I flirted with Linux about 9 years ago. The problem is that all of my software is designed for Windows, and I pay for the windows office suite. I don’t want to fool around with it. My computer has become a commodity, like a car. I don’t soup up my car, either. No racing stripes, no toilet paper oil filters, etc.
When I used to build my own computers, I’d have been all over Linux, but most people don’t want to fool around with their computer any more than they want to fool around with their car, their dishwasher, or their lawn mower. They buy it, they use it, and they replace it when it breaks. Linux is for hobbyists, which is a dwindling breed as the newness of the tech wears off. A computer is a tool. I buy the tool for the job.
I'm tired of messing and fiddling with Windows, and being subject to their idea of when I should upgrade or not.
“Linux is for hobbyists, “
Ummmm, no. I do books, media, databases, spreadsheets, real estate software, cad, documentaries, and more. No hobbyist here. And it saves me a buttload of money.
I just built (from scratch) 12 Linux servers since I posted this thread. They are fully built and configured, joined to the domain, and jsut about ready for the customer to start using them.
I don't build hobbyist computers. I'm in the datacenter where the real power is.
This should help inform you.
Adoption of Linux in production environments, rather than being used only by hobbyists, started to take off first in the mid-1990s in the supercomputing community, where organizations such as NASA started to replace their increasingly expensive machines with clusters of inexpensive commodity computers running Linux.Today, Linux systems are used throughout computing, from embedded systems to virtually all supercomputers,[20][46] and have secured a place in server installations such as the popular LAMP application stack.[47] Use of Linux distributions in home and enterprise desktops has been growing.[48][49][50][51][52][53][54] Linux distributions have also become popular in the netbook market, with many devices shipping with customized Linux distributions installed, and Google releasing their own Chrome OS designed for netbooks.
Linux's greatest success in the consumer market is perhaps the mobile device market, with Android being one of the most dominant operating systems on smartphones and very popular on tablets and, more recently, on wearables. Linux gaming is also on the rise with Valve showing its support for Linux and rolling out its own gaming oriented Linux distribution. Linux distributions have also gained popularity with various local and national governments, such as the federal government of Brazil.[55]
Excerpted from Linux.
The "newness of the tech" isn't wearing off any time soon. Linux is everyhere.
My thoughts, exactly. When I was a programmer, I used to get into arguments with the geeks who absolutely LOVED the complexity of their code and applications. I told them basically the same thing you say and more often than not, was looked upon as a heretic.
I fall into the “hobbyist” class.
I enjoy tinkering with hardware and piecing together working systems out of old parts. The beauty of Linux is that you can run most distros on minimal hardware.
I currently have three functional computers right here at my home desk (more throughout the house). I run W10 on this machine but run different flavors of Linux on the other two just for grins.