If I haven’t heard of it, then the average Windows user definitely hasn’t heard of it.

The issue starts at the fact that it’s difficult to find a computer sold by a common major distributor with Linux already installed, nor does Linux have any marketing aside from word of mouth to compete with the aggressive Microsoft/Apple duopoly.

The threshold to entry begins at simply having the technical prowess to install an alternative operating system on one’s computer, which I don’t believe a good majority of people are even capable of. Before that, people also need an incentive to transition in the first place. They’ve probably been using their current OS for a good portion of their life and are more than comfortable with it without putting themselves through another learning curve.

The average person isn’t considering an alternative to what they’re already using, and if they are, it usually isn’t Linux. The biggest problem isn’t appeal or ease of use; it’s exposure and immediate accessibility.

That said, performance and simplicity would be an excellent selling point for Linux. It would be absolutely worth banking on the open-source nature of it to appeal to a growing demographic of people interested in privacy-oriented tech as well.

Cobwebs/Penlink seemed much more tailored to that, but these companies also have an incentive to exaggerate their products’ capabilities as much as they can get away with.

A straw man won’t be of much use to you, either. I didn’t have ‘Bingo’ on the list of things I expected to do today.

Mockery aside, I hope you’ll come to reflect on my critique and improve your argument-waging skills. Given how it was handled up front, I don’t expect anything constructive to result from deeper engagement.

I am, but again, what about it? Now that I’ve pointed out your original fallacy, your continued attempt to stick to TikTok’s impending ban as the focus of our conversation might just constitute a red herring. It was never pertinent to the point regarding TikTok being sued for privacy violations that you were originally trying to make, which is what I was addressing.

Tiktok is facing a nationwide ban.

Nobody said anything about a ban. Just earlier you were implying that being fined for privacy violations constitutes discrimination against TikTok. You’re shifting the goalposts, evidently because you weren’t aware that other similar companies had already faced such fines as well.

What about them?

Google already got fined $170M for COPPA violations in 2019. Twitter was fined $150M in 2022 for disregard of privacy laws. Meta settled for $1.4B in a privacy suit just last week. TikTok isn’t being singled out here.