What about the boat loads of marketing - ads - aimed at making you believe those proprietary programs are the best? Clearly you fell for it.
Comment on Linus Torvalds and Bill Gates Meet for the First Time Ever
Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks agoI’ve said this before here, but techy people vastly overestimate both the ability and the patience of the typical user, and it’s the reason so few people use FOSS products.
Products from big tech aimed at private individuals are designed to be as simple to use as possible, which is why they’re so popular.
SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I’ve used my share of free software. Some of it worked well, but it always felt clunky, and just never as straightforward to use as a paid product.
But sure, I couldn’t possibly have reached that conclusion on my own, it’s obviously the marketing.
qqq@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Sounds like you’re cherry picking both; I’ve seen plenty of garbage that costs money as well.
Honytawk@feddit.nl 3 weeks ago
Sure, but if you look at the top quality softwares, the majority of them are paid.
Because money is a big encouragement to make them as flawless as possible. Something FOSS just doesn’t have.
axEl7fB5@lemmy.cafe 3 weeks ago
There are shit proprietary software and good proprietary software. There are shit FLOSS and good FLOSS
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
And this in turn led to the younger generations being less tech-literate.
Ironfist79@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Is that why Outlook is so intuitive and easy to use?
Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I did say private individuals, Outlook is more of a corporate product.
merc@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
it’s the reason so few people use FOSS products.
It’s a reason. Another reason is all the stuff that Microsoft was found guilty of doing during their conviction for abusing their monopoly.
lefixxx@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
People don’t have to compile their own kernel to benefit from FOSS. Their phone can run the Linux kernel and the services they use run on FOSS. The more stuff based on FOSS they use the less license fees and RnD they subsidize. Imagine if you had to pay for every FOSS instance you use. Linux kernel, ffmpeg, openssl, docker, WebKit, mySQL and whatever, the same way you pay for GSM or ARM trustzone or console-like-platform-tax
Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
Nah, I have worked in IT education and in helpdesk. Average user doesn’t have a better time getting into Microsoft products, it’s not easier for them than FOSS. The reason for Windows domination is Microsoft spending money and lobbying power to put it in front of every user.
bobo@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Maybe true today, but less true in earlier times (90s and early 2000s) when Microsoft was really gaining dominance.
Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
I don’t think you remember how insanely terrible Windows was in the 90s.
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
When I actually started doing hobby projects, I remembered that feeling with Windows 9x where you learn to avoid “wrong” actions which have a potential of hanging your PC. You don’t even think about it. Just get used that you don’t move the cursor after clicking there, you don’t click here again after a first double click, and other such.
While things like editing config files were … more normal for the average person even, you’d have a paper manual generally. For everything, kitchen appliances and anything technical you could buy too. You wouldn’t expect everything to just work without reading it. Freezes and crashes were worse.
Windows won because most people didn’t know of anything else.
shroomato@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m not sure that the alternatives were any better, everything was terrible back then.
caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Luckily they learned from it and redesigned the kernel from scratch – hold on, my producer’s telling me that no, it’s still the NT kernel under there. Outstanding.