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I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems

theregister.com

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Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems

#21

Post by hammyhavoc »

twblalock wrote: post #18
encryptluks2 wrote: post #10

This article is sort of frustrating, because the issue they have isn't like something not working, just that there are multiple competing options and they want unity around all things.

Yeah but the fragmentation is the problem. One reason Windows and macOS are popular is that people know what they are going to get. If you've used one Windows 11 box, for example, you can get on another Windows 11 box and figure out how to use it. It will have the same user interface and window management as the other: the Start menu, the control panel, the desktop, etc. That's just not the case for Linux. There are…

Therein lies the conundrum: is Linux desktop for power users primarily? Arguably yes. Most people don't know what they want/need, and most people don't want/need x features at the cost of y compromise, if they even understand what the compromise actually means to them as a user. I don't think 99% of people care.

Is it for every power user? No, of course not.

Can Linux be made very simple for casuals? Yup, absolutely, if all people want to do is browse the web, send some emails, the usual stuff, it's fine. The in-between of "can I use Photoshop?" and the answer being "yes, but" isn't going to fly with most folks.

I use it for what it's best at, and use Windows for what it isn't best at, sometimes as a bottle, other times not. But it takes experience to know when to use what, which is what most users don't care to figure out for themselves as it involves trial and error usually. Most folks just want to do their work, and their phone or tablet is the "funsies".

Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems

#22

Post by idle_zealot »

If the Linux desktop consolidates/unifies around one option I’d probably stop using it. The primary reason I use Linux on my desktop is so that I can use my niche window manager of choice as a first-class citizen, rather than hacking reasonable window management into the system with scripts on top of a bad-by-default window manager. If I can’t do that anymore I might as well use macOS with yabai and get the broader application support.

Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems

#23

Post by cm2187 »

I get (and hate) the fact that Microsoft is pushing hard for the desktop to become a light client integrated in their cloud, but isn’t apple doing exactly the same? I don’t own a mac but my iphone nags me all the time to use apple’s cloud services for everything and I understand apple is making MacOS converge to iOS.

The obstacle to switching to linux for me is not too many distributions, it is that I have to relearn everything, from my way to the filesystem, how drivers and networking work, virtualisation, web servers, etc. And linux is many things, but intuitive and self discoverable it is not. I just don’t have the time for starting from scratch (and it’s not related to my day job either), until windows becomes really user hostile (I see it coming but not yet there).

Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems

#25

Post by MisterBastahrd »

I hate it, which is why I don't use it. Ubuntu got the closest for me, but the owner's refusal to allow users to move that taskbar to the bottom of the screen made me give up on it altogether. And unless it's a supported distro, I don't want it. Been burned too many times by pet projects that end up being abandoned.

The other thing is that in all my years of using Windows and MacOS, I have NEVER had an issue where an upgrade borked being able to log into the desktop. This has happened more times than I remember on Linux.

Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems

#26

Post by bbertelsen »

bbertelsen wrote: post #24

PopOS needs an honorable mention here for the work it's done with pop shell for linux desktop. PopOS has been my daily driver for 3 years, pop shell is icing on the cake. Nvidia drivers baked in too!

https://github.com/pop-os/shell for the unaware!

Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems

#27

Post by shrimp_emoji »

KDE is the most fully featured Linux DE, and it's leaps and bounds above Windows's (WAY better file manager, better launcher, more features, and even less bugs somehow).

The other day, my Windows 10's explorer.exe crashed when the file manager tried to load a directory, which is something that used to happen in Vista and hasn't happened in KDE for years IME.

Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems

#28

Post by demux »

I intend to switch my custom built PC from windows to SteamOS 3.0. I haven't been a windows fan since I switched to Manjaro and eventually to Arch; the only reason I have it around is for gaming. But considering Proton is getting much better (and I'm gaming lesser), it seems like a pretty easy sell. In fact I think SteamOS has a lot of potential to bring gamers over to Linux; 3.0 uses arch with KDE so it's not really alien in terms of UI compared to windows. The biggest problem, as always, are GPU driver issues. But the steam handheld is already a successful unit that has seen some good traction, I wonder what a desktop version launched by steam would look like (they had the steam machines project but it looks pretty dead now).

Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems

#29

Post by demux »

shrimp_emoji wrote: post #27

KDE is the most fully featured Linux DE, and it's leaps and bounds above Windows's (WAY better file manager, better launcher, more features, and even less bugs somehow). The other day, my Windows 10's explorer.exe crashed when the file manager tried to load a directory, which is something that used to happen in Vista and hasn't happened in KDE for years IME.

Also shout out to KDE connect!

Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems

#30

Post by mrj »

Nonsense. There are billions of Android devices sold and customers don't seem too bothered by its fragmentation. They continue to buy Android devices en mass.

So it seems fragmentation has many problems but that alone won't prevent people from using a device. I think the author believes that a critical mass of Linux desktop users will create enough interest in polish and solving problems for end users, so therefore believes if everybody was using the same desktop there would be more polish (or something).

I would counter that the desktops have plenty of polish. He says he loves the Linux Desktop and doesn't offer much criticism besides there's too much choice. Nah, they're already great and we don't need to abandon great desktops.

Instead, I believe other factors are at play. Familiarity, inertia and monopolistic competition to name a few. Those are powerful factors and much more so than abstract fragmentation.

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