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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

#441

Post by Luctct »

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…

What a joke. Web standards move under our feet -- and browsers break -- all the time. I personally work for a company that forces me to work online and only pretends to support Linux. They say I have to use the latest version of Chrome (so I can't choose a browser that won't spy on me), I use it and it still breaks occasionally. I know they count on everybody using Windows and don't want to bother with Linux. So much for cross-platform. That pipe dream was proven false years ago.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#442

Post by MSFT_Edging »

gglitch wrote: post #424
resolutebat wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but increasingly marginal. Many schools have adopted Chromebooks (Linux in disguise) and even the MS Office suite has largely moved online.

> Chromebooks (Linux in disguise) I don't think a win for Chromebooks counts as a win for Linux, except in maybe the most narrowly technical sense.

Go on the Chromeos subreddit and you'll see a lot of first time Linux users breaking open the dev tools to run Linux apps to get more functionality.

Its honestly quite interesting seeing new users from that perspective.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#443

Post by pjmlp »

DeathArrow wrote: post #216
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…

> 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. I'd take every day a native app running locally over a web app. And I am a web developer.

Same here, have done a mix of native and Web for 30+ years, and when it comes to chose, if there is a native app available, I'll take that.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#444

Post by dTal »

pkkm wrote: post #406
Nux wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's odd that you included systemd in the list. It's something that a casual user isn't going to notice, but that has made life easier for system administrators and desktop tinkerers. With systemd, I can write a few lines of config to turn a simple Python script into a daemon with syslog integration, process monitoring, and resource limits. I understand the concerns about scope creep, but I'd take systemd any day ove…

Systemd definitely belongs in the list, even if some admins like it.

"Windowsification" is a admittedly vague concept, but tends to cover software that is gratuitously different, not a team player in the bazaar, prone to making land grabs through "embrace and extend", and reluctant to offer configuration options that conflict with its "opinionated" stances.

As an aside, I'm really sick of the systemd / "random pile of shell scripts" false dichotomy. It's trivial to turn a python script into a system service with runit, too. Simple, stable, and focused.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#445

Post by Luctct »

jacquesm wrote: post #236
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. That's a funny conclusion to make. In the business world that still exists and even my kids are forced into the Microsoft eco-system by their school because the software they insist you run (for which perfectly good web alternatives exist) only runs on windows.

People aren't forced, they choose it. They are clueless about technology and don't trust anything that may look like a dark horse. They want reassurance. It's not just the "enterprise" or corporate world. Home users have that mentality. Mac computers cost an arm and a leg and people still pay for it because the advertising machine has hammered it into the heads that "it just works." Most people only trust big brands. The bigger the better.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#446

Post by pjmlp »

zambal wrote: post #313
bruce511 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_sys... (Scroll down to servers) Incidentally this is public facing Internet servers. The % -inside- enterprises us much much higher. Tools like Active Directory allow you to scale enterprise operations, which is important for companies that have hundreds-of-thousands of desktops etc. In any event your estimate of 99.9% is unlikely. AWS offers Windows based…

> Incidentally this is public facing Internet servers. The % -inside- enterprises us much much higher. I can believe private enterprise usage is higher, but I imagine FAANG and similar companies also have quite a lot non public Linux servers. Not trying to rebut your overall point, but I'm not sure the total non public % is much different.

Ironically, despite macOS, Android and ChromeOS at Mountain View, it was Windows that got WebGPU first when Chrome went stable with it.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#447

Post by dTal »

kaba0 wrote: post #218
Nux wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, systemd is definitely there to lure in the casual users..

It's not so much that systemd is designed to lure in casual users, it's that it (like other software on the list) reflects an attitude that separates "developers" who decide how a system should work, from "users" who have to take what's given to them. This stands in opposition to the traditional unixy world order, where the two groups are one and the same "hackers".

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#448

Post by pjmlp »

rwiggins wrote: post #231
taneliv wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heavily doubt that those would make people switch. Maaaybe, if their social circle already uses Linux. However, make the next Minecraft, Fortnite or Roblox work only (or considerably better) on Linux desktop[ ], and you will suddenly gain a lot more new users. Some of whom will stick around, since all their other apps work the same in the browser. [ ] Whatever that term means, even the article makes a distinction bet…

It made me switch, anyway, recently - specifically another one of those "Oh, let's finish setting up your computer" (i.e., try to trick you into trying Edge again, probably, or set up a "Microsoft" account) with my only options being "Remind me later" or "OK" was the straw that broke the camel's back. That said, I'm far from your typical desktop user. I'm vaguely Linux sysadmin adjacent, and I ran Linux as my primary…

By emulating Windows, while failing to attract anyone targeting POSIX platforms to port their games into GNU/Linux, not even Android.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#449

Post by pjmlp »

ChatGTP wrote: post #50
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…

Been using for 15 years, I've never sat there and worried about gtk or qt, Maybe wayland or X11, but I've just naturally moved to wayland? Just install something like Fedora, and you won't worry about it, it will just work. I personally hate Ubuntu btw Canonical is just not for me. I have no idea how it's so popular. Personally Fedora or NixOS are just so superior I don't know why anyone bothers with anything else.

Because it mostly works with proprietary drivers without any religious issues.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#450

Post by rightbyte »

DeathArrow wrote: post #242
nomilk wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> its one of the few OSes ever on Mars When explaining linux to skeptical non-techies, I tell them it's the OS running the nuclear submarines right now. Suddenly they're more confident it can handle their ecommerce dashboard.

That's like trying to advertise tractors to people that want a sport car.

Are you comparing Mac OS or Windows 11 to sport cars?
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