THE STATE OF LINUX: Did you know that Microsoft actually uses linux
to run much of its cloud infrastructure? And it’s not like they’re forced to either. Before 2015,
Microsoft used to build watered down versions of Windows for running networks, databases,
and other cloud infrastructure. So, the switch to Linux was very much a voluntary one. While
it’s surprising that Microsoft was willing to put aside their ego and switch to Linux,
objectively speaking, this switch was not too surprising given that Linux is usually
the preferred OS for backend infrastructure. It’s simply more stable, reliable, secure, flexible,
and much cheaper to operate and maintain. Hearing this, I don’t think you’d be surprised
to hear that Microsoft isn’t the only one that uses Linux. Amazon, Dell, Facebook, Google,
and even NASA use Linux for various portions of their business. Yet, despite it’s popularity
amongst these institutions, Linux is virtually nonexistent amongst everyday consumers. Well,
technically, Android is built on Linux and Android is the most popular operating system in the world,
so you could make that argument for Linux, but I’m talking about the consumer PC market. There,
74% use Windows, 14% use MacOS, and only 5% use Linux. This isn’t to say that Linux isn’t
good for desktop use though. For decades, hardcore users like programmers, engineers,
and tech enthusiasts have not only been using Linux themselves, but they’ve been preaching
about why it’s way better than Windows and Mac. Yet, no one else seems to care. So, if Linux
truly is the objectively better OS and if even Microsoft uses Linux over Windows, why don’t we?
USELESSLY FREE:
One of the top advantages that many Linux enthusiasts cite is the fact that Linux
is free. They argue that instead of paying $100 for a Windows license, you can pay no money for
Linux. This way, you’d not only be saving money, but you’d also be getting a superior OS. From
their perspective, this scenario is clearly a win win, but from the average consumer's perspective,
it’s not quite that simple. Here’s the thing, Linux being free doesn’t mean much to the average
consumer because to them, Windows and MacOS are also free. It’s not like they have to go out and
buy a license for either of these. They just go out and buy the computer and the OS comes along
with the purchase. So, not only would the average consumer not save money by switching to Linux, but
they’d also feel that they’re not using something that they paid for. Really, the only people who
can save money by using Linux is people who build their own PCs. And PC builders are by far the
minority within the PC market. Not to mention, a substantial portion of PC builders are gamers
and Windows is simply the best choice for gaming because that’s what games are built for. And yes,
there are ways that you can run Windows games on Linux, but this kind of defeats the entire purpose
of Linux. One of the biggest advantages of Linux is that it can run many things better natively,
but games are not usually one of those things because they’re specifically coded to run on
Windows. Also, if someone is willing to spend a thousand dollars or thousands of dollars on
a gaming PC, I highly doubt that the cost of a windows license is a serious consideration. Even
if it was, if they’re savvy enough to build a PC, they’re probably savvy enough to migrate windows
from an old computer or just pirate it. And that brings us to our next point which is that getting
windows for free is extraordinarily easy. While Windows is not free on paper, Microsoft has gone
out of their way to make sure that you can get it for free if you want to. You don’t even need to
pirate it. You can literally download it straight from Microsoft’s website and install onto your
new computer using a USB stick. And there’s literally no consequences for not activating
Windows. You get 30 days to activate, but even if you don’t, the only thing you lose is your ability
to personalize. In other words, you don’t lose any functionality whatsoever. So, for end users,
whether you’re buying a prebuilt or a building your own PC, Linux offers virtually no financial
benefit. Someone who does financially benefit from choosing Linux, however, is institutions.
Schools, universities, companies, and computer manufacturers all have to pay for Windows
licenses. Now, I’m sure they don’t pay anywhere near as much as $100 per license given that they
probably get some sort of bulk order discount. But, even if it’s $30 or $40 per license, when
these institutions are ordering tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of computers,
Windows does end up costing them several hundred thousand dollars if not millions. So, switching
to Linux could be a smart financial decision, but this option quickly becomes impossible when
you realize that none of your students or employees actually know how to use Linux.
THE COMMAND LINE:
One of the biggest obstacles for Linux adoption is that it’s just not that easy to use. Linux
user interfaces have made strides within the past several years especially Ubuntu. But,
some level of familiarity with the command line is still extremely helpful when it comes to using
Linux. To many tech enthusiasts, this is what makes Linux so great. Instead of having to deal
with generic user interfaces that are built for general consumption, you can use the command line
to do very specific tasks. While this is great for people who are comfortable with the command line,
this just seems completely unnecessary to people who aren’t. The customizability and flexibility
that the command line unlocks are simply not applicable to the average person. Virtually all
these people are primarily doing extremely generic tasks like working on word docs and excel sheets
or replying to emails. And the freedom that the command line offers doesn’t seem like a freedom
at all. To them, the command line simply comes off as an unnecessarily complicated way to accomplish
extremely straight forward tasks. Even for the people who could benefit from the command line,
more time than not, they don’t want to spend time learning about it because it seems super daunting.
They often feel like they need to know coding to use the command line, and they often fear that
they’re one wrong command away from corrupting something and destroying their computer. This
is especially true when you’re running a command using administrative authority. It just feels like
you’re messing with something that you shouldn’t be messing with. Aside from having to deal with
the command line, with Linux, you also have to deal with installing everything manually. Once
again, this is actually one of the advantages of Linux. Linux comes with virtually no bloatware,
so you can install only what you need. This is one of the reasons why Linux machines with the
same specs tend to run faster and smoother than windows machines. But, the average user doesn’t
always view this situation in the same light. For them, all this means is that Linux does not work
out of the box, and that’s not an advantage, that’s a disadvantage. Many of them actually
like much of the software that Linux users would classify as bloatware. Take Mac OS for example.
Macs generally come preinstalled with Apple TV, Apple Music, iCloud, Facetime, and iMessage. For
a power user who’s only looking to use their Mac for productive purposes like coding, software like
Apple TV and iCloud may seem completely useless. They’re probably never going to open Apple TV
on this machine and they far prefer GitHub over iCloud. But, for the everyday user, they may love
that their photos are automatically synced through iCloud and that they can text through iMesage. For
them, all of this preinstalled software isn’t bloware, it’s what makes the computer functional
out of the box. As Apple likes to call it “It just works”. Both Windows and MacOS just work.
Linux on the other hand doesn’t. And even though that’s what makes Linux so flexible, customizable,
and free, most people simply don’t care enough about that to learn the command line or a new OS.
VIRTUALLY NO NEED: While many Linux
users will swear by Linux, the bottomline is that the average person simply has no need of it. In
fact, even power users don’t really need it simply because MacOS and Windows have actually gotten
pretty good at emulating the best features of Linux. Take coding for example. One of the main
reasons that developers love Linux is because it’s based on Unix. Unix is an OS that’s specifically
designed with programmers in mind. Windows is not based on Unix, so it often makes sense to choose
Linux over Windows. But, something that is based on Unix is MacOS. So, not only does Mac offer many
of the same coding advantages as Linux, but it’s also more user friendly and polished. This is why
MacOS is extremely popular amongst developers. Globally, the Mac only has 8.9% marketshare,
but amongst developers, it has 44% marketshare. Aside from most people not having any need for
Linux, they also find that Linux actively makes them less productive. For example,
not all Linux distros come with wifi drivers which means that you’ll have to manually install drivers
just to connect to the internet. But, atleast that’s only a one time issue. Something that
you’ll have to constantly deal with is lack of support. Even something as rudimentary and basic
as Microsoft Office is not natively supported on Linux. So, you’ll have to jump through a bunch of
loopholes just to get access to basic software. This same rule also applies to software like
Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Autodesk Inventor, and basically anything else that doesn’t directly
involve coding. But atleast, you can make those software work by jumping through a few hoops.
There are several websites and software that simply will not work on Linux whatsoever. For
example, nothing to do with Pearson Education works. If you’re a student and have a bunch
of classes that use Pearson, this makes Linux completely unviable. So, that’s pretty much all
of the objective reasons that the PC community at large hasn’t adopted Linux. Linux’s free nature
isn’t all that helpful, the command line and UI is rather daunting, and Linux often poses a lot more
challenges than solutions for most people. But, there’s a subjective side to all of this as well,
and I don’t think this video would be complete if we didn’t discuss that as well. The truth
is that Linux comes along with a negative social stigma. Usually, Linux is associated
with nerds and broke people. In terms of social prestige, Mac would probably be first place,
Windows would be second place, and Linux would be last place. So, why would the average person want
to go out of their way to downgrade themselves socially when they can just get a mac or windows
machine. The answer is that there is no reason and that’s why Linux adoption is where its at today.
THE TRUTH ABOUT LINUX: In the end, while Linux may be superior
in certain use cases, almost all of these use cases are professional. They involve databases,
networks, and cloud computing which are all things the average person will never deal with
from the backend. Also, even amongst the people who do use Linux for professional purposes,
I bet most of them have a Windows or Mac machine at home for personal use cases. While there will
be some enthusiasts that will argue that Linux is better for personal use as well,
this is simply not true. And honestly, I think a lot of these guys have an ulterior motive. Many
of them use Linux not because it’s superior but because of ideological reasons. They’re usually
anti big tech and think that open source projects like Linux should be supported and developed as
much as possible. And this is usually the root reason that they’re so pro Linux, but as for the
rest of us, well, we usually just don’t care. As Murray Bauman once said “People don't spend their
lives trying to get a look at what's behind the curtain. They like the curtain. It provides them
stability, comfort, definition.” And within the PC market, MacOS and Windows are that curtain.
Have you ever used Linux? Comment that down below. Also, drop a like if you think that Linux
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