Thought of this the other day. I bet a lot of us are like this, because in today’s world a lot of things we used to tinker with are gone (electronics are made to be single use and unfixable, cars are proprietary and can rarely be modified or worked on without many many thousands of dollars now, etc).
Sure, there are still hardcore electronics projects going on and people doing massive restoration projects and such, but i consider them basically geniuses, not just tinkerers who enjoy messing around and learning in their spare time while working 50 hours a week.
Im glad linux gives us a space to exist!
i think it is wonderful that it is used by both the tinkerer and the normal user.
i am on linux because i enjoy learning and tinkering. my wife is on linux because of MSRecall - she just wants a computer. both if us have very different reasons to use it, and love it for very different reasons.
she loves that plugging anything in automatically “just works” - probably the thing she has fallen in love with the most. she doesnt have to worry if drivers only work with win95, no sketchy website downloads, etc…