Comment on What the Linux desktop really needs to challenge Windows
frog_brawler@lemmy.world 3 hours agoI first heard of Arch in 2013, it was something talked about at work as being a bit of a pain in the ass to get going, but once it was running, “kinda nice.” That didn’t interest me at the time. It still doesn’t. I didn’t want to do extra work to make my work computer functional.
I only “heard” one person bragging that they used Arch, but that was in 2017 or 2018 on a Discord thing for a game I was playing at the time. I haven’t “heard” anyone brag about it since then, but I’ve read maybe 4-5 comments since 2018 where the writer was coming off like they were proud of themselves.
It’s weird as fuck.
felsiq@piefed.zip 3 hours ago
I don’t think it’s that weird personally, it’s more just a disconnect in how different people see operating systems. If you’re the type to not want to do extra work to make your computer functional you probably view your OS as more of a tool, but people proud of their arch installs usually see their OS as a hobby/project and put the amounts of research/time/effort into their OS that you’d expect from any other hobby.
As a related anecdote I see cars as tools and absolutely do not want to do extra work on them, similarly to how it sounds like you see your OS. My car people friends will spend hours fucking with their cars just to change the color of something or add a bit more power that they don’t actually need, and at the end of the day they’re really proud of their machines (exactly like people installing arch). I don’t think this is weird even tho I look at cars very differently than they do, cuz I can respect the time, effort, and knowledge they invested that makes them so proud - even if at the end of the day I still just see cars as a way to get from point A to point B.
frog_brawler@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Fair perspective. I don’t think you’re wrong, but I don’t think of the car guys and the arch people as similar.
As a non-car guy, I’ve never had a car guy try to be smug with me about an engine he built.