But when it comes to computer use and knowledge, there
is a divide between techies and just about everyone else. It's not just about lack of knowledge but also lack of
fucks to give. Techies just love to build and configure things to their liking. The rest of us have things to do, and would just rather
buy the functionality they need in a ready-to-go and easy-to-use form. This is why when computers meet creative work, except
maybe for programming, the best-of-breed professional tools are
all proprietary. Nobody in those lines of work
gives a shit about source availability. They will endure dark patterns techies find intolerable, just to have that functionality. Hello Adobe subscription model. It's not hard to find a Hackernews who will say "I'd rather pay that $23/month for Photoshop than have to endure GIMP."
Speaking of, the above goes for technical professionals too: sooner or later, many of them will put their college kid tinkering hobbies aside and just buy a Mac, freeing up time they would have spent tinkering with a Linux distro to cook dinner for their spouse or play with their kids.
I used to be like you and believed it was senseless and harmful to believe there was a divide between users and programmers. I was smoking that "any user could become a programmer" copium in my 20s. But there is a divide and it's a wide, wide gulf. One of the things that got me to put the programmer hopium/copium pipe down was getting married. She's very smart, but she buys 100% Apple kit and doesn't have to worry about maintaining or configuring anything after initial purchase.
Speaking of, the above goes for technical professionals too: sooner or later, many of them will put their college kid tinkering hobbies aside and just buy a Mac, freeing up time they would have spent tinkering with a Linux distro to cook dinner for their spouse or play with their kids.
I used to be like you and believed it was senseless and harmful to believe there was a divide between users and programmers. I was smoking that "any user could become a programmer" copium in my 20s. But there is a divide and it's a wide, wide gulf. One of the things that got me to put the programmer hopium/copium pipe down was getting married. She's very smart, but she buys 100% Apple kit and doesn't have to worry about maintaining or configuring anything after initial purchase.