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I wonder if we're already lost (including myself in "we"). The average home user has ditched MS Office, and is using cloud apps such as Google Docs. They don't even have a reason to know what OS they're using. Things like battery life and wake-up times are what my work colleagues talk about at the lunch table. Setup might be a hassle, but occurs once in the life of the computer. Often, the discussion is in the context of an elderly relative who they're supporting.

At the workplace, a large Microsoft shop is buying a complex package of products and services that I can't even identify all of the pieces of. There's Microsoft stuff on my work computer, and on my company supplied iPhone. I must sheepishly confess that it all just works.

For myself at home, my main computer related interest is programming, and a programmer can live a platform-independent life if they want to. This is what I advocate, above and beyond my actual platform preference.

What I suggest to friends if they're thinking of switching (to Linux, Mac, Chrome) is: First, achieve platform-independence by finding the tools that work across OS's. Get up to speed on those tools. Second, switch platforms. That way, you're 99% up to speed before you even switch.



Can confirm, already use Linux more than 5 years. Never did touching desktop version of libre doc, google doc is better. Opened libre calc sometimes to open local csvs, otherwise google sheet for more advanced use case.

Online tools are already advanced enough for most use case


And once the online dominance is complete, the dark patterns will appear there too, I think. Just like Google search has gone down the drain.




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