What Linux Needs To Do To Reach The Masses.

[arjaybe]

What was that OS that got hacked because it shipped with no root user? It was as vulnerable as Windows, and escaping that vulnerability is one of the main reasons people come to Linux. It would be silly to ditch security across the board. If "the masses" want it, let one of them create a distro that does it. It can promote itself as "just like Windows."

[jeffreyC]

Once I am logged in to a computer that I own and am the only user of it seems silly and tedious to ask permission* to access my files. This is not about system files which I do understand protecting from accidental modification, but my data on any attached device.
*permission from myself essentially

[Redacted]

Why should linux reach the masses?

Thank you, kind sir!
Hey, it's wonderful when people want to use Linux.
But what exactly is the reason for this call to reach the masses? Especially when it entails dropping the things that make Linux unique and great to begin with.

[andyprough]

Why should linux reach the masses?

Since Linux is a kernel and not an OS, it has reached the masses in the billions that have android and chromebook and Kindle and other devices. Big corporate Linux is alive and well.

[JayM]

Things Linux would need to change to become more mainstream?

Stop requiring the root password for common ordinary tasks. Linus is right about this.
Yes, the origins of Unix were as a multi-user system in huge expensive computers that had to be shared by dozens or hundreds of users and so needed protection from foolish or malicious users, but today computers are cheap, common and often single user, in fact it is at least as likely that one user will have several computers as one computer have many users. It is long past time to let the user have full use.

File permissions that seem to be designed to keep the user away from their own data?
Before anyone complains that getting rid of many of these permissions is not the Unix way neither is systemd and yet it is widely adopted.
The Unix philosophy states that tools should be small and interchangeable. systemd is about one million lines of code, and they work very hard to prevent anything replacing it which is the definition of interchangeable. Adhering to the Unix philosophy by concentrating on doing one thing and getting it done properly? Clearly not systemd which seeks to be everything between kernel and app.

It is time to stop thinking of Linux as Unix-like, that ship has sailed.

If you can access files and run system apps requiring elevated priviledges without supplying a password then so can malicious scripts on websites, and pretty soon you'll find yourself a member of a botnet just like on Windows in days of yore. That sounds like a large step backward with respect to system security to me.

[Stevo]

Stop requiring the root password for common ordinary tasks.

That's a distro-specific choice, and other than Puppy Linux, the ones that have implemented the drastically-reduced/no-root password rules have been unpopular.

Unpopular among people who already use Linux, but this thread is about attracting people who are not currently Linux users, many of whom may think Linux is too much of a PITA to use.

In my experience, those kind of users tend to be PITAs themselves.

[Artim]

Even Linus himself thinks that "the future of Linux" is Android and "smart" devices, etc. Linux has definitely already reached "the masses," and the few of us who use it on the desktop and laptop are probably a permanent minority, as the PC is probably going the way of the dinosaur.

[JayM]

the PC is probably going the way of the dinosaur.

That's what they said 15 or so years ago when tablets were supposed to be the Next Big Thing that would replace them. PCs are still being made and sold though, as are high-end notebooks, and there's a thriving market for desktop system components for do-it-yourselfers. It seems nobody took into account the gamers, power users, hobbyists and developers. Not everybody uses a computer only to check their email and Facebook no matter what the commercials show.

[Artim]

I hope you're right @JayM. I love my desktop and laptop and rely on them for almost all my school work!

[JayM]

You and a sizable market of others.