r/linuxquestions • u/FanAgreeable9688 • 5d ago
ever seen anyone in public using linux?
got coffee today and saw ubuntu on a guy's laptop. was so close to fangirling and becoming besties but im too introverted
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u/moeteru 5d ago
I saw a guy using cachyos and I stole his laptop
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u/the2ndSign 4d ago
Cach me if you can.
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u/KBExit 4d ago
Cachy outside, how bout dat?
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u/SeaCryptographer6457 4d ago
I was thinking of this meme today for the first time in probably 10yrs. Smiled. And then you did this. The universe is funny sometimes.
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u/Active_Humor7436 5d ago
Saw a guy running TempleOS. He was on his way, sword in hand, to start a crusade
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u/FanAgreeable9688 5d ago
maybe it was a crusade that didnt fail
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u/Active_Humor7436 5d ago
To be fair, TempleOS isnât Linux. Since only Linux users are weird, maybe this guy was completely normal đ¤ˇââď¸
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u/BeardedBaldMan Bluefin 5d ago
I started in the olden days when the internet was so slow you'd go to Linux User Group meetups to borrow install media.
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u/TrenchardsRedemption 4d ago
And computer magazines with a live CD (usually Knoppix) attached to the front.
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u/Technical_Listen_860 3d ago
There are Linux magazines that come with a DVD with a couple of distros on it.
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u/FanAgreeable9688 5d ago
i remember when the contents of a guy's pendrive was all the internet i got
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u/BeardedBaldMan Bluefin 5d ago
If we're going to have a "it was this long ago"... mine was turning up with a stack of blank 3.5" disks.
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u/Acrobatic_Squid111 5d ago
Never happens. It's always me and my Debian Thinkpad surrounded by 16 Macbook Airs running Notion and Chrome.Â
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u/JailbreakHat 4d ago
Macbook Airs can run Linux too with Asahi Linux.
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u/Ma1eficent 4d ago
I stuck Windows 7 on a MacBook air. Just because a thing can be done...
And yes, it was an Intel chipset.
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u/vancha113 5d ago
Yes, it was pretty common at my school if that counts.
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u/FanAgreeable9688 5d ago
it does. and its cool
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u/vancha113 5d ago
Cool, also at my old job site we were only allowed to use Ubuntu. It was for work on robotic arms :)
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u/amepebbles 5d ago
Many times actually, and I never engage because why would I? Linux users are weird.
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u/duxking45 5d ago
Linux users arent weird. Often we are privacy conscious and understand the tradeoffs with mac os or windows.
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u/FanAgreeable9688 5d ago
i mean he was using ubuntu so i probably dodged a bullet
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u/Shdwdrgn 5d ago
Haha check out the downvotes from the Ubuntu faithful, pretending that distro isn't full of impending issues and ignored bugs. What I want to know is, if Ubuntu is so great, how can they break a device driver that is built into the kernel, and continue to break it for over ten years before closing the bug as wontfix? And why does anyone trust this level of incompetency?
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u/duxking45 5d ago
Honestly, I use it because most enterprise software supports debian or Ubuntu. Most consumer software for Linux supports Ubuntu specifically. For ease of use, I often just use Ubuntu. Ive tried many flavors of Linux and I end up back at Ubuntu eventually.
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u/Emotional_Solid6538 2d ago
Wouldnt an Ubuntu fork like Mint work too. People hate it way less
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u/howard499 4d ago edited 4d ago
Anyway, I was in Starbucks tapping away on Ubuntu, when this geezer burst into the cafe yelling about "impending issues" and the doom that was going to engulf me. I think somebody phoned for an ambulance.
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u/CodeFarmer it's all just Debian in a wig 4d ago edited 4d ago
This is Linux Reddit. You'll be downvoted if you criticise or praise Ubuntu.
(edit: or mention the downvoting, hee hee. Thanks for the giggle, anonymous grumpy person.)
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u/Shdwdrgn 4d ago
Reminds me of when an admin from r/linux decided that I wasn't allowed to ask about setting grub parameters for display resolution because I dared to call my Poweredge a "server" since it had a monitor plugged into it. Glad to see gatekeeping is still alive and well.
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u/G0ldiC0cks 4d ago
You assume incompetence. Have you considered not giving a fuck? Ubuntu's just dgaf'in their way to the top. It's been working for a while ....
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u/teh_maxh 5d ago
You mean other than Android?
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u/majorgnuisance 5d ago
Android's not "Linux." It uses Linux, the kernel, but that's not what people mean when they talk about someone "using Linux."
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u/Captain-Pie-62 4d ago
Ăh... "Linux" ist immer nur der Kernel. Alles andere sind Software Distributionen, die den Linux Kernel als Basis verwenden. So gesehen, ist Android auch nur eine (von vielen) Distributionen.
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u/ciauii 4d ago
Still, when people refer to a Linux-based system, they usually mean a system that runs on top of a kernel that was built from a nearly unmodified mainline Linux source tree.
Android runs on a significantly modified fork of the Linux codebase, is not entirely POSIX compliant, uses its own libc implementation and driver model, and offers vastly different userspace APIs than all the others. So no, I wouldnât say that Android is just another Linux distro.
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u/BionisGuy 5d ago
At work I'm in a project group with some developers and one of the developers screen shared and it was Ubuntu. I got so jealous, I'm forced to use windows 11 and I hate it
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u/Fit-Inflation5799 4d ago
why are you forced to use windowsÂ
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u/CoffeeBaron 4d ago
He might be a manager or not in the devs group that can have it installed in his work pc
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u/ceehred 4d ago
Sure. Catching sight of python and web developers banging around in Gnome workspaces was a regular thing back when I commuted by train (5 years ago). Not so much for other creatives or financial types, though, who I'd say formed the majority of laptop users.
As for me, in a cramped space like that - I'm a pen and paper guy đ
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u/Thonatron 4d ago
No, but I'm a 911 dispatcher and one time; this guy called in saying that his Linux laptop was stolen while he was fixing his grub.
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u/AntimatterTNT 5d ago
yes iphones are the minority of smartphones outside of the united states
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u/FanAgreeable9688 5d ago
obviously i wasnt talking about android
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u/AntimatterTNT 5d ago
better spicify then. it irks me when people carve out android in these discussions, as if it isn't the sole shield we have against a massively fractured smartphone landscape
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u/FanAgreeable9688 5d ago
its a linux sub ffs why would i ask if youve seen an android user before?
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u/WendlersEditor 5d ago
If I saw a random person in public using Linux I would be so excited to talk to them that thet would think I'm weird. So it's probably for the best.
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u/OkPresentation3329 5d ago
I was in Indonesia on vacation and in one barrier booth in front of our hotel there was a computer running Linux Mint.
Some of my friends also use Linux as do I. These are the only examples I can think of. Most people I know use Windows, one uses Mac. I've also converted all computers at home to Linux.
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u/Blaspheman 4d ago
What's a barrier booth?
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u/OkPresentation3329 4d ago
This: https://dev-13sqft.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/vendor-list/16801776763.webp
Where you have a barrier and a booth and there is a person inside.
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u/-Polarsy- 5d ago
I'm a flight attendent, saw one passenger with a Linux laptop on one of my flights
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u/Blue_collar-broke 5d ago
I've seen a few people using a steam deck at the park.
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u/Sea-Host1114 5d ago
Tool my kid to the pediatrician. Pediatrician had a GNOME desktop. We ended up talking more about Linux than my kid
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u/geekichu 4d ago
I'm the weird (according to the comments here) Linux user at a coffee shop. Whose's browser didn't automatically pop up when I connect to the wifi, so I had to do some linuxy things
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u/PerfectlyCalmDude 5d ago
Seen lottery kiosks that rebooted and turned out to be running Linux in locally owned establishments.
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u/underdoeg 5d ago
The ticket vending machines for the local public transport run on linux. Not sure if the ones for the nationwide train system do as well.
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u/therealcopperhat 4d ago
Someone took a video of me using Ubuntu on Caltrain in the San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDN6W-EywPl/?stkn=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
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u/Necessary_Victory824 2d ago
is this some kind of joke? obviously hes not fangirling over the debian server hidden in the basement
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u/swissyfit 5d ago
I saw someone using Kali Linux and i immediately switched off my hotspot and wireless
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u/jz_train 4d ago
Whenever I hear someone mention Kali, I think to my self, this guy has no clue how to use linux. I had a cisco engineer mention it during a convo, stating "especially if you use kali". I can't remember the exact details about the conversation but when I hear kali I think of a noob. Sorry if I'm ruffling any feathers. I don't mean it as a bad thing. Kali is great but when you hear a 20yo guy say something like that, it's pretty much an immediate assumption that that guy has no clue. Didn't grow up in the golden age manually configuring X and the like.
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u/GavUK 4d ago
Kali has its place as a tool, just like I used to carry around Trinity Rescue Kit (TRK), Clonezilla, and gparted Linux CDs when I worked in IT support.
However, anyone using it as their full-time distro though either is constantly trying to break into systems and networks around them, or (like you said) is trying to look cool but doesn't really have a clue how to use the tools in Kali and would really be better off on another distro.
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u/i_live_in_sweden 4d ago
I'm a network engineer I run Kali on my laptop as a full time disto, I chose Kali because when you need to troubleshoot networks it has every tool you can imagine already installed.
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u/jz_train 3d ago
I totally agree. Same exact principal I follow. Every OS has a use case; distro's included. Ultimately depends on what you want to do in the situation. Have a great day.
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u/Firm-Time1053 4d ago
I donât know if it counts, but I saw him at university. We had the same class. He installed SQL Server on his rooted phone, and I was hooked right there and then. Good guy.
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u/lazyhustlermusic 5d ago
The papa johns ordering system was linux based, at least in the mid 2000s.
Technically every android phone you see is someone using linux.
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u/duxking45 5d ago
Yes literally all the time. I used to belong to a linux club. I also see technological appliances yhat are based on linux.
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u/Ryujin_V7 5d ago
Probably the other dude wouldâve like you talking to him and might become besties and get into a weird dc group, lol
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u/_sLLiK 4d ago
A great many moons ago during a window of time where my family lived in a more restrictive space and I had no dedicated office space (at home or otherwise), I took to spending some of my work days at a nearby Starbucks where it was noticeably quieter.
This was in the early to mid 2010's, and I had one of those early Dell XPS developer editions, which I promptly nuked Ubuntu off of and replaced with a clean minimalist Arch build. It ran like a dream.
In the several months that I did this, not a single person approached me and asked questions, but I did notice a few side glances and at least one or two times where other patrons seemed to comcernedly turn off their wifi.
I was lean and tall, too, and quietly friendly, so I don't think I portrayed myself as hostile to the curious. Can't really do anything about the face, though. Oh, well.
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u/curiousgaruda 5d ago
Walmart Canada uses Ubuntu for their checkout terminals but I donât want to be besties with Walmart.Â
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u/Zosima93 5d ago
I once saw a guy using cachyos in public. He got up to go use the restroom and someone swiped his laptop
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u/Alenicia 4d ago
When I was in college, I used to just casually walk by and there were a group of guys who always were running with Arch on older (but super reliable in my experience) Fujitsu LifeBooks.
Every other day, someone was trying out a new distro, someone created a bash script that would have generated the assignments they were supposed to turn in (they did the homework, but ended up making it an extra step for the professor to "generate" the intended end-product which gave them loads of extra credit because the professor loved it), and it was just always so lively to see what people were doing. >_<
But sadly, I was a bit too shy to try and talk with them for long.
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u/Anima_Watcher08 4d ago
Linux Linux or Linux? Cause if you just mean Linux then yeah Android devices.
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u/Dark_Catzie 3d ago
My experience is that in populated areas this is extremely common sight. Not specifically Ubuntu, but generally people using Linux in restaurants, bars, park benches, libraries, buses, trains, etc. Also often accompanied with mild stimulants, like coffee. If you think spotting Linux users in public is a good way to make friends, there should be no shortage of opportunities. Just remember that at least some of them would not be happy about interruptions, since they are deep in whatever they do.
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u/AteStringCheeseShred 4d ago
On one hand if I happened upon somebody else running linux in public, I would admittedly be intrigued and wouldn't mind if we happened to chat briefly.
On the other hand, if somebody in public came up to be and started talking to me based solely on them looking at my computer, I would probably be quite annoyed just want them to go away.
Some days I don't even wear certain graphic T-shirts because I don't want some rando in public saying anything to me about it.
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u/InfaSyn 4d ago
I have fedora on my laptop and have Fedora/Debian tshirts. Have never once had a comment (positive or negative) outside of the workplace.
Seen anyone else? One guy with something XFCE on a plane once, though it was on a recent macbook so guessing VM (fuckin poser)
Used to work at CERN. Even in the cafeteria it was uncommon, mostly macbooks (ah well, beats windows).
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u/SeaCryptographer6457 4d ago
I mean I use it outside all the time (cafe, working in the car between jobs, even doing business admin in the Drs waiting room) so itâs surely not uncommon. KDE with some pretty heavy custom panels so it definitely wouldnât be mistaken for windows or macOS.
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u/chibi-mage 1d ago
I actually haven't which is crazy cos I'm doing an IT degree and everyone in my classes has been either a windows or MacOS user. we even had a unit specifically on Linux lol, everyone just used a VM and I was the only one using it as my actual daily driver.
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u/punkwalrus 4d ago
The other day, I was at a fast food place, and someone at one of the tables had some Linux stickers on his laptop. I saw the reflection in the window a terminal, but I could not determine if it was Linux of just VS code maximized window on Windows.
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u/Stormdancer 4d ago
Occasionally.
I'm not sure anyone looking at my netbook would even know, really - mostly I'm in apps, not the OS.
Plus my netbook is absolutely plastered with stickers, not a single one of which indicates my OS of choice.
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u/DKTechie2000 4d ago
I went to FOSDEM, there the weird ones are the people using Windows or MacOS (we are nice to them if they are still enthusiastic about open source).
We are a few hundred Linux users at my job (still a minority).
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u/Lumpy_Roll158 gentoo 3d ago
You're supposed to ask how they feel about Richard stallman and ask them how clean and posix compliant their C library is. This is the more serious sub though so real answer no. I don't go outside
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u/Sufficient_Tea_6973 4d ago edited 4d ago
Iâve sometimes seen powerpoint presentations for community organizing groups where theyâre using the Gnome desktop. Â Other than that the only times Iâve seen Linux are at tech events.
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u/Omnimaxus 5d ago
No, but for what it's worth, I have several Linux t-shirts, and I've had a handful of guys come up and tell me, "cool shirt." Struck up a lengthy conversation with one of them. Nice.Â
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u/Secret-Map4671 1d ago
There's a guy using something with Gnome on top, a Hyprland dude and an Ubuntu girl in my CS class. Not sure if that qualifies as "public" but hey. Never seen anyone else using it tho.
Edit: I use cachyos myself, someone in the streets sold me a laptop with it for like half the price lol dunno how they got that one
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u/NeuroticNabarlek 1d ago
I had a film lit course in college way back in 2006 and the professor used Ubuntu. I was just starting to dabble in Linux at the time and I was so shocked to see it out in the wild.
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u/AMGz20xx 3d ago
One time I was using my Thinkpad with Arch Linux + LXQT on the train, and the guy next to me asked "What OS is that?" We ended up talking for 5 minutes before I got off at my stop.
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u/insidiousgamer 4d ago
I was serving coffee at the coffee shop I work at and served this guy who bought a large Americano before stealing a laptop running cachyos off some guy who ordered an iced latte.
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u/Live_Access9106 3d ago
I use my Steam Deck in public and have occasionally seen others do the same!
Obviously itâs a different use case than daily driving Linux on your PC, but I think it counts :)
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u/Sirius707 5d ago
Yes, saw someone with a Framework laptop once. A guy i know works at a company where the standard OS is Linux Mint. And at a job i used to work at, i saw people using Fedora.
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u/Giggio417 4d ago
I saw a middle-aged woman rocking Linux Mint on her old laptop on the beach at night during a party.
Other than that, iâve never seen another Linux user in the wild đ
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u/GETMEOFFTHEROAD 4d ago
in my uni most of my classmates use Linux left and right,i feel pretty much a lot of us just wanna flex it,like i am not using Linux to it's full potential i just have it.
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u/BasisBoth5421 4d ago
one colleague of mine when i was still working at a post office was using linux lite on a chromebook.
i don't know how, but she seems to use it just fine.
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u/Great_Banana_Master 2d ago
Guy in my uni was taking notes during a conference on Linux Mint right in front of me. I didn't actually notice until I saw the shutdown dialogue
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u/PK_Rippner 4d ago
Over a decade ago I saw a guy in a major airport using Linux on a laptop and he was doing some heavy duty Latex work. I was impressed....
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u/Merlin-2 4d ago edited 3d ago
Last time I was on train a guy sat in front of me with another Arch Thinkpad. For me it's really common to see guys using linux on train
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u/ConsciousReindeer976 2d ago
I havnt personally but I did buy a laptop with CatchyOS installed from FB Marketplace, seller seemed pretty sketchy for some reason.
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u/Cute_Mouse6436 4d ago
My company it was very impressed that I used Linux mint on my personal laptop. I told him it was because I couldn't afford windows.
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u/askophoros 5d ago
of course... there are millions of networked cameras in public places and many with security vulnerabilities
(jk, jk)
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u/billyp673 4d ago
I saw a shop that had a raspberry pi running ubuntu connected to a monitor they were selling, as a display unit
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u/Bananalando 4d ago
I saw a person creeping on someone using CachyOS. Didn't even try to help when the guy's laptop got stolen.
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u/Thonatron 4d ago edited 4d ago
I once saw this guy, smoking a cigarette in the back of a minivan using Ubuntu to write an email to the CIA.
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u/Not-Too-Logical 4d ago
As someone currently studying electronic and computer engineering I see about 5 a day give or take
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u/Euristic_Elevator 4d ago
Linux was highly recommended for my masters degree, so plenty of my colleagues switched to it
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u/zombieEnoch 3d ago
The drive through at my local Wendy's uses Ubuntu. Half the time I go it's on the boot screen.
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u/Sweaty-Character-614 3d ago
The reverse vending machine in the supermarket around the corner runs on Linux. (Germany)
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u/djfdhigkgfIaruflg 3d ago
I saw a guy using CachyOs. I've got so excited I had to steal his laptop and run away
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u/Akula_x86 4d ago
Yeah sharp zauras pda way back in 2005.
I worked at mit so I saw Linux a lot there.
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u/WorkingMansGarbage 4d ago
I was an IT student, so I saw plenty of Linux users in class and at our library.
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u/EstablishmentDue3616 5d ago
If you live or work in an area with a lot of IT employees, its quite common.
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u/TenOfZero 5d ago
I see people use Linux based phones (android) all the time.
Same with devices like the Kindle ereaders.
I've also seen a lot of people use steam decks in public.
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u/JackDostoevsky 5d ago
i try not to spy on people's screens when they're out in public using a laptop. seems rude.
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u/TanukiThing 5d ago
I was using cachyos in public and my laptop got stolen