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The main reason why not Linux

I want to say right away that the article will focus exclusively on the desktop application of Linux, i.e. on home computers / laptops and workstations. All of the following does not apply to Linux on servers, embedded systems and other similar devices, because what I’ll pour a ton of poison into these areas of application is probably just for the good.

It was 2020, Linux on the desktop still has the same 2% as it did 20 years ago. Linux kept on tearing up forums in discussions “how to take over Microsoft and conquer the world” and look for an answer to the question why “these dumb hamsters” do not want to cuddle with a penguin. Although the answer to this question has long been understood - because Linux is not a system, but a heap of diverse crafts wound with electrical tape .

Why does a person sit at a computer? Many will come up with the answer: to use all sorts of useful applications. But this is the wrong answer. A person generally does not care about applications. He is trying to achieve his goals:

  • chat with friends, boosting your mood and social value
  • make money by finding a demand for your skills and talents
  • learn something, find out the news of your city, country, planet

Etc. For such purposes, excuse me, the UI / UX-design of applications is aimed. Take the starting point A heap is a piece of iron aka a desktop or laptop, take the final goal B - “chat with friends”, and build a smooth trajectory from A to B with a minimum of intermediate points. Moreover, these points should be integral points, single actions, and not a complex of some actions. This is the embodiment of good design.

And what about Linux?

And in Linux, the design ceiling is not the achievement of goals, but the solution of problems . Instead of goal B, the developers are trying to realize the under-goal of b. Instead of thinking about how the user will chat with friends, Linux developers create the 100500th messenger, into which the functions are shoved according to the “like everyone else's” list. Do you feel the difference?

Healthy person’s designer: people getting to know each other and chatting often share selfies, so here we’ll screw the “send selfies” button to a prominent place so that it is at hand and when you click on the user's photo with a webcam and gives him the opportunity to immediately center the photo and apply filters to it.

Designer smoker manuals:make file transfer support, it is universal and will satisfy everyone. And to send a selfie - let a person look for software to capture from a web camera, then retouch the photo in some kind of graphics editor, then send it using the seventeenth option in the "Tools" menu. WE HAVE THE SAME UNIXWAY!

The sad thing is that the same approach is used even at the level of the operating system - that is, at the level of overhead operations, which is generally nonsense. They even managed to spoil the great idea of ​​package managers who, in theory, would make it possible to manage all the software in general with the help of mouse clicks. But no, now we have 4 types of software sources: official repositories, snap, flatpak and unofficial repositories, which still need to be searched and added to the package settings. Half of the functions are available only from the terminal. Instead of an obedient assistant, the package manager turned into a personal Hitler, who at any step left and right bursts with long furious tirades that the user is a fool and does everything wrong.
- Why can't I put the most recent $ PROGRAM_NAME on my system ??
“Because you fuck, that's why.” The main thing is not the user and his needs, but a BEAUTIFUL CONCEPT!
Instead of the shortest smooth trajectories from A to B with intermediate single actions, we have meandering sequences of points, each of which represents not one simple action, but a whole set of actions, often involving the terminal. Moreover, these sequences vary from Linux to Linux, from environment to environment, which is why it is so long and dreary to help beginners with their problems, and writing general instructions is completely pointless.
, .

The funny thing is that the holy spirit of an unfinished Unixway has long devoured the ecosystem from the inside, its huge human and machine resources. The Linux community is truly bogged down in Sisyphean attempts to assemble, test, and set up three hundred trillion billions of different combinations of small bricks, of which dozens of popular Linux are assembled, and which develop independently of each other and common sense. If in a single, integral system we have a deliberately limited set of trajectories along which events can develop during the operation of the computer, then in the case of Linux, the system in response to the same actions can produce one thing today, and tomorrow, after the update - completely different . And then there is nothing to give out at all - just show a black screen instead of logging into the system.

Well, the truth is, why do you need to deal with some boring goals of social wisdom? Better play this fun constructor!

How to fix it


First of all, you need to get rid of the illusion that the problem can be solved by creating another boring ubuntoklon with cool icons and pre-installed Wine. Also, the problem cannot be solved by introducing another beautiful concept such as “but let's transfer the configs under the control of git, it will be wow!”.

Linux needs to be humanized . Identify a set of goals that people decide. And build short, simple, obvious ways to them, starting from the moment a person presses the Power button on the system unit.

This means redoing everything from the bootloader.

In the meantime, we see the next birth of the next distribution kit with rearranged beds and glued wallpaper - we can be sure that Linux will remain fun for people who did not play enough constructor as a child.

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