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Clive Thompson

Since there’s been a resurgence lately of the “mastodon is mostly just for folks who use Linux” thing …

… i’m now curious about my community here

(i’m offering intentionally crude and ungranular options in this poll)

“I use Linux …”

(Please boost!)

Anonymous poll

Poll

Every day
131
42%
Occasionally
72
23.1%
Never
109
34.9%
312 people voted.
Voting ended 2 December at 4:45.
1 December at 4:45 | Open on saturation.social
27 comments
ShredderFeeder

@clive LOL, if it is, it's exactly where I want to be.

1 December at 4:49 | Open on shredderfood.com
Bec

@clive I don't use it, but I do know what it is, not sure if that's a factor?

1 December at 4:50 | Open on aus.social
Clive Thompson

@teadrinker

if you know what it is but don’t use it I would still put yourself in “never”!

I suspect there’s a lot of people here in the “never“ category who certainly know what Linux is and what it’s used for

1 December at 4:52 | Open on saturation.social
Bec

@clive oh, I did :)

I just wonder because in my dealings with various people, I'm always amazed that so few people know what Linux is (let alone use it). We did have it set up on one of our PCs just for kicks, but it's not something we use for daily operations

1 December at 4:56 | Open on aus.social
Clive Thompson

Personally I am in the “occasionally”

I float between a modern top-of-the-line MacBook Pro, a cheap desktop running windows, and a 13-year-old Thinkpad running Linux

1 December at 4:51 | Open on saturation.social
Dr. Evan J. Gowan

@clive On the occasions where someone puts me in front of a Windows computer, I don't even know what to do anymore, it has been so long, lol.

1 December at 4:52 | Open on fediscience.org
NowWeAreAllTom

@clive a lot of people use Linux without necessarily being aware they use Linux! Love my Steam Deck.

1 December at 4:53 | Open on labyrinth.social
Clive Thompson

@tom

Yep yep

Or nearly any set top box — Roku, etc

Hell, half of the “smart” devices these days probably run some flavor of Linux

1 December at 4:55 | Open on saturation.social
liferstate

@clive The time clock at my last job ran on Linux. I only know this because it occasionally had a fit and would have to be unplugged and plugged back in. The startup screen said "LINUX" in all the color shading available to its little chips.

@tom

1 December at 5:22 | Open on mas.to
Childless Bambino :OhNoBubble:

@tom @clive or android. I know I know 😅

1 December at 4:56 | Open on hachyderm.io
Dan Gillmor

@clive Linux is my main OS. Windows machine for things I can't do otherwise (and to keep current with what predatory crap MSFT is up to).

1 December at 4:58 | Open on mastodon.social
XauriEL Zwaan

@clive I don't use Linux currently, but I'm seriously considering making the switch rather than upgrade to windows 11

1 December at 4:59 | Open on mastodon.nz
A Bitwise

@clive If we count remoting into servers, sure.

1 December at 5:00 | Open on hachyderm.io
Grant 🇺🇦ArmUkraine🇺🇦

@clive Windows to run my Roland printer/cutter (proprietary win/mac only) everything else, Linux

1 December at 5:01 | Open on mastodon.social
Brian Grinter
Stefan Bohacek

@clive I used to dual-boot Ubuntu and Windows, until WSL* came out 🤷

And since I started making music, my workflow depends too much on Ableton and a lot of different VSTs. But seeing that Windows 10 will be retired next year, I don't know. Might be worth looking into how to migrate back.

* ubuntu.com/desktop/wsl

1 December at 5:05 | Open on stefanbohacek.online
aadmaa

@stefan @clive Yeah I was trying to figure out ... do you count WSL? I use WSL every day... It does work fine on Win 11 but they are trying to force copilot on you.

1 December at 5:08 | Open on vmst.io
Eric McCorkle

@clive

My personal OS has been QubesOS or FreeBSD since 2001, broken only by a spell of using MacOS for a while. I don't know how to use windows.

1 December at 5:06 | Open on indieweb.social
Crow

@clive Where are the options for

•Begrudging

•As a last resort

•Resentfully

?

Every single install of it I’ve ever done has been a huge PITA to get going.

1 December at 5:12 | Open on cville.online
[nick@{÷)} ~]$ :cursor:

@clive I've been using Linux almost exclusively since 2000.

1 December at 5:15 | Open on vmst.io
Osma A

@clive
I mean... On the desktop? Not since 2011. On servers? Obviously. But I don't have to "use" those. They just do their job.

1 December at 5:17 | Open on mas.to
professional box/furniture thrower

@clive Linux is my daily driver for all my computers,and I use an Android phone. 99% of the time I interact with Fedi on the phone, so I wouldn't really say that I'm using it because I use Linux lol

Before anyone tells me about how Android is Linux, this is not the same demographic as the quote. Majority of people using an Android phone is not using it because it's Linux. It's because it's one of the 2 types of phones you can get, and it's the cheaper one generally.

1 December at 5:18 | Open on cyberpunk.lol
liferstate

@clive These days I don't touch Linux except for when I boot up my old Windows laptop with its new Mint install, so I can access tarballs archived from two laptops ago when Linux was my everyday OS.

I keep telling myself I'm gonna do some command line heroics to either get my Bluetooth speaker linked up to a computer or make the computer tell me why it isn't working, but I haven't yet gotten around to any applied research.

Yes, this is a long-winded way of saying "occasionally."

1 December at 5:18 | Open on mas.to
Dave

@clive Yes, I use Linux, but that's not why I'm an insignificant part of the Fediverse. I'm here because the Fediverse doesn't have the trappings of other social media - yet. Tomorrow is another day.

1 December at 5:23 | Open on mastodon.world
Joshua Leung

@clive
Personal machines still on Windows. Will consider again moving the desktops to Linux when Windows 10 goes EOL

I do however use Linux at work every workday

1 December at 5:25 | Open on mastodon.nz
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