this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2024
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Linux
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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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What do you want? A stat counter for everyone's personal PC?
The government of India, the largest country by population, using Linux is.. a huge win?
It's a huge win, but not the kind of win people reading the statistic with no context (like me) probably thought.
I'm sure a lot of us looked at "15 percent of desktop PCs in India run Linux" and, regardless of whether it was hasty and irresponsible for us to do so, extrapolated that to, "15 percent of Indian PC users are personally selecting Linux and normalizing its paradigms".
But in reality, it sounds more like "15 percent of Indian PC users use Linux to launch Google Chrome". Which is impressive, but not the specific kind of impressive we wanted.
It feels a bit like how I imagine, say, a song artist feels when they pour their heart and soul into a piece of music, it gets modest to no traction for a while, and then years later a 20 second loop becomes the backing track for a massive Tiktok meme, and almost zero of that attention trickles back to their other work.
Most people on MacOS only use a web browser. Most people on Windows only use a web browser. Its nothing to be ashamed of.
No one said it was shameful?
He is trying to discredit the stat just because most of the use is opening a web browser. That's a fine use for an operating system and just as valid.
Indeed, sounds like a legitimate win to me.
It's basically a FOSS Chromebook.
It's a win, but not something that has any meaningful impact on normalizing Linux desktop usage.
It's not going to help the network effects of convincing vendors or manufacturers provide better support for Linux.
The government is probably the biggest customer you can get as a vendor / manufacturer. You'd be insane to not give them whatever support they ask for.
All they need is a chrome browser, so why would the government waste money on windows licences? A huge win is when personal pcs switch to linux. Linux doing basic web browsing and word processing is not a huge win.
My sister only uses her MacBook to access Safari and watch YouTube videos. Should she be counted?
I understand what you mean, and these aren't people intentionally installing Linux in their houses... And while that would be better, it's not the only win. Government employees in India using Linux on Chrome means that Google has more incentive to make Chrome better on Linux. It means that people have less reason the arbitrarily block Linux users from their website. It means maybe in the future, Linux will be installed on school laptops as well.
Is it the Year of the Linux Desktop? No. Is 15% still misleading, hence your post is a good PSA? Yes. But is the 15% not a win? Nah, it's still a win!
Most schools in India already use some distribution of Linux.
My point being web browsing and word processing was never a problem on linux or any other os. It is being used just because it is cheaper and people who buy personal pcs are still on windows or mac and they dont switch
Oh boy, I have had such a different experience.. So many websites used to not working.
I would highly disagree with you. Linux doing basic web browsing and word processing is a huge win. Those two are where people who don't care just default to Windows, which makes it much harder for people who want to use Linux in a professional setting outside of software development. If professional documents default to .odt instead of .docx, that's massive progress in my mind.
Yes you are right. It will increase marketshare giving it more support.
This is what the majority of desktop computers and laptops are used for, so if the majority of people can start using Linux and not care or notice any difference, then that is a huge win. It means more software developed for Linux, more open file formats, etc.
@caustictrap @OsrsNeedsF2P you are entirely missing the point about linux