In 1997 or so, I remember that my mum could use a computer pretty good. She had a 486 and she’d write, research online, copy files around on floppies, email them, save and use images. Salvage Office autosaves. Save websites so she could look at them offline. I once saw her use a null modem cable. These days she stresses out trying to do basic tasks on any machine, and figures she got stupider, which is upsetting. I try to convince her of the truth, which is that computers got stupider, because the people in charge got stupider.
The thing I was as a kid, “good with computers”, doesn’t exist anymore, not because computers are so commonplace, but because they now resist your being “good with them”. You can’t get good at something that lies to you that it’s smart, changes its shape, and constantly fucks up for no reason. You can get good at something that constantly fucks up for a stupid reason, so I think it’s finally time for Linux, now that needlessly obtuse nerd shit is the only honest shit in town.
I’ve been saying for convenience “because of the Steam Deck, Linux is good now”, but really, as far as I can tell, Linux is what it always was: great mostly, until a minimum of Very Often it all goes to shit and you need to do some turbonerd bullshit. What’s changed, for me, is how palatable that is. At this point, Windows subjects you to just as much bullshit, but Windows’ bullshit is worse, deliberate protrusions of capitalist nightmare shit into your daily life. Rarely is the issue truly technical, and if it is it’s someone nerd at Microsoft’s recent, direct, avoidable fuckup, and the old, good systems have rotted to death. I would sooner put some shit I don’t understand into a terminal to make my wifi work than see “DIAGNOSING THE PROBLEM” and then “Sorry :(” one more fucking time. An honest-to-god technical issue is a relief at this point.
Because by the mid-2000s, computers as a concept were Complete. For a normal-person task, like writing an email or a book, you still might as well turn on my mum’s 486*. Windows and Office are products now, but back then they were tools. If there was an error, they’d tell you the error. If there was an update, psych, there wasn’t. It’s been worse every year for years, and now my mum gets overwhelmed and upset. I hate this. She was computationally independent. One gives a certain benefit of the doubt to the people who make these things: the technology is amazing, so presumably they know what they’re doing. But now the safe assumption is that if someone gets a product in front of you, that person is an idiot. It takes money to do that, the kind that isn’t earned anymore, only bequeathed or stolen.
For the first time ever, I am happy to deal with just about anything to get off this shitty ride, so I’ve had Linux installed for a few months now and I try to be on it. Everything works, even Unreal, except for cross-compiling Windows binaries, which for now I need to do for work. I have only Linux on my TV PC, and it fucks up less than Windows did. LibreOffice is not as good as Office 2007, but it’s better than new Office. All my games work fine. Nothing runs without me running it. I think, whenever my mum needs a new laptop, I actually might put her on Linux. It might fuck up and be useless to her, but Windows will definitely do that. So why not!
It’s not the year of the Linux desktop, but I think it is certainly the decade of the Linux desktop. Might also be the decade the world ends, but that’d track.
*This is literally the fucking case by the way. I found a 486 last booted in 1996 in the rain on the side of the road a couple years ago. It’s too old to have USB and has a 1GB hard drive but it still fucking boots and has Office on it and there’s nothing the fuck wrong with it. The previous owner had been using Excel to figure out some strategy for winning at Blackjack, way over my head, but he seemed to win a lot
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