On 20 Jul 2024 10:28 +0200, from geo...@nsup.org (Nicolas George): >> Thank David! market share is important though it isn't "reliable >> recommendation for quality": more users attract more programmers, who >> develop more apps, > > The programmers who are attracted by market share are not necessarily > the ones who are interested in developing quality and/or innovative > software, though.
A lot of paid-for programmer time isn't necessarily for what the individual programmer _wants_ to do. If one's employer dictates that their products should support Mac OS and Windows, for example, then there's usually little that a programmer, no matter how motivated, can do to extend that support to include Linux; especially if the product in question is heavily dependent on OS-specific APIs. And let's not forget how many regularly conflate "common" with "popular". That something is _common_ doesn't necessarily mean that it is _popular_; it can rather be simply the choice of least resistance. To within experimental error Linux is always going to face resistance on the individual level because switching to Linux involves _replacing_ something which one _knows is working_ on the hardware in question (as well as something one has a sense of _knowing how to use_), which is always going to be a rather big step. Myself, I often emphasize that yes, Linux is _different_ from Windows, but it's not necessarily _harder to use_, especially for typical office-style tasks and after a brief period of adjustment. That said, I've seen a lot of chatter in the creative communities on the Fediverse (writers/authors in particular) about switching from Windows to Linux because of Microsoft's recent Recall debacle. I think I've personally seen three or four people say things to the effect of "that's it, I'm switching to Linux"; and several more saying things to the effect of "when I can no longer run my current version of Windows on my computer I'm switching to Linux". With regards to this week's Crowdstrike mess, most people who _can_ switch from Windows to Linux aren't in a position of even having that software on their systems, so for them personally switching won't have any impact either way. With Microsoft's Recall, the situation is somewhat different. -- Michael Kjörling 🔗 https://michael.kjorling.se “Remember when, on the Internet, nobody cared that you were a dog?”
