"Linux is about choice"

[ChrisUK]

An interesting piece by Jessie Smith... in case you missed it:

Linux is about choice

[greywolf]

He describes the Linux I came through - 1988 (then early 90's in earnest) to now. Nowadays I find I have to bite my tongue and aplogise a lot to newbies because I dare to suggest they get out of the way of their own shadow and participate in their own solutions?!

Still, great journey, have not had a proprietary os on a machine here for over a decade and still love "tinkering" around with CLI solutions. Oh the power of it all !!

greywolf.

[ChrisUK]

Sadly, it's not just Linux Users that have changed... it's the whole of society... but that's another story

[Adrian]

So an "eternal September" for Linux?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

[duane]

Yeah not much has changed with the BSD's.
For instance there are these events: https://www.openbsd.org/hackathons.html

[wellsey]

So this author bemoans the fact that linux is now used by 'ordinary joe's' and is no longer the exclusive preserve of techies and wanna be techie's - a pretty backward looking view imho

[Richard]

Depends on whether you grew up on the internet during that September. I was a 45 year old kid with a new toy.

I remember being among the herd during that September. There were a lot of us who learned the hard way. Mainly a matter of reading and searching before asking, giving enough background to entice someone to expound on your problem, remembering to check back for replies, learning patience and how to ask for help.
Probably hasn't changed much, one is still expected to have tried to search for an answer, to ask without demanding and to give some system info.

[Mauser]

All operating systems are about choice. You can choose to use them or not and use what ever you want.

[Artim]

So this author bemoans the fact that linux is now used by 'ordinary joe's' and is no longer the exclusive preserve of techies and wanna be techie's - a pretty backward looking view imho

This! The cool thing is, it's those wonderful super techs who made Linux usable by us mere mortals. They wanted to share their freedom with the rest of us. That's what Mepis was all about, and Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Mint, Zorin, Linux Lite, etc. And of course the best of all, MX!

I didn't have a choice before I discovered Linux. It was either Windows or spend a zillion and twelve dollars on a Mac. Neither was a good choice for a technophobic student on a budget of basically Zero. Finding Linux was not only a third option, but there was a whole universe of choices to be made after that: Which distro, which desktop, what mixture to make... lots to learn. Before I learned enough to make a well-informed choice, I let one of those online "distro choosers" help me pick the appropriate stuff. The more I learn, the more choices I have!

[Pierre]

then there is those folks who bemoan about "too much choice".
:(
so, what do they really want ? freedom from proprietary system ?.

the thing is, that once you have experienced that 'choice' then you never look at operating systems,
the same way, as you once did.

they can all be manipulated, and sure, some are better than some others are.
& they are all better than that proprietary system, that you started out, with.
- at least, that's what you hope for .. ..