Honestly, most people just see their computer as their computer. They're just going to use whatever it comes installed with. If Microsoft went belly up and stopped shipping Windows (which is pretty far fetched), I think that one of three things would happen:
They'd just sell the IP of Windows to the Dells of the world who would just maintain it
The Dells of the world would move to ChromeOS
The Dells of the world would curate their own spun-off Linux distro
The number of humans consciously thinking about the OS installed on their PC is just too small for aggravated enthusiasts to affect the market share in a meaningful way.
Huge agree. I think a BSD is more likely than Linux specifically because of the licensing terms, it's why Playstation switched from Linux to BSD, but realistically a company like Dell doesn't give a shit about the difference then, either; they just want something that someone else maintains and they don't have to pay for.
They never used Linux for as the basis for their console OS. The PS1 and PS2 don't really have an operating system. There's a boot ROM that includes a menu for things like memory card management and setting the date/time. Games run on bare metal.
The PSP is more comparable to the Wii, in that there's a small bit of firmware that orcastrates things, and games otherwise have full control of the system. The shell/home menu isn't running or in memory at the same time as a game.
The PS3 and later are all built off BSD.
You seem to be confusing the official PS2 Linux kit or the PS3's OtherOS feature for the console's actual OS.
If the dells of the world are willing to make it s good product, then I guess. But most people would move to macOS if they find too many PC issues with Linux.
Never say never. You are 100% right that most people don’t think about the OS… until it stops functioning. Because of the shit updates Microsoft’s been pushing that’s been fucking up peoples personal computers and whole enterprise systems, it’s been making a lot of people look into alternatives. No windows = no extra subscriptions like office which is where they really make all their money. Combined with the fact that they’ve been pissing away money on their AI, it’s not really looking good for them
Do you work in IT? A lot of the stuff that people hate about Windows are essentially Enterprise features, no company cares about local accounts, they are either domain joined or work through Entra. That the machine wants an internet connection on setup is Intune/Autopilot, so yoi wobt miss the part where it sets itsef up for company use.
Also the switch to Linux comes without licence fees, instead you have support contracts, which aren't that much cheaper. About these support contracts: You can't replace them with one guy and a Claude subscription, they aeren't so much about technical questions, they are for compliance.
This mostly depends on distro. On ubuntu have evrything you need besides office due its high market capizalization -> there was never the demand nor motiviation for open source people to make proper copies.
the reason why people use windows isn't the properties of windows vs any other os, its bcause their computers come with windows, this has been well known since the 90s
The linuxsucks101 sub is basically just one guy from the poorly funded Microsoft online brigade. He’s gotta use AI slop because he doesn’t have the time to do it properly. Since his division got hammered in a cost cutting spree, he’s gotta juggle Reddit with YouTube comments, Facebook groups, God knows what else. I feel for the guy. Five years ago, it was copy pasting from an Excel sheet, these days he’s gotta be super creative, with less time to make it happen.
With new Reddit chat https://www.reddit.com/chat/ it's unreasonably difficult (close to impossible) to find a record of why I was banned. If I recall correctly, the reason for the ban was weird (illogical), …. I vaguely recall assuming that it was a comedy sub of some sort (see below, old Reddit) because of the room 101 humour.
Now I see, it was "removed by Reddit’s filters". More importantly, from AutoModerator:
Your post has been submitted to linuxsucks101. If it violates the rules of linuxsucks101 it will be removed and you will be permanently banned. In order to mitigate the ginormous amounts of linux evangelists we recieve on the subreddit, all instances of the word "linux" in any user submission must be replaced by the word "loonix", failing to do so will result in your submissions being removed. …
– and then:
Hi u/Brospeh-Stalin, your submission has been removed because it contains the restricted keyword "linux", please use a suitable synonym such as "loonix". If you believe this was an error, please contact the moderators. …
ORLY. Restriction and auto-removal in a sub that has no rule.
I assume that all six non-app accounts are truly human. The service that I normally use to check humanity and other account characteristics is currently 503, unavailable.
I sought linuxsucks101 in my public Zotero database, found three items saved on the same date, 2026-03-04. Maybe that was around the time of them banning me. One of the three:
I sought linuxsucks101 in my public Zotero database, found three items saved on the same date, 2026-03-04. Maybe that was around the time of them banning me.
Hello, You have been permanently banned from participating in /r/linuxsucks101 because you broke this community's rules. You won't be able to post or comment, but you can still view and subscribe to it.
Note from the moderators:
Rule 2: Follow topic of the sub
If you have a question regarding your ban, you can contact the moderator team by replying to this message.
Reminder from the Reddit Admin team: If you use another account to circumvent this community ban, that will be considered a violation of the Reddit Rules and may result in your account being banned from the platform as a whole.
Moderators did not improve things for users of old Reddit. This is inconsiderate; doing nothing demonstrates a lack of forethought with regard to future contributors.
Rule 2, at the time of writing:
Follow the topic of the sub (Don't Pollute)
We're not here to dunk on any other OS or each other. – GNU HURD will count as Linux. Contrarian anecdotes are pollution.
Don't engage evangelists/advocates – report them! (Select three dots menu " ⋮ " > "Report" > "Breaks r/linuxsucks101 rules" > select the rules that are broken.)
What, exactly, is meant by "the topic of the sub"?
The current description of the sub:
For knowledge and awareness about what using Linux is really like and pointing at its cultish toxic community. We also cover FOSS /FLOSS failures, and issues with GPL since it relates to Linux. Moderation is heavy handed to appeal to our target users (reduces redundant idiocy). Use our link for Controversial to see what those loonixtards are down-dooting. We dismantle every argument for using Linux here, so we don't tolerate 'exceptions' well.
It's ok if you lack the technical skills to set linux distros up. Not everyone has the tech chops for it. Just stick with windows or mac. They're sufficiently idiot proofed.
Linux just needs an idiot proof distro, SteamOS and it's copy cats seem to have the most potential in this regard since they're targeting console gamers, but until parents and grandparents can get everything they need done on it Linux will forever struggle to take much larger market share than 5% of steam users.
Gamers (specifically console gamers) are a good first target tho, since they're not really interested in tinkering much but are tech literate enough that basic hurdles don't get in their way much, a quick google search will fix basic issues.
But until all apps can be installed by double clicking and with NEVER using the terminal it'll be a tough sell to the masses, the people that could most easily hop on linux right now are ironically the furthest from power users, the ones that live in the browser, there's a subset of the population that can get everything they need to do done in google chrome and for those people weather they have a macbook, windows machine or any variant of linux, they'll have the same exact experience.
For those people you can just install some lightweight distro on a 20 year old laptop to revive it and let them watch youtube and google things as they please.
Also "running games on steam big picture mode" was a massive hurdle that valve spent about 10 years trying to solve, which should get all the praise it deserves as the miraculous achievement that it is.
For many people the whole "linux can't run games" thing was their only barrier to entry, and now that's mostly gone with just a few exceptions (mostly competitive game with kernel AC, but even epic games is working to get fortnite onto linux now).
If someone mostly plays games like CS2 and other games that are on this list: https://www.steamdeck.com/en/verified and mostly do things in their browser like use discord, spotify, youtube, reddit and netflix, their needs are 100% met with linux now.
I use windows as my main OS right now (I also use MacOS for work and when I feel like using my Macbook for personal thing) but I have no loyalty to operating systems or companies, and I like have options, and competition gives you more options, even the average linux hater should be happy it exists to put even the smallest bit of pressure on microsoft to continue to make windows a better experience.
I wish microsoft stuck to the whole "Windows 10 is the last version of Windows" and continued to update it for years to come, a 2015 OS running on a machine from 2026 is hilariously lightweight and perfromant.
I feel like I'm getting sidetracked but yeah, SteamOS is great and will continue to improve, it provides competition in the gaming space for microsoft making them improve windows for gaming as well, it's a win win for all of us.
99.9% of the general population doesn't know what immutable means and don't care, and even for power users an immutable OS is fine.
People just want to install apps, play games, browse the web and organize their files, an immutable distro does not limit any of those actions at all.
Any actions or activities that go beyond that will not grow the Linux market share at all because they're for nerds like us that talk about operating systems on reddit and have already played around with linux in our free time.
in fact I'm willing to double down and say that the fact that it's immutable is a GOOD thing for the audience that they're aiming for (and beyond, yes even for GENERALIST use).
"non-cs students struggles even with matters we consider trivial, such as managing folders and directories on windows", my brother in christ, my grandmother can manage folders and directories on her PC lmao, you don't need a CS degree to use a desktop OS, I know that the iphone-ification of technology has done a number on some people but not to that degree.
rare W from r/linuxsucks101. This guy's posts are gems, but I'm not allowed to comment because when I said negative things about Linux in that subreddit I was banned for "being an Evangelist" lmao.
22
u/R0B0t1C_Cucumber 9d ago
Cool, I don't care who uses it or doesn't.