XPost: comp.os.linux.advocacy   
   From: bowman@montana.com   
      
   On Wed, 13 Aug 2025 17:59:59 -0500, chrisv wrote:   
      
   > The situation is a hell of a lot better than it used to be, that's for   
   > sure.  25 years ago, the only real alternative to Windows was a Mac.   
      
   25 years might be conservative. Linux did tend to be high maintenance but   
   I was running Slack before 2000. I have a SuSE 8.2 distro that came shrink   
   wrapped with media and manuals that I bought at Best Buy in '03. (or maybe   
   Future Shop, I forget when they changed the signs). In a way that was more   
   mainstream than Linux is now. If you walked in to buy a computer it was   
   going to be Windows or Apple but there was an alternative. I don't   
   remember if RedHat had a boxed option. Until my recent fling with Fedora   
   RedHat was on my shit list after 'gcc 2.98'.   
      
   It may be more daunting for someone thinking about Linux today. Counting   
   the DE flavors there must be 30 or 40 distros that are more or less   
   mainstream. Windows is Windows and has really been more or less the same   
   ignoring the Windows 8 fiasco.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)