There has been a huge hoopla over Linus Tech Tips doing a Linux challenge. More specifically, Linux users have been freaking out because Linus is doing it wrong. I'd like to explore some of the reasons for the reaction but also what I think is happening and why it's important.

People are reacting negatively for good reason. The last thing we want is a bad impression. But why do we even care? We care for good reasons too.

1. We want Linux to become more widely used because it will bring more apps and hardware support.
2. We care about digital freedoms, and Linux is the vehicle for that.
3. It's something we like, and it kind of hurts when someone critisises it.

Linus has gone to great amounts of effort to explain that his criticisms are not meant to slag off Linux, but to improve the experience. He, like all of us, wants Linux to be successful. I think that is perfectly fair and totally justified, and we shouldn't be so butthurt about the whole thing.

It does expose some warts that we should know too well by now. Fragmentation, lack of software and hardware support, and sometimes just casual omissions, like not showing "Press escape for more information..." when the Plymouth loading animation is showing. Linus just left it overnight and came back to a desktop that was ready. He couldn't have known that pressing escape would give him the answers he really needed. You might think it's just a google search away, but someone living with Windows all their life doesn't know you can peel away the facade to reveal important details.

Windows users are lost when ^this is stuck

All of that being said, there is no reason to be allergic to criticism. The real truth is that for basically all of the existence of the Linux desktop, it has been chronically underfunded. The notable exception was the Ubuntu years, but a lot of those were wasted by investing in homegrown solutions instead of building on what's already there.

And now, whether we are ready or not, the Linux desktop is entering the mainstream. How can we tell? Firstly, the crowd of tech enthusiasts are being rapidly outnumbered by a new group of early adopters. They can do this now because Linux has reached a point where many users can do what they need without needing complex or inferior workarounds. As examples of my own uses.

Linux has been great for programming for many years now. In fact, it has been a superior experience. A few years ago my other hobby joined the party; I could game on Linux without worrying about whether there was a Linux port for the game I was playing. While this was huge, it still left me with a dual boot for my other hobby, making music. It's not that it wasn't possible. It was. It just meant using inferior software (Sorry Ardour, you couldn't replace FL Studio) and a whole other custom audio subsystem named JACK, which for the life of me I could never get working properly. This is an important detail if you're recording a guitar, or just jamming. Bitwig and Pipewire changed that for me in a big way. Bitwig is better for me than FL Studio, and I get lower latency from Pipewire than I did from ASIO on Windows, provided I tweak my CachyOS a little bit.

With Linux end user computing entering the mainstream, I also think it's no longer nearly as useful as it used to be to look at things like market share, which suffer from very spotty and incomplete datasets. Instead, I think we should look at getting others up and running, opening feature requests to make things easier for beginners and being patient and understanding when people have issues. There are a few unhelpful reactions to avoid: 1. You shouldn't have used Y, you should have used X. While sometimes helpful, it ignores the reasons why someone chose something in the first place. Always go back to "What do you need this for?" instead. Sometimes a choice was made for a good reason. Sometimes it's also not helpful to send a struggling user off into another rabbit hole. Eventually they give up. 2. X works for me! You are doing something wrong. It's much better to find out what's wrong and provide guidance. 3. Run this command! It's always a good idea to tell someone what a command does, or what the problem is they're facing. 4. Look it up! People are sometimes under severe mental strain when they are trying something new. They need emotional support in addition to technical support. Being supportive and providing a welcoming environment is the best way you can get someone to become self sufficient.