• Touching_Grass@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    90
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    Do you know how many grey beards have waited their entire lives to have a girl ask them what Linux is. You’ve made a lot of irc mods jealous tonight. Stack overflow responses are going to get super spicy for a couple days

    • Da_Boom@iusearchlinux.fyi
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I’d love to have a girl, or anyone for that matter ask me that. Though preferably not with the phrase “what the fuck” in front of it. I’d rather them ask me about it out of pure curiosity rather then out of distain and annoyance.

    • cole@lemdro.id
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      get yourself a girl who not only knows what it is but runs it with you :)

  • stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    82
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Everytime I scroll past something from this community my eyes bleed. Y’all wanna fuck windows users so bad

  • xkforce@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    94
    arrow-down
    24
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Unfortunately gaming is about the least Linux friendly hobby there is. For most tasks you can find software that will make it relatively painless to wean people off Windows but many games, especially new ones, dont work out of the box on Linux. Most of the time, theyre going to have to fiddle with things to get games to work, if they can work and youre going to have to justify to them why they should do that.

      • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        55
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        This literally happened to me:

        1. Install Kubuntu 22.04 and Steam on my kid’s PC.

        2. Download Brickrigs, his favorite game.

        3. Crashes on title screen

        4. Spend the next week sporadically troubleshooting when I get a free few minutes here and there.

        5. After week 2, I finally decide for shits and giggles to download and install the “official” AMD driver from AMD’s website instead of using the built in kernel one like every goddamn reply on every forum post has been telling me to use, because the PC’s GPU is about ten years old at this point and the driver that came with the distro doesn’t work with it.

        6. Lo and behold, Brickrigs works.

        THIS is how Linux “works”, a LOT of the time.

        • zurohki@aussie.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          20
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          The new amdgpu kernel driver only launched in 2015 and it was buggy and unstable for a while. GPUs from around that era default to using the older radeon kernel driver which lacks Vulkan support.

          Polaris (Radeon RX 400 series from 2016) and newer just work, older cards can take some prodding.

          • slaecker@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            25
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            I’ve seen this exact situation so many times.

            1. Ask the community about gaming on Linux
            2. Get the response that it works (install Steam and play)
            3. Install Steam
            4. Game doesn’t work
            5. Invest hours in troubleshooting
            6. Have the community explain why it doesn’t work in your particular case
            7. After hours of fiddling get it working

            I’ve been in this situation myself so many times. I like fiddling with my system but even I ended up dual-booting Windows just for gaming.

            • Johanno@feddit.de
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              8
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              Let’s get this image then fixed.

              Linux gaming works (most of the time without any issues)

              What you should know before you switch to Linux:

              Not every Hardware is supported as well as on Windows. Old Hardware may work better or worse than on Windows. New hardware may not work at all. Don’t buy sth. that isn’t at least half a year on the market.

              Check protondb if your games do run on linux. For some people even silver there isn’t an enjoyable status. Gold should be working as on windows with minor issues and platin is works just fine.

              Be ready to learn a new operating System! Linux isn’t Windows and the terminal is key to fix issues.

              • rbits@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                7
                ·
                1 year ago

                Or Nvidia either according to all the people telling me my problems aren’t valid.

                So if you want a good time with Linux you need and AMD GPU or integrated graphics, and it can’t be too new, and it can’t be too old.

                I think linux’s image is pretty accurate

                Also “Be ready to learn a new operating System! Linux isn’t Windows and the terminal is key to fix issues.” I agree. I think that’s not a good idea for a lot of people though. So I think posts like OP’s are kinda stupid. People shouldn’t try to push Linux on people who shouldn’t use it.

                • Johanno@feddit.de
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  I mean most people don’t have issues with their gpu. But if you do then get ready for day long trouble shooting.

                  But if you can’t fix problems that my arise don’t use Linux.

                  On the other hand if you only use Internet and occasionally a text Editor like libre writer you won’t notice the difference between Linux or Windows

              • slaecker@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                5
                ·
                1 year ago

                I’m a long-term Linux user living mostly on the terminal, knowing quite a lot about the operating system. And sometimes I enjoy tinkering to get a game running even more than playing it. But in the end for some games it just doesn’t work. Of course it depends on the game and hardware and what not, but in the end if I can’t play all my games on Linux I have to bite the bullet and check for alternatives. And for me this statement is hard as hell.

          • voxel@sopuli.xyz
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            yeah the radeon module is hilariously broken.
            couldn’t even get Firefox to work until I forced amdgpu.

            • zurohki@aussie.zone
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              Firefox is probably looking for modern hardware acceleration for its rendering engine to work.

              • voxel@sopuli.xyz
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                i mean it worked but only had 1/10 chance of starting (which basically made it unusable)

        • voxel@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          uhh brickrigs works perfectly for me?
          on the built-in amdgpu kernel module (since my laptop is like 8 years old i had to force amdgpu instead of radeon drivers)

          radeon is hilariously broken, even firefox breaks (won’t start sometimes) while it’s in use

        • ZeroHora@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          To be fair, a friend of mine had blue screen playing LOL on windows for a month until he found the solution: rename a random .dll of the NVIDIA driver and than reinstall the driver.

          Weird stuff happens with PC, with Win, Linux, Mac or anything but people always point to Linux. Yeah on Linux we see more of these things but PC gaming in general is not so user friendly like people think it is.

      • sorrybookbroke@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        46
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        3: try every proton version
        4: try proton GE
        5: (proccessing Vulcan shaders)
        6: change launch arguments
        7: use protontricks to install some weird dependancy
        8: sacrifice your pets firstborn at an alter to achieve a running state

        Not that hard lol, get good bitches. Also fuck you for wanting to play rainbow 6 siege. All my homies hate rainbow 6 siege.

      • lesteross@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        What if game is not on steam and it’s online game that I’ll get banned if I use 3rd party client?

        • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          That’s becoming less and less common these days, thankfully. Especially since the Steam Deck, gaming on Linux is just becoming better and better.

          • lesteross@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            1 year ago

            Sure, but still multiplayer games that are not on steam and have some sort of anticheat or other stuff like that are unlikely to show up on deck. Unless company steps in and release version for steam deck/Linux (which they don’t cause it’s probably a lot of work for minimal returns), you have to play it on windows. At least I can dual boot on my deck to play those games.

        • Cethin@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          What online game do you want to play besides maybe Counter Strike?

      • spaxxor@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        arrow-down
        8
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Get booted out of said game because the anti cheat freaked out thanks to Linux.

      • transigence@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        15
        ·
        1 year ago

        Wrong. Also master a bunch of Proton configuration and extra parameters and then deal with abysmal performance compared to Windows.
        Out of the box, Proton+Wine works on surprisingly little.

    • YAMAPIKARIYA@lemmyfi.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      So far I’ve only had an issue with one game (easy to fix, I just restarted steam). I’m relatively new to Linux. (Switched because I didn’t feel like paying for windows when I built my PC). To be transparent, I did use Linux a bit 5 years ago in school. But I don’t think that counts.

      • xkforce@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        10
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Steam has many games but odds are most new games are windows and maybe mac only. None of activision’s games have official ports and are run using WINE through the use of Lutris or some equivalent. In the past this worked ok but after a fresh install of Kubuntu 22.04, Lutris scripts do not properly install activision games like starcraft II. i.e the Lutris install script for battle.net does nothing (no files are installed, Lutris just stalls indefinitely) and the starcraft II install script just prompts you to install battle.net then goes into a loop.

        • Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          1 year ago

          It looks like it’s either a Kubuntu issue, or something has gone wrong on your end. I read your post so just tried installing it on Mint, and I had no problems.

          I checked the Battle.net site first, but they only had Windows or mobile downloads, so I tried installing Lutris. I haven’t used Lutris yet, so I found a guide.

          I searched the Lutris site for Starcraft II, and clicked the install button, then told my browser that Lutris could open the link. Lutris asked if it could install the Battle.net program, so I said yes and followed the instructions.

          Once Battle.net was installed, I opened it, logged in, and searched for Starcraft II. I found the free version, and told it to install.

          Once the download finished, I started the game, set up my character, and played the tutorial.

          Other than downloading Battle.net through Lutris, the installation was the same as it would be on Windows

          • xkforce@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            It was a fresh install. All I did is install lutris and attempt to install battlenet from lutris’ battlenet page. I also attempted the reported workaround for an issue others are having but that didnt do anything either. It used to work fine in earlier versions of Kubuntu but not this time. And apparently there are other people having issues with battlenet in particular not actually downloading the files it needs correctly due to a dns issue. But in my case, the attempted install doesnt even get that far and if you look in the fold it is supposed to be installing in, there is nothing there. Theres also no log output or anything that indicates it is doing anything.

          • xkforce@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            1 year ago

            If I had money Id probably get one. Steam in general has been the best thing to happen to linux gaming ever

    • j891319@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      1 year ago

      I used to also think gaming and Linux are not really that compatible, but Proton being built into steam makes it easy to run pretty much any game out of the box now.

    • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s really a bit like what we used to do when we poked at autoexec.bat and whatnot when running DOS games back when dinosaurs roamed the land.

      It’s not really complicated, you just have to prod here and there until it works (unless it just doesn’t because some kind of anti-consumer software lock just won’t play nice with Wine, although that’s becoming less common nowadays).

      OTOH, things that aren’t Linux friendly… corporate accounting, an awful lot of dedicated software for niche industries… There’s no lack of things that are still complicated in Linux.

      • xkforce@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        The problem though is that we are in 2023, a good 32 years after Linux came out. It shouldnt feel like you are in the DOS era. One of the problems that dawns on me is the real issue is a lack of consistency. Sometimes things work great, sometimes they dont. A lot of people arent having the same issues I and many others do which is frustrating because of how the community reacts when someone brings up those inconsistencies. There are a lot of people that dont run into them for one reason or another and all they see is people bitching about from their POV, seemingly nonexistent problems.

        • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          You also have to remember that you’re running software designed for an entirely different operating system. It’s not at all like moving from xp to Windows 10. We’re not comparing apples to oranges, but apples to hedgehogs.

          That it works most of the time is a fucking miracle in itself.

          • xkforce@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            Yes it is a miracle that it ever works. HOWEVER it doesnt really matter to most people why it doesn’t work sometimes. It isn’t fair but the reality is that as far as most people are concerned, their PC is basically a microwave in that they have little interest in how the internals work as long as they work and if they can’t do x or y, they dont really care that it isn’t Linux’s fault. All they see is that they installed this new OS that looks really cool but cant run certain games or run certain software. Now if Linux were popular, it wouldnt be an issue because almost everything would have been written for one distro or another (like android is dominant on phones) but it isn’t. Steam is doing a lot to change things and hopefully Linux is better supported by other companies as well in the future but right now there are still enough gaps that I would be very hesitant about recommending Linux to a heavy gamer unless I knew that they basically waded in the steam ecosystem and the vast majority of their games could be run via proton.

            • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              You’re saying that as if Windows “just worked”.

              The time I spend fixing the Windows machines of the people around me seems to indicate that it’s not the case.

              • xkforce@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                Back when I used windows regularly instead of sparingly, I cant remember a time when I ever had to go into the registry files or command prompt to fix anything. You might have to install newer drivers or something but effectively do surgery on the dll files etc? Nope. And you have to remember that the average windows user is… not very skilled with computers. Theyre going to need hand holding a lot more than the average Linux user. Which is why windows is more or less designed for the lowest common denominator. And itd be weird if all the effort spent writing stuff primarily for windows didn’t result in an easier experience.

                It used to be that the community acknowledged the harm Windows’ dominance caused Linux. Microsoft didnt change. They still leverage their monopoly to harm Linux.

    • grandkaiser@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I use both Linux and Windows (Linux professionally, windows personally)

      Got a buddy of mine that will wax on for hours about how windows is pointless and should have been replaced by Linux years ago. I’ll then go “Cool, so uh, did that game download yet? Lets play!” Then start up the game. Four hours later and he’s still trying to get the sound to work or make the graphics display while continuing his rant on how user friendly Linux is.

      Like, Linux is great and all, but fuck me, it’s not user friendly.

      • yokonzo@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        right and wrong, games play nowadays, but good luck getting the same accessibility and flexibility as windows, you wanna download a cool new mod? No problem! Oops but the mod loader is only windows based and gives wine a seizure, you can probably do it, but not without an hour or more of work, not exactly casual user friendly quite yet. And god forbid the game uses a special pheriphal

      • Moc@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        No, they are right.

        It took an enormous amount of fiddling for me to get games working on Debian 12

        • yiliu@informis.land
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          I’ve been using Steam in FlatPak on NixOS for a couple years now.

          The only games I’ve found that didn’t work were due to anti-cheat rootkit stuff, which would probably be a bigger deal if I cared about online gaming. And I’ve had to change the Proton version a couple times, because the beta (default) seems to break a game occasionally. Overall: it’s astoundingly good compared to where it was 5+ years ago.

          • Moc@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            I agree with you, but it’s just not ready for the average person.

            Case in point: regardless of which version of Steam I install it goes into a crash-restart cycle if I open it from gnome. The only way to run it is to type “steam” in the console.

            The issue persists regardless of whether I use the .deb or flatpak.

    • Holzkohlen@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      Tbf you have to fiddle about with the game’s graphics settings anyways. I think lots of pc gamers are fine with having to fiddle with things. Heck seems like everyone wo ever bought a steam deck does nothing but fiddle with it. For some that is actually the most fun thing about it all.

      • xkforce@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 year ago

        Doing what you need to do to fix compatibility issues is in no way comparable to changing graphics settings.

      • bitwolf@lemmy.one
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        There are also a number of compatibility issues on Windows itself thanks to the mess of DirectX workarounds they need to add to the drivers with each new game.

    • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m a harsh critic of Linux but gaming is very easy on Linux these days. At least as easy as Windows. No fiddling required.

    • QuazarOmega@lemy.lol
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      26
      ·
      1 year ago

      Average CC-BY enjoyer

      ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣠⡴⡢⡶⠶⢢⢄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
      ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢰⢏⣺⢿⣿⣾⣹⣷⢡⠀⠀⠀⠀
      ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢾⣾⣟⠝⠀⠨⠉⢹⡏⠀⠀⠀⠀
      ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣾⣻⡇⠘⠿⢾⢐⣶⠃⠀⠀⠀⠀
      ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣱⣾⣷⣦⣠⡾⣃⡐⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
      ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣀⡀⣀⣀⣤⣤⣠⡟⢻⣿⣿⣏⠻⡿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
      ⠀⣠⡾⢿⡿⠿⠿⢿⣻⣿⡋⠉⡇⠀⣿⠛⠻⠿⢇⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
      ⣸⠋⠀⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠙⢷⠀⢰⣰⠃⡠⢔⠄⠀⠀⢄⠀⠀⠀⠀
      ⢻⡄⠀⠛⢆⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⢿⣿⣿⠞⠛⠉⠁⠉⠢⡀⠑⢀⠀⠀
      ⠀⣷⢀⣶⢿⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⡟⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠆⠀⠡⠀
      ⠞⢁⡼⢯⣠⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣿⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡀⠀⠀⠀
      ⠖⠋⠀⠀⢻⣿⣄⡀⠀⢀⣾⡏⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⢰⡴⠀⠧⠀⠘⠀
      ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣿⡝⣻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⣄⡀⠀⢔⡵⡟⡇⠀⠀⠱⠈⡄
      ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣾⣹⡯⠤⢄⣏⣀⡈⣹⡟⡩⢋⢼⡄⢹⠀⠀⠌⠀⠇
      ⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡟⢾⣤⣀⢤⡯⠄⠉⠁⡇⠐⢔⠀⠻⣇⣷⠈⢆⠀⡂
      
    • Turun@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      That’s a really solid website! Very professional looking, even though all that is offered is drawing anime girls, lol.

  • init@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    20
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    When she gets onto Linux:

    “Now we just need to get you onto Arch!”

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    I knew about Linux when I was 10, and Linux was only like 2 years old at the time. How does someone be online in any capacity these days and not know about Linux? Linux users are everywhere and they never stop talking about Linux!

    • DreitonLullaby@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      I heard the name Linux from Minecraft being available on “Windows, Mac, & Linux” when I was maybe 12-13 (2014-15), but I never looked into it, and all I thought of it was it was some kind of really obscure operating system. I wondered why I’d never seen a Linux computer in tech stores. And Windows seemed perfectly fine, so why would I need to use it? “It probably has some crazy UI that nobody can understand”(except I didn’t know what ‘UI’ was at that age)

      That’s back than… I’ve been using Linux as my daily driver now since mid 2021, and I’ve been on Manjaro for nearly 1 & a half years.

      However, I’ve met barely anyone who even knows what “a Linux” is. I’ve met a guy who was only using Kali Linux because he wanted to hack or something; and a friend at my church who manages a lot of the technology and computers: him and his father tried using Ubuntu about 10 years ago when he was a late teen. Than there’s another guy at my church who, despite never having used Linux in his life; surprisingly new a lot about it and was able to help me solve a display issue I was having earlier this year. I’ve nearly gotten my Mum onto Linux Mint for her laptop 😂, because she really only makes documents, browses websites, and checks emails, and really doesn’t need to be paying for Windows & having updates forced on her regularly. As a matter of fact, I’m downloading it for her as I type.

      • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        The thing about not seeing them in stores is definitely a disconnect between our ages lol.

        I remember seeing Debian and Red Hat retail boxes being sold at Sears and Myrvin’s and even Target growing up. Not so anymore. Haha

        • DreitonLullaby@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          That’s really surprising to hear! I live in Australia and that may not have been available in stores here even back than… but maybe. Target is actually still around in Australia and a popular store.

  • Lizardking27@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Ugh. The only posts I ever see from this community are about windows. I thought this was a Linux community. Blocked.

          • raubarno@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            Terminal-based scriptable text editor, continuation of one of the first interactive programs in the world (vi), so it has a lot of legacy User Experience, which seems unintuitive for modern users. For instance, it does not automatically write when you launch a program. Instead, you are set in so-called “Normal mode”, which maps all the keyboard keys to text-editing macros and acts as a bridge between “Insert mode” (for typing text) and “Command mode” (for application control and . If you’re on “Insert mode” and want to save your edits and quit, you need to press ESC, to switch back to the Normal mode, and type in :wq and press Enter.

  • amda@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    It is normal your friend doesn’t understand what you are talking about since what you’re refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

    Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called Linux, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

    There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux!

    • transigence@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Thank you for making this distinction. I’ve never heard this before. Especially not thousands of times by the most socially well-adjusted people on the planet.