Isnt that how all social media sites start out. Starts with nerd culture and eventually other people come in later?
Exactly my thoughts. Back in the day when I joined the Instagram in the first month of launch there were only professional photographers posting some great stuff, it was fun until celebs and general public started using it.
That's how pixelfed is right now (Fediverse Instagram replacement)
Starts with nerd culture
In a nutshell, this is the perfect social media for me!
That's how social media was invented. I remember when computers were things that only geeks and nerds were into. And then Neverending September happened, and suddenly normies were everywhere on the internet. We create something new to congregate, and they just invite themselves in after we make it popular. MySpace, Facebook, Reddit...even IRC and Geocities were taken over by them. We eventually took back Usenet at least, but only because it stopped being free for most people.
I use usenet for media only. Are there still communities active via usenet?
Political science? Hmm, switch to all communities and sort for new. Have fun.
Haha, the appeal of political science to me is less about arguing with strangers about the news and more talking about broader philosophies and theories and then applying them to what we are seeing in the world. I feel like I can have a more nuanced conversation about the prisoner's dilemma with regards to x topic, or applying philosophies like American Pragmatism to solving problems.
Talking about the news without using some of the tools political scientists use has so many emotional trip wires that it can feel like I'm just keeping up with the Kardashians. That said sometimes I just can't help but keep up with the Kardashians.
That's how I browse (all & scaled or all & new) and I'm a CS nerd. To make the experience less annoying I've blocked a bunch of communities mainly because they're not interesting to me (there's a lot of anime and/or porn communities, fucking hell), but it's generally a nice experience – I can run into all kinds of things that I hadn't heard of before. I haven't even gotten traumatized yet! Shame the only way to filter the feed is to block communities, but eh
I still don't understand the Linux memes.
- Meme about how hard it is to maintain a Linux machine.
- Meme about how Windows is the worst for your machine.
- Meme about how gullable new Linux users are to bad advice from experiwnced Linux users.
It's like squirting lemon in your eye is the point, and if you don't do it you're one of them. Maybe I'm just not bitter enough in life to get it.
Edit: Oh...
- Meme about Linux dominating a niche developer thing that most developers wouldn't notice, let alone the end user.
to be fair the 3 first points only apply to arch, the same people to say "i use arch btw" so you know they also hate themselfs
edit: 50% of devs use linux so the 4th point isn't that true
I don't use Arch, but I still think that Windows is, if not the absolute worst for your machine, then it at least ranks highly in that category:-).
Excuse you! But also I do hate myself
Obligatory "I use Arch, btw" comment. I've been using Arch for years and, honestly, it isn't that much of a pain. It mostly works with the defaults, installation is really easy now with archinstall, and there's a ton of software ready to install from the repos or the AUR. Besides, the arch wiki is amazing and has solutions for many of the problems you'll ever have.
Rant incoming, so ignore if you're just here for the memes.
The Linux community as a whole seems to still be delusional about the real world outside power users, and it hasn't changed much in the last 25 years from everything I've seen. Distros have come and gone, some better than others, but the community as a whole is still living in a fantasy world about the "year of the Linux desktop". And it's the reason quite frankly that Linux in it's current form will never be a daily driver for the average user. Even though it would actually work for probably 30-40% of the population that just uses a web browser without any issue out of the box, as soon as they have an issue, the community would be impossible to find actual useful help from for these users. There are enough toxic Linux users to anyone that doesn't know the basics. It's almost as toxic as the League of Legends community with some distros. That leaves a permanent bad taste for all of Linux for the average user that comes across just one of these posts. Not to mention little to no support from places like Geek Squad, which is where the real average users take their systems. Even checking online themselves is heading out of average user territory in the first place.
The other main issue is that there are productivity mainstays on Windows that don't have a true Linux version. There are Linux alternatives but they quite frankly aren't the same, and the average user doesn't want to have to deal learning something new or with file format differences and not being able to just do what they already do.
My mother for instance several years ago tried to switch to a Chromebook when she needed a new laptop. She only uses a web browser and Microsoft Word through Google Drive and Gmail. Seems like a Chromebook would be a good fit for an ultra portable and lightweight system with WiFi 90% of the time. She is definitely able to search the internet well and find answers on her own, she is better than the average user due to learning from me breaking things constantly as I grew up. So even her handling of the situation would be more than many users. This was before the stripped down online versions of Office apps existed, so you had Google Docs, and the Linux alternatives like OpenOffice, which did not seamlessly support DOC/DOCX files for users who primarily work with those and need to have those types to send. Even now though the web version of Office is stripped down, some of that stuff just isn't available without the full software. Google Docs was essentially not compatible with regular Word documents at the time, everything had to be converted to Google's format and then exported back to a DOC, and constantly having to remember to save files as an alternate format just to send them off to others for further edits or distribution from their systems was a lot of unnecessary work, easily forgotten that just wasted time. Not to mention getting her head around the idea of cloud storage vs local storage if there was no WiFi available for some reason. Google Drive on Windows has a nice visual indicator of backed up stuff, and it's all stored locally by default as well. It just works for the average user. This is something that Apple does extremely well with their walled garden. They hide the magic and user is never the wiser because it just works for them without getting in the way, you just HAVE to use their system for that experience.
Those are the issues the average person already knows how to do with Windows and even OSX with the current applications they use daily. Switching to Linux is not just changing the look of the computer and the engine under the hood, there are other usability changes as well. Individually they aren't a big deal, but adding them all up, the average user just ends up deciding another Windows system is easier or trying OSX instead to go with their iPhone. Unless the user has someone they know personally that is willing to help those users with every tiny issue, without complaint, or they are savvy enough to handle a good internet search for specific error information and find a community willing to be just as helpful, avoiding the toxic users, they're just going to decide it's bad generally and stop using it, probably forever.
Linux must be objectively better than Windows in major ways to get the average person to jump ship and learn something new, dealing with all the small issues and differences they'll come across.
The various Linux communities need to be careful what they wish for IMO, would it be great for market share to get onboard with Linux? Absolutely.
But like you said, things will have to be dumbed down and hidden extensively.
At the same time whenever a piece of Linux software or distro takes ANY step whatsoever in this direction, the backlash from the community can get rather large. They're trying to have their cake and eat it too.
IMO Linux is great the way it is, low market share and all, and we all know what happens when something starts catching on with the general public...
I think the main issue is too much fragmentation within Linux. There's the whole choosing the distro, choosing a desktop environment (or window manager), figuring out how to use the packages for your distro, etc. Then you have issues like some software being too outdated for your distro or not packaged at all so you look into Flatpak but it's a whole other system on your computer to have to keep track of and maintain or the software you need is not there either so you have to compile from source. There also comes the issue of getting help when something breaks. There's hundreds of different little bits in every single distro that makes it a pain in the ass to fix sometimes unless you're using one of the few large distros where the guides actually work.
I really don't think Linux will become truly mainstream for the every day user until there is a proper "default" experience like what Windows and MacOS provide. Sure some people will say use this distro and this desktop environment and it'd just work but that forces the common person to trust the other person online and that common person has to make a choice. If their first experience on Linux is bad, they'll just throw it off altogether and go back to Windows or MacOS. Everyone has a different first experience with Linux.
I'm not saying strip Linux of all configurability. I'm saying there needs to be a focus on a standard Linux distro with a standardized desktop environment and standardized overall user experience. If the user wants to change any of it, they're free to do so like anyone can with Linux right now. Also, the user should be able to manage the system entirely through a simple GUI. If the user has to for any reason go into a terminal, Linux has failed at being usable by the common person.
I say this as a person who uses Arch (btw) on my laptops and desktop and Debian 12 and Proxmox 8 for my servers and RHEL 8 at work. I really love Linux but I just can't in good faith recommend it to a person who wants to just use their damn computer unless they're willing to put up with the massive fragmentation and lack of support in the community.
Tl;dr Linux doesn't have a "default" experience like Windows or MacOS so a common user will struggle to even get started or look for help/advice
I've used Ubuntu for a few minutes for work and realized I was too lazy to learn a lot of stuff. All my coworkers used the console and I just wanted to use the UI...
Ubuntu is probably one of the easiest for the average user to jump into coming from Windows. It is designed around the GUI and to be close to a drop in replacement much more than many other distros. Linux needs to be usable 100% without the console or it will never be a true competitor for Windows. The average user sees a terminal and had no idea what to do, or what to stay away from. They are 100% reliant on the OS to prevent them from breaking things. Look at all the issues users had with learning to approve system changes via basic security like UAC prompts that just need approval, not even their password, compared to something like sudo.
Granted a big part of that was lazy developers assuming and using admin privileges they didn't actually need for their programs, because the proper way to do things was a bit harder. Something Microsoft had been telling developers for over a decade they needed to stop doing. So many applications prompted every time they were used, because of shitty applications. As soon as a basic security screen was added, those applications became annoying for the end user, and Windows got the blame from the average user because of shitty devs and Microsoft's complete lack of being able to explain things to non-power users.
The meme culture around Linux is self deprecating. Even the thing about windows is that. I say that as a Linux user.
Agreed
Seems 99% of posts on Lemmy, regardless of content, will have some goblin schilling Linux. I don’t have anything against Linux but I will never adopt it, mostly because WHY? What the fuck is the benefit of Linux?
There are some benefits in some circumstances, but a lot of people who use linux do so not because of any tangible benefit, but because they support open source, and don't like the idea of one (arguably a couple) big corporation having a monopoly of that magnitude and deciding alone the way tech should evolve.
Speaking for myself, I'm from a developing country, and I mostly use dated tech, some of which don't even support windows anymore, and it gives me the possibility of extending the lifespan of my stuff. This is the main tangible benefit for me.
I’ll have you know that I wrote a semi-functional webpage in HTML when I was in college 😎
My Angelfire page is still up and running.
Not a programmer either, nurse in a psychiatric hospital. But I am interested in FOSS and web 3.0.
What web 3.0 implies are great, what it actually is in its current form is not. Simply focusing on FOSS should be enough for now and there's a shit ton of really good FOSS like this medical practise software as well as stuff inspired by Open Source culture itself like the Open Source Ecology.
No correlation I hope.
There are several nurses here I've noticed. We make sure we go everywhere.
Working in a psychiatric hospital and spending your free time in another
I'm glad you're here. Now there are at least two of us!
There are dozens of us! Dozens!
My education background is nursing and social work. I've only ever used Windows and very surface level. I've never programmed anything, the closest I've gotten to anything technical is troubleshooting a game that I've modded to within an inch of its life.
Though I'm picking up an old laptop from a school surplus next Monday to wipe and begin exploring Linux. My only other experience with Linux is the interface of my housemates NAS (which I use only to manage a plex and valheim server)
I'm an IT tutor in a community centre - basically just teaching grandma how to close all her iPhone apps. No experience or formal qualifications needed. If you can be patient while showing seniors the basics of the devices they've got at home, you're hired.
Our organisation currently pays too much for an IT managed service provider, who doesn't provide a comprehensively managed service, so my boss wants to end their contact and hire me as a dedicated IT management officer. My boss is 75 and is confident in my abilities because she thinks power cycling the router when the internet goes out is an amazing and high level skill, but I know enough to know how much I don't know. But I also know I can learn.
So maybe in a year or so I'll understand more of the jokes on lemmy.
Your comment made me happy
be patient while showing seniors the basics of the devices they've got at home
I'm not a programmer either but I bet this is actually harder than learning at least a few coding languages.
Fuck openai
A corporate going down in history for the abuse of word open despite being anything but
Their entire business is constructed by harvesting the open internet, then keeping the end result closed. Yet they are called "open"AI.
When the company was named, they intended to create open source AI tools, but then greed.
The FLOSS community should have the right to revoke usage of the word "open" from for profit companies like that.
openaiclosedai
Python? Where? All I see is people praising Rust here. Also, Ubuntu? That's the most hated Linux distro on Lemmy.
So this supports my point completely. No fuckin clue what you're saying.
Gottem
Don't worry, you'll learn soon enough
Yeah, the rust circle jerk is hard here... I'll be over here getting work done with my hated OS and my hated programming language. Living life on hard mode, man, I just wanna relax. 😵
Bring on the political science and jazz posts! Would love to see them around.
Hey, I studied jazz too! Now I'm working on becoming a sysadmin lol
Music and programming both have a sort of logic to them
I sir am a Linux engineer and resent your insinuation that I'm a programmer.
What's Linux?
I'm not a programmer either, but I am a Linux and open source user so I can at least wade through the waters, lol
Same here. I count the days until it's discovered that I'm just a normie who agrees with the ideology of open source, and am hanged for my crimes of not knowing what a "cron" is, thinking stdout has to do with diseases, or wanting to play video games with 0 troubleshooting haha.
This incident will be reported
What do you mean you don't use Arch, hate cars and are vegan?
😅
I know a little bit of Python thanks to ren'py, and I have Linux on my Steam Deck, so... I guess I'm in transition?
Not long before I have programmer socks and start binge watching Star Trek 👍
Hopefully you don't conform and assimilate into trekdom or Linux nerd popular memedom.
As a reddit api refuge, I realize just how much effort it is to A create content B maintain frequency
For power users its easier to run a bot to automate posting. I would suggest two things need to take place possibly 3. One a new community for just new community request, and we direct ppl there and combine the posters with ppl.who want the content?
As much as everyone enjoys the beans, I'm sure if content makers had insight on what content leechers wanted some shift.
Right now lemmy still feels like a private club, bit once the news outlets start looking to lemmy communities for information the shift will happen.
I just hope the spirit of lemmy being free but understanding support the mods, donate to the org and this will remain free.
Half the world uses Linux and isn't aware of it (Android).
To make things more confusing, I program, I use linux, and I talk about all of these stuff, but I am not a programmer :p .
If you program you're a programmer. No need to do it professionally to call yourself that.
In the early days, it was laborwave and esoteric websites, the programmer humor seems relatively new to me
I studied both political science and programming.
I can't think of a good joke, but I wanted to share.
For representational reasons, I miss the logo of the Rust programming language, but I have the hint of an idea why the creator of the meme didn’t put it in there.
Ya like jazz?
wiggles fingers jazzily
Do jazz shitposting communities exist? I don't have the time to create one, but I'd love to see some.
I can create and mod one for you if you want but i can't post anything if you or any others are interested lemmy know (pun intended)
you are one of us now...
You will assimilate
the same thing goes for people who aren’t star trek fans. i didn’t even know there were so many different star treks until i made an account here
I'm no programmer either, but switched to the penguin out of necessity, since my PC completely lost the ability to run Windows for no reason. But I vibe with KDE Plasma now, so it's not half bad.
(Someone tell me where I find my mounted devices as a folder pls, thanks)
Devices are in /dev. Bulk storage devices can be mounted anywhere on the file system, but by convention you can look up where permanently mounted drives get mounted by looking in /etc/fstab. Automatically mounted drives are usually put in /media and manually mounted devices should go in /mnt.
The devices should be in the /dev directory
Assuming you mean hot plugged devices (thumb drives and external drives) KDE mounts them under /media
If you are expecting them to auto mount, KDE distros often don't have that enabled by default. Though I think Kubuntu has that enabled by default now so maybe that has changed. Go to System Settings -> Hardware -> Removable Devices to adjust the automount settings defaults and per drive settings.
If you don't have automount enabled you probably will need to browse to them in Dolphin once to get KDE to mount the drive first.
Not sure what folders they are usually in by default, but I set my mounted drives to be inside of the /mnt folder because I didn't like wherever they were originally mounted to.
political science and jazz
Theodor Adorno, is that you?
Hell yea I love a good wiki deep dive
I am actually writing an analysis of the music industry and counter culture responses with regards to AI and the future of music! I'm calling it musical humanism. 🎷 🎺 🎸
I would LOVE to read that
Then seriously, check Adorno and his writings on Jazz. He was pretty early in calling out capitalism as diluting and anodizing music, (something I'm not entirely sure I agree with) and in my experience his writings are often cited when discussing how music is packaged and marketed.
Healthcare gang represent!
I know a little bit about programming, but I think that it's crucial to learn more, not just because of how messed up social media sites are, but because you can do so much cool stuff!
OpenAI? Is more of a normie thing
Nerds!
Yay nerds!
Ftfy
Time to install Ubuntu 😶
(doesn't exactly fit, but still funny enough to share, I hope!:-P)
Yeah if you filter out programmer humor everything seems a bit more normal.
Me: needing to become a programmer because the professor for my graduate stats class has a hard on for R...
I'm mostly here for the shit posts.
I'm a programmer but I don't go to social media to talk about programming.
