Choosing an OS is Not a Team Sport

This is the primary point behind Ubuntard.

As is written on our About page, novice users have an annoying propensity towards zealotry. They may not be able to install and update packages without a GUI, but damnit, Ubuntu is the best operating system around, and they’ll try to force it on everyone they meet.

The key fallacy herein is as such: Market share doesn’t matter, in the grand scheme of things. The majority of free software developers develop in such ways for practical and philosophical reasons — The ease with which third-party developers can submit patches, and the vast amount of available, reusable code provided by thousands of other projects, among many other things.

The average zealot behaves like a drunk at a sports bar. By the end of the night, he’s no longer able to articulate exactly why he likes the teams he does, but that doesn’t cause him to diminish his volume. The bartender would’ve stopped serving him hours ago, but he tends to get violent when deprived of what he wants.

Go team, go!

The free software movement is not tied to market share, and in my experiences, most good developers will find their way to a project on their own. Seldom do valuable contributors arise after having something forced upon them, in which they had no initial interest. Many smaller projects exist to serve the developer’s personal interests, and as such, a lack of users will not cause the project to die. In such a case, the primary purpose of distributing and open-source licensing of the software is to solicit feedback, and perhaps bug-fix patches.

Using a computer has grown ever simpler. Those so inclined are able to use a computer while knowing nothing of its inner workings, or even why the actions they’ve memorized have the results they’ve grown to expect. The fact is that the majority of users simply want to use, not learn. They don’t want to contribute code, feature requests, or even bug reports. At most, they will pester the person who inflicted this Linux thing on them, or perhaps clutter up help forums with questions that have been asked dozens of times before.

Some argue that increasing free software’s market share diminishes the hold of proprietary applications, and this is somewhat true. If not for the rise of standards-compliant browsers like Firefox, web developers would still be spending the majority of their time writing hacks to make sure their sites rendered correctly in IE 6.

It’s true that Adobe released an x86-64 version of Flash for Linux before Windows due to a persistent demand for it, but don’t think for a minute that was brought about by novice users. No, that was likely a result of persistent lobbying by enthusiasts, while the novice users were busy thinking that x86-64 was only for systems with over 4GB of RAM.

Market share does not affect smaller ecosystems, and in some cases, advocating alternatives can create a divide. To provide an example: In the slow-moving world of corporate IT, many intranet services work only with IE 6 and earlier. As such, installing a Linux distribution on a friend’s work laptop may do both parties harm. The installer is deluged with questions and complaints as to why Linux doesn’t work with the company’s software, and in the end, the user is left with a bad taste in their mouth, viewing Linux as difficult to use and incompatible with existing software.

It would seem that rampant fanboy antics are mostly confined the technological sector — You won’t find someone telling others off for their choice in shoe brand. Though advocating operating systems versus shoes are rather disparate affairs, to those who have interest in neither, the outcome is the same: The person being set upon for their choices feels they’re being attacked, grows alienated, and tunes out the other party.

Linux is everywhere. The majority of servers run Linux, as do the vast majority of supercomputers, many cars, cell phones, and appliances. But when consumers interact with Linux-powered devices, it’s not a conscious choice. Joe Sixpack doesn’t care what operating system Google uses in their data centers, as long as Youtube continues to serve him funny videos of cats.

The average user doesn’t choose their operating system. In fact, They don’t actually know what an operating system is. Given that the average user thinks the definition of operating system ranges from “Asus” to “MS Word”, telling them their operating system is inferior causes their eyes to glaze over in much the same way as a physicist explaining quantum entanglement to a four-year-old.

There are five programming books in this beard. Can you spot them all?

The core point is this: In its infancy, Linux attracted those who had worked with Unix, with voluminous beards in which they could hide copies of C reference books. These days, Linux attracts two types of conscious users, cut from the same cloth: those who are philosophically opposed to proprietary software, and those who have practical, typically usability- or bug-related issues. Pushing Linux onto those who are reasonably happy with Windows seldom ends well, so it’s best to only introduce it to those who aren’t — Or, ideally, they could find Linux themselves. It’s not as if it’s hard to Google (or Bing, for some irony) “free Windows alternative”.

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11 Comments to Choosing an OS is Not a Team Sport

I have to agree fully.
I searched for “UNIX clone” after learning that Windows NT was an attempt to mimic UNIX style concepts in the operating system, when I came across “Linux” at age 15.. and started to install Slackware 1.2.1 Linux from 40 1.44 MB floppy disks to the machine in front of me.

I don’t think Ubuntu is better than anything, in fact after using Fedora and comparing RPM capability with other packaging formats and utilities, I stuck with Fedora.

There is no system I can’t utilize however, whether it be Ubuntu or Fedora or Slackware.

autopsy on 29 November 2009

I have to somewhat disagree. As much as I believe telling people their OS is a piece of shit is bad, I do tell them about linux wherever they complain about how sluggish their system is; most of them feel nice when I tell them they no longer have to worry about viruses and etc etc.

I really like Ubuntu. I’ve used Fedora, OpenSuse, Mandriva, Gentoo, Slackware. The best ones by far are Gentoo and Ubuntu – but, of course, they serve very different purposes =P

Peterson Espaçoporto on 29 November 2009

WOW this is boring. You’re just as bad as the ‘Ubuntards’. How about putting this much effort into something practical or that helps the community. Yelling at people who, misguided as they may be, are just trying to raise awareness isn’t helping anyone.

In fact the ‘ubuntards’ are the least likely people to read this blog in the first place and as a result this comes off as simple circlejerking of the worst kind.

Let them be zealots about it. Let them try to convert their friends. Carry on doing what you’re doing and just let other people be. Is that so hard?

dude on 29 November 2009

The point where someone installs linux on the work laptop is indeed something I’d hate too.
But there is nothing wrong with advertising linux in an informative manner.

Look at the many efforts the Ubuntu community takes to show people there is something else…
As that’s all I want people to know.
they should have to choice.

So talking about linux to granny is pretty useless, but she should know it’s there!
Shouting that her OS sucks, push her away from the computer and install linux is indeed not the best way >>

Mimor on 30 November 2009

I tend to not try to convert people to Linux unless they approach me with your average Windows problems: Crashing, viruses, Microsoft attempting to take control of their computing in some way, etc.

I am also a wee bit of a zealot, in that if anyone starts ranting hard about Windows’ so-called “superiority” I simply cite all the ways Linux not only runs circles around Windows, but also beats it flat into the ground and shits all over it.

I like Linux because it’s fucking awesome. I don’t, however, use it because it’s GPL or any of that. I’m not a Stallmanist (All in all, worse than even Ubuntards.) in the least. I like FOSS because it really does prove to be better. I don’t use it because I have an irrational fear of proprietary software (I have a few bits in my Linux distro: Flash, the GOOD nVidia driver, etc.) even if your Stallmanist zealots want me to have one.

However, I do usually turn people to Ubuntu FIRST because, despite its hangups, it is pretty much the best way to escape from Windows and OS X. However, whenever I do put them on Ubuntu, I give them one caveat: “You’ll want to convert to a better distro once you learn how to actually use Linux.” Not computer literate? Fine, go Fedora or Mint. Like being in the action? Power distros: Gentoo, Slackware, or Arch. Want to run a server? (I say this to people not even interested in Linux.) Get Red Hat or Cent OS. Do NOT use Windows Server unless you want your server to get cracked open faster than an unclean pair of panties.

Yaro on 30 November 2009

Much better post than the last few. I like you and everything, but you just aren’t very funny.

Shredder on 4 December 2009

How dare you insinuate that RMS has programming books in his beard? He sure knows them all by heart and damnit he wrote them books himself.

Tormod on 5 December 2009

That pic reminds me of old dilbert comics. Here’s another one that makes me laugh

“15 megs of ram, 9 inch screen, 3 5.5″ floppy bays! ‘People who don’t need people are the happiest people!’”
Wow, people actually had to have a life back then!

Boy, captchas are weird sometimes!

Will on 3 January 2010

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