Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

linuxiac.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 564 posts

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#321

Post by sokoloff »

ashton314 wrote: post #100
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. -…

Things that I’ve paid money for that I would sorely miss moving from macOS to Linux: - MoneyWell - Omnigraffle - Keynote (I like my glossy presentations) I know I’m missing a few. I love and monetarily support free software, but man… some of these apps get a lot of love and it’d be hard to leave.

Isn’t keynote “free” (as in beer is included with your macOS meal)?

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#322

Post by juujian »

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…

Oh, the lock in still exists. In many fields. You need a certain software to be competitive, so you have to use whatever os supports it. I know people who have switched from Mac os to windows because office is slightly janky on Mac os. Lock ins happen all the time.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#323

Post by jacknews »

Gordonjcp wrote: post #308
jacknews wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly it's less like Netherlands and more like Sudan (or France?) sometimes. I've also used linux since SLS for what it's worth. Choice is fine as long as everything can integrate properly and work together. Maybe the desktop could do with a little bit of Singapore's sort-of benevolent-ish dictatorship - that's how the kernel is developed after all.

Lasermoon for me, which was a slight fork of SLS. Before that, whatever Linux it was it came on about half a dozen 1.44MB floppies. I remember it used a Linux 0.9 kernel, but not much else - except it was a Real Proper Unix System like I had at university, except *on my very own desktop PC*! With a compiler and everything! And SLIP!

Oh that brings back memories, yes I'm sure I tried that one too. One of them came on a bunch of floppies in sets, for the main system, X, and whetever, I think there were more like 12-13 of them in total; took a whole day to copy them and install IIRC. Not quite as bad as installing AIX from 5 1/4" on a 6150 I snagged somehow.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#324

Post by oytis »

Nux wrote: post #166
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.

I think we're past the sweet spot, things are starting to go "casual user", you only need to check what Ubuntu and Fedora are pushing,in a way the "windows ification" of Linux: gnome 3/4,systemd+,snapd,telemetry etc.

I'm using ubuntu among other distros, and it never tried to push gnome to me. Using i3 is literally one "apt install" away. As of systemd I'm old enough to remember when initialization was managed by a pile of unreadable shell scripts and I never wanted it back.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#325

Post by sokoloff »

wraptile wrote: post #319
jacknews wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but that affects other things too - why can't I just turn this one annoying animation off completely?

That's what killed Macos for me. What's the point of all that hardware if everything has 0.5 second delay - it's ridiculous.

For casual computer users, that animation/delay is the difference between “oh no, what just happened?!” and “oh, that button sucks this window down into the taskbar picture where I can easily find it later. Cool.”

You want the window to just vanish (which I get), because you have a model of computing that doesn’t need the genie animation. Most everyone on HN has a model of computers far in excess of the median computer user.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#326

Post by jamil7 »

jacknews wrote: post #248
jamil7 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What new limitations has macos added?

It's not all necessarily new, but for example on every update I seem to get 'Operation not permitted' somewhere new. Then why can't I change the spaces animation (turn it off)? Windows snapping without leaving a gap on the edge of the screen? Etc, etc. And are they now doing scans for copyright-infringing media and so on - I wouldn't be surprised. I'm an adult. It's my computer. Let me do what I want with it.

Fair enough, like you said, these aren't new, though.

> Then why can't I change the spaces animation (turn it off)? Windows snapping without leaving a gap on the edge of the screen? Etc, etc.

Spaces is irritating, I just don't use it, Apple has a tendency to introduce new workspace and window management solutions and then abandon them. Yabai or Amethyst might be you closer to what you want (both open source).

> And are they now doing scans for copyright-infringing media and so on - I wouldn't be surprised.

This isn't true AFAIK.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#327

Post by shmde »

linuxandrew wrote: post #182
shmde wrote: post #69

> Sorry, you have been blocked. You are unable to access linuxiac.com Why tho ? > Email the site owner with the cloudflare ray id. Okay, where do I get the email id ? Love the false positives. Keep em coming.

I'm not blocked so here you go - info@linuxiac.com

Thanks. Dropped them an email regarding the block.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#328

Post by jacknews »

Gordonjcp wrote: post #306
jacknews wrote: post #45

The problem is the desktop situation is such a mess. Do you go with a gtk or qt desktop and which one? And then X11 which is ancient and creaky, or wayland which is fatally nerfed in design (if not it's entire development philosophy) even when it does do what you need which is far from always? OTOH windows is becoming adware/spyware and macos is becoming big brother lockdown-wear, so maybe it is time for linux to shi…

It doesn't really matter which desktop you pick, they're all the same. If you went to buy a car, would you be fatally paralysed by indecision at seeing two different makes that looked ever so slightly different parked side-by-side? Of course not. That would be idiotic.

Right, all those car review mags, test-drives, manufacturer design language, not to mention handling characteristics, performance, etc, is all really stupid when all everyone wants is just to go from A to B.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#329

Post by coldtea »

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…

>Linux is on more computers both today and all of the computers ever made put together than any other OS.

Yes, but that's kind of a moot point.

The decades old dream was "Linux on the Desktop" (not just as some 3% market share or "works for me" - it worked for people in 1999 too), but overtaking Windows as the desktop OS for the masses).

And of course all those billion of Android devices, hide everything about what people meant and wanted from the Linux experience. It's just the kernel and some basic userland stuff, on top of which everything else is totally foreign, closed down, and tied to proprietary services under Google's control (with Samsung and co's own touches).

Linux is so irrelevant to the visible part of Android's functionality, that Google could very well change the backend to Fuchsia when that's ready, and those billion devices would be un-Linuxed within a few years, as they get old, and their owners replace them by new Fuchsia running smartphones.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#330

Post by coldtea »

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…

>No. I will use the OS I like and others will use the OS they prefer. It’s called choice

That was the case in 1999 too. The Linux on the Desktop dream wasn't about removing choice, but about MORE people making the choice to run Linux.

Also, market share translates to support, resources available, people and companies working there, drivers, and so on. Personal choice to use X doesn't magically offer those.

Post reply on HN