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I'm Not a Programmer, but Here’s Why Linux Is My Daily Driver
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this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2024
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Wait ... is there a perception (or reality?) that most Linux users are programmers?
I'm an introvert, but all programmers I know use Windows (and badly in the sense they aren't power users).
That's a logical fallacy, all dogs are animals does not imply that all animals are dogs. Even if all programmers you know use Windows that could still mean that all Linux users are programmers.
That being said several relatives use Linux because I refused to help with IT unless they had Linux, and since then they mostly hadn't needed IT support. So it's not true that all Linux users are programmers, but a good percentage of us are.
I was not explaining my logic nor my beliefs, just describing my smol sample (introvert!), as a btw fun fact.
But I was under the impression that there is no distinguishable difference between which OSs use programmes vs non-programmers (and the other way around).
Perhaps bcs I fail to se any specific connection between the two. But yes, my logic would be that both types use and are used by both to roughly the same extent.
(Haha, exactly same experience with relatives - forced them on Linux, never had anything non-trivial to fix since then.)
I’m a programmer! I use Linux and Windows. In fact, I’m now in my second job in a Microsoft shop (and no, neither were/are .NET…). And I’ve had exactly zero jobs where I was issued or allowed to use a Linux machine.
Yeah, wtf, what did Linux ever do to ~~the great furry community~~ sys admins?
Our group is still fully on Windows all the things (except like two virtual servers), desktops all run W10.
I will again plead in this years strategy to not upgrade to W11, if for nothing else 'moral reasons'.
I'll be the only one tho.
I would want to « force » my relatives to use Linux. My wife had an unsupported MacBook Pro from 2012, so I managed to convince her it would be safer to switch. Since then, she hasn’t used macOS, but she also hasn’t used Linux because she can use her work provided windows laptop 😅
I also proposed to my mom to provide IT support remotely to her via Linux, but she prefers using windows and relying on an old friend who is forcing her to buy a lot of Microsoft products otherwise he refuses to help her.
I hope I’ll at least be able to teach my kids that Linux ain’t scary 🙏
There's some hardcore conflation going on that assumes that people with technical skills will tend to be good at everything, or that they'll gravitate towards the uber-geeky stuff.
In my experience it's a very wide spectrum. Lots of programmers are strictly focused on the language they use and don't care to know anything about the OS, or networking, even computers. They are definitely not jacks of all trades.
There are people who can do programming as well as system administration and build a PC and build some book shelves and so on. But that's a very specific type of person who's a tinkerer and happens to be into programming, it's not because they're a programmer.
Yes, a power tinkerer!
And if something needs to be programmed (or just coded, bcs copypasta), then that's what's gonna happen.
If IT won't accommodate my ticket in the way I want Im just gonna write another ticket for access rights.
In addition to the perception that you have to be "good at computers" (aka a programmer) to use Linux, in my experience a lot of Linux media outlets (websites, YT channels, podcasts, etc) tend to be heavy on advanced features and tools without much explanation in layman's terms and tend to be geared towards an IT professional/hobbyist audience, which can reinforce that stereotype among those (like me) who are not.
Yeah, this explanation makes the most sense to me.
Just a generalisation that "good at computers" is a programmer. So no Apple programmers :P (joking ofc)
Linux use among devs is much higher than gen pop.
https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2023/#section-most-popular-technologies-operating-system
Keep in mind, this adds up to more than 100% because it wasn't an exclusive choice question, it was multiple.
note if you sum up the linux distros here (excluding ChromeOS) you get 58,4% for personal use and 54,54% for professional use (of course keep in mind that there's some godless bastards who dual boot 2 linux distros that could skew these statistics).
Also note how that implies Linux is the most popular OS for professional use.
Anyways, I wish these stats wouldn't split Linux into distros, at least not by default. Linux distros are mostly the same and you're still using (GNU*/)Linux splitting it makes it seem less popular tan it actually is.
*unless you're using something like Alpine ig
Curious how they define professional use, like my work desktop is windows, but all the servers are rhel
Except it wasn't an exclusive choice question, it was multi-selection. So you could choose more than one OS (or distro). So this really doesn't give much of an idea what the main OS is that people use. But it's still going to be way higher than general users.
duh, still a useful statistic IMO
Most of the programmers I know (including myself) use Linux or BSD, but that all depends on who you associate with. A lot of companies are purely Windows shops and others just throw their programmers mac books and call it a day. At my last company I was only briefly allowed to use Linux until they decided it was no good as I couldn't use whatever resource intensive corporate garbage security software of the year they bought.