Linux @lemmy.ml

6mo ago

I'm Not a Programmer, but Here’s Why Linux Is My Daily Driver

www.howtogeek.com /i-am-not-a-programmer-but-linux-is-my-daily-driver/

118 comments

Wait ... is there a perception (or reality?) that most Linux users are programmers?
I'm an introvert, but all programmers I know use Windows (and badly in the sense they aren't power users).
- That's a logical fallacy, all dogs are animals does not imply that all animals are dogs. Even if all programmers you know use Windows that could still mean that all Linux users are programmers.
  That being said several relatives use Linux because I refused to help with IT unless they had Linux, and since then they mostly hadn't needed IT support. So it's not true that all Linux users are programmers, but a good percentage of us are.
  
  I was not explaining my logic nor my beliefs, just describing my smol sample (introvert!), as a btw fun fact.
  But I was under the impression that there is no distinguishable difference between which OSs use programmes vs non-programmers (and the other way around).
  \ Perhaps bcs I fail to se any specific connection between the two. But yes, my logic would be that both types use and are used by both to roughly the same extent.
  (Haha, exactly same experience with relatives - forced them on Linux, never had anything non-trivial to fix since then.)
  
  I would want to « force » my relatives to use Linux. My wife had an unsupported MacBook Pro from 2012, so I managed to convince her it would be safer to switch. Since then, she hasn’t used macOS, but she also hasn’t used Linux because she can use her work provided windows laptop 😅
  I also proposed to my mom to provide IT support remotely to her via Linux, but she prefers using windows and relying on an old friend who is forcing her to buy a lot of Microsoft products otherwise he refuses to help her.
  I hope I’ll at least be able to teach my kids that Linux ain’t scary 🙏
- There's some hardcore conflation going on that assumes that people with technical skills will tend to be good at everything, or that they'll gravitate towards the uber-geeky stuff.
  In my experience it's a very wide spectrum. Lots of programmers are strictly focused on the language they use and don't care to know anything about the OS, or networking, even computers. They are definitely not jacks of all trades.
  There are people who can do programming as well as system administration and build a PC and build some book shelves and so on. But that's a very specific type of person who's a tinkerer and happens to be into programming, it's not because they're a programmer.
  
  Yes, a power tinkerer!
  And if something needs to be programmed (or just coded, bcs copypasta), then that's what's gonna happen.
  If IT won't accommodate my ticket in the way I want Im just gonna write another ticket for access rights.
- In addition to the perception that you have to be "good at computers" (aka a programmer) to use Linux, in my experience a lot of Linux media outlets (websites, YT channels, podcasts, etc) tend to be heavy on advanced features and tools without much explanation in layman's terms and tend to be geared towards an IT professional/hobbyist audience, which can reinforce that stereotype among those (like me) who are not.
  
  Yeah, this explanation makes the most sense to me.
  Just a generalisation that "good at computers" is a programmer. So no Apple programmers :P (joking ofc)
- Linux use among devs is much higher than gen pop.
  https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2023/#section-most-popular-technologies-operating-system
  Keep in mind, this adds up to more than 100% because it wasn't an exclusive choice question, it was multiple.
  
  note if you sum up the linux distros here (excluding ChromeOS) you get 58,4% for personal use and 54,54% for professional use (of course keep in mind that there's some godless bastards who dual boot 2 linux distros that could skew these statistics).
  Also note how that implies Linux is the most popular OS for professional use.
  Anyways, I wish these stats wouldn't split Linux into distros, at least not by default. Linux distros are mostly the same and you're still using (GNU*/)Linux splitting it makes it seem less popular tan it actually is.
  *unless you're using something like Alpine ig
- Most of the programmers I know (including myself) use Linux or BSD, but that all depends on who you associate with. A lot of companies are purely Windows shops and others just throw their programmers mac books and call it a day. At my last company I was only briefly allowed to use Linux until they decided it was no good as I couldn't use whatever resource intensive corporate garbage security software of the year they bought.

I'm also not a programmer but here's why Linux is my daily driver:
I like it.
- Gnome is so much more cozy than windows
  
  KDE Plasma is so much more snappy and functional than Windows. Linux has lots of good options.
- I have no formal tech background, but I'm pretty damn good with it. And I like Arch and Debian with XFCE.

Linux, on the other hand, can easily boot up on a 10-year-old laptop with just 2GB of RAM, and work fine.
I'm not sure a modern day browser would be just fine with "only" 2GiB, unfortunately.
- Maybe with zRAM and a bit of swap it could run quite ok 🤷
  
  As long as the drive the swap is on is an SSD, yeah absolutely
  
  4GB works. My kids use a T410 from 2010 with a SSD and it is a pleasant experience for daily use (browsing, YouTube, small Linux games)
- I've tried Firefox limited to 1 GB for a laugh. It's usable. It won't do many tabs at the same time but it's usable.
  You can actually go lower than that but you'll start to run into limitations with YouTube videos etc.
  There are also other browsers out there that are more light-weight but perhaps not as feature-full as Firefox. Giving up extensions alone reduces a lot of complexity. If you fire up the package installer on any Linux distro and search for "browser" you'll find a ton. There aren't many engines but there are a lot of browsers.
  
  Interesting. How do you limit RAM for an application?
- Im using a 4gb laptop with Xfce, and its definitely struggling sometimes. Even though it's usable, I doubt 2gb would be enough
  
  I used to have only 4GB in my old Linux HTPC, didn't take much for it to choke when using the browser. Upgraded to 16GB and no issues since
- I have 3GB of RAM on my PC running Linux Mint, using LibreWolf, it works pretty great for me, I mean I can't open 100 tabs, but 10-15 is possible
- Lynx 4 Life!
- That's what palemoon is for. It wouldn't be my first choice, but if you don't have the RAM to run ~~crysis~~ librewolf on high it'll work.
- There's Linux dists that can only requires less than 200 MB of RAM. Absolute Linux for an example, has a minimum system requirement of 64 MB RAM. Plenty of space left for memory hungry softwares like a browser.
- I've tried to use Fedora Workstation in VM (GNOME Boxes) with only 1GiB RAM. And it is even usable and UI is responsible for GNOME and Firefox, but applications start more slowly. All those at cost of higher CPU usage. Probably it performs well because Fedora uses swap on ZRam, and it makes the system more reliable.

I feel like Linux would be easier to pick up and use for a non power user starting from scratch like my mother-in-law. It's so much easier to download programs with the package manager and settings are so much easier to navigate
- And to use the computer without being bombarded by ads
  Helped my SO fix Sims 4 on her W11 laptop recently; lock screen ads, start menu ads, pre-installed bloatware begging for money
  I even asked how she deals with all of that and she basically said “I dunno it just does that, if you can make it stop that'd be nice ig but just get Sims to worl for now”
  Needless to say I got Sims 4 to work (removing cachedir did the trick) AND uninstalled the bloatware and turned off ad-related settings
  
  I'd honestly have proposed (if they don't need programs that only run on windows) "we could put linux on it and that should fix these issues" and put Linux Mint or Fedora on it (better if you choose not them unless they really want to deal with all the choices, most likely they won't wnt to tho) and just tell them the basics of how to install software and stuff.
  
  It'll come back.
- I find it amazing that so many distros with volunteers manage to curate a vast software ecosystem, reasonably successfully and yet some of the largest companies on the planet, worth more than $1T each cannot manage to find the resources to do it efficiently.
  Imagine firing up a cmd or ps prompt in Windows and tying in: msiexec install adobe-hipster-app and it just works.
  
  Have you tried Chocolatey? https://chocolatey.org/. It's a package manager for Windows and works great, much like brew for Mac. Or, if you prefer portable installation of programs without requiring admin, try Scoop (https://scoop.sh/). Of course, I'd rather use paru or yay on Arch, but I'm glad these options exist.
  I find it hilarious that Microsoft even suggests these tools on their own GitHub page for the Windows Terminal.

I’m not sure if this is part of the “frequency illusion”, but I’ve noticed a lot more mainstream media talking about Linux as a viable alternative.
- Probably because you associate more with lemmy, I think most lemmy users use linux
  
  I think Lemmy plays a part in it but also all the stuff with MS recently (and people getting tired of it).
  I think most Lemmy users use Linux
  I was thinking about this earlier today. I’d love to do a Lemmy wide survey to see how true this is or to what extent.
  
  I highly doubt most do, just that the percentage of Linux users may be higher than on many other platforms.
  The most used platform for Lemmy is likely still Windows or a mobile OS.
- It's not, I've been using Linux for 20 years and it's been gradually getting more and more exposure on the main media. I think there was a huge push with Steam Machines and then another one with Proton, then every Windows screw up bumps it a little more. We're probably going to get another bump in popularity in a short while when Windows 11 enables the new feature that will take screenshots of everything you do (credit cards, passwords, etc) and use an AI to search through them.
  
  I’ve definitely seen more video content of people trying Linux or moving over completely after that announcement from MS.
- And recent fumbling of msft with recall

I can't program, but I only use Linux on both my laptop and desktop. All I really do on my computers is browse the web, light photo/video editing, print the occasional document, organize my photos, and play A LOT of video games. I was dual booting windows for a bit there for the games that won't work on Linux, but I soon discovered that those games weren't really worth dealing with the annoyances I had with windows for how often I actually wanted to play them... except CoD, but I have an Xbox so I just play that there. Deleting my windows partition was a great choice.
- I am so, so close to doing the same. Still have a small partition carved out for CoD and Windows. I just find myself booting in to it less and less.
  Thank goodness MicroVision seems to be keen on continuing to flog that dead horse with a Warzone focus, means I can finally be free.
  
  yeah, if it weren't for my fiancée playing idk if I'd still be playing CoD at all.
- Only thing keeping my windows partition alive is the pain it seems to be to set up sim racing gear and games and servers on Linux.
  
  I'd be in the same situation if I wasn't too broke for any of that

Stephen Fry the comedian/tv presenter is also a huge linux advocate. Specifically Ubuntu. He's been using it for decades at this point.
- As if I needed more reasons to love Stephen Fry!
- https://invidious.materialio.us/watch?v=cT7Vl4UpCEM

I don't even know how to write "hello world" in python but I use vanilla Arch XD
- Same here, I work in the arts and can't code a thing, but I use Arch (btw) as my daily driver.
- If I recall correctly Arch has ... ssh into wifey's laptop ... python installed out of the box.
  Run up a console and type python, and hit enter. Type in print ("Hello World") and hit enter. There you go!
  If you lack a python: $ yay -S python.
  
  Vanilla arch would be pacman -S python 🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸🥸
- This goes hard
- It was my first Linux distro after using Microsoft stuff for ages and let me tell you: it was a big mistake. It was absolutely confusing, had to use terminal for so many things with even msdos commands that I forgot that existed, broke it 3 times by just trying to automount the other drivers and a host of other things.
  End up switching to Linux mint and the transition went much smoother after that. I'm going back to it eventually though. I actually like it a lot.
  
  EndeavourIS is the Arch for people like you 😉 (and me)

The most "programming" I can do is make a basic scratch project and print("Hello World!") in python, but linux is great
- How do you do that in python...
  
  python
  
  print("Hello World")
  Save the file as script.py
  And then execute it with
  python3 script.py

My wife has used Linux for over a decade. She primarily uses a web browser, office suite and a money management app.
Those have all been well-covered by Linux for years.
- what does she use for money management?
  
  Moneydance. That was a choice made years ago. It works fine, but we haven't reviewed the options in years. On the plus side, Moneydance is cross-platform, syncs to a remote server, has mobile apps and is reasonably priced.

Why is it that people think Linux distros are for programmers or tech people only? This is the reason why we don't get many people on Linux distros.
- Because installing a different operating system than the one that came pre installed is a non zero amount of effort.
  
  I think this here is probably one of the larger reasons. A large portion of users barely know the difference between a browser and a search engine, let alone the operating system they are using, and nor do they care. People just use whatever their computer comes with out of the box. Most people probably couldn't tell you the difference between Windows 11 and a Linux distro customized to look exactly the same.
- Because they live with old news and don’t update tech news knowledge as often as tech savy people do.
- Terminal inputs seems like coding. Back in the day you can mess with everything by coding. Having to spend time on forums and searching Google to fix problems that are Terminal inputs only is not something people want to do and what people are passionate about a thing or it is their hobby do.
  Most people use what is in front of them, works, and what they are use too. I don't have time to fix the wifi issue on my 10 year old linux laptop I just plugged it in. Other option is to reinstall windows every 6 months

Always love to see article of non programmer people using Linux or Emacs!
- Meanwhile I'm here still stuck in vim

Linux used to be for nerds, programmers and tech people.
Now, it's probably easier to use Linux than Windows.
- I have my Boomer dad using Linux Mint on his laptop, but he was still using Windows on his desktop PC.
  Then it updated to Windows 11 and he HATES it and asked me for help to put Linux Mint on his desktop as well.
  This is a real estate agent in his 70s who needs help making scans and downloading email attachments.
  
  Yeah, I think Windows is becoming overly designed and optimized.
  Leading to unnecessary complexities.
- Defintiely! I recently bought a used Thinkpad and slapped Pop!_OS on it for my father-in-law. He's 73 and he's loving it! He proudly tells his friends that he is now "a part of a computer revolution".
  
  lmao, I wouldn't call it a revolution. Simply different options, alternatives and/or values.

I'm a video producer and writer, I only use linux.
- Ooh, does Linux have good open source video editing? I remember back in the day that was tricky. (Or I am misremembering.)
  
  Not open source but DaVinci Resolve is the best editor around and supports Linux.
  
  I do video editing myself in Linux and Kdenlive does pretty much everything I need. The UI is a bit odd to learn but I'd imagine any new editing software is gonna have a learning curve of some sort.
  
  It does :) personally I use Shotcut for work. It's super stable and has enough features for my purpose. KDEnlive is also very popular and feature-rich. And you can use DaVinci resolve too.

I dislike the paradigm that there are "techy people/programmers" and "tech illiterates/non programmers". Anyone can develop the skills to properly use unix interfaces given proper training; and I know that's true because the whole world used to run (mostly) unix on the desktop before corporate took over. Unix doesn't need to be windowsified/macosified to get people to move over; people need to unlearn the interfaces corporate has brainwashed them with for generations. There are so many more interesting user interfaces than just what Windows and MacOS provide; graphical or otherwise.
- I don't know any programming languages but can navigate around Linux, both TUI and GUI.

@petsoi Beautifully written perspective; the KDE Activities bit of that was my favorite! Multiple workspaces on a single monitor is probably one of my most advocated features. I'm telling someone about it at least once a week, even if it's just showin em how to use the cut-down one on their windows machine.

I'm not a programmer and I've been dual booting for 25 years.

God I hate what the modern Internet does to my brain. I had to double check if that laptop is AI generated
- It's such an old laptop to feature in an article. I even opened the image URL to see if it's one How to Geek just had on file they used. The photo was uploaded last year

"Workflow". There it is.

I personally use windows (I play a lot of different games with friends, and setting all of them up in Linux is a lot of work) and I hate it.
However my mum only uses her laptop for browsing and zoom calls, so I installed Linux mint on that and it's been going great, there are soooo much less issues than with modern windows.
- Really? I have migrated to Fedora Linux and have had 0 issues playing games. Literally just installed steam then heroic launcher for my games on GOG and Epic. I did have a little issue get ea games to load but that was as my as blocker blocked ea games from fetching the librsry. Which in fair EA faorness EA sucks and should be vlocked.
  
  Had some issues with EAC and getting games to run OOTB which was an issue with spontaneously playing weird and obscure games. If I or we would plan our sessions properly it wouldn't have been a problem though
  Fully agree on the EA thing, as well as ubishit constantly being buggy and a pain to work with though.

Why are so many Linux posts about "Why Linux" these days? We already use Linux. Isn't there news on Linux anymore or what?

2007 was YOTLD for me. Yours, dear Windows-using reader, is 2024, if you want it to be.
https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/FSF30-video/FSF_30_720p.webm

I started using Linux prior starting programming..
But knowing some programming languages will not help much maintaining a linux distribution, tho
- The problem solving though?
  
  Hmm, maybe, but I would say understanding normal behaviour of bash commands and what drivers are does not directly involve knowing about coding.

118 comments