2024: The Year Linux Dethrones Windows on the Desktop – Are You Ready?
- NTSync coming in Kernel 6.11 for better Wine/Proton game performance and porting.
- Wine-Wayland last 4/5 parts left to be merged before end of 2024
- Wayland HDR/Game color protocol will be finished before end of 2024
- Nvidia 555/560 will be out for a perfect no stutter Nvidia performance
- KDE/Gnome reaching stability and usability with NO FKN ADS
- VR being usable
- More Wine development and more Games being ported
- Better LibreOffice/Word compatibility
- Windows 10 coming to EOL
- Improved Linux simplicity and support
- Web-native apps (Including Msft Office and Adobe)
- .Net cross platform (in VSCode or Jetbrains Rider)
What else am I missing?
The fact that 90% of people don't give a shit about ads, privacy or their operating system in general. They want a machine to open a browser, that's it. If Windows comes pre-installed, they'll use Windows.
The only realistic chance we've got is that MS shoots itself in the foot once more by all that Recall crap and businesses drop Windows. But that's a long shot.
I find most people don't know of the alternatives but they are open to change as they are unhappy with current options that they are aware of. I've talked with a few people that were surprisingly open to to trying Linux. They didn't know how easy it is to use and install but jumped on the opportunity as they were unhappy with Windows.
Changing to Linux means, people...:
These are basic and trivial stuff for us, but most normies don't have this understanding and interest to go this far. And then it depends if they are happy and stay. Even if every PC manufacturer and distributor would offere the same PC with Windows and Linux, most would just choose Windows (probably). This is the current reality.
Such a hard agree. My wife won't even let me install Linux, which takes out the more technical aspects of the above.
She's just comfortable on Windows. Most people don't want to learn something new and even fewer actually care about privacy.
Edit: Us Linux users assume that if Windows gets bad enough people will switch to Linux, when we all should face facts that normies will much sooner switch to Mac.
Rich normies.
Sure, for the mac pro line with specs that us nerds care about.
I think some of those M1 mac airs are really affordable now though. For casual use it would be a good device for a tech illiterate person.
Or a mini.
I have an M2 mini I use for iOS builds, cheap enough for me to buy and stick in the rack to use for remote builds. I got that a year ago for $600ish iirc.
Yeah man. Apple still screws people when it comes to ram and storage options of course, but the base products are actually pretty good for the money.
Yep... It's permanently where it's at at purchase.
Which is fine, I don't store anything on there (Jenkins automations to build, local git repo on another machine, output goes to NAS), but it's ridiculous how much the upgrades cost.
If I didn't need a build target for iOS I wouldn't have bothered with it, that's for sure.
I might be biased running a NAS as well, but I'm not fussed about having a tonne of storage on-device. Yeah agreed it is bonkas how much they charge for that extra 8GB of RAM. Default should for sure be 16 by now.
Mostly yes but there's one other option that simplifies the whole thing: Chromebooks. They're actually pretty decent for someone who doesn't need much beyond a browser, a mail client, and a basic office suite.
Sure, they're tied to Google with all that entails but they can be a real option for someone like a senior who relies on relatives for tech support.
I agree. Chromebooks are a viable choice for those who want a web terminal. I used one for about a year. Got the job done.
Something I've never checked for but...are there any linux installers that run from within windows? Shrink the windows partition, create a linux partition, populate it, install grub, and tell the user to reboot and choose linux? I think general lack of good ext4 fs support in windows might make things difficult, but you don't actually need to do that part from within windows. There could be a second installer that's triggered the first time they boot from grub.
I feel like a well supported installer like that would dramatically lower the barrier to entry. It could make dual booting windows a breeze for anyone who knows how to run an installer and reboot, which is what people actually want.
This sounds awesome idea. Not sure if there is a technical reason why this could not be done. On the other hand, Windows already has WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux, is it still called like that?). All antivirus programs would probably go nuts. Windows itself is a restricted system and some things need to be done before booting into Windows. I assume if it was possible, then this would have been done before. At least I never heard about this. The best way is to have a preinstalled Linux on hardware.
Q4OS has an installer like that, but you have to change the boot order after installation, I don't think it uses grub.
Nice, indeed it looks like it does! Wonder if that installer could be packaged and licensed in a way that more distros could use it.
Until something breaks, or doesn't have a GUI. The average user seeing a terminal means they will abandon it. And even if they are willing to handle a terminal to fix an issue, the toxic community members that flock to be the first to respond condescendingly to new users will turn them away permanently.
Linux communities have some of the most helpful users, but they also have people worse than a League of Legends game. And all it takes is one of them to turn the average person away forever.
This was my experience years ago.
... And then something happens and they want you to install Windows again.
As much as I like Linux, compared to Windows and Mac OS it's high maintenance. Once in a while, things will bork themselves. And you need to have at least a rough understanding of what's happening to fix it.
Also (and that's not a Linux problem per se) people seem to think if Windows breaks, MS or they themselves are at fault, if Linux breaks, that weird nerd and his hacker stuff are at fault.
I have to disagree, at least in my experience.
Windows causes more problems, both for my mum and myself.
Her only purpose of a PC is basically to open a web browser, answer some mails and plug in a USB from time to time. For her, Mint never made one single problem, except when the hard drive failed.
She really liked the "boringness" and the old Windows charme.
And for me, Linux never made any big troubles in general. When I used Tumbleweed, there were a few papercuts (e.g. graphical glitches, program freezes, etc.) due to the bleeding edge, but nothing major.
And since I use Fedora Atomic, I completely forget that I use an OS in general. I never have to update anything, I can't break my stuff, etc..
It's the most "boring" and user friendly OS I've used, even more than MacOS and Windows. Only Android/ iOS are better in that regard.
But I've never seen my OS just borking itself. If that should ever happen, I can easily roll back in a second and it will work again.
If you can fix Windows (which made way more problems after updates for me) then fixing Linux is way easier. And if you're an average person, then you go to a local repair shop and say "My PC broke" and they reinstall Windows for you.
Without fail, every Linux installation I had destroyed itself after a while.
Be it a full boot partition, some weird driver compatibility, etc, etc.
My Windows installations (granted, all work laptops) never destroyed themselves. Yes, some bugs here and there, but it worked well enough for home usage. You can't discount that.
User-induced trauma, poor distros.
The fact those poor distros exist means yet another hurdle for the average user to switch to Linux
Okay, but understand that from for example my point of view, your perception appears really skewed because my GNU/Linux installations have never "destroyed [themselves] after a while". Respectfully, I think that you project your Linux failures unto the entire ecosystem, based on issues that were unique to you.
I've got the complete opposite to you. I'm in a household of 3 gaming desktops and 3 laptops, plus family who need help. I've been daily driving Linux for about a decade now and keep duel boot around just for Adobe products.
On all these machines, Linux hs been rock solid and never had issues that wasn't user caused. Windows on the other hand drives me crazy with how much it fucks out. I have next to no control over it. It updates when it wants. I have no control over what's updated. I hate the gods damn ads (and that's on Windows 10) despite running de-crappifying software. I hate how many errors it has and how long it takes t troubleshoot them. I hate that if the system borks itself enough, it's faster and less insanity inducing to just reinstall the whole os than try and fix it. I hate that Windows just gets progressively slower and laggier over time whereas my 6 year running Arch install was as fast as the day I installed it.
Businesses that already use Windows with all of the heavily integrated business-related stuff from Microsoft (AD, Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, etc.) won't change that just because a feature that most likely can be disabled via GPO.
Business versions of Windows either won’t have recall or the domain controllers will be able to enforce a rule against it.
It's true. I only use applications. The OS is a thing in the background that needs to get setup fast so I click an application and now I'm using my computer. I spend more time in my BIOS than I do the back of my OS.
Whichever OS does that best will always be the most popular.
Then people move to Mac.
Right! Sadly...😭
Yes, but there are things that absolutely drove be crazy in Windows. When you switch to Korean, it would default to Latin characters, and you have to switch to Korean characters. Which is fine if you always use the Korean layout and just toggle between Latin and Korean characters, like most Koreans.
But I am actually learning Korean and I speak more than one other language. When I switch to Chinese I expect it to type in Chinese. When I switch to Korean, I expect it to type in Korean.
The most bullshit thing about Windows is if the default behavior doesn't suit you, there's no way to change it. You're stuck with how Windows works because it's batteries included.
Most of the points listed here don't matter a hoot to the average user.
True.
The only thing the average consumer will even notice is the end of support for Windows 10. However, once the prompt to upgrade to Windows 11 appears, 99% will click "yes" and forget about it. They might be a little annoyed by the changes, but that will be all.
Nobody will notice end of support for Windows 10. Why would they? Nobody noticed end of support for Windows 7, either, and it's still up and running in many places where it really shouldn't.
End users don't give a crap about security updates and as long as users don't bump into a lack of third party driver they won't even notice a difference. And yeah, like every other time they will eventually update to the current version once more practical issues crop up. 10 to 11 isn't even close to the harshest upgrade path MS has deployed.
be informed that their computer does not support Win11
That's slowly changing though, as the enschittification of windows continues. They may not care to know about the details, but all of those points do fall under the "it just works" catagory. And they do care about that.
I agree. However if you look through the other comments in here, you'll see a LOT more examples of stuff that fall into the "it just doesn't work" category instead. And most of them are a lot more obvious to casual / new users. Those would be the ones that really require priority if Linux is ever to become mainstream.
There's more than a few reasons why Linux can't make the jump to holding a dominant position in the desktop market.
One is simply preinstallation. For companies (and therefore the general public) to adopt the Desktop Linux, they'd need it simply to be installed for them, with a Desktop Environment like Gnome or KDE.
Secondly is updates. As much as Linux users tout the control they have over when and how updates take place, and how much Windows users will always complain about having to update their systems, until system updates on Linux are made automatic (or at least given the option to be made automatic), there cannot be a mainstream Linux Desktop. This means updates that happen very much like Windows, no administrator/sudo password, just happens on reboot regularly.
The reason for this is mainly that the average user would never update unless forced, and then when something inevitably breaks, they are left, as always, frustrated that their computer just didn't work as expected forever without any upkeep, understanding, or updates.
Lastly is support. And this is multifaceted. By support I mean software support by companies like Adobe. I also mean a much farther reaching swath of random devices that literally plug and play like on Windows.
As an aside, I'll also say that since there is a move towards Wayland, there also needs to be a No Configuration Necessary way of running Nvidia on Wayland. This is less a Linux issue, and more a Nvidia one, but until pretty much any and all hardware works on Linux the way it just works on Windows, this sadly affects Linux Desktop adoption as more and more of the Linux Desktop ecosystem moves towards forcing Wayland adoption.
Finally I'll say that the Microsoft corporation at large obviously relies mainly on Corporate Adoption of its products and services, and that the Windows Desktop is simply one part of that greater whole. Their approach to competing with Apple and their walled garden ecosystem has been to slowly but surely create their own, its just so much larger you forget there are walls. They have done this by absorbing more and more of the tech ecosystem either by acquisition, invention, or otherwise. Examples ot this include Bing and All Search Engines that Use it, the pushing of TypeScript into JavaScript Development, the predominance and proliferation of VSStudio/VSCode in modern software development, their heavy involvement with OpenAI and aggressive pushing of AI products/services, their acquisition of Github and subsequent further expansion of influence over software development and distribution, and much much more.
Despite the privacy invasion, enshittefication of the user experience, and their various other ways they have mistreated their users specifically via the direction they've taken Windows, Microsoft has established itself as THE Desktop, as THE Workstation, and as THE company that comes to mind when the average person mentions "computer", and the majority of people associate computer related productivity and play with Windows.
For all the advances made to Desktop Linux, especially in recent years, it is unlikely that Linux Desktop adoption will ever proliferate to the kinds of mainstream adoption that its accolades desire. Until Linux (or at least a Linux distribution) can demonstrate what I've mentioned above (preinstallation, automatic/automated updates, and wide spread software/hardware support from various 3rd party vendors) along with demonstrating a work flow/user experience that is somehow both familiar to the user and also better than the experience on Windows, then the day of the Linux Desktop will never come.
This aforementioned demonstration, btw, would have to become obscenely apparent to the average every day computer user who just wants to get their work done, play a Video Game, and watch Netflix, all without having to ever even know what a terminal emulator is.
I love Linux, and I think the Linux Desktop is not only a superior user experience, but is just better in general than Windows. But the average user I've encountered generally hates their Computer if it doesn't work as expected 110% of the time. Linux, and honestly computers, will never be able to do that, but the closer the Desktop (and user facing GUIs more broadly) get to creating that illusion of "it all just works all the time", the more adoption you'll see.
Pretty sure Ubuntu does hands off updates. And neither arch or Ubuntu required me to do any configuration to get Nvidia graphics working aside from the driver selection in the installer
On X11, Nvidia is pretty close to plug n'play (unless you install multiple kernels, but even then it isn't so bad). Wayland has been a stuttery mess for Nvidia for a while now and there's a long standing issue up that hopefully will be resolved in 550 release.
That said, linux desktop environment developers will likely have to adjust a large amount of environment variables (more than they probably have already) that thus far have had to be set by the User by hand. One has only to look at the Hyprland docs on setting up Nvidia to see the extent to which the bulk of the configuration is set on the User as it stands right now.
I'm on Wayland
Well it’s really not entirely true unless you’re on a rolling release (which most people should if they can do basic system administration themselves). Unattended updates were a thing in traditional Linux distros with frozen release cycles since forever. On any Ubuntu-based system it’s a matter of switching a toggle, and I think it could’ve been Mint that enabled that by default (I’m not sure) at least for security updates, because users never updated their systems. They can still be done much quicker and more transparently than Windows does that, without ever forcing users to reboot in any given time.
The problem is also that once in like 5 years you absolutely have to upgrade system to a newer version to keep it updates in such scenario. Popping up a dialog with info that your system goes EOL and you’ll loose security updates and one click upgrade button should be enough.
Yeah, Fedora has the closest I've seen to this, as they do a rolling release distribution cycle, but with a major update every year. It's still too hands on for the average Windows user from what I've seen.
That said, in the particular case of the Fedora upgrade, I'll admit I get lazy in the other direction. If I can accomplish a task from the terminal, 99.9% of the time, I'll do it simply because it's exponentially faster.
And if it does, the acolytes will hate it and start pushing for BSD adoption, because there's a huge streak of hipsterism in the Linux community
Ah BSD, the OS that probably doesn't have an NSA backdoor in it because it's just not worth their time, lol.
That sums it all up. The average user wants a PC that just works. Terminal is a big no for the average user, and while we dont get gui ways of doing everything an average user does, it will be a big barrier. Even calamares needs to be waaaaay simpler (like a "i have no idea what im doing, configure it all for me" option).
TIL that Typescript was developed by MS. It's "free and open-source" though, i'd say the hability for them to cripple it are minimal?
GitHub was a blow though and it's why i recommend CodeBerg at every chance i get. They're on mastodon: @Codeberg@Codeberg@social.anoxinon.de
I'd say Ubuntu is probably the distro closer to being the "desktop linux", Canonical's been trying to be like MS for years.
Yeah, I generally agree with all sentiments. TS is handy at times, but working with poorly written .d.ts types from 3rd party libs is Hell.
The MS acquisition of Github is sad imho. Using alternatives is nice. I'll eventually get around to self hosting a Gitea or cgit instance.
Ubuntu, Mint, and PopOS are probably the closest to a mainstream Linux Desktop from what I've seen, and perhaps one day one of those really will take the mantle and push the Linux Desktop forward into the mainstream, but I just don't see it. I do hope I'm wrong though.
Pop has automatic updates now.
nice doctorate thesis bro
I think we should be thankful for having users contribute long-form thought-out content like this, instead of ridiculing them.
Agreed. I don’t care enough to read it all. But to anyone who does. Nice.
nice tweet of support sis
There one glaring issue. Most people don't really even know what an operating system is and some of the people I talk to think Linux is a manufacture.
I literally bring up Linux to my friend when they are having trouble getting windows to work and they say I think I have a linux. They mean it's a Lenovo but they seem pretty confused about the idea of installing a different OS on their machine. This isn't just older people but 20 something year olds (about my age).
It's funny to me but I try to be patient and help them with their problems anyway.
Confusing Linux with Lenovo is pretty funny.
My ex wife turned out to be a Lenovo. She and her new girlfriend seem very happy. /s
Must of been how they used the little red nub.
Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/243/
There's always one!
Bro - sounds like you missed an opportunity to dual boot!
I have Linux in a Lenovo.... What does it mean!!!!???
Lenovo's, especially the older Thinkpad T-series (such as the Thinkpad T440) are excellent Linux laptops, they're durable, upgradable and offer a smooth ootb experience with Linux systems (down to open source drivers for their fingerprint readers)
So it means u prolly don gud
wow I have never heard people being this ignorant. that sounds funnt, and a bit sad. too bad I have hp and not linux
I can't blame them. There's a lot out there that I still remain ignorant of. I'm sure we're all a bit ill informed here and there.
Is it just me or has using a brand name as a regular noun become really common? For example, Android-based devices are just referred to as “an Android”.
Dethrones? No. Not in the sense it will overtake Windows in numbers.
Grows its gamer ‘market share’? Absolutely.
No. Nobody cares, no matter what MS does. They can literally crap on users faces and they’ll happily lick it as long is Windows is the supported platform. And it will stay like that for decades to come.
We can expect some growth, because the tech savvy PC enthusiasts might want to look for alternatives, and if the desktop Linux is good enough, some will stick to it, some will go back, as it was always for last 30 years.
Yeah it's tough to expect general users to switch. I would just like linux to go over 5% threshold so that companies seriously consider it.
I was a Windows user up until a couple of years ago when I switched to Kubuntu and never looked back. I think after Windows 10 is gone, there will be a big uptick in Linux.
People said that about Windows 7 EoL too, which was much more of a paradigm shift. Absolutely nothing happened. The dial for "market share" barely moved, let alone Linux increasing substantially.
Just not gonna happen. I really wish it would, but it's just wishful thinking. Most people either don't care (they just "use a PC") or wouldn't know how to switch anyway.
Comparing the era of Win 7 EoL with the current one isn't apples to apples. For one, there actually was a slight increase in Linux marketshare. Second, enshittification has entirely taken over (made even worse by AI), and that wasn't thing until a few years into Windows 10. Will it be The Year Of The Linux Desktop? Absolutely not, but there will be an uptick in Linux usage. The real delusion is saying there won't be. Who knows how long it'll last? But we've already seen more and more people get Linux curious thanks to Microsoft's continued blunders and things like the Steam Deck.
You clearly misunderstood my post. Never said it was apples to apples, quite the opposite. I said the change from 7 to 10 was much bigger (and yes, we're ignoring Win 8 completely).
And of course will there be an uptick in Linux usage, he says it would be a "big" one, to which I objected to. Linux desktop has been trending up for a while, and while there might be a slight additional bump, I highly doubt it will be far beyond the margin of error for that general positive trend.
I also said it "barely" moved (it being the market share), which implies it did move, just not a lot.
More to the expected magnitude of the 10 EoL date pushing people to Linux, it won't be anywhere near what valve accomplished with the steam deck. Why? Because people buy a gaming console, they can play games on. Most don't care that it's Linux, it's just a tool/toy. It happens to be Linux underneath. On their PC they actively have to change it themselves. If people bought a PC that had Linux on it, they probably wouldn't overly notice or care either, but they just can't. Overwhelmingly they just come with windows, it you want it or not (usually there is no option to not buy that license).
Edit: what is harder to predict (or guess) is the indirect influence of valves accomplishment. Now that gaming on Linux it's actually viable, this might actually open the door for more people to give it a go. But as per usual with these things, it's probably less people who actually do it than one would intuitively expect or hope.
Edit 2: changed Vista to Win8
Do you mean Windows 8/8.1 instead of Vista, as 8 was between 7 and 10?
Ah yes of course, edited. Both are the unwanted stepchildren, so it's hard to keep em straight when you don't care about em...
I think it's a little more complex today than it was in the days of Win7.
First, the performance/compatibility gap is much smaller than it used to be. Ie, back in those days, Wine was much more of a crapshoot. Now, compatibility is a lot better, and there are a number of straightforward troubleshooting tools like Winetricks. Proton is also huge, being an in-built feature in the largest gaming platform on PC.
Second, the Steamdeck has exposed numerous more casual PC gamers to Linux than probably there ever has been in the past. Granted, the PC handheld market isn't massive, but it's also not small. People want to play AAA pc games in the form factor of a Switch, and it just so happens that the most popular, well polished and best supported product in that market ships with Linux.
Third, todays focus on privacy and freedom is much more of a hot button issue than it was back in the day. I'm not at all trying to imply that there weren't priviacy concious folk back then, but face it, in 2011, your car didn't track your location and sell that data to marketing companies. Your phone didn't capture your fingerprints, and your operating system didn't track your online shopping habbits and show you ads in the start menu, or take constant screen-captures of your work at all times. People are more concious of their privacy now than they ever were (even people who aren't super into tech are at the very least familiar with ad blockers and VPNs). I genuinely believe this will be one of the bigger factors if there is an uptick. People will learn about this alternative OS with no ads, no trackers, plus it's free, and that will at least get them curious. You're right, some will try but abandon it, some won't care at all, but I think the number of people who just want out of what MS is locking them into is growing.
I honestly don't care about dethroning windows or anything related to it. All that matters to me is that my Linux system works the way I need it to....
You say that because you don't realize the benefits:
There's actually a lot more reasons but that's probably enough for now 😁
The moment Linux takes over as a dominant desktop/laptop OS we'll start seeing a metric ton of the windows hackers follow suit to attack us. We'll end up in a situation where they'll probably go after some random kernel bugs that nobody else.has found yet or just don't think are critical/exploitable. Or they'll just attack the biggest, most widely used distros, going after people using them and any derivative distro similar enough for their malicious tools to work on it.
In general though, it would be a good thing for Linux to become a lot more prominent in the desktop/laptop market for general users. Especially since I imagine thanks to Linux being open source, people would be able to stop these malicious actors from doing damage much quicker (even though I imagine the majority of normal people switching over would almost never update because they're used to forced updates and not having to do it themselves).
People don't realize this enough.
There will be just as many vulnerabilities found with Linux distros as there are with Windows as soon as there's real interest in finding them.
Not saying we should stop linux adoption or anything, but there's a massive illusion that Linux is more secure. It isn't.
I mean it might be more secure, it might be less secure, we just can't read through the source for windows, so we won't know until linux is attacked as much as windows. It would (will?) definitely be interesting to find out.
I wish, but I doubt it. If we get to the point where there is a mass migration from Windows to Linux, it will almost certainly be concentrated into one or maybe two big distros. Probably Ubuntu.
Today, most proprietary software vendors only support Ubuntu and RHEL. Look at AMD. The ROCm installer supports Ubuntu 22.04, RHEL 9, and SLES. That's it. Not even modern versions of Ubuntu. And it's extremely ornery about dependencies. Python 3.8 or 3.10 required! No 3.9! No 3.11! Trying to get it to install on any modern Debian-based distro is the ninth circle of Dependency Hell.
Right now it’s sort of up to Nvidia and Wayland. Desktop sound is in good shape, desktop color (profiles and matching) and fonts are not there yet. Ray tracing and hdr have proven how much of a second class citizen desktop Linux is, so right now the most important factor is the SteamDeck for pushing the envelope to implement new tech. Chinese and German goverments moving to Linux helps but to be honet, I think that the “office and browser” use case is pretty well covered.
Possibly. But it's also pretty common in many instances of technology adoption that as more users come, the quality gets worse, and while open source doesn't have to worry about a shareholder-driven profit motive driving it, it's still easy to wind up with a muddled focus. I wouldn't expect that Linux and all of the associated software projects that make the functional desktop are going to be an exception overall. If you're an open source developer working on a project now, basically any user is some form of power user, and it's easier to find consensus of what to prioritize on a project not only because Linux users tend to be better about understanding how their software works and are actually helpful in further development, they're also likely to direct development towards features that make software more open, compatible, and useful.
Now fast forward to a future where Linux is the majority desktop OS, those power users are maybe 5% of the software's user base, and every major project's forum is inundated with thousands of users screaming about how hard the software is to use and, when bug reports and feature requests are actually coherent, they mostly boil down to demands for simpler, easier to understand UIs. I can easily imagine the noise alone could lead to an exodus of frustrated developers.
Some things are better for NOT trying to be the answer for everyone.
Anybody seriously believing this has a misunderstanding of how little people care about what OS they use and how much they care that it works the way they expect.
Most people don't. But if they keep chipping away their customers, Linux might reach a threshold where it's more convenient to switch.
You know what gets ppl to use Linux? 100% Software compatibility out of the box and OEM who preinstall Linux distros.
Barely anyone outside the bubble oft techies and enthusiasts cares. You have to BRING it to the users. For most oft them comfort is king after all.
Ah yes, this year is definitely the year of the Linux desktop. For real this time!
There's a real opportunity here and we can either take it and run or we can let it pass us by.
And a shit-ton of ads.
And the kitchen sink
Oh wait that's the next KDE release
The problem is usability for non power users. As a server environment nothing beats it but man the UI on these apps have some horrendous defaults and the CLI is everywhere. KDE still can't get rounded corners right.
Though I agree with your overall point, I can’t see why rounded corners (or the lack of it) might be a noticeable issue.
Whenever I install Linux on someone's computer, the first thi that they ask is always "why aren't the corners properly rounded? I can't use this!"
(No, this has never happened, but it would be funny, I'd get to smack them over the head)
Global Linux usage stats vs global Windows usage stats for PC Desktops.
Linux is roughly at 3.88% market share. You don't think we can bump Linux adoption to 99.9% in the next six months?
We just have to keep writing these "Year of the Linux" posts every year.
You mean 50.1% !
Come on.. don't be so pessimistic!!
We say this every fucking year! Come on, this is getting ridiculous! Stop it! There will never be a year of the Linux desktop and if anything, this post shows why.
So much of the Linux community is utterly detached from what really matters to most users and focus on things that 80% of people won't ever understand, care about or even use.
We focus on this and meanwhile, little quality of life features constantly get ignored when these are the real things that users will encounter and that will piss them off. They get treated as trivial. They get ignored in favor of other things.
Somebody mentioned it here. I saw it and I didn't need them to mention it to want to say it. It's already something that's pissing me off. On Fedora for my Framework Laptop there is no way to adjust the scrolling speed on my trackpad which is moronically fast.
We are on the 40th release of Fedora, the 46th release of GNOME, and somehow this still isn't baked in. I still have to go look around and use the fucking terminal to do something this basic. When some of them try Linux and will eventually push them to go back to Windows. And when users complain about this, what do we get? A bunch of elitists telling them to fuck off to go back to Windows, which I also saw as responses to this complaint about the trackpad.
Listen, Linux is an amazing project and I love it. I daily drive it. I don't use Windows anywhere in my life. I haven't touched OS in like two years at the very least. So many things that we are celebrating as brand new things that are finally working properly are things that already work by default on Windows and have been for years. We're not going to convince people by mentioning that, "oh, we fixed this thing that's been working forever on Windows." It works on Linux now. People need more than this.
You want to know the sad truth? Here we go. We, collectively here, users of platform like Lemmy, are a vocal minority who are detached from the reality of most users. We care about ads, we care about privacy and so on, but the reality is most that people don't. Most people won't even notice that those things are there. For so many people, Windows is just the thing that stands between them and launching Chrome. It already works for them. There's no reason for them to switch.
We are all way too invested in what runs on our computers and we forget that we are just us. Most people are not like us. Privacy scandals stop us from using stuff like social media and so on, but it clearly hasn't stopped most of the world.
People heard about the shit that Meta was and is doing. Did people stop using Instagram? No, they didn't. People know what Google is doing, how many of them switched to DuckDuckGo? A clinical moron turning the platform into a far-right haven didn't stop most users from using Twitter.
The API bullshit didn't stop most users from using Reddit. Sure there were protest, but I guarantee you that 99% who took part in the blackout just went back to it after. A lot of us didn't. We left. We're here now. But we're still a tiny minority.
Ask a Firefox user did telling Chrome users that privacy was important ever worked? I'm sure you will get examples of it working but it's a minority. Most people don't give a shit and they use Chrome.
I don't have a solution. I'm sorry, I made this long-ass comment but I don't have much else to say. I don't have a good solution to this problem.
Lol and we're forgetting the biggest QOL feature of all: actually coming installed with pre built computers.
Chrome OS was the only one to ever make a dent.
Without that this will always be a "power" user OS. People just want it to work.
I think this is the only feature that matters. For a user switching away from Windows I would love to hear about the user experience between buying a system76 (or another Linux system seller) vs a Mac laptop. Complaining that Linux doesn't work with your hardware is like complaining that the hackintosh that you built doesn't work with your hardware.
Seriously. I think Linux users expend 10x the energy worrying about ads on Windows than actual windows users. If you're used to seeing hundreds of ads / day on the web, why the hell would you care about an occasional onedrive popup.
Re touchpads totally agree as well, I installed fedora kde on my mom's abandoned laptop a couple weeks ago and it was atrocious. Limited gestures, no configurability, no smooth scroll, no scroll momentum except in apps that implement it manually, scrolling speeds totally off. I managed to fix most of these, but regular people can't be expected to.
Battery life, for another is unpredictable and quite bad. Most people I've talked to seem to assume performant/light = efficient when it comes to Linux. This is not the case. Once again, solutions exist, but they are not accessible to a regular person.
Mostly just that these aren't the things preventing people from switching.
Get pre-installed Linux hardware on storefronts at Costco, Best Buy, Walmart, etc. That's when things will change.
I love how delusional people here are.
Joking lol but serious that it will never happen. Windows has waaay too much of a monopoly for that to never happen.
Like wtf, am I supposed to tell my mom to use the terminal to download ms word? Oh wait sorry you can use libre office! It's the same but...... Well it looks different. And isn't as functional.
People around here are delusional a lot of times, but to say that windows has too much of a monopoly to lose market, is too much of an exaggeration. Microsoft has been taking unpopular decisions, newer windows versions have been facing more and more resistance, macos has been growing and taking a share of the market, some governments and smaller businesses have been trying linux as a way to cut expenses, linux usability have been improving a lot, android devices have been taking more steps into taking functionalities from desktop systems and improving usability with keyboard and mouse, a lot of computers that do simple processing have been replaced by sbcs, like raspberry pis, etc.
Windows isn't too big to fail, and it's not impossible that we're close to see it starting to fall. Now, on what os would become the bigger player, that's another story.
Fun fact: My elderly mother uses linux, and without my help. Also, she never used the terminal.
Same thing here my grandparents and some other old age people which i know using linux mint.I installed it to their pc 5 years ago and up to date,it's works fine for them before on windows it was nighmare while they were catching ads malware while browsing the net.
I have been hearing such news for close to two decades but not without news where many such organisations switch back to using proprietary software due to a mixture of reasons ranging from usability to politics.
Windows usage is decreasing every year. Slowly but... And it will reach a point where it will have not enough critical mass to be "THE OS" but "another OS".
I agree that it's not the year of the linux desktop, and that people who think it is are very naive, but you don't need to tell anyone to use the terminal for anything for many distros.
Until you encounter some weird glitch that needs to be fixed using the terminal. It happens maybe once every couple of months for me, but it still happens. Even so, I’m considering switching fully after windows 10 goes EOL.
Better than a Windows 10 glitch that requires you to dig through 10 dialogs
You're right but I have seen old people getting some Ubuntu/Mint installed and set up and they email & spreadsheet away just fine.
I guess the only who will have to tinker are gamers (or very specific power users?).
Others just doesn't even know or care about the OS.
My personal definition of "the year of the Linux desktop" is when we hit a market share % that starts to convince companies to take Linux support seriously. I don't think we're that far off from that happening and if Microsoft keeps adding in these terrible "features" to windows, more people will move over. Is 2024 the year for that? Probably not but I wouldn't be surprised if it happens before 2030.
A friend brought up some Ubisoft game (that I'm not that interested in) that is exclusive to their launcher. I was 90% sure this was an indication there was no hope for Linux there. I googled it and they apparently had already promised they would be strongly supporting Linux. A shitty company like Ubisoft is supporting it. I think we're very close.
I'd be very curious to see the hours played on games by OS. The last data I saw of probable usage percent had Linux at 4%, but I'd bet a large number of Windows and Mac machines are mostly just web browser machines. I would suspect Linux users are more likely to be gamers as they've already shown more interest in technology.
I don't know what percent we need to be mainstream, but we're on a good trgectory. If we can manage to hit 10% I doubt it could be overlooked anymore. Also, every person who swaps over is one more person who's likely to push others to swap. It's a slippery slope. We'll get there.
Just getting these devices (libraries come to mind) to switch to some LTS distro would bump Linux market share quite a bit.
The actual % numbers are probably not that important. Software developers and hardware manufacturers are looking for a critical mass of users of their product. So if 20% of the world switch from Windows to Linux but they are the 20% that only use a web browser then why would the compatibility landscape change? Adobe are not going to do the hard work to support Linux just because schools and libraries switch to Linux. Even if every government mandates using Linux for government offices would Cricut suddenly support Linux?
True. I’m thinking that if we have 20% of the population using Linux at work (like you mentioned), it would still help in converting others who use more specialised software (not just a web browser)
It is a good list ( from an “alternative to Windows” point of view ). In particular, you make a good case for the gaming side of things.
Unfortunately, even if that is all Linux needs, the hordes take time to arrive. The big impact of changes this year will be seen in the migration numbers 3 years from now. The biggest opportunity is probably the Windows 10 EOL and that is not until the end of next year. By then, many gamers will have Windows 11 capable hardware.
I do think that gamers and devs are the two groups likely to lead the charge on the next wave of Linux adoption. .NET dev in particular already has a lot of momentum on Linux with the transition from desktop to cloud and the primacy of Linux in container based workflows. Things are not quite there yet for .NET mobile dev on Linux. I bet most .NET devs that have left Windows are using Macs these days though. That said, that means they are already using tooling quite easily migrated to Linux including bath Rider and VS Code as you say. In the cloud, .NET must be “deployed” more to Linux than to Windows by now.
That last point is the most important I think. Windows is no longer the most important platform for Microsoft—Azure is. Microsoft is quite happy to let you use Linux on Azure. In fact, Azure pipelines and .NET itself are faster on Linux at this point. It is still “developers, developers, developers” for Microsoft but it is now more cloud than desktop. That changes the role of Windows at Microsoft.
I think it is perhaps less what we think about Windows and more about what Microsoft thinks about Windows that matters.
The other crown jewel is Office. Office 365 is a subscription. It is increasingly a “cloud” offering as well. Soon, they will not care about Windows as a delivery vehicle for Office either.
As Windows starts to matter less strategically, the question will increasingly be how to monetize the Windows user base more heavily. That is more ads, more data mining, more AI, and an increasingly crap experience. More and more, Windows Product Managers will be rewarded for their short-term gains and incremental revenue. Stewardship of the platform will move further and further into the background.
That is how Linux will win.
It won’t be this year though.
I switched from Windows to Linux full time around Feb 2024.
I think Linux is ready for desktop use.
I’m a Mac guy and I have a PC for gaming. I just installed Mint on my PC and it has been working great for gaming. I probably won’t need Windows ever again.
Most games work on Linux or with Steam Proton.
But some games still don't or has kernel level anti-cheat systems.
I would just ignore those games.
I switched in 2021 and I thought the same then.
I stopped using Windows in the XP era. Later on I started working in a job that required me to have a Win8 laptop. 2 years later I reverted back to Linux once I stopped working there and had Win8/10 as a game OS. But my main "serious" usage was on Linux.
When windows 10 stops working is the better chance. Even then, not convinced it'll be year of Linux.
I once ran a poll on Reddit asking why people switched to Linux. More people responded it was because Microsoft launched a new hated version of Windows than Microsoft discontinued an old beloved version. ie more people switched because Win 8 came out than Win 7 died.
I get the sense that both of those two things are somewhat true here. They’re getting rid of 10, and people want to avoid 11.
I’m pretty sure 95% of people don’t even know what Windows is. It’s just part of the computer to them.
Definitely. The context just seemed to be people who know what OSs are.
In my family, my parents' generation either worked in IT and spent some of their careers writing macro-assembly on punch cards, or they have no coherent answer to the question "what is an operating system?" For this latter group, I'm going to be their sysadmin either way, and I no longer sysadmin Windows.
Everyone in my generation are pretty computer literate; I think I program in the most languages but my cousins all know what file systems are, could put together a household budget in Excel, know how to install software etc. A few of my cousins are in that "mostly use Windows for gaming and Ubisoft/EA aren't great companies" phase where Linux is still a bit inconvenient.
My niece, the only representative of her generation in my family, has a reasonable child's grasp on computers. She's used iOS and ChromeOS and Windows and Linux, so I'm pretty sure she understands the same hardware can run different software. Not sure how deep that understanding goes but she's a kid she has time to learn.
My dad switched for vista, I switched for 10 for a while. Who knows, maybe I'll switch for 11 too
I dual-booted for a while & was on Microsoft Windows 7. I was using it less & less--usually just to play specific game. When MS Windows 10 was announced with an all new set of privacy invasive features on by default & 7 was going to be phased out, & as I got older with less time I wanted to spend with games, I decided to completely pull the plug on Microsoft & saying that there were enough games out there that worked on Linux (Proton infancy) that if Linux support wasn’t out of the box, I would just choose something else. The same will happen with some folks as 10 support is pulled--where if I thought 10 was too privacy-invasive, 11 + Recall is a nightmare.
Yeah, my hypothesis is that most of the folks who will object to Windows 11's bullshit enough to switch to Linux already have by now. There likely will be another bump in transitions at Win 10's EoL but not as many as who have switched since the rollout of Win 11 already.
https://yotld.com/
Bro just trust me bro it's year of the Linux desktop bro everyone will use Linux bro
That's been true every year since I stated paying attention. In 1997.
You forgot "Recall".
I wanted to make a wordplay here, but I couldn't find one.
Anyway, a lot of people are worried about the OS remembering everything you are doing like it's taking screenshots all the time.
For my part, that would be a big no-no.
Recall does things that weirdly, a malware would have done back in the day.
it's currently opt-in rather than opt-out, fully on-device and won't work on devices with weak NPUs (or on any which completely lack it)
unless it changes in the future it's not that bad at the moment tbh
Of course it's on-device. Microsoft is doing all the processing on people's PCs, rather than their own servers, where they'd have to pay for that computation.
Data still gets reported to MS afterwards.
It must communicate with Microsoft in a way, just by the fact the "AI" must not "hallucinates" by suggesting the user to jump from a bridge or to add Glue in his pizza...
What is the bridge jumping bit about?
"On-device" has to be a half-true at best. I'm having a hard time believing that the NPUs on these new ARM chips are powerful enough for it to be fully on-device. Even more-so with "approved" x86 chips. There has to be some data sharing between the client and server, similar to how Rabbit does their shit.
Look up TPUs, like a coral tensor. Extremely efficient at machine learning, only, and cheap. If NPUs use anything like a TPU, then it absolutely can do local "AI." Then once the heavy lifting is done, then I'd imagine all that data is uploaded.
...until a botched update or a bug sends everything to the cloud, MS makes an about face saying oops my bad, then say it was fixed.
There’s absolutely zero reason to expect Linux mass adoption as it is NOT happening anytime soon. What can happen instead is increased market share to something like 10% and even that is super optimistic from a long time user perspective.
The focus should mainly go to relatively technical users that can at least manage basic stuff and not mass market consumers. It’s good when people try Linux, yes, but it’s even better when they find it useful, it does what they need and they keep using it, not just trying and go back to a primarily supported OS that’s maybe invasive but “at least it works”.
Desktop computing is transitioning from mainstream to niche. Increasingly, “normal” computing is phone, tablet, and web. Normal people increasingly use desktops as big screens for the web.
Linux is a great platform for people to access their applications on the web. It is a good option at this point to give to your aging parents to grand parents the next time you have to setup a computer for them.
The other people buying desktops are buying them for things like gaming or dev. These are more technical audiences as you suggest. Gamers are a certain kind of technical though. We are almost at the point with Linux that gaming could go mainstream. I think it already makes a good ( perhaps the best ) dev platform.
Where Linux is worst is probably “technical” Windows users as these are the desktop people that are going to have specific needs and organizations that Linux may not meet. Part of the problem with Linux is that this is the group it has been targeting. That has led to a lot of desktop complexity.
Don’t get me wrong. I am one of the people taking advantage of and contributing to the diversity and complexity of the Linux desktop. That is not helping it make the jump to mainstream desktop users though.
The future of computing is not computers. Computers, by and large, are trending down. There is already mass adoption of Linux. Android. Steam decks.
Computers with keyboards and mice are increasingly obsolete. Fighting for market share there is like trying to become the biggest vendor of sailing boats in the steamer era.
PC computers were already replaced for different use cases so yes, the market shrunk, but they will stay relevant for many others for a long time. Simple tasks can easily be achieved with super convenient rectangles that are effectively computers with different input methods, but they just won’t cut it for anything more complex like 3D modeling, CAD, video editing etc. 30 years ago it was impressive when PCs could hold a large collection of digital music with instantaneous access to all of it. Now it’s just plain irrelevant, as basically all music known to human can be accessed from anywhere with just a handy rectangle. But then even relatively simple tasks like doing taxes is a daunting task on a smartphone, and only a tiny bit more convenient on a tablet.
Of course at some point computers with completely different input and output methods can put all we know today into obsolescence, but I think we’re not even close. Some may say that VR headsets will be the thing, but personally I don’t believe so. While having virtual 3D viewport is fun and games, people seem to ignore what it takes away. Simple things like being able to see the same thing on a screen by multiple people without some video sinks between headsets or ability to interact with things without having to wear helmet or putting anything on (however lightweight it is), would be gone. Don’t get me wrong, they can certainly have their place and things they’re really good or the best at, but it’s just not going to easily replace more traditional input methods. More likely something like holographic displays paired with motion sensors recognizing body movement or some shit
that AI-generated file really wasn't necessary
linux is at single digit percentages and that's including steamdecks so... no, not even clsoe
Dethrone? Probably not.
Start taking up a noticeable share of the demographic of systems? Probably
Before this year is out I'm switching my systems to Linux and before Windows 10 EoL I'm having to switch some relatives to Linux because their systems can't handle Windows 11 and I'm not going to buy them new systems.
This isn't the first time Microsoft has pushed telemetry and malware in its OS. But I think they have finally crossed the line with CoPilot. What they want to do with it is so incredibly obvious and intrusive that most people just won't stand for it.
You're vastly overestimating how much the average consumer cares about these things
Well.. I think you are putting too much expectation on a common person. I'm pretty sure a lot of people are going to be 'mind blown', by the ability of the new Recall feature. They will hail it as a technological marvel. Very few people care about privacy, and even in that, very few people really understand how they can have some privacy. Complete privacy is near to impossible.
They're definitely going to back down. I'm guessing they're going to back down a little (maybe create an opt out for the enterprise customers?) and then claim victory, but we'll see.
I hope you're right. What I did was let my kids use Linux, whatever distro they wanted, and they have used Windows only at school. I think this is the way to do it, expose this growing generation to good software and keep them away from the enahitified ones, while explaining the importance and joy of privacy.
If we all do that with our kids, the next generation will have less sheep following all the commercial crap out there.
I’m planning on doing the same thing. I only have Linux installed at home. If they really need Windows for something I could always spin up a VM.
Here's the hilarious reality:
I installed Fedora Workstation on a laptop yesterday, just to check out how that's going.
I'm probably reverting it to Windows because there is no tool to adjust the scroll speed of the touchpad.
And that's what that takes.
This is exactly the kind of issue that the average person might deal with, or it will be a deal breaker and they'll never try again. Even if you can customize something via a config file, the average user will never do that. If there is no easy GUI in a normal location (like system settings) for something they want to adjust, it might as well not exist.
Average users either will accept all the inconveniences, or none. If it is more inconvenient than what they are used to right off the bat, they will go back and never try again.
To be clear, I'm far from the average user. I've installed Linux on my PCs many times over multiple decades. I'm looking at a RedHat installation CD that was printed in a different century right now. I'm way more tech-savvy and platform-agnostic than the average Windows user.
And even I went "wait, GNOME hasn't figured out mousewheels and touchpads in 25 years? Yeah, nope, I'm out".
Desktop Linux is a hobby for hobbyists. If you think troubleshooting that stuff, customizing your setup and distro-hopping for fun are engaging things to do on your PC it's a good time. If in the process of doing that you set it up just like you want it the performance, stability and compatibility aren't terrible. By the time I hit those annoyances I had a mostly working setup. Audio was fine, iGPU was fine, touchscreen was fine, performance and responsiveness were better than Windows, manufacturer software alternatives were installed and mostly working.
But if you just want a computer that works any one of these roadblocks is a dealbreaker. Going online and seeing the related drama (posts complaining that GNOME devs will close issues about this out of personal preference or spite, hacky half-solutions, arguments about whether this is a real issue or how much better/worse other platforms or distros are) the entire ecosystem seems less than serious and definitely not sustainable for any device you need for user-level, reliable use.
Ditto. I set up my first triple boot (win/mac/linux, fun times) system 2 decades ago. I was a teen then with all the time in the world to dive into this stuff. Now? I just want something that works and doesn't consume a free day whenever I want to customise a new option. If Linux is too user-unfriendly for me, good luck with the average user.
Linux is like democracy. It's the worst OS except for all the others that exist.
I've been a Gnome fanboy for years, after initially disliking the shift between 2 and 3.
I dipped into Plasma when 6.0 came out and I'm mad that I didn't try sooner.
It's the exact opposite of your experience, about Gnome not having scroll wheel speed adjustment. "Wait, other DEs had figured this out? For how long??"
There was so much I'd just put up with, thinking that if Gnome hadn't figured it out, nobody had.
KDE is something I can set up on friends' computers and walk away, confident that it wouldn't give them any trouble.
that (and many other irritants) is why I switched to plasma. please try it before going back, it's way better in every regard.
I may because I'm clearly an outlier and it's a bit of an experiment now, but...
... you realize how just saying that is an absolute dealbreaker for Linux, right?
I mean, if you're a base Windows user trying Linux for the first time, it is arcane gibberish. If you're just trying to get a working computer it's a major hassle. If you're, like me, a grumpy old fart, you're getting flashbacks of sitting in front of a Pentium-133 doing this exact exercise of flipping back and forth across environments and bumping against different frustrations on each and just can't believe this is still the feedback you're getting online this many decades later.
absolutely. I have a list as long as my arm of irritants that are 99% just the absence of sane defaults. I'm not saying that's what's deterring people from switching over, but it's not helping either, is it?
every DE, distro, whatevs I install, I try to imagine what this looks like to a non-techie, how would a random grams deal with this... and it's not looking good.
apple has a vertically integrated tech stack and are free to focus their sinister efforts elsewhere; they don't have to dick around with 15 different DEs and 27 WMs, 50 teams pulling in 127 different directions, abandoned paths and duplicated efforts galore. just imagine where The Linux Desktop would be at if we had just one DE/WM and all devs would pull in the same direction...
I don't have the answer. it's chaos over here and out of that chaos eventually some order emerges. it's unquestionable that shit's way better than five years ago, let alone 10 or more... but it's so slow and wasteful and it pains me that I see no other option.
meanwhile this (hey, try this shit out) is the best we as users can do; I know I regarded KDE/Plasma for the longest time as something clunky and un-serious and whatnot - I couldn't have been more wrong. things that are outright deal-breakers (like the years-long refusal to implement scroll speed in Gnome) are handled beautifully over there, and then some.
Yeah, honestly given the time this has been at play I'm surprised nobody has tried to do that type of full control integration besides Google. Given how well ChromeOS and especially Android worked as platforms why hasn't... I don't know, Valve? Adobe? Apple, even? tried to create a major desktop PC take on Linux that does have the type of support and sensible UX you want out of the box?
It's probably too late now that MS is hell-bent into turning Windows into that sort of platform, but there was a period of time there, probably during the Win8 debacle or the early parts of Win10 where you could have come up with a "big boy ChromeOS" take that would have gotten this done. It's nuts that Valve only got as far as doing the basics of SteamOS and then failed to deliver on their promises of wider support before the community basically turned installing that into the same kind of nightmare every other distro is.
Well, no, that's not applicable here. I'm suggesting a proprietary, corporate-backed desktop default in the way we have a proprietary, corporate-backed laptop reference in ChromeOS, a corporate-backed mobile reference in Android and a proprietary, corporate-backed handheld default in SteamOS.
It's not about covering everyone's use cases, it's about applying commercial priorities and funding to one specific use case.
I mean, you know the Linux community craves that opportunity, because the amount of hype around SteamOS when that dropped on the Deck was insane, and despite their clear lack of interest in expanding it into a Windows alternative for other product types there's been no pushback in those circles.
But how does that differ from Fedora or Ubuntu, besides popularity?
That's a fair point. I suppose conceptually that's what those organizations were trying to do. So it's a failure in execution which then probably acts as a deterrent for other corporations considering stepping up to challenge MS on modular desktop PCs, which aren't that big of a market in the first place.
I guess if you were going to do that you'd pair it to rigid hardware instead for that reason and at that point you're Apple and we're talking about MacOS.
Fedora is considering switching to Plasma by default.
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Fedora-Change-KDE-Default-Prop
Many big maintainers are working hard to make the experience better for the average user. Things are getting better.
As a person that also went "screw it, I'm going back to Windows 95" for the exact same reasons in a previous millenium...
...no they aren't.
This isn't new, this has been the way this works for decades. Sure, there have been improvements, but also plenty of steps backwards. This run at it has been a noticeably worse experience than, say, being told about Ubuntu and being surprised at it having a smooth installer for the first time. Sure, gaming then was a no-go, but with PC hardware being a much narrower path then, it was so much easier to get the hardware itself running.
And yes, it was about to be the year of Linux desktop then, too.
This is something people fail to realize, and I think part of it is because Linux people tend to surround themselves with other Linux people.
I have been helping my friend get into Linux, we picked a sensible distro, fedora, with the default gnome spin. He loves the UI, great.
But there is a random problem with his microphone, everything is garbled, I can't recreate it on my hardware and it's unclear.
He reads guides and randomly inputs terminal commands, things get borked, he re installs, cycle continues.
He tries a different distro, microphone works, but world of Warcraft is funky with lutris, so no go.
The result is, all of this shit just works on windows, and it just doesn't on Linux. Progress has been made in compatibility, but, for example, there was a whole day of learning just about x vs Wayland and not actually getting to use the computer. For someone who has never opened a terminal before, something as simple to you and I as adding a package repo is completely gibberish
Yes you can learn all of this, but to quote this friend who has been trying Linux for the past two weeks "I'm just gonna re install windows and go back to living my life after work"
When you have 20 years of understanding windows, you need to be nearly 1 to 1 with that platform to get people to switch.
It's not about being 1:1. I have used Android, iOS, MacOS and a bunch of other systems. Most of those have been easy to adapt. In fact, like your friend, I prefer the GNOME look because the MacOS-ish UI feels fun and fresh after being on Windows for so long.
It's the ratio of troubleshooting versus usage and the lack of definitive resolution for things.
FWIW, I just went back to Windows, not because I found the terminal commands hard to grasp (I started working with computers in the 80s, I'm not intimidated by a command line), but because they often didn't match what tutorials said, or because something that didn't work didn't generate an error and simply did nothing, or because something just randomly stopped working for no reason and just dangled there, broken, indefinitely.
Say what you will about how haphazardly Windows is architected, but most of the time if something breaks it's a matter of either installing the right thing, uninstalling the right thing, finding the right setting or reinstalling the OS. That sense of rebuilding your bike as you ride on it that Linux still forces upon you is just so friction-heavy, and the failstate of it is so frustrating. There's a reason why a dedicated Android or ChromeOS for your hardware feels just fine but desktop Linux is untenable for 90% of users, and it's not the 1:1 parity with Windows.
Honestly, I am so tempted to ditch Linux because of minor issues like this. No autoscroll on scroll wheel, no option for mono audio, etc etc. I do not want to set up a million scripts to customise my experience, I want the options to be there by default. If MS wasn't screwing the pooch I probably would have moved back at some point.
All of those things have nothing to do with GNU/Linux and everything with the desktop environment you chose.
It doesn't matter.
If a first time user installs any random combination of distro and desktop environment and they can't get it all to work smoothly right away with zero effort they will never use any flavor of Linux ever again.
That's how much of a chance to secure a user you have for a software platform or OS. Less than one. Any amount of troubleshooting during FTUE is a user gone forever. The solution to any amount of friction is "Install Windows" or "return this laptop and go buy a Macbook Air".
None of that is unreasonable. Those are perfectly reasonable expectations and reactions to these issues.
I'm on Mint, which is one of the most-recommended distros to newbs around. Good luck persuading new users that they should change their distro every time they run into an issue like this. However you may choose to word it, these are exactly the issues that will stop widespread adoption.
Also, I'd like to know which distro actually supports autoscroll.
I highly suggest windows for both of you. If minor issues like this bother you while major issues like data collection and ad pushing dont and you dont want to participate in making linux better by submitting bug reports then linux may just not be for you.
Its very much like owning a house or a ranch. You‘re free of others and can do whatever you like. But you do have to do your own maintenance.
If you want to go back paying rent for a shoebox apartment, thats your choice.
And that's exactly why it will never be the year of the Linux desktop... you know, the claim of this entire post.
Unless Linux appeals to the lowest common denominator, like Windows, it will never become a major replacement.
Small apartments will always be the norm. You are right. :)
As I pointed out, I'm using it because MS is screwing the pooch with those issues.
These are known issues, and have been around for more than a decade. They're not bugs, they're missing basic features. But sure, go ahead and assume stuff.
It's probably closer to renting a apartment vs owning a shack (or it was, before said screwing of said pooch). You can upgrade it into a mansion if you want, but that's not where you start.
Fair enough
Then make a fork and or PR. i‘m only around two years and I make the stuff I need.
As a human does since your small text can never have full information needed to know everything. For the sake of discussing things I have to either ask and widen the scope of the discussion or I assume where it seems appropriate and you correct me if I‘m wrong. Sorry if that is new to you.
If thats your opinion I‘d like to own a „shack“ because in germany, where I live, the houses even need maintenance and repairs if you buy them.
A more classic example of linux users pushing others away, I could not have come up with.
"I have so-and-so issue"
"Fork the OS and fix it yourself!"
Yeah, no. I already spend 8 hours a day programming, I'd like my free time to be spent elsewhere, thanks.
I‘m a tech myself and I know this discussion from 100 times this has occured.
But yeah, good luck mate.
I refer you back to my original statement. I was not asking how to do something. I was grousing that basic tasks are extremely user-unfriendly to configure. I've fixed it on my computer. That's not the topic under discussion.
What proper channels? We're in a post claiming it's the YOTLD again, because OP apparently doesn't realise it's been claimed every year for the last couple decades. I'm posting about why that's not gonna happen this year either.
I could fix it. However, I have no intention of opening a PR and spending what little free time I have contributing to open source (I'll contribute money, but not my time). Kudos to those who do write and maintain open source, but that's not for me.
I think you can see how we've diverged into entirely different directions already.
I can see your point and appreciate you elaborating.
You do see that you went there, right?
Because, please don't make that recommendation to anybody else. Of all the places for somebody to start contributing to open source, linux is probably among the top in complexity. And if it's a new user, as per the original topic of this post, and they can't figure out their issue from the million guides online, you're just ensuring they make a speedy return to windows.
Sad, we were almost aligning here. Now we will just have to disagree here.
I will make this exact recommendation to everyone in every situation because the end user mentality is making us speedrun our planet to shit. People need to take responsibility for their own stuff instead of letting corporations control them. This obviously means they need to relearn that an error is not a sign of bad code/software but something that can happen. The perfectionism this world is succumbing to is a cancer that will kill us all.
But good luck anyway.
You're suggesting that every user should learn programming. All 8 billion people. How do you not see the ridiculousness of that suggestion.
The "make a fork" thing is part of the issue, I think. In general there's this culture in the open source community that if you want a feature, you should implement it yourself and not expect the maintainers to implement it for you. And that's good advice to some extent, it's great to encourage more people to volunteer and it's great to discourage entitlement.
But on the other hand, this is toxic because not everyone can contribute. Telling non-technical users to "make it yourself" is essentially telling them to fuck off. To use the house metaphor, people don't usually need to design and renovate their houses on their own, because that's not their skillset, and it's unreasonable to expect that anyone who wants a house should become an architect.
Even among technical users, there are reasons they can't contribute. Not everyone has time to contribute to FOSS, and that's especially notable for non-programmers who would have to get comfortable with writing code and contributing in the first place.
I appreciate you elaborating on this. Let me try and explain this:
Imo you’re on point with the house metaphor. People dont have the skills to redesign and repair their house.
Thats why they pay people to do it. They get a carpenter to fix their floor, a painter to fresh up the outside walls, an electrician to fix that damn outlet thats acting up. Some house owners have to forgo vacations because they need repairs done this season. They also spread out repairs and live with a broken thing in between.
And the same works for software. I dont mind fixing something in your software, as long as you pay me. Part of the problem is that companies made people believe that everything can be perfect and free. Its like Odysseus going insane by the song of the mermaids. Its a trap. Real software isnt perfect.
Next point is people cant controbute:
People can always contribute. Not everyone can code but they can press the report button and try to be concise in describing the problem, they can help translating, they can help packaging if they know their way around files and much more. The issue is that its uncomfortable to do something while we are used to getting paid for most things and also are used to get perfect proprietary software.
Again, thanks for answering and have a good one.
Yep. To me it was the lack of a working fingerprint reader.
I run Fedora Kinoite on my work laptop and this is what the system settings look like. If GNOME can't do that, then it indeed seems like a massive flaw.
It doesn't, and it can't. Also can't do any UI scaling between 100 and 200% out of the box. There are some astounding gaps in it for how long it's been around.
GNOME is bad. Abandon GNOME. If you like the UI of Windows, try KDE Plasma 6. It's much more feature rich than GNOME and very customizable too. And touchpad speed can be adjusted in the System Settings application.
I mean, it is, but part of the appeal with the stock GNOME was how streamlined and un-Windows-like it was. I tried moving to KDE but, honestly, it does feel a bit worse to use.
Not that it matters, because eventually a bunch of other more fundamental unsupported features made me switch back instead. Couldn't get the Nvidia dGPU to work and messed things up enough in the process that I'd have to start over, which is a dealbreaker. Plus it turns out that the suspend/restore functionality was completely broken and the hardware volume buttons were partially broken.
So yeah, no, I'm back to Windows now.
Large scale manufacturers pre-installing Linux? Readily available multi-language support for home users? Coherent UI regardless of computer and distro underneath. Billions on lobbying money spent on politicians for favorable policy crafting? Billions spent on marketing campaigns to actually sell the idea to the masses who simply don't care any of your points (or any technical reasons, privacy or anything else that might be top of mind of the current Linux userbase).
I'd say Linux has a good chance of capturing 5-6% of the market in the coming years if lucky (I believe we're somewhere around 4% at the moment), unless one of the big tech monopolies decides to start throwing money into it (Like Google did with Android)
THE YEAR OF LINUX IN THE DESKTOP!
It’s like Lucy and the football.
Who is Lucy?
https://peanuts.fandom.com/wiki/Football_gag
Nah, the average "just werks" user won't leave Windows even if it took money out of its credit card.
Unless Linux is the default, it will never become significant in the mainstream. It is however thanks to improvements like these that OEMs can consider selling it pre-installed
Also I would to remind some here that the reason Linux can exist on the desktop today is because it is a very good way for Microsoft to get less antitrust fines. Otherwise the bootloaders would all be locked and there would be one or two devices that are unlocked.
This is also my main concern about the Qualcomm elite x: everybody is saying "hurray it will support Linux" but the actual cpu support was never really the issue. It's the boot process and device trees that is problematic and I don't see this being talked about enough. If it does not adhere to a standard device detection process like with Acpi via Arm System Ready we are cooked for arm laptops.
I don't really understand the argument of "people will use what ships." I don't think Linux is great at the out of box experience unless you count something more locked down. They great part about Linux is that it gives you a lot of control. These days you don't need to know all the details of how to use that control but I think Linux will become much more popular in the semi tech savvy type crowd. It is already wildly popular in tech.
Because that's just how things are. Why do you think Google pays billions yearly to be the default search engine wherever they can?
For the same reasons people don't change their engines in their cars unless it's needed. For the same reason people don't install custom ROMs anymore. For the same reasons most people buy consoles instead of making their own computers.
Any source regarding "VR being usable" on linux? The current development seems pretty stale and it doesn't seem like that's gonna change anytime soon, especially if you own any Oculus headsets that predates the quest. I do hope the rumors of valve making the deckard are true, but those are just rumors and should be taken with a grain of salt.
I mean... it just works? Since the Index is out it's just been working basically. Not sure what else would be needed. Sure being able to use Quest headsets would be nice but unless Meta decides to open up, I don't think it would happen. IMHO that's a vendor problem, not the OS lacking support, sadly.
It's definitely a vendor problem rather than an os problem. But it's still a problem that the biggest manufacturer in the VR space has no support for Linux, hence i find it a bit farfetched to say VR is usable on Linux when the most popular hardware is not being supported by it's vendor.
Though there are community efforts like Monado that looks pretty promising!
I should clarify, the Quest does work on Linux for streaming if you use ALVR, one just has to tinker a bit. Apologies forgot about that solution.
I mean if the vendor specifically decides NOT to support Linux AND there are viable alternative that do, e.g Valve Index, that run IMHO some of the best content, i.e Half-life:Alyx, then IMHO popularity is indeed important but it does show it's not an OS problem.
FWIW I did build and run Monado, even presented at FOSSXR on WebXR, so I'm relatively confident I understand the status of XR support. Here the problem is not a lack of capability of the OS is my point, it's "only" a business decision from one single vendor that yes is popular on low-end hardware.
Wait, if Steam VR works on Linux for Index are Quest HMDs not usable through Steam Link? Or does that still need the Oculus software installed? I'm not actually sure.
AFAIK it's Windows only https://www.meta.com/en-gb/help/quest/articles/headsets-and-accessories/oculus-link/requirements-quest-link/ so some things work, e.g adb so you can install APKs or use scrcpy but you can't rendering on desktop via e.g SteamVR and use the Quest officially.
Quest Link yes, I was referring to the alternative Steam Link app that is available on Quest. That's maintained by Valve (and honestly works better than the wireless version of Quest Link, IMO). I was wondering if that works as an alternative, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are still dependencies for controller inputs and head tracking that need Oculus software installed to work on the server side.
Ah yes forgot about that despite actually using it! AFAIK it can support SteamVR because my goal while tinkering with it was testing SteamVR on the Apple Vision Pro via ALVR (Air Light VR). So yes it can be done, I even made ALVR work on the SteamDeck more than a year ago, just to tinker.
Anyway back to Steam Link does work on Linux, sadly streaming VR does not work on Linux, at least today when I tried and despite having SteamVR installed. Maybe some tinkering is required.
I use VR with my Index almost every week on Linux. Filled to the brim with minor issues but definitely useable.
Still looking forward to a Deckard announcement, the Index is starting to show its age.
SteamVR 2.0 dropped a bit ago, though it didn't do much for Linux users...
But it does point to something still happening with VR over at Valve.
I wonder if atomic desktops would change manufacturers' mind. We have to admit LTSes like from Ubuntu failed to make pre-installed Linux popular.
Silverblue contains too much cutting-edge software to be pre-installed as of now, but if Red Hat decides to provide a mechanism for manufacturers to better stabilize Silverblue I'd take it seriously. Automatic updates with cleanly split customization mechanisms, and the source is available. If the PC is just supposed to do web browsing with couple peripherals like a fucking printer (don't ask me why), it might be preferable over Windows. And my relatives can't configure Windows on their own anyway.
At the same time I don't know why Chromebook isn't more popular cus it's probably good enough for 90% of use cases. (The rest is basically elderly people who want 10GB photos in their 2TB SSDs, only to lose them "accidentally". Maybe Chromebook can do that, too, but I just can't recommend it due to corner cases I'm not aware of. I mean, I don't want to test Chromebooks for my relatives.)
I think it's going to take a Microsoft catastrophe, something that disables machines for at least a few days. I'm thinking maybe a buggy windows update.
Or a forced update to windows 11 on machine that doesn't support it. That would break the windows install for good. Either they will find a way to install windows again or take it to somebody who installs windows on it again. Maybe maybe they'll find out about Linux.
Anti Commercial-AI license
Meanwhile total recall happening with AI+Copilot
So what happened with Bing a few hours ago but for end-users...
You guys know that MS rolls out updates through a system of multi-layered opt-in channels and deploy to the wider channels in chunks over longer periods of time, right?
They may not be the most competent or scrupulous megacorp, but they do hire actual software engineers and stuff.
Because here are many people who did a switch to linux. How did you handle using a cad software like solidworks or fusion360 after switching to linux?
Same thing for any other software, see if you can get it running in wine, and see what the alternatives are and try them out until you find a solution you like. You need to accept there may be change, and may need to experiment and hit up Google to find solutions, but solutions do exist.
From a quick Google search, i found about 4/5 potential open source options
FreeCAD would probably be what I try first, but it's hardly the only option and seen some people complain that it feels archaic (but it's FOSS). I've also seen draftsight recommended a few times, and it has a free trial but is not free.
Also apparently fusion360 has a web interface that may be usable.
freecad is horrible, not really worth trying.
I've heard of people getting fusion 360 running great with a snap, but others say it has issues. the github for it is being actively maintained, so thats a good sign at least.
I tried to get siemens solid edge working through wine, but it was mostly broken and I didn't dig too deep into troubleshooting, I just dualboot windows for fussy programs and anticheats
God I really hope that'll be true.
The one thing that would drive my parents over the edge is ads in Windows. They already use Firefox and Libreoffice.
Given the nature of fediverse, this specific category of people might indeed throw away Windows for their private machines.
Been seriously thinking of switching to linux for my desktop. I mostly use it for games. Today I was looking at mods for Mass Effect, and the mod manager says in all caps
- LINUX IS NOT SUPPORTED:(There's probably going to be a lot of that sort of annoyance for years.
You might still try using Proton or Lutris to run it. It may be a pain to get working, but hopefully someone out there has a guide for the mod manager you're using.
Nah. What hes saying its that they are not supported natively. The game is Gold on protondb, so its playable on Linux. Just use Wine to run your mods. Simple
lol
As a new Linux, the hardest time that i have had with it, has been with my hard discs, and having software recognize them or save data on them. Its been a mess to find them on different file explorers and file pickers. I know that longtime users will explain the logic to it, but it is not intuitive. Also understanding root drive, root access and root user. Still not 100% sure i understand it. Things need to get simpler and more self explanatory for Linux to replace windows.
I’m a Linux dinosaur user since mid 00’s and I confirm that despite huge efforts to make it as seamless as possible, it still sucks today. The problem is that you even have different file pickers (that’s what xdg-desktop-portal tries to mitigate but some applications will do it the traditional way by including toolkit library and filepicker from it, or they will even implement their own), there’s a great freedom to how drives can be mounted and multiple systems to manage drive mounts. It’s managed by gvfs or kio or something else, the behavior is a little differently every time. There are attempts to handle all automatic mounts in /run/media and while most distros conform to that, some won’t.
What I would recommend is to
Good tips thank you!
The major difference for me was that drives are shown in the mnt folder
This is not intuitive but like much other, makes sense once you know it
This isn’t intuitive because you can mount anything (mostly) anywhere you want under any path. The whole Linux ecosystem never decided one standard path or mounting method. If you want a disk to be mounted under
/home/$USER/Gameswhere/homeis also mountpoint to something else, you are free to do so. Desktops automate it and expose UI controls, yet again some apps are from GNOME world, some other from KDE or else and they have different UX and way to expose mounted storage. And I agree it’s not ideal, especially for newcomers.Oh, and two more random tips:
df,lsblkormountcan help checking out state of mounted filesystemsNice thank you!
Not on the MS side for sure, they've always made sure they don't follow their own spec so they can more easily vendor-lock. Typical EEE from the company that coined it.
That, per se, no, both XP and 7 kept existing for years, but 11 around the corner with ads and recall... that may steer some people away. Edit: as will inflated minimum system requirements at every release.
Those are OS-agnostic and a way to keep using MS apps. Office is one of the hardest to let go (because of aforementioned reasons), especially in a corporate environment - which, most likely, is the bulk of MS customers in terms of revenue.
Until they change something. EEE, remember?
Like. I can't even rub Wayland on my 4090. Its a black screen. This happens with manjaro kde. With mint I can at least see my (frozen, unresponsive, unusable) desktop.
This all sounds cool and stuff but I kind of wish people would, like, shut the fuck up about Wayland? My understanding is that NY experience.is far from unique. People that own PCs have nvidia cards. Unless "the year of the Linux desktop" involves everyone vaporating anmd cards that magically have cuda cores somehow out of their asses then nothing about Wayland really matters to us.
You can "get an and" card to me all you want, but here's the thing: I don't fucking want one. I use my cuda cores. Its why I spent as much as I did on a 4090.
I guess 555 is supposed to make Wayland work with nvidia?
I mean, look. Using an nvidia card with Linux, and getting the requisite drivers working, can be am experience akin to having your has deferens ripped out by an aging badger. I get it. But until I can nvidia while I Wayland I just don't care. And I'm not alone.
these days I keep hearing people say that nv wayland it fine every time amd vs nv for linux comes up. Is manjaro more behind arch repos than I thought? or does it also not work on arch and other distros are doing something different?
It's fine with the beta driver, so still not fine by default.
As much as I love Manjaro, same issue here. Wayland just blackscreens on an Nvidia card, and that's a 1060, mind you, not something bleeding edge.
Most people don't care. And that says someone who replaced his Windows XP when Vista was the newest shit on the market (I also had a Vista laptop back then). With every Windows version people argued and posted about The Year of Linux Desktop. If you are talking about number of users, then Linux on Desktop will not dethrone Windows in 2024. Most people don't care or the switch is painful in many ways. Don't get your hopes too high. My following argumentation is critical, but I am a Linux fanboy. Have that in mind.
What exactly do you mean by that? KDE and Gnome reached usability long time ago. However thanks to Wayland the stability got a huge hit, plus KDE was always a bit wonky in regard that. But otherwise these are great desktops with good usability for a long time now. Way better than what Apple or Windows has to offer.
This has never mattered. Most people just switch or buy next Windows version.
This is not new in 2024, or did something happen here?
Better than what? Than the previous version? This is always the case and people don't switch from Windows to Linux because of that. After all, the application is available on Windows too.
Will be remain to be seen if this is true. If there is one thing I learned is, don't trust estimation when software will be finished.
This has no impact on Proton, but Wine as far as I understand. Proton already has an alternative that is similar to NTSync. So from performance standpoint, it has no impact on Steam games.
Or keep on using Windows 10 and are happy not to be annoyed by updates any more.
Linux is about on-par with windows xp/7 as it stands, and it has been for a while. The reason people haven't switched is OEM and software support.
Full of optimism. But why those points that relate not in the slightest to the layman? Also sources for half of your points?
I think if I could get xbox game pass running on Linux, I'd be there
Same, Persona 3 Reload costs the equivalent of 10 months of gamepass in Brazil, it's really important for full priced games.
Office and Adobe Web native apps? What sources do you have?
Adobe Web Apps
Office 365
But there's also the Google Office Suite as another online office suite in addition to Office 365
You know that's not what "native" means, right?Nevermind, me moron can not read.Web native.
I missed that, my bad.
people can't handle installing windows, they won't try anything else en masse either
They might just stop using computers
That is indeed more likely than them switching to Linux.
Us computer nerds don't understand that because we live our lives surrounded by computers, but there are plenty of households that don't even have a computer, let alone one they want to switch to a niche OS.
Yes smartphones and tablets have replaced desktops for most general users.
Back to the 80s/early 90s where the only people using computers were the ones that actually knew how to use computers? Hell yes, take me back.
They can't handle the Linux!
Yeah, no, I'm sure it's about to go from less than 10% market share to over 50% in one year. 🙃
I've noticed a LOT of pushback against the ads in MS shit. Microsoft has become greedy (well what am I saying, they've always been, kist really effin more greedy now) and somehow seems to invest even less in development. All Microsoft apps I see today are just painfully painfully bad. Again, not that they've ever been particularly good at anything besides keyboards, but lately it's been comically worse.
I've seen Linux desktop grow significantly now, and I really do see it happen that Linux crosses that threshold where there is just no more stopping it
You are missing the "GNU slash",
GNU/Linux dethrones Windows
BusyBox/Linux dethrones ur dad
Why? There a non gnu linux distros
It’s called “Android”.
Well that is one yes. There are more than just one
Let me interject for a moment ...
Was there any recent relevant developments in this area?
Skimming though the LibreOffice 24.2 release notes, this was the first thing I've encountered:
And in 24.8:
As it is nice opening a document and having the line breaks and figures at the intended places, it can be concluded that there is noticeably development going on for compatibility between LO Writer and MS Word.
Not even one of those points will accelerate Linux adoption to being with a decade of the snowballing level at which point it could Dethrone Windows.
You been drinking some absinthe or smoking the ganja-weed?
Or just straight up snorting Flakka
Tl;Dr "I want my~ I want my~ I want my NixOS~". Yes, I am that old. Shut up.
I love the enthusiasm... but I must disagree :( unfortunately, much to my sheegrin bacuse I want to spite Linux commenter on this sub so badly because they are a bunch of brogrammers, but for me the year of the Linux desktop has to happen at the hands of device manufacturers. "Monopoly-by-default" is real, always has been, and never ever really left. Don't take your eyes off Microsoft or Apple for one second - the bastards - because when you do, you fall into the vendor lock-in trap.
I personally think the EU should publish a bespoke bootloader with a gallery of operating systems that can be fetched using PXE, with image signing and checking of course, sort of like the "browser choice" alternative for OS's. It doesn't need to be the main bootloader, but it has to be available - and most likely GRUB2... because GRUB2 is everywhere. It's what boots MacOS on M* machines. It's the one boot loader to rule them all. What I'm saying is we're in the year of GRUB2.
Anyways, outside my ideal there's really nothing that will bring the "year of the Linux desktop" popularity wise, besides a large vendor relying on the actual Linux desktop stack - which is possible, but there's probably a reason why Samsung bet on Enlightenment, and it's not because it's creator is so enlightened. MIT spelt in South Korean translates to MINE.
One thing 2024 has also stood for is cleaning house. GNOME was caught breaking their own strict rules, KDE keeps ironing out the ancient from the Plasma desktop paradigm, though now KWin has better Wayland support than Mutter for some reason, even though one has had Wayland support for years (a real tortoise and the hare situation this), and people are obsessed with a display server that nobody develops for anymore. (XWayland is XWayland, not X11). So finally we're in the year of Wayland. Good bye, screen tearing. Hello breaking with protocol and causing screen corruption. Oy vey.
In regards to developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, and developers, then I look at the Rust stack, I look at the Zed stack, even the C# stack, or even a certain GUI framework with its own IDE built entirely using its own Emscripten SDK (can't remember the name for the life of me). Here I see some new ways of doing the same thing and creating cross-platform solutions from the get-go, that might bring in new products and services on the Linux side.
But we already have access to more private and public services in software form on Linux than ever before before, so maybe the year of the Linux desktop passed us by but as a lackluster metric and Linux as a desktop (or LaaD as I'd like to call it, because I'm a moron) really won't be popularized until one of the major vendor completely screws the Pooch, and then someone brings a solution based on the Linux stack. Come on, Copilot+ and System76...
Also, NixOS is finally trying to fix it's issues, which is great, because Nix could realistically be a reproducible stack across systems, which can be tested by spitting out a single flake file. I see it as an addition to Flatpaks, Snaps and even AppImages. I want to petition Ableton to bring Live Linux, because I know in my heart of hearts that they've hired people with NixOS experience and that the Push 3 standalone needs some form of OS. But NixOS is a perfect example of why people are asking what happened to the year of the CoC's? Maybe we can do a reboot.
So in conclusion, I'm over here waiting for the year of NixOS, which will be a lackluster event where nobody is happy with, most likely celebrated by another institutional figure having to walk it off. See you in 10-15 years.
Yeah nah.
I don't know how many time it should be said.
If you want to go Linux, DO NOT GO FOR UBUNTU
It was a solid choice 10 years ago, but now it's a piece of headache.
Go Manjaro/EndeavourOS if you need ease of use and relatively bleeding-edge experience. Check Fedora if you want peace of mind. Check Mint once your tools appear in latest mainstream Ubuntu. Do not go for actual Ubuntu.
Using anything aside from Ubuntu is certified headaches when programming. Debian is the least volitile alternative.
If even 24.04 has missing packages when installing stuff compared to 22.04I can't imagine how bad it would get on an Arch derivative.
Found the Windows poser.
So, I checked how my fav game is doing on proton, and it's Linux as usual. Mostly fine with recent efforts. Someone patched proton to resolve many remaining issues, but some people still experience issues.
As a tech geek who fucks around with my set up, I'm usually going to be an idiot belonging to that category of some people who face problems.
And if I use Windows the game dev will do the work. Sad reality.
For me, it's the Windows AMD application for using FSR and other stuff of my graphics card. I'm not willing to give up to 20 FPS on a lower end card.
NETCRAFT CONFIRMS IT
Good meme, my friend 🤣
Anti Commercial-AI license
I used your comment to trail an AI
Sue me
Imposter
I noticed a few users starting to do this and it annoys me to no end. You don't need to put a link in every comment
Not to mention anything posted on the internet is effectively public domain
That's fair. I feel like that would be a more valid criticism.
Well, no.
STOP
KDE and Gnome haven't been stable or usable for the past 20 years, but will become so this year for some reason?
I'd argue that it really doesn't matter. Linux has taken over everything else. And the more MS fucks up, the more likely people will look for alternatives. I do believe many will go to Mac, but Linux is clearly picking up some of the slack as well. Microsoft wouldn't be the first tech company to take a tumble. Never say never.
Also web-native apps are a web 2.0 mistake, and lead to the abandonment of many portable GUI frameworks in favor of the "what if your pops didn't had to install Word Processor, and instead just had to type wordprocessor.com into his browser" idea of some techbro. Do you know why your ÜBERGAMERMOUSE Ultrautility is 250+MB? Because they're all Electron apps!
I was trying to read your post but I'm distracted by the algorithmic theft you used for the image. Learn to draw or don't post