My understanding of the history of fashion is that back in the 1950s America it was expected that you wore a suit/dress at work unless you had a different uniform. There were a bunch of very boring people who thought that we should be wearing office job garb all the time, because they wore suits so much it was their default style, and since suits and dresses are both conservative and good-looking they were trying to nudge culture into accepting their worldview.
But with our computers, we are living in some boring-ass timeline where the suits-4-life squares won. We are all stuck using The Office Job OS at home, unless you work in a creative field that got really stuck in with MacOS ages ago. I don’t want to wear a suit at home. I want something I think is comfy and pretty, which is why I use Zorin OS.
I did not choose to get into Linux because I think it’s better for my workflow or because I am weirded out by all the trackers in win11 or because I care that Microsoft is an evil megacorp. I chose to start using Linux because the last version of windows that i was happy to boot up was Windows 7, and I refuse to use something on my own time that feels gross and looks icky. My preference for something that i can just set up and not have to tinker with makes Zorin a perfect fit for me, and I tend to throw a little fit when i have to do something in Windows specifically. I don’t understand why so many people are comfortable using the Office Job OS when they could be using something that suits them.
Preemptive edit because I’ve seen my post be misread twice already: I’m not trying to say that Microsoft isnt an evil megacorp that stuffs their os with spyware and bloat. I think that was the dealbreaker for most of us here. I just happen to have the sort of personality that Apple targets, and I have been struggling to articulate what specifically made me chose installing Zorin OS on a PC using a TV as a monitor instead of just getting a MacBook like my mom. Also its like 1 in the morning where I live and I need to get to sleep lol
If i couldn’t use Linux at work, I would just quit.
If I couldn’t wear fuzzy socks and sweaters at work I’d just quit.
Well, obviously!
I get that Windows is kinda boring, but it’s still like a thousand times more interesting and customizable than anything Apple makes. I find the whole Apple aesthetic to be painfully boring and restrictive. I get that it’s more fashionable or whatever. I just hate it.
Which things do you find boring and restrictive about it? I think it’s rather nice although I don’t like some of the changes after Catalina like moving from skeuomorphic icons to more symbolic ones.
Other than aesthetics I think editing and writing is fast on macOS even when not using vim. I even changed my PCs to use mac keyboard layout because it’s better. Of course when using vim, editing should work same on any system at least in theory.
Love your analogy. However I must say windows looks terrible. Then again so do suits, so it holds up. I had to run a win10 VM a while back in order to flip the developer bit on the oculus (don’t even get me started on that PoS). Hadn’t used it in years. Felt like some kind of money grab freak show. I couldn’t even mount an iso without having to visit several pushy sites and use one of those creepy installers. That’s when it hit me how digitally spoiled I truly am.
While I too like the analogy, and agree that Windows is becoming increasingly money grabby, I feel the need to be fair: as an OS it has supported native ISO mounting since Win7, just right click an ISO file and choose “Mount”…
True. But as I found out, the ISO file needs to be stored on a partition formatted with NTFS for that to work.
Ha! Good to know
Neat!
I don’t know when it was added, but you can mount ISOs directly now
I know it’s beside your point, but I want to chime in…
My understanding of the history of fashion is that back in the 1950s America…they were trying to nudge culture into accepting their worldview.
On the contrary, I don’t think that’s how the mentality came about, or was held at that time at all. If you go back to the 1850s or 1750s, suits and dresses (or some older variant of them) were a sign of wealth, intelligence, high class living, etc. They had to be hand-tailored by experts using rare fabrics and dyes that had to be shipped all around the world. Then the industrial revolution came, and clothing was able to be mass produced (usually at the cost of quality). Suddenly the middle class had access to suits and dresses, but the perception that it was something for the wealthy was still there. For many businesses targeting the middle class, the suit and dress WERE the uniform, as a means of displaying how regal their brand is.
And it’s not like we’ve gotten past this. If you go on any of the social media sites with ads, take a look at what you see: some knock-off piece of trendy clothing that’s made to look like a high end fashion brand, but targeting the lower/middle class.
All that said, I’m all for the “punk rock” mentality. Don’t do what your parents did just because society told them to tell you it was important. Stick it to the man, yadda yadda. But I think it’s a trap to assume that the 1950s proletariat felt any differently than the same class of people do today.
As for windows v linux, of the people who are aware of both yet continue using windows, I think most would say that they use it specifically because they have a “preference for something that i can just set up and not have to tinker with” and because they also aren’t making their choice based on “the trackers in win11 or because [they] care that Microsoft is an evil megacorp”.
I don’t understand why so many people are comfortable using the Office Job OS when they could be using something that suits them.
It comes preinstalled on most computers people buy. Tbh that is mostly the reason.
It’s like if you bought a house and it came with a full closet of “good enough for you” suits and instead of going out and buying comfy clothes you just use the suits provided, especially because you know how to wear suits and haven’t yet figured out how to wear hoodies which look “harder” (ok the analogy is falling apart but ykwim).
Windows doesn’t let me have a desktop cube or have my windows burn up or be torn apart by claws when closed.
Sure, I also like the GNOME workflow and the open source ethics and repositories and the like, but my inner 12 year old likes the eye candy, too.
I appreciate the not your office OS commentary. I have the use Windows for work. I do this mostly via RDP to a work provided laptop, as well as a win10 VM for MS Teams. And I take great pleasure in shutting those down at the end of the work day.
The last tolerable version of Windows for me was XP. I find myself fond of Windows 98, but that’s probably just nostalgia speaking.
Yes, yes, you’re very special
You are very special as well!
Oh, I thought this was going to be a post about you being trans. Threw me with the title /j
Ah, the freedom to modify software as you wish. Got to love it.
This all falls apart as a “reason” when you consider Windows Home vs Windows Enterprise.
The better reason is that Windows Home sucks.
Too long, didn’t read
Wait… You’re not using Linux at work???