this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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What makes you think your average Windows user that is trying out Linux for the first time wouldn't have faced the same problem? I never understood why people criticized Linus for this video. After all, the video was supposed to see whether Linux is a viable alternative for Windows users (specifically gamers).
Yes. People have been trained to ignore warnings like this.
Android makes you jump through a hoop and tries to scare you when you want to install apps from outside the playstore.
Windows has some similarly serious-sounding warning messages.
People have got used to rolling their eyes at warnings when installing software. Like it or not, that's the way that it is. Users are used to seeing a scary warning when installing, and they're used to just powering through it without much thought.
Linus was following a tutorial on the PopOS website, followed the instructions, and borked his install.
I have problems with LTT in general, but the PopOS thing was entirely understandable, and people pretending that wasn't a usability problem in PopOS are delusional.
I agree with that other reply.
Linus knew just enough to be dangerous.
My experience with most Windows users and their first encounter with using a Linux terminal is every single warning/error they see no matter how mundane is a big deal.
Things like the boot text or a random
aptinstall on Linux will often display various warnings or even "errors" that are really of no concern but ime tend to freak out new users.Linus is in that narrow band where he doesn't really know shit but knows just enough to be falsely confident and ignore all the warnings/errors instead of just the irrelevant ones
He's at the bottom end of 'knows just enough to be dangerous', and people make fun of people in that range. The vast majority of gamers and Windows users fall well outside that narrow band. The average Windows user who is scared of the terminal wouldn't ignore several warnings and type in confirmation phrases. They wouldn't have even gotten to that point because to get there you need to copy/paste things from a website without understanding what it does.