2026-10-13 16:16 UTC
Replies (33)
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@TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 2026-10-13 16:22
My parents know one and it’s windows. One time my dad messaged me at work to ask if his laptop had windows xp, vista, 7, 8, 10 or 11, so he doesn’t even know the version differences :p My mom may also say “samsung” as an operating system if you prod enough, but she also knows their laptop has windows 11, so she knows more than my dad So that’s what the average non-tech person thinks about OSes
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@andyburke@fedia.io 2026-10-13 16:45
What about Solaris? Irix? OS/2? BeOS? Certainly people have at least a passing awareness of the most popular OSes. I mean, I wouldn't expect VMS to be on their list, but...
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@Pat_Riot@lemmy.today 2026-10-13 16:52
The fuck is BSD? sincerely: a non-technical mint user
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@nieceandtows@programming.dev 2026-10-13 17:00
One of the two is bound to be Hannah Montana linux
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@Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 2026-10-13 17:39
I’ve literally had to explain the existence of other operating systems than Windows to people. They had never heard of Linux.
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@pedz@lemmy.ca 2026-10-13 17:57
When I started working for a MSP 15 years ago, the world of corporations introduced me to AS/400 (or iSeries, or IBM i). It’s not that obscure as big corporations are still using it, but I never heard of it before starting working for big businesses.
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@Feathercrown@lemmy.world 2026-10-13 18:20
I would be surprised if the average person knows even one operating system, including the ones they use
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@ClownStatue@piefed.social 2026-10-13 18:22
I constantly remind myself of the George Carlin(I think) quote: “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize that half of them are stupider than that.” Also important to remember Douglas Adams (when underestimating stupid people): “A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.” Have gotten to post that one twice this week!
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@Wfh@lemmy.zip 2026-10-13 17:48
Am in tech. Surrounded by tech people. Front devs, back devs, data engineers, data scientists and analysts, IT techs… They know windows. They know macOS as an “easier alternative for normies”. Some of them even prefer it because it’s “easy”. A few of them even know there’s a terminal somewhere, but wouldn’t git commit from the command line even if their life depended on it. A lot of them have heard of Linux, in a distant and nebulous way. Most of them still believe that Linux is confined to the server space or a weird dev environment inside WSL because you’re developing for servers, that you can’t daily drive Linux as a desktop, or that you can’t game on Linux. None of them would consider switching even if they spend their day complaining about how shitty windows is. This is true for about 95% of the tech people I interact with btw. Big tech psyop is real.
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@A_A@lemmy.world 2026-10-13 18:57
“MACOS” ? … a typo of “MACROS” ?
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@XiJinpingStanAccount@lemmy.ml 2026-10-13 19:16
If you put Linux Mint on the average persons PC and set it up with the same desktop icons as their windows pc they wouldn’t know it wasn’t windows.
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@Doomsider@lemmy.world 2026-10-13 19:35
The average person has tried four or five different operating systems.
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@razen@lemmy.world 2026-10-13 19:56
Yeah the avg people won’t even know about the TempleOS
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@DarkCloud@lemmy.world 2026-10-13 20:43
I touch computers every day - with my hands! Anyone else want to admit to it?
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@HerbGrower@slrpnk.net 2026-10-13 21:25
I had to describe a web browser to someone the other day at work. In the end they had to go to their IT department for help. Though sometimes IT departments we deal with aren’t much better. Combination of ultra paranoid security policies and incompetence. Then a panicked end user who I need to try and work out how to help with the restrictions in place by their IT department. Some of our customer notes are amusing, stuff like “RDP still works onto X and you can connect to the SQL server from there, don’t tell them”.
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@_lilith@lemmy.world 2026-10-13 22:09
someone told me their sound for meetings was coming out of their hard drive the other day. I knew what they meant but still. now if it was a floppy drive I could believe them
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@Speiser0@feddit.org 2026-10-13 22:44
Are these really overestimations?
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@Pratai@piefed.ca 2026-10-13 23:00
If it makes you feel better, you’re probably overestimating their interest in whatever it is.
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@tuckerm@feddit.online 2026-10-13 23:13
I swear I saw a comment around here that said “the average user does not want bloatware like systemd on their computer” and I just kind of wonder if we are all living on the same planet sometimes.
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@expletivedeleted@lemmy.zip 2026-10-13 23:31
Computer scientists don’t understand this. This is systems. Seriously, I have met computer scientists who admit they don’t know how the computer works, but simply is processional math. One dude just got his phD in computer science and admitted to me he cannot even use his phone. Wish I was joking. Computer science doesn’t mean you know how to a use a computer; astronomers and microbiologists don’t know much about telescopes and microscopes. And CS students have the dumbest “smart” questions.
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@carpelbridgesyndrome@sh.itjust.works 2026-10-14 00:09
A BSD. There are multiple
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@Erna_muse@lemmy.zip 2026-10-14 00:18
I started building pcs to replace cable boxes for people. The realization I had is that most people’s understanding of technology starts and ends with their phone.
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@sompreno@lemmy.zip 2026-10-14 01:07
‘Is this a windows computer’ ‘No this is a dell computer’
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@Jankatarch@lemmy.world 2026-10-14 01:23
If that’s true then how come I see non-programmers talk about Dick Picks all the time?
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@mlg@lemmy.world 2026-10-14 01:45
Nah that dude is just a post Unix purist about to launch into a 3 hour talk about how Plan 9 is (not was) the future.
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@myyass@lemmy.world 2026-10-14 02:07
I started a class this year, a forensics class related to computers. The intro prompt is interesting, what computer do you have, windows or mac?
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@teslekova@lemmy.ml 2026-10-14 02:31
And BEOS, of course.
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@MasutaHarada@thelemmy.club 2026-10-14 03:01
Nah, the title and the field where a person active, including comp sci will not guarantee any of these knowledge savy things, also there are factor of sociability between people , one side can pretend and ignore other in spite or apathy.
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@Avicenna@programming.dev 2026-10-14 08:33
Don’t forget Temple OS
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@OR3X@lemmy.world 2026-10-14 12:10
This feels like it was made by someone who was bored during their shift at the help desk lol
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@nullspace@lemmy.world 2026-10-14 15:39
I use my own custom made OS called PenOS that doesn’t even really work or do anything useful, but it does spam the word PENIS across your screen forever.
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@cypherpunks@lemmy.ml 2026-10-14 17:50
i used marshdeer.github.io/xkcd2501-generator/ to remake it: (posted here in !linuxmemes@lemmy.world)
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@LaggyKar@programming.dev 2026-10-15 09:46
This isn’t quite following the format. The “And X, of course.” line in the original is one that’s more well known than the previous examples, something that ponytail thinks is so obvious that it doesn’t even need to be mentioned (yet still something that the average person doesn’t know about).