Is 2023 the Year of the Linux Desktop?
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It's here already.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Will it replace Windows? Not anytime soon.
Does it matter? Not that much. Windows is not a defacto mandate any longer. We're no longer locked into using Internet Explorer or ActiveX or any such monstrosity.
Why aren't more people use Linux then? Don't know, don't care. As long as I don't have to use Windows, then I'm fine.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree. 2006 was "the year of the Linux desktop" for me. The fact that it's taking everyone else a little longer to get here doesn't bother me.
My year of Linux Desktop was 1995 .. (Score:2)
I tried switching to Windows 95 but hardware was not working...
It worked with Red Hat for me though so I switched and stayed since then...
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Everyone is using Linux though. It's on everything, cars, ovens, phones, practically all servers.
It's just end user desktops for non-IT and non-mac people that are holding out on Windows.
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Re: It's here already.. (Score:2)
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dont forget to count android tablets and tvs
You NEED to forget the android tablets. Why? Because the question was "Is 2023 the Year of the Linux Desktop?" Desktop, period.
So forget tablets.
Phones don't count either.
Chromebooks and laptops (DTRs - Desktop Replacements) also are excluded.
Neither does your microwave or your stove or your IoT devices.
Desktop: because the question, as stated at the top of the page, is "Is 2023 the Year of the Linux Desktop?"
I'll give you Smart TVs running Linux or tizen (a Linux variant from Samsung) because
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It's just end user desktops for non-IT and non-mac people
Even there its sorely behind. I work in an IT department with about 35 staff members. Of those about 5-6 or so are the aforementioned "Mac people". Two of us have a Linux desktop (at home - at work Linux is on servers only).
The rest, even for the IT people, are Windows desktops at home. Yes, everyone uses "Linux" by means of it being embedded in a ton of devices, but that doesn't help much as the whole "get Linux on the desktop" push was usually to broaden the availability of software (otherwise - who c
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Same with compatibility with hardware. For example, some of the newest and best webcams don't have full feature support under Linux. And printer fe
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Yes, particularly as virtually all other "alternatives" to Linux have kinda died. I mean technically VMS and OS/2 still exist, but they get very little use on the desktop. Normal Windows died with Windows ME. Windows NT on the desktop was kinda abandoned at Version 2000, more than 2 decades ago as there never was a Version 2003 or later.
Apple Inc (not to be confused with Apple Computers) has it's MacOSX, but that's a rather niche product.
So essentially Linux is kinda the only mainstream desktop operating sy
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Normal windows is dead?
PS: If your argument is based around defining a word to your liking, you don't have an actual argument.
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Considering "normal Windows" was DOS with a good-enough memory manager and nearly good-enough GUI, it's been dead a very long time, and for good reason.
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A Chromebook is as much a Linux desktop as Android is a Linux phone, which is to say not at all. MacOS and iOS are actually UNIX, with nice interfaces, but ChromeOS and Android? The Linux underpinnings are circumstantial more than they are a technological need, and anything the user touches, doesn't actually need to or directly interact with the Linux underpinnings. They could just as well be running windows underneath... Which actually does happen in development.
They are not an Operating System as much as
Re: It's here already.. (Score:2)
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Ever the optimist, eh? But it was another poorly worded poll. Still can't see how you stretched to claim "year of" status. Maybe "decades" of something, but the poll asked for "year of Linux", and I can't pretend to think so. (And I've been using Ubuntu for many years now, and also dabbled with a few other distros at times.)
But you mentioned "stuff like Chromebook" and I have to call BS on that one. (Sorry for the use of the fundamentally rude idiom, but I can't think of a softer way to word my emotional re
Re: It's here already.. (Score:2)
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Yeah, but I have doubts that computers belong anywhere in primary education. We didn't evolve that way and there are limits to how much society should be trying to reroute the mental wiring we evolved with... But I should have been more clear that I am NOT one of them thar' optimists. (Plus there was the typo with the extra question mark.)
My current view of the big educational problem is related to over-engineering because of the bootstrap problems. Language is an easy example to start with. Our brains are
Steamdeck Plasma, need apps Re: It's here already. (Score:1)
When adobe creative suite, and fortnite, and solidworks, semens, and autodesk all have their products working with KDE, I'll be able to use it.
there are a few more apps that are needed, but wine can do them enough.
KDE 5 just had the worst bugs fixed, the ones that made the basic panels not work of screen resolution was changed, but they still need a quick way to change all accounts to sane defaults for new users. changing settings for each login, and having those get broken for everyone is a nightmare.
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TBH, Linux is a pain on the desktop. There are a gazillion different configurations making it complex to get help and the stability is only so-so.
I've been running all of my computers with Linux for the past 17 years. I get why my wife or my parents wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. It's for hobbyists.
Re: It's here already.. (Score:2)
Linux replaced Windows in some narrow cases, such as Chromebooks in schools. But the bar is too high for Linux to ever have the market domination that Windowsnonce enjoyed at its peak. Expect to see the market split many ways in the future as we move to there being no single vendor holding greater than 50% market share.
Year of the linux desktop not as relevant anymore (Score:1)
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Why is it unfortunate? linux is everywhere...
Mu (Score:2)
See subject
2022 was Year of the Steam Deck (Score:2)
And it's only growing. Linux for gaming is right here, right now. So doubles as a cheap pc, just dock a keyboard, mouse and monitor.
The future is bright.
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Not sure what "stable" means in this context, but SteamOS on the desktop has been available for a while now
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstore.steampowered.com... [steampowered.com]
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Wow, that site is confusing. They say that the download isn't compatible with the Steam Deck, but the download link now goes to the actual Steam Deck recovery image.
The OS wars are over (Score:5, Insightful)
For the most part the OS just doesn't matter anymore. 95% of everything most everyone does can be accomplished through the web browser. Google identified this years ago and said "screw it, we'll just make an OS that is ONLY a browser and people will love it!"
Further, when the consumer OS does matter, it's usually mobile OS, not the desktop. In which case Linux is either the dominant OS or completely absent (depending on whether or not you consider Android to be Linux).
But for the rare person that actually DOES have a good reason to care what OS they are working in, Windows is still likely where it is at.
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I'm hoping the pendulum will move back the other way at some point.
SaaS and "cloud" reminds me of mainframe computing before the "personal computer revolution" in the 80s.
I don't know if the average consumer is ever going to see the appeal of local computing / data again, but things in tech do seem to follow trends as businesses rush to deliver on something "hot" until it starts to cool down and the next hot thing comes around.
A lot of these trends are solutions to real problems but they suffer from the "al
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5+ years away? (Score:2)
It would have been better to make that "10-15 years away". The reality is "the year of desktop Linux" is a lot like practical fusion energy - always just around the corner, and staying there no matter how long you wait.
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KDE/Plasma allows for full tweaking of the GUI from within the GUI. Even downloading and applying new themes, additional widgets, window manager behaviors, etc. can be done by anyone from right within the GUI.
Want simpler? Sure, how about Cinnamon or GNOME?
Besides: what I've noticed is that Windows and MacOS tend to be the ones doing the copying, and badly at that.
The desktop itself is dead (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The desktop itself is dead (Score:5, Insightful)
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I swapped out my laptop for a desktop this year. Unless you count the two Raspberry Pi's I unplugged in December as Desktop machines (in which case, they're already Linux.) I have a tablet for portable use. My wife only has a laptop; her Desktop got hauled off to recycling in December.
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I'd imagine that the typical household now has 2 or 3 smartphones that are carried by someone all the time no matter where they are.
In terms of user engagement, desktop computers can't compete with that anymore.
what's a desktop? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
10 years after fusion (Score:2)
The year of the Linux desktop will be about 10 years after we have commercial fusion
Already or Never ... (Score:2)
Linux is already the OS for the majority of users ... as Desktop PC's become less relevant ..or Never as the Desktop withers away and is replaced by portable devices, which run Linux ...
No "it happened many years ago" option? (Score:2)
Since 2007 for me, at least (Score:2)
2022 (Score:2)
2030, when phones are #1 & laptops are #2 (Score:3)
We're in middle of a transition from laptops to phones as the primary computing paradigm, at least with respect to your average user (not techies like at Slashdot, we're the long tail!). As this happens, netbooks and tablets are gaining in popularity. I know technical folks who have stopped traveling with their laptops, instead favoring their tablets.
By 2030, the majority of computer users world-wide (and a super-majority of users in developing nations) will almost exclusively use their phones for computing. At that point, the laptop/netbook/tablet becomes the accessory and its OS doesn't really matter. You want something that's compatible, so that'll mean iOS for iPad and ChromeOS or some Android derivative for nearly everything else. Looking at traditional ("legacy") desktop OSes, Windows will be a much smaller player, dwarfed by OS X. The future of Linux desktop OSes depends on how thorough ChromeOS and Android dominate, but I'd expect their sum will rival that of OS X.
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netbooks
2010 called. They said to come back.
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I know technical folks who have stopped traveling with their laptops, instead favoring their tablets.
"Tablet" is a broad term. Is this an ARM device? Surface Pro with Intel/Windows? iPad? In my experience, the ones who choose tablets are the ones for whom "work" is largely just talking (i.e. c-suite, salesdroids, certain marketing people, etc.). If they actually need to work while travelling and they've got a tablet with a detachable keyboard, that's just a laptop with extra steps.
By 2030, the majority of computer users world-wide (and a super-majority of users in developing nations) will almost exclusively use their phones for computing.
Again, depends what you mean by "computing". If you mean browsing websites, shitposting on facebook, reading and occasionally w
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"Tablet" is a broad term. ... If they actually need to work while travelling and they've got a tablet with a detachable keyboard, that's just a laptop with extra steps.
I draw the line between "tablet" and "laptop" by the operating system: mobile OS (Android/iOS) or desktop OS (Windows/MacOS/Linux). Yes, slap a keyboard on a phone or tablet and it's practically a laptop, but this "Is 2023 the Year of the Linux Desktop" discussion is about desktop operating systems.
For the vast, vast majority of people, OS has never mattered, beyond "does it do what I need and run the software I want?".
That's exactly what I meant! Ask Windows users why they haven't switched to Mac OS or Linux and they nearly always answer with hardware/software compatibility (or else inertia, which will swing with this paradigm
Missing Option (Score:2)
When WSL displaces Windows Kernel (Score:4, Funny)
The year of the Linux Desktop will be when Microsoft decides that Windows Subsystem for Linux is better than their own kernel, and Windows turns into Microsoft's brand of WINE.
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To be fair, they did abandon their web rendering engine already. No added value copying others that did the job well enough.
What's the point of developing a kernel? Is there anything in the Win kernel that Linux cannot do?
Never. Because Linux is too Fragmented (Score:4, Insightful)
The Linux community is too fragmented to agree on core features, kernel updates and hardware support.
How the hell will Linux gain traction with the average user if their hardware doesn't work out of the box, their desktop apps don't work, they can't game properly.
Other people have commented that ChromeOS, Android, iOS and other embedded systems are all Linux based-which is true. But, the user never touches "linux" and all the devices it connects to are usually spec for the device, and basic peripherals work as intended - except printers, because printers just don't work for anyone.
If Linux wants to adopt a consumer desktop market distros need to make it as easy as Windows to install and use, and then probably give us something we can't get from Windows already.
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The Linux community is too fragmented to agree on core features, kernel updates and hardware support.
Each distribution is different, yes, that is not bad, but people need to investigate before they install a distribution meant for servers on a desktop, for example.
How the hell will Linux gain traction with the average user if their hardware doesn't work out of the box, their desktop apps don't work, they can't game properly.
Regarding the hardware: that's not because of Linux, the Linux kernel devs are working their asses off to make sure that as much as possible hardware works with Linux. Without exception, it's the hardware manufacturers that are the problem. No documentation provided to the kernel devs, no drivers provided for Linux by the hardware manufacturers,
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Microsoft controls the OEMs (Score:2)
Microsoft implements various tactics to make it attractive to OEMs to only provide Windows, so most of them do. Add that Mr. Average thinks Windows equates computers, and you've got a big problem.
The problem gets even worse: most software for *desktops* is built with Windows in mind, why? Because the largest market is Windows. This means that if somebody wants to run some desktop software, it's probably not available for other operating systems, forcing the user to use *drumroll* Windows.
The only solution I
Re: Microsoft controls the OEMs (Score:1)
Re: Microsoft controls the OEMs (Score:2)
Over-simplified question (Score:2)
It's already here. (Score:1)
5+ years away (Score:1)
The Singularity Event Will Occur... (Score:2)
...when Windows users choose to pay a subscription for virtual desktop computing services. Linux OS's, by default, will be the only available OS for desktop PCs.
It is always the Year of the Linus Desktop! (Score:2)
Realistically, most people pass on the best and go with something else.
Chromebooks are the easiest Linus Desktop. Do they work offline yet? When people use Windows at work, who wants the bother of something different at home. The same goes of MacOS.
It's a small number of people who use Linux when they use something else at work. Even though gives a better value, greater control of configuration, and "status" among geeks (but how many people are in the IT Geek C
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It almost never âoejust worksâ (Score:1)
Re: It almost never âoejust worksâ (Score:1)
Extra option. (Score:2)
Where's the "It was back in 1992" option? That would have been my pick.
I'm happy with the sweet spot... (Score:1)
2023 is the year OS/2 wins (Score:2)
It will happen.
Not yet for prime-time. (Score:1)
I've been using Linux since 1995 and as my primary OS since 2004. While Linux has come a long way, it is not ready to replace Windows or or OSX yet and probably not for quite a while.
My showstopper bugs on Linux desktop (Score:2)
1. Half the time the thing won't unsuspend. It gets stuck loading the nVidia drivers. This is the worst issue; it has gone on for 5+ years on multiple distros. It is not fixed in the current driver nor the current systemd nor the 6.1 kernel.
2. Gnome has some strange focus issues. It allows focus coloring in non-focused text boxes. Making a new folder from a save dialog is wonky.
3. I have to boot into Windows to play XCOM2.
Never (Score:1)
I use Linux as my desktop for over 20 years already and with this insight I say it will NEVER reach the mainstream desktop. For a lot of reasons, from lack of application and hardware support to bugginess.
In theory, a company can add the needed level of polishing, but in reality that would be a lot of work and resources needed, is not about just a DE, you need to touch everything, from kernel to apps to themes. And then you would still need 3rd party application support and 3rd party hardware support.
Obligatory Poll Choice (Score:2)
When Zarquon returns (Score:2)
It wonâ(TM)t be the year of Linux on the desktop until the great prophet Zarquon returns.
Re: When Zarquon returns (Score:2)
OT, but who knew an apostrophe could cause so much trouble? ââ(TM)â(TM)
IT processes and HR/change management (Score:1)
Not sure what this even means? (Score:2)
Like someone else posted already, Linux is widely available in distros that install "workstation/desktop" targeted configs that include one of several perfectly good desktop UIs.
That said? It will never be the year of Linux becoming the predominant choice for desktop PC use. I say that because I think the bottom line is, there's just too much of an advantage behind making a commercial, proprietary product for it.
The open source advocates are right about pretty much everything they tout as an advantage of it
Desktop? (Score:2)
Additionally, I use my Iphone and Macbook more than my Windows desktop. They all work wonderfully together. I'm no longer doing system development so don't need Visual Studio or Netbeans.
It doesn't really matter.
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it already is... (Score:2)
Linux dominates mobile phones and tablets, utility devices (chromebooks, steamdeck, etc.), etc., and WINE and Proton keep improving to the point where you can run pretty much all Windows apps on Linux easily, to the point where they are increasingly displacing traditional desktops. I wonder if we're hit "the year of the linux desktop" the same way that we hit "the year of networking" because everything was increasingly networked and eventually, we looked back and realized that we were all networked and coul
STEAM DECK leads the way (Score:1)
and proton/wine is the engine.
Missing option (other than Cowboy Neal) (Score:2)
Year of the Linux Desktop has already happened!
I'm not forced to use anything other than Linux and that's been the case for years now. Everything I've needed in the last few years has just worked out of the box. I just started a new job and I'm the only developer to not choose a Macbook and nobody cares because it just doesn't matter. I'm too lazy to jump through Windows or macOS hoops. All the business applications work on Linux so it's a complete non-issue.
The only negative I see occasionally is sub-optim
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Needlessly derogatory, but accurate.
Linux has a lot of strengths, unfortunately most people in charge of it's development have a mindset of "if you can't figure it out, it's your problem and you're stupid".
This means things like running 'sudo apt remove firefox' or 'sudo apt remove python' will brick your desktop environment.
Uninstalling a web-browser, or a development environment shouldn't brick your OS. That's just stupid, and arguing otherwise is the pinnacle of ignorance.
The reasons behind why that happ
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I don't know about how apt works, as I use Fedora, and it uses rpm and dnf. I do know that dnf tells you exactly what it's going to remove and asks you if that's what you really want. Doesn't apt do the same? And I agree that removing a browser shouldn't brick your system, but don't blame that on Linux, blame it on devs who list their dependencies in such a way that removing the bro
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Python isn't a development environment, it's an interpreter. I promise if you remove the .NET interpreter from your windows install, stuff is gonna stop working.
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i guess that depends on what you mean by "in linux" -- generally, when you elevate with "sudo", you're allowed to break your system. If you want a black box with training wheels, distros that behave that way exist.
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The problem with this is that it's the same level of elevation that's required for normal software installation.
Re: This is Comical (Score:1)
The neck beards have arrived, singing the exact tune I mentioned.
People like this person are the problem. You simply can't break Windows like that, shy of manually deleting files. There is no commonly user-assessible way to do that, and the built-in system apps don't call external libraries like that.
In Linux? Not only is there no prompt as this person says, but it's easily possible. Why are they using Python for core functionality in the OS anyways!?
There is no good reason for this. Period.
The people who d