ChromeOS and Android are successful because they hide the Linux underneath. 99% of ChromeOS and Android users will never see the console. Even when booting, they won't see scroll of kernel messages. Most of the time, the only reference to Linux they'll see is the open source section listing all the licenses.

Ok. So? KDE also hides the "Linux underneath". Boot splash screens have been common since 2.8 kernels. The purpose of Linux isn't to have a terminal and show a bunch of messages. Most computer users have zero interest in that. The goal is to build a working system based on user freedom. In that sense, showing a console window or a config file should be treated as a failure.

We are talking about the market share of Windows, not whether the Truest Way to use Linux is via the terminal.

In the context of the discussion, Windows does in fact have a significant end-user market share threat posed by alternatives like Linux, specifically in the cases of Android and Chrome OS. They are eating Windows lunch.

> Windows does in fact have a significant end-user market share threat posed by alternatives like Linux, specifically in the cases of Android and Chrome OS. They are eating Windows lunch.

Windows desktop is still as massive as ever. Chrome OS has a 0.42% market share, and Android is not a Windows competitor (it's generally a companion).

It’s ridiculous to blame the AP test debacle on the students.

iOS has ~83% marketshare with teens in the US. The fact that AP failed to QA input validation on iOS is an affront to the basic responsibilities of product quality. Submitting an HEIC file would cause the page to time-out with no recourse.

Compounding this is Apple’s decision to abstract file formats to whatever degree possible in iOS. Unless you are an avid tech blog reader or had run into some compatibility issue beforehand, iOS would have never shown you the text “HEIC” anywhere in it’s UI.

> Kids in California fail AP tests because they don't know what a file format is and try to submit HEIC images to a web form that only takes JPEG and PNG.

I agree somewhat but I think the AP test website makers should take some responsibility too. Limiting the upload to only JPEG and PNG is silly IMO. Wouldn’t really cost them anything to install ImageMagick on their server and accept a much wider range of file formats.

ImageMagick can read and convert pretty much any image format you throw at it, check out the list of formats here: https://imagemagick.org/script/formats.php

And yes, ImageMagick supported file formats include even HEIC.

I mean, if we are going to talk about having knowledge about file formats and technical details about computers, perhaps the kids aren’t the only ones lacking – so too do the people that keep insisting on only PNG or JPEG in 2020 IMO. Why force everyone to deal with these things when the server could handle much more of it automatically?

> Limiting the upload to only JPEG and PNG is silly IMO.

Or... Use proper HTML to limit what file types you site accepts so users can't upload files you don't support. If a site says it only supports JPG/ PNG on the input element, Safari automatically converts it to JPG.

> For a while there it seemed like people were getting more and more computer-savvy.

"People" in general were never computer savvy. It just wasn't a thing. We went from completely clueless in the 80s/90s to stumbling and frustrating in early 00s and we've pretty much leveled off at marginally capable for the past 10 years.

> That's dead now. People don't care. They buy a phone because it has a higher resolution screen and then run it in low-res because that's the default and they don't know the difference. Kids in California fail AP tests because they don't know what a file format is and try to submit HEIC images to a web form that only takes JPEG and PNG.

Why on earth should people want or need to deal with nonsense like file formats? This kind of nonsense is what professionals get paid to make clear to end-users. That is a huge part of our job. The case you are talking about is a pretty bad failure on the part of the company running the tests, not a problem with the end users.

I am having trouble following your thoughts on reasons.

> They buy a phone because it has a higher resolution screen and then run it in low-res because that's the default and they don't know the difference.

...neither do I. I have a generic Pixel 4a, $350 off the shelf phone, works great (really - it's nice). I've scoured for this setting, where is it located? I can't find a setting to change screen resolution available on my device, or even if it's possible. It looks great though just the way it is out of the box, I don't know the difference either.

> Kids in California fail AP tests because they don't know what a file format is and try to submit HEIC images to a web form that only takes JPEG and PNG

Apple dealt them this card - you're blaming people for not knowing that a single vendor has introduced a new (image) format by default which really, nobody else is dealing with (I guess?) the way Apple folks are; is it fair to lay this blame on the kid, or does it really belong to Apple trying to push a standard before it was globally (widespread, 80% of the web) adopted? PNG took years to get into tooling, if you recall - it just didn't poof appear, there were many years where JPG and GIF were the only upload formats - in 2020 you're now taking PNG for granted. :) Some day HEIC might be there.

> I can't find a setting to change screen resolution available on my device, or even if it's possible. It looks great though just the way it is out of the box, I don't know the difference either.

This was Samsung I think who launched a phone, bragged about it's resolution, then shipped it with that resolution disabled so they users would get better battery life out the door. Terribly user-unfriendly and a horrible example since users who buy a high end smartphone would expect the phone ship with it's advertised resolution enabled.

> Apple dealt them this card - you're blaming people for not knowing that a single vendor has introduced a new (image) format by default which really...

IMO if you are passing out blame, look squarely at the developers of the web app who failed to create a standards compliant site. If your service is only capable of receiving specific mime types, you specify it on the input element. `accept="image/png, image/jpeg"` If you fail to do so, you will get arbitrary, random file types. If this were a desktop computer, a student might have sent photoshop images or TIFFs. If they'd specified what file formats their web app accepted, the iPhone would have sent JPGs.

Many flagship phones ship this way now, including everything current from Samsung and LG.

I grew up hanging around early 2000's era pixel art communities, so I not only know file formats, but I had very strong opinions on image formats when I was 13. I wouldn't have done any better at the AP submission than those kids did. If it's the default image format my device puts out, and the input doesn't tell me it's rejected, I assume things have worked out.

>You could make the argument that Linux was going to make the CLI mainstream again.

What? The CLI was never going mainstream.