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Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

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Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#261

Post by DeathArrow »

laserbeam wrote: post #34

Every once in a while I'm tempted to switch back to Linux (I used to have that as my desktop between 10 and 15 years ago), but then I remember: - My DJ software (which I pay for) is not supported at all on Linux (likewise true for most common music production software). - The Affinity suite (which I paid for) is not supported on Linux. - The best debugger I can find (remedybg, which I paid for) doesn't work there. -…

Me, too. I tried to use Linux on the desktop since 2000. I can't run the software I need like Visual Studio, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, 3ds Max. I don't care free/libre about alternatives as they are not doing the same. The OS takes time to be configured, managed, there are always things breaking and needing a fix. I still have a linux distro installed on a spare drive but haven't booted it in more than an year.

Whatever Linux specific stuff I need to run (mostly for development), WSL2 and Docker takes care of that.

I want an OS that just runs and doesn't stay in my way.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#262

Post by GranPC »

jacquesm wrote: post #237
holoduke wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not anymore. Last gen phones have enough performance to run webapps without a single loss in performance, look and feel compared to native apps. Native apps will remain, but you see more and more SPAs wrapped in a hybrid app still maintaining a 'native'look. Costs of developing webapps is dramatically lower. Although native knowledge is still required for Auth, billing, advertising and other required native stuff.

It's not just loss in performance, it's also loss of your data and control over that data.

This is not inherent to web apps though, is it? Free software web apps without vendor lock-in exist.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#263

Post by benplumley »

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #250
ben0x539 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also helps that there have been very few important (big, complicated) applications in the past decade or two. Firefox is there? My development environment is there? I'm probably good.

All work and no game ...

Steam is there, with Proton, and Lutris. It's almost a better experience than the twelve different launchers situation I left behind (though they're annoying in very different ways!)

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#264

Post by pluijzer »

aktenlage wrote: post #188
hnlmorg wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. I will use the OS I like and others will use the OS they prefer. It’s called choice. What stung before was that people were forced to use Windows because of lock-ins, software compatibility, etc. That doesn’t really exist any more. If there is one good thing about web apps, it’s that browsers are now the application run time and browsers are more cross platform than any software libraries that have come before it…

> What stung before was that people were forced to use Windows because of lock-ins, software compatibility, etc. That doesn’t really exist any more. If there is one good thing about web apps, it’s that browsers are now the application run time and browsers are more cross platform than any software libraries that have come before it. The danger that the history will repeat for browsers instead of OSs is real. The less…

Did you try setting your User Agent to Chrome? I have to use Teams for work. Under Firefox it has problems and missing features, setting my user agent to Chrome solves all of it. Highly uncompetitive if you ask me.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#265

Post by arc-in-space »

bruce511 wrote: post #118
smaudet wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm I don't find this true at all for really any of the systems. If you stick to windows xp or roll your own Linux distros maybe this is true, but I barely know how to use any windows box. Bunch of black registry magic and constantly changing UI nonsense, literally Google and sometimes msdn are how I survive there. Ubuntu/Fedora all go through fits of hipness and constantly change how things are done. Config files on…

The change from say one version of Windows to the next is tiny, and happens every 5 years or so. Changing from one OS to another is orders of magnitude more complex. As you point out above jumping between them is painful. Your job may require you to do that, but you're a tiny sliver of the work-force, never mind everyone else. My book-keeper has never encountered the Windows Registry. You're thinking of the OS as an…

> The change from say one version of Windows to the next is tiny

Huh?! That's bullshit. I had recently tried to fix something on family's PC that upgraded itself to Win11 and had absolutely no clue how to navigate all the new settings panels even though I use 10 near daily.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#266

Post by Dylan16807 »

zirgs wrote: post #254
Dylan16807 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really sounds like you don't understand how the OS is set up on the steam deck. It's a normal desktop environment with a customized version of steam installed. If laptops get to be included (which they usually are), then steamdeck gets to be included. It doesn't replicate "some subset" of the desktop experience. It does everything a small tower can, plus things it can't do.

Steam Deck's desktop environment is barely usable without connecting it to a dock and using an external keyboard and mouse. You won't use it as a daily driver in handheld mode. The virtual keyboard covers half of the screen, the touchscreen is unusable as a mouse and touchpads are inconvenient. Ordinary laptops don't have these problems.

I deliberately didn't compare it to a laptop, because the topic at hand is whether it qualifies as a "desktop". If it can function without an external keyboard and mouse that's a bonus feature.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#267

Post by ehnto »

globular-toast wrote: post #222
constantcrying wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who cares? I don't use Linux because it is or isn't popular. Who actually has an emotional bond to the market share of their software? I use Linux because it works for me and makes my life easier, is free/open and because I don't have to deal with Windows.

I care about other people having to suffer a shitty computing experience.

It is a little funny that I can't tell if this comment is pro or against desktop Linux.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#268

Post by pjerem »

zirgs wrote: post #213
self_awareness wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly my thoughts. I think Linux is in a good sweet spot; popular enough so that applications advertise support for Linux, but not popular enough to be spoiled and optimized for the "casual" user.

SteamOS is being optimised for the "casual" user. SteamDeck is the best handheld console at the moment.

To be fair, SteamOS is just a barely customized Arch Linux.

All the UX work is being done in the steam client itself and is not exclusive to the Steam Deck. In fact, the SteamOS ui is now available 1:1 in the good old PC Steam client, replacing the old Big Picture mode.

The only thing that doesn’t comes directly with Steam is Gamescope (but you can install it yourself easily).

Other than that, the SteamOS is just an Arch Linux with Steam installed, KDE and a Steam wallpaper.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#269

Post by chx »

hnlmorg wrote: post #114
bruce511 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet not having a presence on the desktop stings a bit doesn't it :). You can conquer the world, dominate every space and yet there's thus little voice inside saying "but you're not good enough. See over there, in that one space, you're a weakling. " Welcome to the human condition.

No. I will use the OS I like and others will use the OS they prefer. It’s called choice. What stung before was that people were forced to use Windows because of lock-ins, software compatibility, etc. That doesn’t really exist any more. If there is one good thing about web apps, it’s that browsers are now the application run time and browsers are more cross platform than any software libraries that have come before it…

> That doesn’t really exist any more.

But the lack of driver support still does. Linux on a modern laptop is just full of headaches. I mean, https://www.phoronix.com/review/amd-ryzen7-7840u this is typical: GNOME doesn't work, graphical glitches... In my own experience, operating MFC devices over several years is a nightmare, Bluetooth is problematic as well, some proprietary VPNs do not have Linux clients which might not be Linux's fault but if I can't log in I can't work.

Life is too short for this, sorry. Windows + WSL is the way. The right tool for the right job, Windows for drivers, WSL for, well, everything else.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#270

Post by dmz73 »

bruce511 wrote: post #68
DiabloD3 wrote: post #49

I wonder why they keep making these articles. Linux is on more computers both today and all of the computers ever made put together than any other OS. It is on virtually all servers on the Internet, the majority OS on phones, its in many TVs and STBs and streaming sticks, its one of the few OSes ever in space, its one of the few OSes ever on Mars, and it is also the OS behind ChromeOS (which that article mistakenly b…

And yet not having a presence on the desktop stings a bit doesn't it :). You can conquer the world, dominate every space and yet there's thus little voice inside saying "but you're not good enough. See over there, in that one space, you're a weakling. " Welcome to the human condition.

It is a little worse that that for Linux - you have conquered the whole world except for the place where you were born - where you are still a nobody. You can't just forget about that place either because you wake up there every day to rule the rest of the world from.
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