Is Linux As Good As We Think It Is?
After all, Linux is mine. I care for it. Grow it like a garden.
We live in a world where the idea of community has been destroyed by rampant capitalism and the death of third spaces.
While there is indeed a lot to be said for something that “just works,” that “just works” demand is borne from a capitalist/consumer process that is literally in the process of going off the rails.
Why do we get so mad at Windows? Because it isn’t ours. Microsoft grows it like a weed on our property. Its roots begin sticking out new places all the time (“hey what’s that new bullshit on my taskbar?”) and has zero respect for your needs as opposed to its needs. Windows only cares for Microsoft’s needs, and it makes that readily evident in how you’re forced to use it.
Linux is the communal kibbutz, Windows is the corporate city.
In other words, Linux is better than we think it is.
@SnotFlickerman @wuphysics87 I think this is getting two things mixed up, honestly. It is true that many systems do not recognize people's agency, and force new things on them that are unwanted. But that is not the same thing as "just works"!
When people ask for something that "just works", usually what they are asking for is a reasonable and accessible baseline experience, reliable feedback that tells them what to do next if something goes wrong, and an overall predictable system that is difficult to break beyond one's own ability to fix it.
None of these require disrespecting people's agency to fulfill, and all of them are points that every Linux distro I've ever seen scores poorly on. Some distros barely meet the bar of "baseline reasonable experience", only to immediately fall apart and require complex interactions to fix as soon as anything breaks.
Does this mean that Linux needs to be restricted to a single set of mandated usage and design like Windows (and, recently, GNOME) have been chasing? No. But there is absolutely a lot of room for improvement in the general reliability and accessibility of Linux systems, without compromising the customisability and agency that a Linux system typically provides.
