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Free software scares normal people

(danieldelaney.net)
917 points cryptophreak | 5 comments | 30 Oct 25 15:07 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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gspencley ◴[30 Oct 25 17:30 UTC] No.45762648[source]▶
A lot of this type of stuff boils down to what you're used to.

My wife is not particularly tech savvy. She is a Linux user, however. When we started a new business, we needed certain applications that only run on Windows and since she would be at the brick and mortar location full time, I figured we could multi-purpose a new laptop for her and have her switch to Windows.

She hated it and begged for us to get a dedicated Windows laptop for that stuff so she could go back to Linux.

Some of you might suggest that she has me for tech support, which is true, but I can't actually remember the last time she asked me to troubleshoot something for her with her laptop. The occasions that do come to mind are usually hardware failure related.

Obviously the thing about generlizations is that they're never going to fit all individuals uniformly. My wife might be an edge case. But she feels at home using Linux, as it's what she's used to ... and strongly loathed using Windows when it was offered to her.

I feel that kind of way about Mac vs PC as well. I am a lifelong PC user, and also a "power user." I have extremely particular preferences when it comes to my UI and keyboard mappings and fonts and windowing features. When I was forced to use a Mac for work, I honestly considered looking for a different position because it was just that painful for me. Nothing wrong with Mac OS X, a lot of people love it. But I was 10% as productive on it when compared to what I'm used to... and I'm "old dog" enough that it was just too much change to be able to bear and work with.

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vladms ◴[31 Oct 25 13:16 UTC] No.45771652[source]▶
> Nothing wrong with Mac OS X

In fact, when I had a similar experience I ended up making a short list (which I since lost) of things that seemed terribly wrong UI wise.

True, overall Mac is just different. The issue that I have with that ecosystem is the too many people consider it "perfect" and don't even consider discussing issues and complaining about things. Every product has pluses and minuses, but if you the user "believes blindly" that "there is only one way" that is probably not good for anybody.

After a couple of weeks I adapted just fine to using the Mac, but I surely don't miss it either.

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latexr ◴[31 Oct 25 15:34 UTC] No.45773229[source]▶
> too many people consider it "perfect" and don't even consider discussing issues and complaining about things.

That is becoming less and less true. More and more of the most ardent Apple fans have been complaining about the direction of macOS for years. Developer sentiment is low.

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1. presbyterian ◴[31 Oct 25 15:51 UTC] No.45773447[source]▶
I've been a huge Mac fan for a decade or more, at least, and not only is Tahoe the least popular release I've seen, it's the first one where the majority of people I hear from dislike it. It's bad enough that I haven't updated still, I'm waiting a few point releases at least to see how they fix it up, and I'm trying out Linux distros to see what I'll start using if I have to move away.
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2. BolexNOLA ◴[31 Oct 25 17:56 UTC] No.45774802[source]▶
Mac->Linux swapper here (back in April). I left after they screwed me on a hardware situation.

Honestly I’ve really enjoyed the swap. But man I really miss having iMessages across my devices as well as the shared clipboard. By far the two things I missed the most. Everything else I’ve kind of moved on from and can’t even think of off the top of my head anymore

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3. Max-Limelihood ◴[31 Oct 25 21:15 UTC] No.45776785[source]▶
Yeah, Apple is well-known for being completely insane on this kind of stuff—whenever someone builds an app for this, Apple immediately sets about hunting down and banning iMessage users they suspect of using it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38646903 https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/21/doj-calls-out-apple-for-br... https://www.wired.com/story/beeper-apple-imessage-fight/
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4. justaregulanerd ◴[01 Nov 25 02:36 UTC] No.45778813[source]▶
More recent Mac convert (actually gone Linux -> M1 Mac) and the initial M1 Air I bought, I naturally upgraded to Tahoe and felt that while it's pretty (and I really, really want the world to move on from Material interfaces), I did also feel the readability concerns were completely valid.

I had to return that Mac for a screen defect, and the one I now have has been kept back on Sequoia, and I'm totally fine with it and will probably stick with it until security updates stop, at which point I surely hope Tahoe is more readable.

5. BolexNOLA ◴[01 Nov 25 18:22 UTC] No.45783988{3}[source]▶
You seem pretty informed on this stuff. Do you have any insight into why I’m hearing, at least anecdotally, a much higher failure rate among their desktop offerings over their laptops? My M1 Pro Mac Studio crapped out after 2.5 years! Anytime it went to sleep it would kernel panic and restart. It got all green with their diagnostic test, they did a full firmware refresh, literally nothing could fix it and they had no idea what it was. They wanted me to pay over $700 to replace the logic board and weren’t even sure if that would fix it. Also, the ethernet port failed after a year.

My buddy has almost the exact same story about his M1 iMac. Just under 4 years, now it crashes and forces a safe mode boot randomly. The computer can take upwards of 10 minutes to even start up. They gave him the same business, exact same repair offering, and he’s moving on like I am. I’ve got 1 other friend with a similar unfolding right now, none of these situations were with laptops.