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Down_The_Rabbithole t1_j49lf0z wrote

Reply to comment by bjt23 in Don't add "moral bloatware" to GPT-4. by SpinRed

>remember people used to think GNU was the operating system of the future because it was open source.

That actually came true though. Almost all servers, supercomputers, embedded systems and mobile systems like smartphones use a Linux-derived system. Essentially the only place where Linux didn't dominate was the desktop PC which is honestly extremely niche in the grand scheme of computing in 2023.

You can safely say that GNU/Linux is the main operating system of humanity in 2023 and be technically correct.

For example you probably wrote your comment on a smartphone running a Linux derived OS. You sending that message to a cell tower running Linux. The Reddit servers receiving the comment running linux. And me reading it back on my linux phone.

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[deleted] t1_j49u5ma wrote

[deleted]

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DespicablePickle69 t1_j4a15kr wrote

100% agree, RMS is the worst thing that's ever happened to the open source movement. It's staggering to think about how far we would have come without his nonsense.

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odder_sea t1_j4d9sm4 wrote

Is there a resource where I could delve deeper into why this is the case?

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FiFoFree t1_j49ux9u wrote

Hell, the routers and switches in-between might be running Linux as well.

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tehsilentwarrior t1_j4auhsj wrote

Literally the biggest reason why Windows is still a thing in desktop is DirectX exclusivity, which makes games (the good ones anyway) exclusive to Windows.

If gamers had a choice, they wouldn’t be on Windows anymore, which would then forcefully drive everything else away from it on the desktop. Drivers thus performance and compatibility would be moved and with it the viability of a fully customizable system (gamers love that) would quickly erode Windows.

The other thing Windows has to keep it alive is Office but that alone won’t keep it mainstream. That would only keep it alive until a worthy competitor came along, which would probably not take long as soon as all gamers moved to Linux as then that would become a big market gap (temporarily filled with web based office tools)

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DevilsTrigonometry t1_j4c23nb wrote

>If gamers had a choice, they wouldn’t be on Windows anymore

What would we be on? MacOS is hardware-locked, and Linux on the desktop is a fucking nightmare.

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