I don't know any programming languages but can navigate around Linux, both TUI and GUI.

That's a logical fallacy, all dogs are animals does not imply that all animals are dogs. Even if all programmers you know use Windows that could still mean that all Linux users are programmers.

That being said several relatives use Linux because I refused to help with IT unless they had Linux, and since then they mostly hadn't needed IT support. So it's not true that all Linux users are programmers, but a good percentage of us are.

There's some hardcore conflation going on that assumes that people with technical skills will tend to be good at everything, or that they'll gravitate towards the uber-geeky stuff.

In my experience it's a very wide spectrum. Lots of programmers are strictly focused on the language they use and don't care to know anything about the OS, or networking, even computers. They are definitely not jacks of all trades.

There are people who can do programming as well as system administration and build a PC and build some book shelves and so on. But that's a very specific type of person who's a tinkerer and happens to be into programming, it's not because they're a programmer.

In addition to the perception that you have to be "good at computers" (aka a programmer) to use Linux, in my experience a lot of Linux media outlets (websites, YT channels, podcasts, etc) tend to be heavy on advanced features and tools without much explanation in layman's terms and tend to be geared towards an IT professional/hobbyist audience, which can reinforce that stereotype among those (like me) who are not.

Linux use among devs is much higher than gen pop.

https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2023/#section-most-popular-technologies-operating-system

Keep in mind, this adds up to more than 100% because it wasn't an exclusive choice question, it was multiple.

Gnome is so much more cozy than windows

Maybe with zRAM and a bit of swap it could run quite ok 🤷

I've tried Firefox limited to 1 GB for a laugh. It's usable. It won't do many tabs at the same time but it's usable.

You can actually go lower than that but you'll start to run into limitations with YouTube videos etc.

There are also other browsers out there that are more light-weight but perhaps not as feature-full as Firefox. Giving up extensions alone reduces a lot of complexity. If you fire up the package installer on any Linux distro and search for "browser" you'll find a ton. There aren't many engines but there are a lot of browsers.

I have 3GB of RAM on my PC running Linux Mint, using LibreWolf, it works pretty great for me, I mean I can't open 100 tabs, but 10-15 is possible

Im using a 4gb laptop with Xfce, and its definitely struggling sometimes. Even though it's usable, I doubt 2gb would be enough

And to use the computer without being bombarded by ads

Helped my SO fix Sims 4 on her W11 laptop recently; lock screen ads, start menu ads, pre-installed bloatware begging for money

I even asked how she deals with all of that and she basically said “I dunno it just does that, if you can make it stop that'd be nice ig but just get Sims to worl for now”

Needless to say I got Sims 4 to work (removing cachedir did the trick) AND uninstalled the bloatware and turned off ad-related settings

I find it amazing that so many distros with volunteers manage to curate a vast software ecosystem, reasonably successfully and yet some of the largest companies on the planet, worth more than $1T each cannot manage to find the resources to do it efficiently.

Imagine firing up a cmd or ps prompt in Windows and tying in: msiexec install adobe-hipster-app and it just works.

Probably because you associate more with lemmy, I think most lemmy users use linux

It's not, I've been using Linux for 20 years and it's been gradually getting more and more exposure on the main media. I think there was a huge push with Steam Machines and then another one with Proton, then every Windows screw up bumps it a little more. We're probably going to get another bump in popularity in a short while when Windows 11 enables the new feature that will take screenshots of everything you do (credit cards, passwords, etc) and use an AI to search through them.

And recent fumbling of msft with recall

As if I needed more reasons to love Stephen Fry!

Terminal inputs seems like coding. Back in the day you can mess with everything by coding. Having to spend time on forums and searching Google to fix problems that are Terminal inputs only is not something people want to do and what people are passionate about a thing or it is their hobby do.

Most people use what is in front of them, works, and what they are use too. I don't have time to fix the wifi issue on my 10 year old linux laptop I just plugged it in. Other option is to reinstall windows every 6 months

Because installing a different operating system than the one that came pre installed is a non zero amount of effort.

Defintiely! I recently bought a used Thinkpad and slapped Pop!_OS on it for my father-in-law. He's 73 and he's loving it! He proudly tells his friends that he is now "a part of a computer revolution".

I have my Boomer dad using Linux Mint on his laptop, but he was still using Windows on his desktop PC.

Then it updated to Windows 11 and he HATES it and asked me for help to put Linux Mint on his desktop as well.

This is a real estate agent in his 70s who needs help making scans and downloading email attachments.