I don’t know if this argument holds, considering people already consider and frequently do move over between macOS and Windows. If they can stomach the transition from Windows to MacOS, they can absolutely stomach Linux.
A big problem, I think, is that people may not always choose the best DE for them. I’ve yet to end up on the terminal for amything on KDE, while I had a multi-week troubleshooting session on my Mac mini to get a wireguard tunnel to be connected by default, something that’s like, an extremely easy task on Linux.
To be completely, entirely honest, I’m pretty sure I’ve ended up on the terminal for linux-specific issues FAR less than on Windows. There’s so much less tinkering to do on Linux if all you want is an experience not too alien from what you’re used to, which KDE offers to Windows users.
The real issue, I think, is that Linux is just a different ideology. There’s people making sure everything works together, but for the most part each component of your desktop experience might be owned by a different team with different responsibilities, and you’re able to change a lot of those things as you please. I had never considered using anything other than windows explorer as a file browser in my 3 decades using Windows, but on Linux it might as well be one of your first 5 decisions. I never liked the Mac UI so I never even considered MacOS, and that was waaaay before I started considering the corporate/closed-garden issues around it. On Linux, Mac Users can go for their look, Windows users cans go for their look, and people looking for a new experience can have the time of their lives going down obscure rabbit holes with tons of very different and functional DEs. These can be the biggest positives, but often look like the biggest negatives of Linux because we’re trained to think computers work only the way Microsoft and Apple want them to work. We’ve been trained to accept a chewed, pre-digested version of the digital world, and sometimes have to be inconvenienced a bit to remember how much more power we have on our hands if we decide to care even a little bit.
I think people fail to see that this has all been a gamble that has, miraculously, worked out in the favor of the fascists. I have never seen people being this politically educated in my social circles, so we know there’s still a fight that we might win, but we aren’t winning it, and saying we are doesn’t help anyone.
Those dissenting PLTR employees will get sacked, much like Twitter employees core to the spirit of Twitter were sacked to pave way for X. We all mocked X, but it’s still there, radicalizing people towards fascism more and more by the day, so let’s not make the mistake of thinking Palantir is about to lose or that it is on the losing side when everything we see points to them becoming too big and important to lose for governments all over the world. We are on the losing side until fascists don’t hold the highest positions in the most influential government bodies around the globe.