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Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

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Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#471

Post by bigyabai »

jorvi wrote: post #352
palata wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your points, except this: > thanks to the Steam Deck [...] but I would be reluctant to call that Linux Desktop anymore than I would call Android an uptick for Linux. The Steam Deck very much runs Linux Desktop. Android runs the Linux kernel, but everything else is different. SteamOS is a Linux distribution based on Arch. If you run your Steam Deck in "desktop mode", it is very much a Linux Desktop (with…

You are being obtuse. 99% of Steam Deck users won't ever use the desktop mode except for maybe setting up emulation or Discord. In general, that makes Steam Deck users no more Linux users than people that use Android.

Android users are Linux users. So are Nintendo Switch users, the whole "can Linux game/be used for mobile" question is already answered.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#472

Post by dmd »

leptons wrote: post #469
dmd wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearly everyone in our family’s (public, Massachusetts) high school writes papers exclusively on their phone.

Have they ever tried to use a real computer for that? Can they afford a real computer? Would they prefer a bigger screen and a real keyboard over a tiny screen and an even smaller keyboard? Maybe they just don't have the experience of using a real computer to know how far superior it is to a tiny screen/keyboard? Using a phone to write papers seems like an exercise in masochism, if better alternatives are available.…

Yes, this is a very affluent district. Everyone has a chromebook from school and most have a macbook from their parents. They prefer the phone. (“Big computers are more of an old person millennial thing.”)

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#473

Post by akho »

Pxtl wrote: post #382

Personally I'm taking another kick at Linux desktop in advance of Win11, I installed Mint with Cinnamon... and I gotta say, I'm kinda disappointed how many pain points there still are. Type in your admin password every 5 seconds just to install routine updates, ugly-ass GRUB screens, confusing UI, and SDL2 games being half-broken with resolution-switching and audio. Installing software still involves bouncing around…

You installed a distro that aims to preserve suckage for future generations, and even developed an entire DE out of pure aversion to change. It’s often recommended by change-averse Linux users…

Successful Linux-based OSes have unattended atomic updates and user-friendly app installation. That includes ChromeOs and Android, as well as modern atomic desktop distributions. Fedora Silverblue, Bluefin, Bazzite.

edit: however, market share is probably coming from legacy distributions. That’s largely a sign of how bad Windows gets, and how desktops/laptops become more niche.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#474

Post by happymellon »

Our_Benefactors wrote: post #421
happymellon wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> by using a paperclip So, no?

Yes, you can. With a paper clip. Some installations of linux require a USB drive. This one requires a paper clip.

> > By picking a standard menu option I can go to a traditional desktop and use Libre Office and Firefox.

> > Can I so that with a Switch?

> Yes. With a paperclip

A paperclip isn't a standard menu item. It's a hack to switch the operating systems. Once you've hacked it you can't play Switch games until you revert back. That's nothing like what the deck is offering.

> Some installations of linux require a USB drive.

We aren't talking about hacking, we are talking about whether the deck comes with desktop Linux, which it does. What you are talking about is nothing like what the Deck is offering.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#475

Post by tremon »

mr_toad wrote: post #72
shaunpud wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the Windows license was burned into the BIOS, so a reinstall would pick it up automatically?

It’s in the ACPI tables, in ACPI Non-Volatile RAM (NVRAM), not the BIOS. An home user might be able to active it, but the repair shop probably can’t legally.

If it's tied to the hardware, there is no valid reason why the repair shop wouldn't be able to activate it -- a repair shop will use the same public license servers as consumers will.

Btw ACPI is a specification, not a separate piece of hardware. ACPI tables are stored in BIOS nvram, there is no other place for it to go.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#476

Post by scarface_74 »

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #464
scarface_74 wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are doing all of your work in a browser anyway, you might as well use a less finicky iPad with longer battery life with a regular Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Why would I recommend a Linux system?

> Why would I recommend a Linux system? Greater control over what hardware and software you wish to run. e.g. you wouldn't have to follow Apple's decisions in making things obsolete and effectively keep old hardware running for a lot longer if you so wish. There's also a possible issue in having a U.S. based company in control of your O.S.

But most people could care less as long as they have the apps they need. They don’t want to muck around with their computers. I’ve been programming as a hobby since 1986 and professionally since 1996 and I don’t want to muck around with my computer.

But the comment is about most people only caring about the browser.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#477

Post by palata »

sophacles wrote: post #378
palata wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, Desktop Linux is the Linux I run on my work computer: the one that has a screen, a keyboard and a mouse. It is based on Linux (obviously), the GNU userland to some extent, and then it has a graphical environment (usually based on Xorg or Wayland). This is different from embedded Linux or Linux on a server. And this is different from Linux-the-kernel (which runs on Android).

What if I run linux + gnu + gnome over rdp on VM a server in a rack somewhere that has no screen keyboard and mouse on it? Am i using desktop linux or not? What if that same VM also is running nginx and serving up web content? What if I have a pc with a keyboard and monitor sitting literally on my desktop, and it's running linux + gnu but no graphical environment, and I use it for coding (it has music playing when I…

I feel like you're overthinking it. It's not that one can get a badge saying "powered by Desktop Linux". It's a rough categorisation based on the use case:

* Embedded Linux is what you expect to see on a "small" device that usually doesn't have a graphical environment (it may have a small screen showing a temperature).

* A Linux server is what you expect to see in racks, serving stuff over the Internet. A homeserver could be that, too.

* Linux on mobile is what you would put on your phone.

* Desktop Linux is what you would put on your working computer, the one you interact with "physically".

Of course, you can run a server on your personal laptop, and you could run a "Desktop" graphical environment on a mobile phone. But that's beside the point. And of course, you can work on a Linux without a graphical environment.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#478

Post by zozbot234 »

jraph wrote: post #431
zozbot234 wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The principled way of doing this (while coping with the new post-Pie restrictions) would be to build a new "updated" .apk on-device with a new /usr/bin/ equivalent, then have the user explicitly "install" it and relaunch Termux. It would work no different than any live-CD install, or for that matter any other kind of "immutable" OS.

But then, everything runs under the same Termux user app again, just with extra cumbersome steps. And I'm not sure it's possible to do this safely, you need the APK to be signed, and the only way to do this would be to share the private key. And likely to have a good chunk of the Android SDK bundled with Termux. A version that runs on Android anyway. Not sure it would fly with Google's Play Store policies. to your pa…

Yes but you could just have a custom private key that's generated by a separate "apk builder" app and stored on-device.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#479

Post by seabrookmx »

koakuma-chan wrote: post #36
theowhfbfn wrote: post #13

Is SteamOS included? I am not really surprised. Linux is quite often only usable option, now when Win 10 is not really supported.

Why not use Win 11?

Because there's lots of good hardware out there that's unsupported by Windows 11, but supported just fine by Linux distros.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#480

Post by _verandaguy »

nerdjon wrote: post #53

I have to wonder how much of this is people switching to Linux vs the larger trend of people not having traditional computers to begin with. Outside of gamers, I don't know anyone that has a computer at home that is not their work laptop if they have one. At least in my circle everyone I know has moved to their general computing being on phones and tablets which is not captured here. So is a solid chunk of this the p…

I'll chime in here; while I'm in one of those niches you described at the start of your comment (with multiple laptops, a gaming PC, and a homelab made up of what I'd call a reasonable number of physical computers of various descriptions), me and a few other friends of mine recently made the jump away from Windows and to various Linuxes on our gaming PCs.

I went for Ubuntu, while my friends mostly went to some type of "gaming-optimized" flavour of Arch.

I'm definitely an edge case as most computing goes, but it feels for the first time like the gaming-on-Linux train's gaining traction, and there's enough community support out there that making the jump feels like a palatable ideal.

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