Given many new handhelds coming on the scene and general disinterest of Microsoft to support the market, do you think SteamOS will take place of default OS the same way Android did on phones some time ago?

  • ag_roberston_author@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    The only reason people use Windows is because they don’t choose it. Imagine if every PC sold had a Linux option and a Windows option that cost an extra $100. What do you think people would buy?

    I think they would buy windows, because the software they need to do their job only runs on windows.

    • Vilian
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      1 year ago

      because every pc runs windows, if more and more pcs default to linux even more apps gonna support it

    • frathiemann@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Most people that by a console or a laptop in a store don’t even know what an operating system is. If you would just put linux on all consumer machines, no one would question it and if they do, the seller would say “It is a new version”

      • ag_roberston_author@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        And then when they get home and none of their very specific programs that only work on windows run on linux (like photoshop, or microsoft office, or something similar), they’ll come back to you and ask what is wrong with their computer.

        • frathiemann@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          95% of people do not need spific software. They need a webbrowser and a software for writige emails and letters. That is why every store ist trying to sell them chromebooks. For the 5% that come back and say that their conputer is not working just say sorry and give them a windows machine and a giftcard for the inconvenience. Overall the store should still make money dooing so. After all, that is what they are dooing with chromebooks at the moment

    • Riskable@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      If they need specific software to do their job you’d think that their employer would be the one supplying their computer. So I don’t think this would be as common as thing as you’re suggesting.

      I’m not ruling it out as a possibility but at the same time… Have you seen people shopping for computers at Walmart? I have and a recent question I overheard was, “How fast is the Internet?” which after some back and forth with the salesperson revealed that they wanted a new laptop for Facebook/Instagram and play browser-based games. When I left the salesperson was directing them to a Chromebook which was probably going to be a vastly superior option for that customer than a Windows laptop (opens right to the browser, less maintenance, no worries about malware, etc).

      As highly technical PC people it’s easy for us to forget that for the vast majority of computer users the only app they ever open is a web browser. In fact, for a ton of young people growing up right now a computer is a device that runs a web browser and they don’t even really understand what a web browser is!

      When your average user buys a new Windows PC it’ll be loaded with all sorts of bloatware that they will never remove. They will close the popups asking them to renew subscriptions, update things, etc as a matter of course. It becomes second nature to them! They don’t even read what the messages are… They just click OK or the X. Windows trains them to do this! Because it has so fucking many intrusive popups! I mean, come on: Everyone knows that’s a terrible user experience and drives us (the PC power users) fucking nuts when we sit down at a “normie” PC and see all that shit. It’s practically a twitch reflex for most of us to open up Apps/Programs and Features and get to work uninstalling things and if you’re used to using a Linux desktop this particular experience will feel like driving nails into your head because Linux desktops are much more user friendly! They don’t have that problem!

    • SSUPII@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Because they have assimilated the name. If the name didn’t catch on, tbe situation would be very different.