I’m sure you’ve all heard of Linux. It’s that one open-source operating system that nerds love talking about. But, Linux isn’t just meant for nerds. In fact, virtually all of the largest tech companies in the world use Linux in one form or other thanks to its superior performance when it comes to back-end development. In fact, even Microsoft has switched over from Windows to Linux for their networks, databases, and cloud infrastructure. But, if Linux is so good, why hasn’t the average person even tried it, especially when it’s free? Well, one of the main reasons that Linux never gained that much popularity is because its low cost doesn’t really mean much to the vast majority of customers. The vast majority of people just be prebuilt machines and Windows/macOS comes preinstalled for no extra cost. Also, even if you were building your own PC, Microsoft has made it extremely easy to get an unlicensed version of Windows running permanently. On top of this, Linux is usually not as user-friendly because it doesn’t come preinstalled with much software. Not to mention, you often have to use the command line to accomplish simple tasks. This video explains the top reasons that Linux is not very popular despite its free nature and apparent superiority.
Did you know that microsoft actually uses linux to run much of its cloud infrastructure? and it’s not like they’re forced to either. before 2015, microsoft used to build watered down versions of windows for running networks, databases, and other cloud infrastructure. so, the switch to linux was very much a voluntary
One. while to put aside their ego and switch to linux, too surprising given that linux is usually the preferred os for backend infrastructure. it’s simply more stable, reliable, secure, flexible, hearing this, i don’t think you’d be surprised to hear that microsoft isn’t the only one that uses
Linux. amazon, dell, facebook, google, of their business. yet, despite it’s popularity amongst these institutions, linux is virtually nonexistent amongst everyday consumers. well, technically, android is built on linux and android is the most popular operating system in the world, so you could make that argument
For linux, but i’m talking about the consumer pc market. there, use linux. this isn’t to say that linux isn’t hardcore users like programmers, engineers, and tech enthusiasts have not only been using linux themselves, but they’ve been preaching about why it’s way better than windows and mac. yet,
No one else seems to care. so, if linux truly is the objectively better os and if even one of the top advantages that many linux enthusiasts cite is the fact that linux is free. they argue that instead of paying $100 for a windows license, you can pay no money for linux. this way, you’d not only be saving money,
But you’d also be getting a superior os. from their perspective, this scenario is clearly a win win, but from the average consumer’s perspective, it’s not quite that simple. here’s the thing, linux being free doesn’t mean much to the average consumer because to them, windows and macos are also free. it’s not
Like they have to go out and buy a license for either of these. they just go out and buy the computer and the os comes along with the purchase. so, not only would the average consumer not save money by switching to linux, but they’d also feel that they’re not using something that they paid for. really, the only
People who can save money by using linux is people who build their own pcs. and pc builders are by far the minority within the pc market. not to mention, a substantial portion of pc builders are gamers and windows is simply the best choice for gaming because that’s what games are built for. and yes, there
Are ways that you can run windows games on linux, but this kind of defeats the entire purpose of linux. one of the biggest advantages of linux is that it can run many things better natively, but games are not usually one of those things because they’re specifically coded to run on windows. also, if someone is willing
To spend a thousand dollars or thousands of dollars on a gaming pc, i highly doubt that the cost of a windows license is a serious consideration. even if it was, if they’re savvy enough to build a pc, they’re probably savvy enough to migrate windows from an old computer or just pirate it. and that brings us to
Our next point which is that getting windows for free is extraordinarily easy. while windows is not free on paper, microsoft has gone out of their way to make sure that you can get it for free if you want to. you don’t even need to pirate it. you can literally download it straight from microsoft’s website and install
Onto your literally no consequences for not activating windows. you get 30 days to activate, but even if you don’t, the only thing you lose is your ability to personalize. in other words, you don’t lose any functionality whatsoever. so, for end users, whether you’re buying a prebuilt or a building your
Own pc, linux offers virtually no financial benefit. someone who does financially benefit from choosing linux, however, is institutions. schools, universities, companies, and computer manufacturers all have to pay for windows licenses. now, i’m sure they don’t pay anywhere near as much as $100 per license given that
They probably get some sort of bulk order discount. but, even if it’s $30 or $40 per license, when these institutions are ordering tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of computers, windows does end up costing them several hundred thousand dollars if not millions. so, switching to linux could be a
Smart financial decision, but this option quickly becomes impossible when one of the biggest obstacles for linux adoption is that it’s just not that easy to use. linux past several years especially ubuntu. but, some level of familiarity with the command line is still extremely helpful when it comes to using
Linux. to many tech enthusiasts, this is what makes linux so great. instead of having to deal with generic user interfaces that are built for general consumption, you can use the command line to do very specific tasks. while this is great for people who are comfortable with the command line, this just seems completely
Unnecessary to people who aren’t. the customizability and flexibility applicable to the average person. virtually all these people are primarily doing extremely generic tasks like working on word docs and excel sheets or replying to emails. and the freedom that the command line offers doesn’t seem like a freedom
At all. to them, the command line simply comes off as an unnecessarily complicated way to accomplish extremely straight forward tasks. even for the people who could benefit from the command line, more time than not, they don’t want to spend time learning about it because it seems super daunting. they often feel like they
Need to know coding to use the command line, and they often fear that they’re one wrong command away from corrupting something and destroying their computer. this is especially true when you’re running a command using administrative authority. it just feels like you’re messing with something that you shouldn’t
Be messing with. aside from having to deal with the command line, with linux, you also have to deal with installing everything manually. once again, this is actually one of the advantages of linux. linux comes with virtually no bloatware, so you can install only what you need. this is one of the reasons why linux machines
With the same specs tend to run faster and smoother than windows machines. but, the average user doesn’t always view this situation in the same light. for them, all this means is that linux does not work that’s a disadvantage. many of them actually like much of the software that linux users would classify as
Bloatware. take mac os for example. macs generally come preinstalled with apple tv, apple music, icloud, facetime, and imessage. for a power user who’s only looking to use their mac for productive purposes like coding, software like apple tv and icloud may seem completely useless. they’re probably never going to open
Apple tv on this machine and they far prefer github over icloud. but, for the everyday user, they may love that their photos are automatically synced through icloud and that they can text through imesage. for them, all of this preinstalled software isn’t bloware, it’s what makes the computer functional out
Of the box. as apple likes to call it “it just works”. both windows and macos just work. linux on the other hand doesn’t. and even though that’s what makes linux so flexible, customizable, and free, most people simply don’t care enough users will swear by linux, the bottomline is that the average person simply has no
Need of it. in fact, even power users don’t really need it simply because macos and windows have actually gotten pretty good at emulating the best features of linux. take coding for example. one of the main reasons that developers love linux is because it’s based on unix. unix is an os that’s specifically
Designed with programmers in mind. windows is not based on unix, so it often makes sense to choose linux over windows. but, something that is based on unix is macos. so, not only does mac offer many of the same coding advantages as linux, but it’s also more user friendly and polished. this is why macos is extremely
Popular amongst developers. globally, the mac only has 8.9% marketshare, but amongst developers, it has 44% marketshare. aside from most people not having any need for makes them less productive. for example, not all linux distros come with wifi drivers which means that you’ll have to manually install drivers
Just to connect to the internet. but, atleast that’s only a one time issue. something that you’ll have to constantly deal with is lack of support. even something as rudimentary and basic as microsoft office is not natively supported on linux. so, you’ll have to jump through a bunch of loopholes just to get access
To basic software. this same rule also applies to software like photoshop, premiere pro, autodesk inventor, and basically anything else that doesn’t directly involve coding. but atleast, you can make those software work by jumping through a few hoops. simply will not work on linux whatsoever. for example,
Nothing to do with pearson education works. if you’re a student and have a bunch of classes that use pearson, this makes linux completely unviable. so, that’s pretty much all of the objective reasons that the pc community at large hasn’t adopted linux. linux’s free nature isn’t all that helpful, the command
Line and ui is rather daunting, and linux often poses a lot more challenges than solutions for most people. but, there’s a subjective side to all of this as well, and i don’t think this video would be complete if we didn’t discuss that as well. the truth social stigma. usually, linux is associated
With nerds and broke people. in terms of social prestige, mac would probably be first place, windows would be second place, and linux would be last place. so, why would the average person want to go out of their way to downgrade themselves socially when they can just get a mac or windows machine. the answer is that
There is no reason and in certain use cases, almost all of these use cases are professional. they involve databases, things the average person will never deal with from the backend. also, even amongst the people who do use linux for professional purposes, i bet most of them have a windows or mac machine at home
For personal use cases. while there will linux is better for personal use as well, this is simply not true. and honestly, i think a lot of these guys have an ulterior motive. many of them use linux not because it’s superior but because of ideological reasons. they’re usually anti big tech and think that open
Source projects like linux should be supported and developed as much as possible. and this is usually the root reason that they’re so pro linux, but as for the rest of us, well, we usually just don’t care. as murray bauman once said “people don’t spend their lives trying to get a look at what’s behind the
Curtain. they like the curtain. it provides them stability, comfort, definition.” and within the pc market, macos and windows are that curtain. below. also, drop a like if you think that linux deserves more credit. and of course, consider checking out our discord community to suggest to see more questions logically answered.
Transcribed from video
Even Microsoft Uses Linux, So Why Don't We?? By Logically Answered