Microsoft has ended support for Windows 10, and one of the most popular Ubuntu-based Linux distros is celebrating its "biggest launch ever" after a spike in downloads from former Windows 10 users.
I hope this doesn’t mean the enshitifcaiton of Linux as we start to cater for people who don’t want to learn… We watched it with Microsoft products, though they also had a profitable reason to nerf their software.
Being simple to use out of the box is NOT a bad thing on its own. We are simply used to seeing the proprietary profit-driven version, which is the path to enshittification. When something works great out of the box but you still own your machine and have access to any damn thing you want that’s hidden from view by default, that is just a good product.
I’ve been an engineer in electronics and software for over 20 years. I have a masters in software engineering. I currently work on C and C++ code every day for embedded systems, including one that’s embedded linux. The terminal is my comfort zone. Screens full of super-legible monospaced text please my eyes.
I run Linux Mint Cinnamon (btw) on every computer of mine, even my work machine, and I don’t care who knows it!
I recommend it to anybody of any skill level who will listen.
It doesn’t have to. KDE is a great example here. Out of the box, it’s extremely simple to use, as well as familiar in look and feel to Windows. But if you want to - it gives you a lot of customization options. So it doesn’t seem to lose out on anything due to being simplified by default.
And frankly, a lot of Unix software could use a similar approach. I know it’s not that simple, but it helps the users greatly - particularly new ones, but experienced ones too. Perhaps this wave of Windows refugees will in some way lead to progress in this area.
My biggest concern is the whole “removing powerful features = user friendliness!” mentality that these big tech companies have been pushing for years.
Why make users smarter when you can make software worse and charge more for it?
The dummies don’t get the bigger picture, they just see “nobody needs powerful features that make things too confusing for me!” My hope is that they don’t flood Linux with this drivel - profit margin or not, it’s a toxic cultre that has already been created in commercial software.
Windows was developed by a huge corporation for profit, and that drives enshittification, because eventually they have all the users they think they can get, so instead they start trying to milk those users for more $$$.
Linux is developed by a bunch of nerds who are doing it as a hobby, or because they weren’t happy with the other options. This type of group does not leas to enshittification.
I hope this doesn’t mean the enshitifcaiton of Linux as we start to cater for people who don’t want to learn… We watched it with Microsoft products, though they also had a profitable reason to nerf their software.
Being simple to use out of the box is NOT a bad thing on its own. We are simply used to seeing the proprietary profit-driven version, which is the path to enshittification. When something works great out of the box but you still own your machine and have access to any damn thing you want that’s hidden from view by default, that is just a good product.
I’ve been an engineer in electronics and software for over 20 years. I have a masters in software engineering. I currently work on C and C++ code every day for embedded systems, including one that’s embedded linux. The terminal is my comfort zone. Screens full of super-legible monospaced text please my eyes.
I run Linux Mint Cinnamon (btw) on every computer of mine, even my work machine, and I don’t care who knows it!
I recommend it to anybody of any skill level who will listen.
It doesn’t have to. KDE is a great example here. Out of the box, it’s extremely simple to use, as well as familiar in look and feel to Windows. But if you want to - it gives you a lot of customization options. So it doesn’t seem to lose out on anything due to being simplified by default.
And frankly, a lot of Unix software could use a similar approach. I know it’s not that simple, but it helps the users greatly - particularly new ones, but experienced ones too. Perhaps this wave of Windows refugees will in some way lead to progress in this area.
That’s the beauty of Linux- there are so many distros to choose from.
Something for everyone.
And if enough people don’t like the existing options, you are always free to fork what exists and make something that fits your needs better.
Just Canonical.
Lol, have you seen Gnome? It’s already too late.
Yeah what a nightmare. Amazing volunteers building incredible software for everyone for free.
Gnome devs threatening me with a good time on my surface laptop. Please stop.
Linux doesn’t really have the profit motives that lead to enshittification.
I guess a bigger entity could try to start charging for… something… Support, maybe, but that seems unlikely to take off.
My biggest concern is the whole “removing powerful features = user friendliness!” mentality that these big tech companies have been pushing for years.
Why make users smarter when you can make software worse and charge more for it?
The dummies don’t get the bigger picture, they just see “nobody needs powerful features that make things too confusing for me!” My hope is that they don’t flood Linux with this drivel - profit margin or not, it’s a toxic cultre that has already been created in commercial software.
Windows was developed by a huge corporation for profit, and that drives enshittification, because eventually they have all the users they think they can get, so instead they start trying to milk those users for more $$$.
Linux is developed by a bunch of nerds who are doing it as a hobby, or because they weren’t happy with the other options. This type of group does not leas to enshittification.
We already have systemd.
Am I the only one who likes systemd…
yes
Systemd is fine.