The Problems with Linux No One Talks About (Featuring @RaidOwl)

"installing an OS on a refrigerator" is a great paradigm shift I hadn't really considered before. I "knew" that most people don't consider their OS, but it's hard to really duplicate that feeling or sympathize. I felt if you use any two devices with different OS: Windows, Android, iOS, MacOS, ChromeOS, heck even Blackberry/flip-phone era or game consoles, you'd consider how you like to interact with devices. Not everybody has access to multiple devices or upgrades, but considering how people felt about Windows 7 to 8 to 10, it seemed like the effect should have been wider when including other interfaces as comparison.

I recently move into Pop_OS and we are are looking to make a Domain Controller like Novellware, Novell Directory Services. When you login and all your printers, folders, personal share folders and other policies come in a single step. It was easy for the average user (non IT). Windows has so many areas to protect and keep the never ending updates and vulnerabilities.

This is a really great conversation. You guys really tackled some important stuff about linux adoption.

I wish the linux hardware vendor space in the US had more players and was more competitive. I like getting preinstalled linux boxes, but there are a tiny number of vendors and the main one limits what linux distro you can choose. Shopping for linux preinstalled at Dell or Lenovo is like being in a Kafka novel.

I like this

I've been an I.T guy for the better part of 2.5 decades, my career, however has been 90% Windows. Only in the last 12 years as a field engineer did i have to work with a Linux based OSs (Redhat core), i hated the steep learning curve because of the complexity of the learning curve. Since then i have been desperate to transition over to Linux because of the invasion that Windows is forcing on end users… The invasion into your privacy, the invasion into what you own and dont own (even though you paid for it) the invasion into what hardware or software you can and can't use with their OS. Its absolutely mindblowing the audacity these companies have! So yes for me it was an obvious choice. I run several flavours of Linux in my home lab, among them are Proxmox, Ubuntu server and even a favour of Mint on a laptop and a mini desktop. But still i find that i still use Windows on my daily driver because of the exact reason Brett said… It's familiar.
I like that there is so many different distros out there, but even i know that at their core, all of them use the same kernels. Why dont they all bake all of the most common drivers and use case related packages and libaries in to the kernel and then just develop the rest of the OS into all the different distros as they see fit? Why do these distros have to complicate things so much?
Like what i believe Brett was eluding too, if they primarily focussed on just making Linux user friendly to the end user rather then to the developer, more people would be willing to switch to Linux OS. I mean isn't that what Android, ChromeOS and Apple did? They are Linux based but they were easy for the general public to adopt. If Linux desktop OS did the same they would dominate (just mho). Drivers are a large problem with Linux desktop OS (Nvidia/AMD GPU drivers) and yes i get that the issues are 3rd party license related, but they are still available to install by end users which, for gamers, and other end users alike will inevitably be installed, why not just bake them straight in? For a Linux novice they're an absolute PITA to get them installed and working. This leads me to asking for help and running into the RTFM wall… Its stupid and petty.
Even now after having been using these Mint installations the Nvidia cards were fairly headache free, it worked pretty much out the box, my gaming rig with AMD GPU, was a headache, so much so, i reinstalled Windows. The Linux community needs to adopt the K.I.S.S mantra.

As for my thoughts on this video I agree with everything and its well said. I myself started using Linux when you were able to order CDs online and get them in the mail 😂 I eventually gave up using it, but it was interesting it just never piqued my interest. Now, many years later I really sat down and really gave Linux/GNU a try 😉and as nerd I'm not a noob when it comes to computers but, there's definitely a learning curve when it comes to Linux. I quickly learned what Linux is and what its not. Its not like Windows or macOS. I took a deep dive in what in terms of cameras the holy trinity Debian, Arch & Fedora (in no particular order) maybe openSUSE is in there somewhere but, I'm not familiar with that distro. The different package managers were/is something I had to get use to- I like the universal package managers, but I've also seen problem with those not a lot, but I've ran into issue where if I'm using a flatpak for example there are issues with GUI because of how it was package and that its better to use the system package because of xyz…. so its hard to swallow and this is just one issue it goes deeper than what I'm explaining, and this is what "end users" don't really care about they just want it to work. While I listen to your video I get optimistic because I want to see a future like you'll do and just like you said we're the marketing team behind Linux. So I pledge to do my part. I hope one day I will get to see a better future of Linux starting to dominate the market its slowly getting there. Its the year of Linux after-all 😉I personally will be creating a channel and eventually a site to teach people about Linux just like yourself Jay you alongside a lot of other Youtubers have been a inspiration to me and I want to do this for you hahah, but not only that I want to do this for the betterment of the world. We don't have to rely on Microsoft and Apple as much as we do and more people need to see that.

27:00 Thats the issue right there. Windows & Mac are just what people know. Just like Android and iPhone. Its sad to say, but it'll take a tremendously long time for what we'd like Linux to truly become especially where its at now. Where I see Linux excelling is when M$ or Mac truly start becoming a monopoly or when our privacy truly starts getting worse than it already is and using Linux is and STILL is the only way to minimize the impact of our privacy. It won't get rid of it as much as one would like as long you use the internet you're screwed. Sure there are ways around it, but only far in few will go through those steps.

I had the exact experience you're talking about at 38:50 : trying Ubuntu and not being able to upgrade OpenOffice because it wasn't in the repo. When I asked why in the Ubuntu forum, instead of an answer I got questioned "what do you need the latest version for, what exact features are so important to you?". In general, I found the forum a genuinely unhelpful, scornful and toxic vipers den.

Sure, you can solve most Linux issues if you dedicate a weekend to it every so often, but I'd rather have a life. I've kept away from desktop Linux since first trying it and its' forums.

45 drives = too expensive for home server. End of story.

I am 52 years old I tried Linux Foodora since the beginning of 2000. In those days we didn't know Wi-Fi and I found a problem in using my printer and accessing the Internet via Ethernet because there is no drivers for them in Linux.
After about 7 years I installed Ubuntu in my laptop and again I can not connect to the WIFI because of the driver problem.
I think Linux developers fixed a lot of these problems and I will try Linux in on anther SSD in my desktop.

I don't think you can do a proper Linux trial on Mac hardware, frankly. Try it out for 30 days on hardware that isn't so proprietary up the wazoo like Mac is, then report back. Apple purposefully makes their hardware so that only their software and drivers work on it. To me, trying out Linux on that is not creating an even playing field. But that's just my opinion.

I think that the biggest problem with Linux is the fact that there aren't very many people who ACTUALLY, COGNITIVELY recognise, that the very thing that they love the most, is imperfect.

Whenever you ask a question about a problem or an error that you encountered, they get so defensive as though you just called their baby ugly.

That's NOT the issue.

The issue is what's captured either via a copy-and-paste of the error message or, if you're not in a position to capture that, to take a picture of the monitor.

When you recount your experiences (with using Linux, where you've ran into problems), Linux fanbois would tell you that you're wrong, until you produce the receipts (pictures/screenshots) and then they are, interestingly enough, they get VERY quiet after that.

THAT is, what I think, is the biggest problem with the Linux community — where they will ridicule, belittle, berate, etc. you, calling you all KIND of names, but the moment that you show them the picture of your monitor of the Linux kernel panic, then all of a sudden, they get very, very, very quiet from people who used to be very loud, when they were ridiculing, belittling, and berating you.

That is, what I've found, to be the biggest problem.

There are some that will actually try (or at least attempt to try) to help you figure out what went wrong.

But there are quite a number who don't/won't.

Learn Linux, I am a fan of your channel. This interview is a L for your channel. The interviewee was not clear why he hates Linux. I am not Linux fanboy and there are lot issues with drivers, hardware, etc. Installing a Linux distro requires careful thought. And 22 days of testing is not enough!
Please get knowledgeable guests.

You say software repositories are not great on the way they are run today? You should check out the nix package manager

Nice conversation! Initially curious about Linux, and therefore next to Windows, but over time I switched. Mainly for safety reasons. Long time Ubuntu user but now with Fedora. The problems with snaps in particular were the deciding factor for me. And my smart TV will probably also run on Linux.

I share the confusion over aversion to gui tools. When I first tried linux, I got my hands on a Mandrake install cd (in 2004, if I remember correctly) which was known for its "wizards". I ran into all sorts of hardware issues, but it actually ran extremely stable which was quite the contrast with Windows ME (which I was trying to replace). Over the years, I kept going back to Suse (Novell, Opensuse, whatever) partly due to Yast. It may be a silly acronym, but it does have tools for most things you want to do. If you are comfortable with the terminal, it may be easier and faster, but the gui is there for people that are either new or simply don't care to use the terminal at all. It isn't as though the terminal will go away or quit working if good gui tools exist.

I suggest people start reading The General Public License or GPL for short. This will better explain why gnu/linux will never be controlled by x entity or have a certain way of doing things. GPL exists for this particular reason. Also, people are misunderstanding of the meaning of "free". Its not what it think it means. In fact, the GPL is pretty much built on that principle.