this post was submitted on 16 Jul 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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Well, why should the average end-user use Linux, actually? If your answer is privacy, taking control back or something in that general line, you're essentially advocating for a technological solution on the individual level as a solution to what essentially are and always have been political and ideological problems. Expecting that to work out is wishful thinking at best. I have growing suspicions, though, that it's more like a different ideological layer, and in that regard quite akin to making the climate catastrophe about choices of individual consumers (of which they often have very few, actually).
I originally switched out of privacy concerns, not that MS or someone else was stealing my personal data and work directly but that it would just inadvertently get leaked with some massive cloud fuckup as seems to happen regularly.
Since then I prefer it just because I can run it on decades old hardware, it's consistent between different versions of the same Distro (W7 through to W11 gives me anxiety), and I don't have to worry about a hardware change invalidating a product key so I have to re-buy my damned OS. Shit, yeah, it's an ideological thing.