’t.

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I've been a techie my whole life, and for me, the mysterious OS is macOS. I haven't used it since high school (late 90s), which is when I picked up linux at home.

I was never able to afford mac products as a young person, and now that I can, I wouldn't part with linux.

I really don’t feel like I need to explain how this is not what I’m talking about.

Okay, well this is: I've installed ubuntu for my elderly father, who is the opposite of a techie.

He didn't know the difference. He can still browse the web and play solitaire, just like on windows.

He ran it for a few years. Then he bought a new device and hasn't asked for my help.

This is still not what we are talking about. This has nothing to do with ease of use when set up or the practical considerations of swapping. Linux is not mainstream in the consumer world. People do not really know what it is. It is still mysterious and personal computer installation is far from turnkey.

I know but I’m not sure it actually matters.

To many people the internet and internet explorer ( or edge ) are the same thing, and for almost everyone I know , the daily driver is the phone or tablet OS not the laptop/desktop OS. And I’m not even talking about the ones who live in a browser.

I started using Linux in 96 and for many years it was going to be the year of Linux on the desktop. It never happened , and I’m not sure it’s that important these days , given the gigantic presence Linux has, and the way people interact with computing devices in general these days .

Edit / clarification : there are a lots of computer professionals on HN, and as such see actual pcs / Macs etc a lot. Many people don’t and just see their phones.

The percentage of computers involved running Windows when you Google, Netflix, Amazon, Bank, Email on your Windows laptop is less then 50%.

As I said to the other person, I really don’t feel like I need to explain how this is not what we are talking about.

Go ask 100 random people to name 1 Linux distro.

Go ask 100 people what operating system they're using and if they do say windows, ask them what version.

While not exactly the same, I guarantee you more people will know the answer to that than the Linux distro question.

With the steam deck 5% is around 300% to 500% growth over the last 5 years

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