this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2025
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[–] danielton1@lemmy.world 41 points 1 day ago (50 children)

"Why do people willingly use Windows?"

Because they are brainwashed into thinking it's the easiest platform, and that any problems they encounter are because that's just how computers are.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 125 points 1 day ago (10 children)

Sigh, please stop using that argument, it is an easy cop out, and you don't actually help your cause by analyzing the real issue.

The real reason why people willingly use Windows is multifaceted and can be boiled down to a few points.

  1. It is the defacto standard. If you are going to use a desktop/laptop computer you will probably use Windows, especially at work.
  2. Most users know Windows in some capacity, this means that companies have an easier time finding staff than if they used something else, it wouldn't be impossible but it would mean spending more time and money training the staff and causing them to be less productive for longer as they learn the system. This is slowly changing with the rise of web apps, chromebooks and Macs. But still, having IT support a fleet of Linux desktops/laptops when working in a non IT sector would be increadibly wasteful
  3. Software, like it or not, Windows has a huge amount of proprietary software dominance, organizations LOVE proprietary software and dislike FOSS for one reason. Liability. This means that they get a number to call, email to contact, a person to yell at, they can deflect complaints and seem like they are a strong decisive company by taking legal action against an external party, and not have the buck stop with themselves.

I am an IT technician, this is what I have seen in the corporate world.

By talking about "brainwashing" you remove most of the actual information that could help you figure out how Linux could be better suited for the masses, and to be frank, using a word like "brainwashing" makes the Linux community seem a bit unhinged/cultish.

Focus on facts, then you can use them to change the actual issue.

[–] rozodru@pie.andmc.ca 10 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

also in most cases it's simply the default.

Look if you've spent any time whatsoever interacting with clients, customers, whatever when it comes to development work for literally whatever be it software or web or mobile applications at the end of the day they all want the same thing. They want it to just work. Right out of the box, to simply work. The majority of people DO NOT want to customize their PC or online experience, they don't want to tinker, hell these days they don't even want to download an exe off a site - if it's not in some kind of app store, it ain't getting installed. They all want a thing to just work.

Windows, like it or not, provides that. They don't want to use Linux, they don't want to potentially have to open a terminal and type out some simple commands. Most of these people have never even opened a cmd prompt or powershell in windows in like....ever. A good chunk of people using windows don't even know terminals exist.

I use linux, I use different distros, and I don't blame anyone who refuses to make the transition even though they aren't exactly enjoying their windows experience. They deal with it. Let them complain. A lot of people simply don't have the time or even the interest to learn a new piece of tech and again I don't blame them.

Can Linux also "just work"? sure, it can potentially but lets not kid ourselves here and lets REALLY be honest with each other. It's not going to "just work" like Windows, for the vast majority of people, does.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 3 points 17 hours ago

For my totally tech illiterate wife, the solution was NixOS and GNOME. She struggled so bad with Windows ways of things and its UI, and how slow it was. Installed Nix and no more screaming, she does her spreadsheets for work, zoom calls and email.

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 22 hours ago

Excellent points but I would argue that for the majority of users, Mint does indeed just work right out of the box. Everything that most people would need is already there.

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