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i think objectively we cannot compare usability because it is a matter of experience.
for example my parents were almost Always using linux because of me. my mother understands the philosophy behind floss and values it. if she had to choose, i am confident she would prefer to have freedom instead of usability. but she doesnt have to choose because all what she needs is there for her and because she us used to use linux.
my father has no philosophical reasons to use linux. he just had to because i was the one who decided.
so he almost never used anything else. he was used to gnome 2 for years on desktop pcs. later he bought a laptop and it came with windows and he was not able to use it.
Nov 13 · 2 days ago
so he asked to install linux and by that he meant something he already knows how to use. so i installed manjaro with mate and i have never touched it since then gor years. everything wotks and he is absolutely satisfied.
so i believe this is not a problem of the tech being objectively more ot less usable because it depends on what the user is used to.
it surely feels frustrating if someone close criticises you forwhat is important for you or even if they do not support you in it.
of course you cannot give up your journey. do what you like. learn to use floss. feel better because you are more free.
your wife surely has own device so she can use whatever she likes.
i can hope she will be willing to use a messenger which supports a democratically governed open proticol like xmpp on her devices to stay in contact and you wont have to use a proprietary centralized messenger.
i think couples need to accept and find what to value in things they consider strange in a partner.
time changes things. years ago only few people used floss, today much more.
whatevet felt strange some years ago feels normal or mainstream today.
it may happen that some years later she will want to switch herself.
and i wanted to mention that if i installed freebsd with mate i think my father would not notice any difference.
to the folks here who expressed dissatisfaction with the state of midern linux distributions i would like say that i obviously understand them myself.
just i think that using floss is already different from using proprietary software like heaven and hell.
floss is already very good. you dont like systemd - there is alpine and void, and i build my gentoo as i want. you like bsd - there it is.
but thought it may seem that freebsd and ubuntu are very different, lets remember that for someone who uses windows those are very far away and very clise yo each other.
if someone uses floss we have to thank you them gor making world a better place even if they use ubuntu which i also do not like.
i was lucky my wife used to have linux at home because her brother was a fan. also because her brother realized it is much easier to support linux at home even on sister's computer.
she herself is very open minded and didn't feel limited. for her it is very normal that people ate dufferent and think differently and she has very different friends herself and i am amazed by how liberal she is. i wish i was so liberal.
so she uses pinebook because i got her one (but i knew she would like it) and she chose xfce. i suggested gnome, mate, enlightenment, but she liked xfce.
peofessionally she used to use cad software on windows (autocad, revit) and also illustrator and pbotoshop.
on pinebook i installed some cad software to try and she chose qcad. she knows it is not as convenient as proprietary software she was used to, but she doesn't care much, it is not a big deal for her. she enjoys the pinebook it is very important for her that she can charge it with regular 2 amper phone charger, that it is energy efficient.
she enjoys that it feels different than mainstream windows and macos but she is not attracted to mainstream in all areas of her life.
i sometimes feel narrow minded compared to her but she is liberal so she tolerates me so far.
so i mentioned cad, she also sometimes has to open or edit very big photos, more than 100mpx, and pinebook only has 4gbs of memory. surprisingly it works very well with that big photos.
she knows that gimp is also not as flexible as photishop but she doesnt care much, just uses gimp and sometimes makes the same thing by more movements, and that is also not a big deal.
when we were starting the relationship i knew i would not use any proprietary messenger, and i dont use a phone (well sim card, number) either. on the other hand i didnt feel comfortable to change someones habits and to ask to use jabber so i didnt even mention it and used a phone at work or email for short communication.
later when i had a courage to suggest to use another app to be in contact with me i was surprised that iy didnt feel a big deal for her. she just felt this is fun and she now has several contacts and group chats in her jabber client.
she got friends with my friends and my friends use jabber.
so there are group chats and one to one chats they use to stay in contact.
at the same time she uses proprietary messengers to stay in contact with her older friends and family.
sometimes she uses a second phone i got her with sailfish os on it. it doesnt cover all she needs but it runs duo lingo and an rss reader. she was a google reader user back then so she likes rss readers.
in the future i think on new device i will install an open android build or sailfish with google play services floss replacemeny, dont remember now how was it called, gecko, like the browser engine? and it wont be a problem. still i realize how privileged i am that we both try to not pressure each other or make each others lives uncomfortable for various reasons and reasons always can be found if there is a desire to find those.
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