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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

#601

Post by Pxtl »

akho wrote: post #532
Pxtl wrote: post #517

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, I had no idea Mint Cinnamon was about "preserving suckage". I remember when Mint launched it was all about "Ubuntu but easier, like non-free stuff included" and my understanding was Cinnamon was their own DE built to follow familiar UI patterns and customizability instead of Gnome's opinionated stuff. Didn't realize that it was also for grumps who wanted bug-compatibility in their workflow.

Mint, afaik, offers a choice between Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce. These are all DEs built and maintained to preserve a particular workflow based around hierarchical “start” menus, menu bars in applications, and desktop icons — the Win’95 style. This particular selection is very indicative of a preference for a particular era. Which is fine if that’s your preference, too. However, you shouldn’t expect your experience to…

Honestly, I just wanted a decent taskbar, and assumed an opinionated DE would get in my way on that front.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#602

Post by tempfile »

exiguus wrote: post #236
tempfile wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am the same. I decided a few years ago that I really really like the thinkpad t450, and have gradually bought 5 of them online for a total cost of about 300 USD. I may never need to buy a laptop ever again.

Yes, over the past 15 years I bought at least a dozen used thinkpads of the X series (x201, x220, x230 and x1). Most of them are now with other family members and friends (they are now also Linux Desktop user). And I still use 3 of them. One daily, the other weekly, and the 3rd for conferences. Beside that, I am also a fan of the T and yet of the P series. And I have a small collection of thinkpads with the big blue…

I could never get into the smaller x series thinkpads. The 14 inch screens on the T4X0 are just right for me.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#604

Post by dmantis »

kristianp wrote: post #584
dmantis wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't do ctrl-c and ctrl-v in MacOS too, that's doesn't break their marketshare.

It's command-c and command-v there. I only recently learned that command-right arrow goes to the end of line on Mac OS, making the elision of the home and end button on keyboards less egregious than on windows.

Exactly, that's what I'm talking about.

So MacOS lives just fine with their own additional button and bindings, I don't see how it's different for Linux.

Every time I need to do something on MacOS, being Linux user, I stuck hitting ctrl-c/ctrl-v instead of cmd, but nobody says that stops them from having a decent marketshare.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#605

Post by paulddraper »

1718627440 wrote: post #596
paulddraper wrote: post #541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So anyone saying "the Windows operating system" is doing wrong?

Windows is/was actually a classification of a graphical OS based on a windows-metaphor. What you are talking about is probably MS Windows.

Oof but how can you be sure

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#606

Post by 1718627440 »

gosub100 wrote: post #509
ActorNightly wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 11 only sucks if you get the Home version. If you get the Pro version you can disable all the annoyances. New things pop up here and there with each update every few years (recently asking to connect my phone so I can see notifications), but those can be disabled easily. It does suck resources so using it on Laptops is not ideal, but for desktop its by far the best, mostly because of WSL2 integration, which i…

I agree with this. Couple years ago I splurged on a nice Thinkpad X1 carbon, and decided to give windows a try after abstaining for many years. I really liked the WSL but overall it was a resource hog. It would blast the fan for seemingly no reason, the task manager would slow down, the laptop would overheat. And even playing basic games like freecell would randomly fail to launch, probably because it couldn't reach…

Can you elaborate about the friction you experienced.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#607

Post by Zambyte »

HKH2 wrote: post #600
Zambyte wrote: post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The vast majority of people can just benefit from the time and effort that someone felt was worth spending to scratch their own itch.

You're drifting from your original argument. Taking away features usually does make it harder for power users.

I don't think I am. Free Software does not suffer from the same authoritative restrictions imposed by proprietary software. If people don't like features being removed, someone will package the software without the feature removed, and everyone who cares about the missing features can just use that.

For example, people in this thread have been mentioning GNOME as software that has been removing features to the detriment of technically inclined people who want those features. But MATE exists, and I don't have to maintain it. Because someone else felt was worth spending to scratch their own itch.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#608

Post by leptons »

throwawaylaptop wrote: post #583
leptons wrote: post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They sound young and dumb, to the point that their opinion on this matter is irrelevant. They will figure it out eventually.

I made an account finally just because this no laptop thing was too shocking. I get kids and teens have preferences. But what in the world is going on with the parents? Who cares if Timmy wants to write his paper on a phone. You tell him to sit down at a desk, focus, and write like a normal person. You can always regress to your own quirks once youve proven yourself.

I have no idea what your comment is supposed to convey.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#609

Post by Gormo »

resource_waste wrote: post #594
Gormo wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you find "idealistic" about it? My intention was to explain reality as I see it. I'm also not sure what you mean by "outdated distros". It should be implicit that I'm referring to the currently maintained versions of available distros, not deprecated versions. And the "time in terminal" metric might not generally make sense, given the preference that many Linux users have for CLI/TUI tools over GUI ones, give…

I'm going to take a guess and say you don't use linux as your daily desktop. As mentioned, you 'see' but you havent lived it. You hear about it, but you are viewing it at 10,000 ft, rather than in a home. Just because there was a 2025 Ubuntu release, doesnt mean the Kernel is updated. Its literally years outdated. And 'time in terminal' is a great metric. People want to be using their computer, they don't want to be…

> I'm going to take a guess and say you don't use linux as your daily desktop.

I've only been using Linux as my personal daily-driver for 14 years, and in that time, have only used three different distros as my desktop OS. My overall experience with Linux is limited to the past 32 years, having used about 20 or so different distros for servers, embedded applications, VMs, and other specific purposes during that timeframe.

So perhaps I don't have the breadth of experience you have, but what limited experience I have gained over that time does confirm the conclusions I expressed in my previous comment.

> If you prefer you could do 'time in terminal + time fixing things with GUI' and the result would be the same. Fedora just works. Ubuntu and family require fixing.

Time spent fixing usage-blocking issues for me has been minimal across all all distros I currently use in various capacities (Debian, Alpine, Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Arch) for at least the past 7-8 years. The last major issue I encountered that required non-trivial effort to correct was the result of the Infinality font rendering package being deprecated and preventing the DE from launching. Since then, most issues have been minor inconveniences, mostly at an application or DE level, that are easily adjusted away.

I'm also responsible for a large number of Windows desktops, and I can say their trajectories in terms of usability and supportability crossed over each other about 10 years ago -- since the launch of Windows 10, the administrative burden and overall issue rate has become much larger than that of equivalent Linux systems, whereas the Linux ecosystem as a whole, regardless of distro, has improved continuously, to the point that all of the distros I mentioned above do indeed 'just work' without incompatibilities or breakage in ordinary usage scenarios.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#610

Post by wltr »

Fokamul wrote: post #225
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…

> At least in my circle everyone I know has moved to their general computing being on phones and tablets which is not captured here Interesting, could you tell me which part of US you are from? --- My 2 cents, small country, mid-Europe, more or less in the middle of list of GDP / AIC per capita in EU. Nearly everyone has some sort of PC or laptops for personal use. Now it's changing, kids(~5-13yrs old) are using phon…

I’m curious to know the country, if you don’t mind sharing. I thought these EU letters of happiness are a real deal.
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