Oddbean new post about login | logout You'd think Linux PC use would be a higher percentage than ~4%? Pew Poll: 77% of Americans have little or no trust in leaders of social media companies to publicly admit mistakes and take responsibility for data misuse. 70% say they have little to no trust in companies to make responsible decisions about how they use AI in their products. About nine-in-ten Americans (89%) are concerned about social media sites knowing personal information about children. Roughly a quarter of Americans (26%) say someone put fraudulent charges on their debit or credit card. Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/18/key-findings-about-americans-and-data-privacy/
I've been thinking of offering a local service to help people switch to Linux and sure up their privacy, the time is ripe for such a service
Do it : ) We've helped a community school switch their then-unmaintained computer lab to Linux a few years ago and have had no issues since. People including students only use the browser most of the time anyway.
Awesome, that's really impressive, how did that opportunity come about?
Just asked them if they need help with the computers. The previous guy had long disappeared, some of the PCs couldn't connect to the internet, apps hadn't updated in years and the admin settings were inaccessible.
And I was excited when I heard it was as high as 4%! lol. I think one of the main hurdles for many people is the specific software that may only natively run on Windows or Mac.
Not really. For normies who are mostly on their phones and hardly use their PC, and then mostly just the browser, office suite, etc. the only real hurdle is that Linux doesn't come preinstalled on affordable laptops that they can buy from physical stores.
These kinds of statistics don't mean much... I mean who uses Statcounter anyway? If Google Analytics provided figures, that could be more believable due to its prevalence. However, how many #Linux users browse the web without some kind of ad or script blocking solution? How many of them enable #telemetry on OS and apps? Are most Linux users gamers for the Steam stats to be relevant? I think that considering the nature of GNU/Linux, it's mostly #foss ecosystem and its #privacy minded community/userbase should lead them to conclude that it's being underreported if anything. We will overtake them from behind and I doubt they'll see it coming before it's too late.
90% of people use the operating system installed on their device. End of story.