How much money would you be willing to donate to the development of desktop Linux?
I imagine there's easily a million people who would give $10 a year, which means $10M a year, which would at least buy a dozen full time devs. But with the right shilling (a proper kickstarter and commitment from a known entity...), it could be more than that.
It breaks my heart to see desktop Linux advancing so slowly, always a couple of steps behind Winshit in practical usability. How do we kickstart the revolution?
The people who think that Linux is currently the inferior option to windows are people I for one don't want using my fucking operating system. We have enough of this lowest-common-denominator "user friendly" retardation around as it is.
Tyler Young
So you want Linux to remain some elite club of the 2% forever?
That's fine I guess, but some of us are sick of Windows and Macs and would like a proper alternative.
Jack Stewart
>but some of us are sick of Windows and Macs and would like a proper alternative. then switch to linux, if that's what you want to do waiting until it's more like windows/macos just doesn't make sense, do you want something different, or not?
Owen Perez
>That's fine I guess, but some of us are sick of Windows and Macs and would like a proper alternative. You have a proper alternative. Right here. Right now. You're just too stupid and/or lazy to use it. Windows and Mac treat you like a retard because you act like one. And yes, I don't want Linux to turn into an OS for stupid and lazy people like Windows and Mac are.
Leo Rodriguez
You guys don't understand. Linux being normie friendly and having a bigger market share means more and better software (incl. drivers) gets written for it. Only then it can be a proper alternative to Windows/Mac.
Kevin Perry
switching OS is never easy, even moving between windows/macos has it's difficulties for people who are very used to one of them as far as 'normie friendliness' goes, one major hurdle isn't /using/ linux, it's getting linux in the first place, you can't go to a shop and buy a linux desktop like you can a windows or macos one. try getting the average person to install a fresh copy of windows, they wouldn't. a friend of mine recently brought me his dad's laptop to get data off of since he replaced it, the problem? it was a bsoding on boot, i reinstalled windows, it works just fine. this is normal. you can make linux as easy as piss to /use/, but it won't make a difference if computers don't come with it already installed
Austin Gomez
Most people don't need that level of customizability.
People who say everybody should be using Linux are closeted elitist or hipsters.
Adam Johnson
if you think getting more normalfags into linux is going to increase software quality, then we have very different ideas about what quality software is
Asher Peterson
I would manually install Linux on people's computers like a Jehovah's Witness if it was actually usable enough.
Most people don't need the customizability of Windows either. They'd be fine with iOS/Android (+keyboard+mouse+big screen).
You don't think software/driver makers will try harder if they have more users?
Angel Reed
>You don't think software/driver makers will try harder if they have more users? unlike software made by companies for a profit, most linux software is made by people primarily for their own benefit, having lots of users is nice, but it doesn't directly benefit them like paid software does
>Most people don't need the customizability of Windows either. They'd be fine with iOS/Android (+keyboard+mouse+big screen). there is actually a couple of android distributions you can install on a desktop/laptop
Luke Parker
linux is best when you just stick to the VC. Everything on top of that is, has been and always will be utter crap made by fools.
Ryder Jones
>if it was actually usable enough. what do /you/ think linux needs for this to happen? putting aside specific non-free applications like "games, photoshop, microsoft office", those come with popularity, not the other way around
Elijah Ward
Most people don't need the customizability of Windows either. They'd be fine with iOS/Android (+keyboard+mouse+big screen).
Yeah, exactly.
Adrian Kelly
Linux is good as it is. There is no reason to bring the normies in.
Jeremiah Clark
>muh secret OS It's almost as if there can be multiple distributions of Linux, some for more tech-savvy users and some for more average users Hmm
Charles Smith
>unlike software made by companies for a profit, most linux software is made by people primarily for their own benefit That's the current situation, I'd love for commercial proprietary software to be available. Nobody will force you to use it if you don't want to.
>what do /you/ think linux needs for this to happen? Quality improvement in general. Right now desktop Linux is just not the focus of development (not enough money in it). Too many things to mention, so I'll just leave this here itvision.altervista .org/why.linux.is.not.ready.for.the.desktop.current.html
>That's the current situation, I'd love for commercial proprietary software to be available. Nobody will force you to use it if you don't want to. my point is then how will it differ from other proprietary os's? imo the way linux is developed now is what i like about it, programs aren't afraid to put in dangerous, complex, but useful features, because there's no pressure to support them later. this kind of thing doesn't happen in proprietary software, because it just causes complaints and support queries
that said, nobody could stop people making proprietary software for linux, and of course, nobody can force me to use them, but i think you're confused when you say that they'll make linux better
Grayson Rodriguez
As soon as you start taking people's money you're in for a wild ride. Project management, product owners, market researchers, venture capitalists and salesmen will compromise your codebase. You'll blink and suddenly Candy Crush adverts will be in your launcher.
Ryan Lopez
>my point is then how will it differ from other proprietary os's? The OS itself can still be open source. But I don't care that much about open source vs proprietary. What I mainly want is a decent alternative to Windows that isn't locked to Apple hardware. Right now Windows is pretty much a monopoly, so they can do whatever bullshit they want and there's nowhere to go.
I know, I'm not suggesting it's easy. But: 1. We already have money in projects like Ubuntu. I think Canonical is not making profit, though, but still. 2. Relatively successful non-profit open source projects exist, like Firefox. I agree with you, though, it wouldn't be without challenges. But I see the current state of desktop OSs as kinda bad and there's a window of opportunity to make something good. Although if I'm a bit more realistic, I'm afraid Google could step in hard with Android (or worse, Chrome OS) and just kill half of the desktop market.
Levi Powell
It has drivers for everything, proprietary ones aren't included out of the box but ootb it's more hardware compatible than any other OS, including windows and Mac.
Grayson Gutierrez
>It breaks my heart to see desktop Linux advancing so slowly, always a couple of steps behind Winshit in practical usability. problem with linux was that it got about 5 years ahead of windows in the mid 2000s, then never advanced past that point. it has been rather stagnant in terms of advancement. if you aren't into audio or video games there seriously isn't a legitimate reason to not be on linux. i actually find linux much nicer for low requirement normie things like email, web browsing and writting word docs.
Isaac Hernandez
>But I don't care that much about open source vs proprietary. well I do.
Josiah Moore
Afaik linux has already support for lots of hardware, so why should I donate to linux when there are other projects that could use the money. Also, I don't really care about linux as long as 1. it works and 2. it's free. I'd rather donate to whatever I run on top of linux (KDE, Firefox, Thunderbird, …).
Ian Rivera
I would donate 100$ at once if i knew they would be able to make it more video-game friendly within the next year
Jackson Howard
honestly, the only people that shouldn't use linux are technical people that need the software.
