Open Source and the Average Computer User
1 July, 2025
At the end of September, 2024 I finally did the deed and bought an electric vehicle — an MG4, in case you’re wondering. When I mentioned that to a acquaintance, who’s something of a petrol head, he half mockingly told me that by choosing an EV I’d sacrificed the ability to work on my own car.
As I told my acquaintance, that might be true but since I have 10 thumbs when comes to anything involving car maintenance (or anything mechanical) and I’ve never been one to crank on an engine, I haven’t sacrificed a single thing. I added that’s probably the case for a majority of car owners, too — whether they own an EV or one that burns hydrocarbons.
After that conversation, I realized what I said applies to free and open source software (FOSS) and to technology in general. Not everyone who uses FOSS has finely-honed technical skills. Not everyone who uses FOSS likes to get their hands dirty, likes to work in a terminal window, enjoys fiddling with configuration files, compiles their own software or kernels, or strings together complex toolchains to perform simple tasks.
Yes, there actually are people who use FOSS to do their work. To get things done. And to have some fun. Nothing more, nothing less.
That’s why more than a few average computer users who switch to Linux turn to distributions like Ubuntu, elementary OS, and Zorin OS. Those distributions come with a sensible set of defaults. Many, if not most, of those defaults suit most average computer users. The built-in software centres make installing new applications a breeze. None of those distributions is dumbing down Linux or making it too easy. They’re making Linux and FOSS accessible to a wider range of people. And I believe that’s a good thing.
I know that goes against the ethos/accepted wisdom/almost fanatical belief/whatever you want to call it of certain online technical communities. I’ll go out on a (short) limb and say that in the wider world of computer users, the denizens of those communities are the minority. Most people use computers, as I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, to get things done. They don’t view computers as playgrounds in which to indulge their inner geek. They don’t view computers as sources of endless technical fascination. They don’t view computers as an integral part of their lifestyles.
There’s no shame in being on either side of that divide, or even just somewhere in the middle. The FOSS world has more than enough space for all of us. At least, it does if we let it.