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What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

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Re: What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

#51

Post by ryukafalz »

gravypod wrote: post #30

I've said this many times but the only real problem I have is the shere pain to get things to work and for uniform styling across programs. I find myself just using terminal applications because gparted's UI is SO different from Wireshark, FireFox, etc. There is no consistancy. There is no standard written. There is nothing. It's just a hodge-podge of "this looks good to me!" No standards = Confused Users

>I find myself just using terminal applications because gparted's UI is SO different from Wireshark, FireFox, etc. There is no consistancy. There is no standard written. There is nothing. It's just a hodge-podge of "this looks good to me!"

Then use GNOME Disks, which (if you're using a distro with GNOME) is probably already included: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME_Disks

And GParted vs. Wireshark? Of course they look different, they're completely different tools - and most non-technical users never need to look at either one anyway. But here's Wireshark vs. macOS's disk utility, for comparison: https://imgur.com/a/V9zZC

Re: What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

#52

Post by youdontknowtho »

Kenji wrote: post #42
patrickaljord wrote: post #31

Nothing killed the Linux Desktop. Windows already won that war and it was good enough. Heck, even Apple and its billions couldn't get more than 5% market share worldwide. The next "war" moved to mobile and there linux is not doing that bad.

Windows solved many of the GUI problems 20 years ago that Linux still struggles with today. Windows was and is ahead and this is why it was and is more successful. It is that simple. I would take Windows 95's window manager over Ubuntu's Unity every day of the week.

even if the windows api's are kind of painful to use, you can always use them...even if there is a new hotness, the old stuff you wrote will still build or run without modification.

Re: What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

#54

Post by youdontknowtho »

ianai wrote: post #36

Why not create a gnome equivalent of containers? It won't make compatibility issues go away in the past. But containers for Ui applications could help going forward.

thats kind of what flatpack and company are trying to do. its something that apple got right a long time ago. its also something microsoft is moving to with the .appx package format. everything should be in a bundle that is installed and removed as a unit.

Re: What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

#55

Post by dleslie »

VonGuard wrote: post #6

I think it was the inability for GUI's to stay stable. Gnome went off the rails, Unity completely ruined Ubuntu[1], and KDE always felt very cheap and hard to navigate. My opinion, yes, but I always felt the GUI changes in Linux were extremely gratuitous after Gnome 2. Couple this with the fact that for a decade, the actual GUI was tied very, very heavily to the apps. So you had to use Gedit in Gnome, or whatever the…

> I always felt the GUI changes in Linux were extremely gratuitous after Gnome 2.

You would like the MATE desktop.

Http://ubuntu-mate.com

Re: What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

#58

Post by soyiuz »

VonGuard wrote: post #6

I think it was the inability for GUI's to stay stable. Gnome went off the rails, Unity completely ruined Ubuntu[1], and KDE always felt very cheap and hard to navigate. My opinion, yes, but I always felt the GUI changes in Linux were extremely gratuitous after Gnome 2. Couple this with the fact that for a decade, the actual GUI was tied very, very heavily to the apps. So you had to use Gedit in Gnome, or whatever the…

I don't think it's the gui. I'm a relatively savvy user running Debian on a Thinkpad for more than five years now. Printing is still touch and go. I spent countless hours to get sleep working correctly. It is broken now and I don't have the energy to fix it knowing that nothing I do is guaranteed to last through the next apt update. Wifi will mysteriously refuse to connect with some routers (a daily struggle at the uni).

Most of my frustrations come down to these three basic things: printing, power management, and wifi.

I was excited to delve deep into OS internals to troubleshoot in the beginning, bit now I'm just annoyed.

Re: What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

#59

Post by microcolonel »

lutusp wrote: post #40

Quote: "The only way to fix Linux is to take one distro, one set of components as a baseline, abadone everything else and everyone should just contribute to this single Linux." Essentially the article's point is that technical totalitarianism would make Linux succeed on the consumer desktop, using the successful models of Windows and OSX -- one source, one model, no disagreement. Hate to acknowledge it, but it might…

This is why systemd's natural dominance of system orchestration and device initialization, and PulseAudio's natural dominance of consumer audio configuration could not be more welcome.

The big threat right now, as ever I suppose, is fragmentation in consumer desktop systems; the worst problem being Canonical's decision to develop Mir for reasons they later admitted were fabricated. The point is that all major toolkits now support Wayland quite well, but Canonical has to fight to maintain Mir support in just a subset of toolkits.

If we can get all of the system services standardized in a way which doesn't completely alienate the community; then we can move on to having standards for consumers.

Re: What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

#60

Post by appleiigs »

jstalin wrote: post #16

Office. If Linux desktop had microsoft office, I could use it. Libre office is an unmitigated, ugly pile of shit.

Yes, Office.

Office compatibility still a problem for Macs in 2017. Either from FUD or in actual functionality, Office prevents people from switching from Win10 to MacOS.

Two people asked me about moving to Macs. They repeatedly asked me about Office compatibility (the FUD). For one of the users, I wasn't sure if it was OK for functionality. She is a lawyer (ie. power user of Word) and I know in Mac Excel for me is not usable.

Both of them didn't need to buy new hardware (they are fed up with Windows, not the hardware), but I couldn't even mention Linux as a alternative for them.

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