@atomicpoet Funny thing, my first distro was also Slackware. We used to joke about how "linux can't do video". You're 100% right about the software ecosystem. It's what matters most.
EDit: How did this pop up from Nov 13? I didn't notice the date.

@atomicpoet I sum it up as "I want an appliance, not another hobby"

@atomicpoet I began using Linux in 1996, and I never stopped using it. However, I had dual boot systems for a long time, booting into Windows every time I wanted to play one of the many games or record music with the MIDI sequencer I couldn't get to work with Wine. Nowadays I don't really need Windows anymore, not even once or twice a week.

@atomicpoet some of us were using WindowMaker and wmeyes 😆

@wmlive

@atomicpoet Super based! This is why I’m preordering “all the things” from Valve, I credit much of this success to them, they will probably turn to shit some time in the future but right now our interests align.

@atomicpoet There was a time when Windows 7 almost won me over, but, at the time, Kerbal Space Program on windows was broken in 64-bit and 32-bit KSP couldn't map enough memory to load all the add-ons I wanted to play with. The Linux version had no such problems (the Windows version eventually caught up). Then W8 looked terrible. Then I needed W10 to do VR, but the problems that developed later in the W10 lifecycle and continued in W11 is making the very slight VR problems not worth the effort.

@atomicpoet

Android was my first Linux

@atomicpoet This put me back to 2011, when I used to work in an Apple Premium Reseller and a lady said that the iPad was useless because she cannot play farmville....

@atomicpoet
"An operating system succeeds when it disappears into the background and lets people use their software"

In my experience, Windows never did that.

Instead, it had two advantages:
- It came preinstalled.
- It was the system people already knew.

(And if you go back far enough: It ran on top of the system people already knew - i.e. DOS).

@atomicpoet Great post. For me it was enlightenment, not IceWM, and I think I even compiled one of the first gnome 1 releases from source (but might also be just remembering incorrectly).
But everything I learned back then, I either forgot when I switched to a Mac in ~2005 (and then to Windows in ~2010) or is not that useful anymore, because...

...
...

...most of the things that were a pain back then now just work. I'm back to Linux because it is finally more frictionless than Windows.

@atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org

> icewm
dont remind me, please....

That, and – even now, over 30 years after I started using Linux, and despite memes and counter-memes – wifi and power management is still a crap shoot unless you explicitly buy a laptop for that which nobody sane does. At least sound works now and printers are largely obsolete.

@atomicpoet I only began futzing with Linux last year, for the first time ever. As I could give a frosted frog fuck about gaming, my sole concern was basic functionality coupled with a useful software suite. If gaming is what made those two gel, then 'praise the lard, and pass the spuds!' I think if I had diddled with it in the early days, I may very well have been turned away from it for good. My eternal thanks go out to the folks that've made this a viable all-around Win alternative today.

@atomicpoet Noob, my first Linux I downloaded the source onto floppy disks in university, carried it home (of course in a snowstorm, 20km uphill) and compiled for some weeks. It was something like Version 0.95 and there was no distros, yet. Everything had to be done by hand. ed .config, make config && make, and — if it was a luxury package — make install were the way to install software. Often one had to copy files by hand. Updates was manually as well. I was extremely proud to have X11 with Motiv (no Desktop Environments, yet, just Window Managers) running at the CCC-Congress in 1992. The first distros in 1993/1994 was like cheating...
Anyway, I was already using Sun Solaris at the time and couldn't warm up towards Linux. It was just "Frickelkram" and something like a text adventure game, but nothing to work with.
I hoped for a usable Unix at home, but I had to wait till 1994 when I discovered FreeBSD. This I am still using on my workstation today and to be fair, I also have a laptop with Arch, since FreeBSD is no fun on portable hardware.

But I get your point about Linux is ready now. Indeed, it is. It's for sure less trouble than Windoze.

#linux #bsd #ccc

@atomicpoet
”An operating system succeeds when it disappears into the background and lets people use their software.”

Which is why MS Windows has become a product line in its final death struggle ☹️

@atomicpoet

I am by no means a Linux expert and wouldn’t even classify my self as an advanced user. I recently de-googled and de-Microsoft my life.

However, my first Linux machine was a Compaq professional workstation with dual Pentium Pros and SCSI hard drive and CD drive running Red Hat 3.8. Befor the fedora branch.
Right at 1999 or 2000. I miss that machine!

@atomicpoet

I don’t think you’re wrong, but I’m using Slackware right now (15 my first version!), not because of what it does, but because of what it doesn’t.

When Windows 😜 support ended, I switched to Ubuntu (then generally considered the easiest Unix-like OS for new users) because, since no OS was going to make me completely happy, I’d prefer one I didn’t have to pay for, and one not loaded down with garbage.

With the rise of snaps and flatpaks, I switched again to something simpler.

@atomicpoet where’d you go during your Linux hiatus?

I switched to Mac in ~2006 or so when I finally got tired of fighting with laptop wireless and audio issues and decided I needed my machine to work reliably across upgrades.

As Apple enshittifies the Mac and desktop Linux has matured, I am more and more considering going back.

@atomicpoet The Linux desktop still has myriad issues but I remember the days of fglrx and think maybe things aren’t too bad. And that was only ten years ago.

I’ve yet to see Wine’s ability to run games benefit its ability to run anything else though. Even game engine tools are a struggle.

@atomicpoet kinda like the truth about video gaming consoles: software sells systems.
I can totally agree to what you’ve written. Being a long time user, adopter or admin, and pointing this out usually scares new users away or annoys them by feeling inferior.

@atomicpoet @dgar This right here.

When I first used Linux, I was dual booting with windows and my Linux only friends kept badgering me.

My usual response was, “unlike you guys, I’m not using my computer just to have used a computer”.

@atomicpoet

I only use ICEWM, after all the hot desktop environments.

Why, efficiency no distractions

For Gamers Linux started to become really interesting after Steam adopted the Platform.

For daily work or students it has been production ready in most areas for a long time.

An operating system succeeds when it disappears into the background and lets people use their software

Windoze, not done that since 7, Mac never will. FUD spread by MS & those who profit from it has held Linux back

@atomicpoet

🤣 I fumbled modelines for the X-Server all night long to get a few pixels more.

@atomicpoet There is also a good amount of help from Microsoft, that is annoying its users more and more with ads, AI, poor performance, instability, forced hardware upgrades. Even if there are no obstacles, change can be difficult for some, so that extra incentive from Microsoft is forcing people to get out of their comfort zone and actually try something else.

@atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org
Can confirm. My Linux distro was on about 30 3,5" discs, on a 386 with 4MB RAM (which was like 32GB today).
I tried Linux time and again, but it never was my daily driver until about 2017/18. Though it wasn't gaming for me - I switched that to the PlayStation, where I didn't have to check for hardware requirements and the best settings and could sit on my couch.
But then, Linux did just work without having to spend hours in support forums and most of the software I required (which, tbf., is mostly a browser, LibreOffice, and media players nowadays) was available.

@atomicpoet Because of W11 and older hardware, I recently decided to try Linux for gaming. I've had some minor issues but I've not had to boot my W10 install since I managed to move my save games. So, it's going pretty well, I think!

@atomicpoet I got a consulting gig where being an authority on Linux was a requirement and I just stated having used it since 1995.

It seems you were talking about what matters in convincing regular users that this year is the year of Linux on the desktop though, and for that case I do agree with you that recompiling kernels to match your hw is quite irrelevant :)

@atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org Sorry, I pre-date Linux by years. I first used Unix back about 1986, mostly command line stuff except when I got to use workstations at Northeastern University and MIT, as a staff member for the ACM chapter in Boston.

@atomicpoet

That's the point: Only the application programs and the ease of use matter.

Can you do the thing you need or want to do?

I actually started using Linux, because in the 90s, installing LaTeX on Windows was complicated, whilst on Linux, it was just a click.

I never gave a shit for gaming, so I kept it after uni.

The final step was:

When Windows 😜 ran out, and I had to switch to Windows 8, my WiFi adapter wouldn't work anymore, and several programs refused to work

1/2

@atomicpoet i mostly agree with your final point, but the first two paragraphs are absolutely unnecessary gatekeeping.

Sit down. My first distro was Slackware on a 200Mhz Pentium MMX. And back then, window managers were the hotness, not desktop environments. Back in my day, we fiddled with Xeyes in IceWM—and we liked it.

and there are people who have used linux longer than you! with twm, fvwm and so on. This argument holds absolutely no water unless you’re Torvalds himself. It reads like you’re conflating a bunch of concepts into one, and this doesn’t work.

and I don’t think there’s any shame in saying that I’ve been using $software since $year and that’s why I’m feeling more knowledgeable about it than someone who started yesterday. 2000s ended 15 years ago, this is already a SIGNIFICANT amount of time