[feikname]

> The 3% of Linux desktop users would disagree.

We don't know how much of that 3% is there for the FOSS aspect.

I suspect most are because of the free aspect and being better than Windows for their use case, the open source is just a bonus.

> They are collectively willing to pay millions of dollars every year in perpetuity for a product

People love free stuff and will prefer it if its good enough, that's why Discord and Google Docs are so popular.

Funding open source would be cool though. Specially if we started hiring UX people

[rglullis]

The ones that are not for the FOSS aspect are either masochists or using Apple, aren't they? I'm yet to meet anyone using Linux because they couldn't buy or pirate Windows.

> Funding open source would be cool though. Specially if we started hiring UX people

If I hadn't promised my wife that I would take a real break during the holidays, I'd be working on the landing page to gauge interest on this idea that I have on to create a (non-crypto) "DAO" for curating/funding/promoting Open Source development. Can I ping you once I have something more concrete to show?

[piaste]

> The ones that are not for the FOSS aspect are either masochists or using Apple, aren't they? I'm yet to meet anyone using Linux because they couldn't buy or pirate Windows.

I switched to Linux this year, after three decades as a happy Windows power user since 3.1, because I was finally sick of having to fight the OS to stop it from showing me ads, tracking my activity, and trying to push unwanted products and updates on me.

This may or may not count as "I switched for the FOSS". Of course its FOSS nature is ultimately the reason why Linux does not treat me as a data cow.

But if Linux were a fully closed-source, commercial OS, but still showed the same basic respect to me that older Windows version did, I would still be a happy user. Said respect need be as little as (1) don't put stuff on my machine without my permission, (2) let me do whatever the fuck I want on my machine.

[Denvercoder9]

> The ones that are not for the FOSS aspect are either masochists or using Apple, aren't they?

No, I use Linux because I need a *nix system, Linux provides a better one out-of-the-box, and I very much dislike Apple's UI/UX.

[rglullis]

The last time I installed windows on a computer was in 2007. Even then I was already spending more time on cygwin than on anything Windows-specific. Some years ago, I put together a Hackintosh to see if there was anything that I would be missing by sticking with Linux on the Desktop, and I realized that my day-to-day was better served on Linux than any alternative. I can confidently say that I will never ever again install any proprietary OS on my personal machines.

That said, there were more than a few occasions that made me aware that this choice was not free of downsides:

- When I gave up on having a reliable bluetooth connection

- When I got so sick of looking for ways to improve battery life and just started assuming that it will last a third of what is claimed to last with Windows.

- After I tried to connect my guitar to my computer via an usb interface and realized that I had to choose between running the sound effects application or running any other sound app that depended on Pulseaudio.

- When I browsed through Steam and realized that I still can not find a good car-racing game that runs on Linux.

So, yes, Linux is great and can do a lot. But if you are not having any kind of periodic frustration with it you are either resignated or playing within a very small sandbox.