Desktop Linux has come a long way from the good old days when getting a window manager working required opening an XFree86 configuration file in vim and figuring out why the fsck X wouldn’t load.
However, while modern Linux distributions may outshine their processors, they still frequently leave much to be desired when it comes to usability, especially for non-technical people, says Roberto Dohnert. Since its creation in 2006, he has been working on OS4, a Linux distro squarely targeted at users who just want to know three things about an OS, according to Dohnert: “One: Does it work well? Two: Does it run the apps I need it to run? Three: Can I watch YouTube and listen to music?”