Linux machines that just work

> Aim for the mainstream. The SteamDeck, or HP Dev One are not marketed as "Linux machines". Very few people buy a product for the tech alone, but rather as a modern gaming or developer workstation if the experience is good.

Well, we really screwed the pooch on that one with our Linux-computer-for-end-users. It was originally "kubernetes in a box!", and as the author points out, didn't sell outside of that niche. I am conflicted about the next line though:

> provide a product that simply does its job easier and faster than the competition

Well, sure, but... Isn't it a computer? Is it not a dream machine? (https://press.stripe.com/the-dream-machine)

Does a bicycle simply "do its job better" than a horse?

We're building https://pibox.io and boy is it a hard wire to walk: it's a server - we want it to be as capable as any SRE's home-rack (sans the horsepower), but we also want it to be end-user friendly and not require tech skills. We're absolutely not there yet, most of our users are engineers, but I do have my dreams, and they've been pulled off before: A more or less easy to use box that helps regular folks get things done but also puts a proper 'dream machine' into the world.

Thank god Apple, NeXT, or even Microsoft didn't just ship "a product that simply does it's job". They shipped computers - and in the muddled and unsellable space between "it's a really spiffy typewriter" and "it can do anything", the modern world was born. Linux devices these days are more like appliances than 'bicycles for the mind'.

An “old” ThinkPad that I salvaged from a pile of computer trash a few years back is a Linux machine that just works. Mainstream or not, the latest Slackware has been running perfectly on it.

In contrast, a “late 2014” Mac Mini has not been a perfect MacOS machine, even, since an update; nor, I hear, would it be a good Linux or a BSD machine (need to jump through hoops to install).

Linux has long been great for giant corporations. There’s nothing new about that. Linux will never suit the needs of normie users because giant corporations don’t want it to. The only thing that will change this is a major reorganization of society in such a way that massive corporations do not have so much power.