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Dear Big Tech, Stop Shoving AI Into Operating Systems
(www.howtogeek.com)
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this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2025
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I'm getting so sick of Microsoft and Apples bullshit that I'm about to switch personally, but from the research i did it sounds like the biggest problem with Linux on the desktop is that there still aren't standard, unified, unchanging APIs that can be relied upon, so finding third party software and utilities is still a crap shoot compared to something like Windows that can still run binaries that targets it's 1995 era APIs.
Any software that requires me to compile it from source just to run it on my machine is fine for me, a software developer, and probably fine for my mum that just does word processing and browsing since she won't be installing things, but seems a little too friction filled for your average enthusiast?
Depends on how fringe you go. There's a remarkable amount of stuff that can be installed from the Program Manager. The ones that aren't will take some tweaking but.. I remember a time when I was trying to do this very thing in Windows 95. If you want it bad enough, you'll figure it out.
I'm trying to channel my younger GenX, and if it's a bit of a struggle for younger generations then I encourage them to embrace it. It's an unfortunate truth that not everything works like it works on an IPhone, and I can't overstate how important it is to learn some of the basics of the OS and troubleshooting for everyone's future.
Lol I'm a millenial software engineer. I grew up using Windows and was able to learn my way around a filesystem perfectly fine without ever having to compile any programs from source.
Don't put Linux's lack of stability on GenZ's use of apps.
they mention genz specifically but boomers and millenials are falling down the same path expecting software to just download and work, Because of the google/apple/microsoft/sony/nintendo ecosystems we are so used to. But even in these ecosystems learning to troubleshoot is paramount so I expect to see younger people entering the linux sphere in droves.
You definitely are a minority though, most people dont care for this stuff at all. Most will simply give up instead of doing more research and trying different tactics to repair software and hardware.
They expect it to just work because literally every other product they buy just works and well made software should too.
Like, I'm the kind of person who will take apart a broken power tool or appliance, order replacement parts, and figure out whatever I have to to fix it... and that's precisely why I try to pay for stuff that's high enough quality that I don't have to do that.
I value being able to repair things when they break, I don't value things that are shipped with the expectation that I'm going to have to repair them, or learn a bunch of arcane stuff just to use them.
Most people have a millions different things they are trying to do with their lives, and there are a million and one different complicated systems in our world to spend your time obsessing over. Not everyone can or will understand how software is compiled.
The fact of the matter is that Microsoft's approach to Windows created an enormous amount of stability and backwards compatibility that let an absolutely massive chunk of the population progress to being overall computer power users, without a computer science background or any knowledge of coding.
Linux has not done the same. It has many strengths, but it's inability to maintain backwards (and cross distro) binary compatibility has hamstrung it as a consumer desktop tool.