Diplomjodler3 comments on ELI5: What the heck is linux?

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There have been some great answers already but there are some things I'd like to add: all commercial operating systems (especially Windows and Chrome OS, but MacOS is not at all innocent in that regard) are becoming increasingly focused on data harvesting, advertising and controlling what the user can do with their computer. Linux doesn't do any of that. Your computer is yours and nobody tries to control what you do with it. And if you use a beginner friendly distribution, it's not really more difficult to use.

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[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago*

Free as in freedom!

Freedom to do whatever you want, however you want. Including brick your computer.

But honestly, modern distros are really smooth feeling. If you slapped Mint on just about any computer today it will run better and longer, and you'll quickly find that it's just as easy - if not easier - to use as Windows or MacOS.

Also its worth noting that MacOS and Linux share genetics that don't really matter to 99% of users, but if you want your Linux to look and feel like a Mac, you can do that very very easily.

Also the KDE Plasma DE is super fun and I'm addicted to it now

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[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago

I would argue it's easier to use than Windows at least, but it is different from Windows so moving from Windows to Linux can be challenging and you have to be willing to adapt. Package managers make the experience so much better for users though, and you don't have to hunt down random executable online for installs or updates (usually). There's also no mucking about with a thing like registries in Windows to make it work how you want, which you don't have to do on Windows but to make it less annoying you do.

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