I feel like the people I interact with irl don’t even know how to boot from a USB. People here probably know how to do some form of coding or at least navigate a directory through the command line. Stg I would bet money on the average person not even being able to create a Lemmy account without assistance.
For the past month I’ve been developing a NixOS platform for local businesses.
I keep overestimating how much people know. It’s infuriating trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I don’t need to explain why it’s amazing, just that it is, and it works. I feel like I’m Mugatu talking to Zoolander at times.
Even if I could perfectly analogise what a declarative operating system is, it wouldn’t matter to a client because they don’t understand how a non NixOS machine works.
Though, the worst part is trying to explain to someone, who is “happy with Windows” why they should not be.
How the fuck do people in 2025 not fucking loathe Windows? There’s fucking ads in the start menu. There’s like 4 different places to change settings. The systems bloat and slow to a crawl as the OS ages.
It’s fucked.
I’ve explained NixOS to non-tech business owners by treating it like any other piece of equipment. You want to upgrade your widget stamping machine? Buy and install the new machine that meets all the specs and stamp some widgets with it. Only after you’re satisfied that it works do you remove the old one.
Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/2501/
Windows sucks ass so bad nowadays. I put windows 98 on a vm the other day and its literally better ui and function than 11. Not to mention, no Spyware and ads.
Easy, they got slowboiled since the Vista era.