I mean in 2022, there are so many options in Linux that may not be perfect, but are good enough. Be it KDE,Gnome,Wayland,Xorg,systemd,initd,bash,zsh they are fine to use. Yeah you'll hit a corner case here or there, but most people will find a solution that fits their workflow. Windows on the other hand will always be the Gamer or enduser-that-don't-care OS, and that's fine too. I'm incredibly thankful that Linux exists, because I personally gained so much from it, but I understand as well when people don't care about it. Let them use Windows and deal with their problems (but don't expect me to fix them for you, thanks ;)).
I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems
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Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems
#62I 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…
>the owner's refusal to allow users to move that taskbar to the bottom of the screen made me give up on it altogether.
You ...do know there are countless desktop environments and window managers just an apt-get away right? If that's too much for you, you could have literally chosen any other flavor. My mother has been happily using xubuntu for years. If she can manage, I think you can too.
Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems
#63Much of the Linux desktop is balkanized and fragmentation is indeed a huge issue. People's obsession with choice is irritating given that doing more or less the same thing in 10 different ways half-right is worse than doing it once correctly. The entire distro-zoo built on top of the same distributions with different DE's on top of it is an example. The problem with Windows or Mac isn't that it looks, feels and works…
> That's what most people want, they don't want to spend hours tinkering with their UIs, they want to get work done.
The people most capable of fixing the problem you describe are the people who like spending hours tinkering with their Linux UIs.
Besides, Windows usability is rubbish, there's a reason why the first thing that I, and, uh, a few other weirdos do on a new Windows install, is set up an orthodox file manager. [1]
Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems
#64Nonsense. 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 b…
> Familiarity, inertia and monopolistic competition
Also compatibility, marketing, and being installed out of the box.
In its heyday, Firefox had between 25% and 50% market share, depending on country. Compared to Internet Explorer 6, it was:
* More stable.
* Less buggy.
* More secure.
* More featureful.
* Usually faster than IE6, though it took a bit longer to start.
* Better development tools, which indirectly lead to web pages working better in Firefox than in IE6 even if that's not what management wanted.
* ActiveX, which is clearly the way Microsoft wanted you to make "web apps," had to be hidden behind scare prompts, so public web pages couldn't use it.
Here's Internet Explorer's big selling points, which allowed it to hold onto between 50 and 75% of the market share:
* It shipped with Windows.
Google Chrome only managed to unseat it by paying OEMs, which means that, de facto, Chrome now ships out of the box with Windows, too.
Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems
#65Nonsense. 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 b…
Because Android is the only viable alternative for those that either can't or won't buy an iPhone.
Android is effectively the default choice. If you don't care about your phone, you end up with an Android phone. Lots and lots of people use an Android phone and almost none of them would be called Android enthusiasts.
Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems
#66Linux on the desktop. Where old Mac HW goes to retire when it is unloved by Apple. The rate at which macOS Ventura ruthlessly cut off 2016 and 2017 Macs shows the need more than ever for Aishi Linux.
Pay attention. The “ruthless” cut off is in line with how the PowerPC to Intel transition happened. It’s also following the 68K to PowerPC transition. It’s like ripping off a bandaid.
See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_transition_to_Intel_proc...
I’d expect to see no support for Intel by 2027 or macOS 16.
Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems
#67As a desktop, Linux is now fully functional for most users. I know administrations running on Linux, law firms, and even my dad. Beginner users don't care about choices, they get Linux Mint or similar with LibreOffice and Firefox and they are good to go for most of their tasks. For advanced users, the abundance is a key benefit of this ecosystem. No company is fully focused on the desktop OS, and I don't see why they…
I have never had a Linux desktop that didn't eventually go up in flames after a routine update.
Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems
#68Much of the Linux desktop is balkanized and fragmentation is indeed a huge issue. People's obsession with choice is irritating given that doing more or less the same thing in 10 different ways half-right is worse than doing it once correctly. The entire distro-zoo built on top of the same distributions with different DE's on top of it is an example. The problem with Windows or Mac isn't that it looks, feels and works…
10 different ways half-right is worse than doing it once correctly. The problem with Windows or Mac isn't that it looks, feels and works the same everywhere
what's correct for you is not necesarily what's correct for me.
the problem with windows/mac is very much that it doesn't work the way i want it to work. why even have multiple oerating systems at all, if we don't need choice? we could all be using windows.
i don't see how removing choice solves anything at all.
Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems
#69I 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…
> but the owner's refusal to allow users to move that taskbar to the bottom of the screen You're going to need to explain that one.
Guessing it's about Unity.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/360748/how-do-i-move-the-tas...
"There is no way to move the 'task bar' to the bottom of the screen. You are out of luck."
Re: I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems
#70I 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…
So now Microsoft gets the hate for reviving the UNIX way of working. How do you think companies were using X Windows?
> How do you think companies were using X Windows?
By attaching thin clients to a server that was still under their own control, as opposed to making the whole company a serf to Microsoft.