this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
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There's never been a bad year for the Linux desktop. The share size doesn't matter. So, yes, it is the year of the Linux desktop in my book and it has been that way for decades.
Gotta disagree with you there. Market adoption should be a primary concern of those who care about the Linux ecosystem.
Steam deck BAYBEE. None of the other pocket computers have my attention now if they arent built for Valves version of Linux
The more it's adopted the more it will turn into windows.
No it won't. The beauty of Linux is that it can transform completely to fit your needs.
Making Linux more noob friendly isn't going to take away my custom terminal-centric tiling wm arch install.
More users = more developers = more options. Linux is already awesome, but growing will only bring more good.
Growing will also bring an increased attack surface and justification for writing malware for Linux due to market adoption.
It's not all good, there is going to be an increased security vulnerability along with it.
And so will there be more people to look into and fix the vulnerabilities, specially if we can foster a bigger community of open source developers by being a healthier community overall.
That is less likely though. Nerds who like developing FOSS for hobbyist and ideological needs are already doing so and more users will likely only increase normal users into linux, not developers usually
This is exactly the “popular => bad” mentality that needs to die. Good products are good—and perhaps more importantly, bad products are bad—irrespective of their popularity. Linux is a masterpiece as a result of millions of hours of thoughtful and rigorous engineering, not the absence of its wide adoption on desktop. Windows is a dumpster fire as a result of millions of hours of reckless code vomit, not its ubiquity on desktop. See also: the Android operating system you know and (if I had to guess) love.
I use windows and it runs prefectly fine for me so I never said it would get bad... just become more like windows.
Like Windows, how? An operating system has dozens of properties that could be "like Windows", please specify.
Windows used to be alright/tolerable like 3 operating systems ago, each new version takes features away and brings new bugs that are more and more annoying in their attempt to get a slice of Apple's closed garden pie. Their auto sign in feature has caused me SO MANY headaches when trying to sign in with a different user
There will certainly be versions of Linux that will become more like Windows. I mean we're seeing it already with Ubuntu. Android has been that way for years. But there will also always be community-made FOSS alternatives. And Ubuntu development will continue to trickle down to other OSs.
It already is. It's becoming increasingly GUI-centric and technologies like Flatpak are blurring the differences between distros. (FWIW I think this is a good thing)
Agreed. It's just the joke, as always.
Market share will matter just for more support from manufacturers, software, and devices
Nah, an OS is only useful if its commonly used. Linux has never been useful for this reason.
Linux runs people's cars, phones, routers, sometimes even fridges. And don't even get me started on servers. Linux is the most useful OS on the planet. The desktop is just another thing for it to conquer.
You're wrong though. Linux kernel might be running on all of these things, but Linux desktop OSes do not because they're shit.
And why are they so shit in your opinion?
Lack of standards, compatibility and totalitarian control of a single person. Pretty much everything that's important for a Linux kernel is lacking in userland.
We have standards like pipewire, xdg portals and wayland in active development that try to cover anything a desktop OS might need. Lately there has been a huge push towards them, as the standards they replaced weren't future proof at all.
But I take it that you are more concerned about fragmentation of these standards. I can almost guarantee that a lot if it will just whither away with time. Noone wants to maintain ancient protocols like X11 anymore. We might have another turbulent few years in this transition, but the end result will be worth it.
And I don't get what you mean with compatibility exactly. There are lots of ways to define that, and the Linux desktop is excellent in many of them. We have xwayland for legacy applications, loads of translation layers to bring together older graphics APIs under the main vulkan drivers, WINE to run windows software, etc. You're gonna have to be more specific there.
Yeah, some things are getting standardized, that's great. But many are not even on a roadmap. People still argue which init system is the best, lol. And don't get me started on package managers...
As for compatibility, even if we forget about the apps, let's just focus on some modern features. Multi monitor DPI settings work in some distros, but don't work in others. HDR works in some, but not the others. DRM, proprietary tech, etc. Why the fuck things just don't work everywhere?
Yeah people are gonna argue about everything, and the only way you can get them to stop is to take the choice away from them. Doesn't sound like it fits into the principles of open source software, right?
Multionitor scaling and HDR are luxuries. Some distros are working to fix them, others aren't. The good thing is though that once the code is upstream, everyone benefits from it. Even small distros that choose to run Gnome or KDE can just change a few config files to enable all the fancy things these projects provide.
Of course that doesn't mean smaller distros are necessarily going to do that, they have the right to be different.
And this brings up back to the initial point: Linux kernel is good, Linux distros are shit.
I don't get how you go from "Desktop distros aren't mature enough to have every feature under the sun" to "Linux distros are shit"
Who is this single person controlling all the desktop environments and window managers? Oo
No one yet. That's the issue.
Imagine being this passionate about being wrong.
Yeah, tell us more about it.
Stupid take.
Linux has some of the best device compatability because it's baked into the kernel. Don't need to download a driver in most cases, just update the kernel.
Plus it's known to be a great os for a developer. Also the apt repositories or other repos make installing an app on windows store look like a toddlers first steps in comparison.
Oh and if you use an android phone then you're using a Linux kernel.
I've been tinkering with it since the late 90s and running it as my daily driver both at home and at work for nearly 20 years now. It's extremely useful.
It is only rivaled in its uselessness by templeOS. The only useful distro is tails which is good for drugs.
Your knowledge is as unique as it is correct.