What is a Linux User?
12 July, 2019
That’s the title of an article published at Opensource.com in June, 2019. It’s one that, in its original form at least, caused a little controversy as Ben Cotton notes.
But the question has been tugging gently at my brain since then. After unconsciously pondering what a Linux user is, my answer to the question is anyone who uses Linux.
That might be the techie, the hacker, the system administrator, or the developer. It might be an artist or writer. It might be a photographer, a musician, or a student. It might be you.
The only thing that qualifies anyone as being a Linux user is their use of Linux, regardless of their distribution of choice. I know that’s blasphemous in some circles, even today. Those who swallow the power user fallacy will argue that unless you use, for example, pure Debian or Arch you aren’t doing it right.
It doesn’t matter if you use Ubuntu, Elementary, Fedora, Mint, Trisquel, or something else. It doesn’t matter if you never compile your own software or kernels. It doesn’t matter if you don’t fiddle with configuration files. The moment you log into a computer running Linux, you’re a Linux user.
Yes, it’s that simple.