I feel like 75% of Mastodon are people talking about Linux. If you don’t care about Linux you feel alienated. I enjoy Mastodon and Lemmy, but the lack of more diverse subjects gets to me if I browse for too long.
Update: I took your advice and purchased a laptop for Linux, and now I care about it! Problem solved.
I’ve exclusively used Linux on my computers since about 2001. At this point, I don’t care to see this much talk about it either.
It’s an operating system, it’s free (in both senses), it’s very powerful and ,frankly, it’s all I know how to use these days. However, I just don’t see the appeal of harping on about all the time. I use it exclusively, and I spend zero minutes per day actually thinking about it, the way a good operating system should be IMHO.
Not to be confrontational with you but… Exhibit A
Touche
If the 3 biggest OS were all FOSS, I would agree.
Right now, Linux is the ONLY major OS that respects user freedom and privacy. Full stop.
The community around Linux isn’t there because user preference; the real reason it exists and so many people are passionate about it is because FOSS software is the difference between a future that looks like Star Trek, and one that looks like Cyberpunk 2077.
Believe me, I get it. 20+ years of advocacy, though, have earned me exactly 1 convert, and that’s my old man. Who is arguably already a bigger geek than I am, and spending his retirement teaching himself x86-64 assembly “for fun” whilst doing a much better job of de-googling himself than I ever have.
All I’m saying here is that I can see where the OP is coming from. There is an awful lot of Linux talk (and Star Trek talk!) here on Lemmy. I can see how it might feel a little alienating to those who are from outside of that world.
That said, I agree with a lot of other commentors here that have pointed out that any new platform typically attracts the geeks firstly (reddit was no different). In time, I hope to see a much greater variety of peoples on Lemmy!
Thank you. As someone who is very interested in Linux, and someone who has proselytized my tech choices in the past (“Everyone should use Signal”), one of my big fears about switching to Linux is that I’ll never shut up about it, and I’ll bore my friends.
Thank you for showing me that there is another way
it’s harder to do than you think. you can tell people about signal because everyone understands messaging. and telling them to use signal is/was good advice!
Trust me you will never even think to get into the differences between wayland and x11. hate systemd? excited about btrfs? it is literally impossible to discuss any of it without shared context.
Not to alarm you, but you may have a period of 5-10 years where you really can’t shut up about it… it’ll pass, though, honest :)
I switched to full-time, permanent Linux use in 2004. I didn’t even have a one-year period where I felt the need to proselytize it like a vegan.
It’s also a fetish.
Are you referring to those stripey sock wearers? Because I’m far too old to actually understand any of that. Plus, I wouldn’t even look very good in stripey socks anyway
deleted by creator
Hahaha, that’s very kind of you to say! I might have even pulled it off 20 years ago… Never say never, eh! ;)
I’m not sure if I look good in them or not, I only wear them because they feel comfy.
deleted by creator
Oh, hush now, of course I care! I’m just agreeing with OP that there is probably a little too much of it or, more precisely, not enough “other” topics of conversation yet. It’ll come.