Re: Linux For the Masses: Are We There Yet?

In refereence to the blog post.

Linux for the masses is inevitable, but, alas, probably not even close. Everything most people know about what makes a good operating system has been taught to them by Microsoft. Linux may be a better operating system, but if there’s anything that Windows is better at, it’s being Windows. These days, you can run Linux as if it were Windows, and you can get by, but for many people, it feels like a second rate knockoff. It’s as if Jerry Seinfeld is competing with Tiger Woods. If the game is golf, Tiger will win every time, but instead, they’re both entered into a Jerry Seinfeld lookalike contest.

The number one thing we can do to stop competing on Microsoft’s home turf is to stop being ashamed of the command line. As a supplement to the Desktop, it’s not hard to learn enough to take computing to a whole different level. Anybody can do it, but the community doesn’t encourage them.

No gui will ever take the place of the command line– and vice versa. It’s not about one tool being better than another, it’s about two tools being better than one tool. Linux is based on two tools, the GUI and CLI, and that’s why it rocks. Windows has a command line, but for the desktop user, Windows is de facto based on one tool. We have an enormous advantage– and we’re embarassed to talk about. These days, most distros don’t even put a link to the terminal on the desktop anymore.

Part of the problem is that Linux is driven by programmers and developers, and naturally, they’re going to try to program and develop us to desktop power, but helping people cross the threshold to the command line is an educational problem. It took me two years with Linux before I started using the CLI, and, my god, it was so much easier than i had expected!

These days, I tell people who are interested on learning Linux the truth, which is that you’re going to need to use the CLI sometimes to understand why people like me are so fanatically devoted to Linux. You can use it 100 per cent from the GUI, but you won’t get it that way. I think it’s the truth. Migrating is too much of a hassle to use Linux at half power.