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Desktop Linux Keeps Winning the Wrong Battles

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Re: Desktop Linux Keeps Winning the Wrong Battles

#2

Post by jrm4 »

One thing that I think this argument sorely misses is an honest discussion of how e.g. bad (or perhaps unliked) decisions get made that have big impacts here.

For example, count me in with those folks who think the "new" GNOME sucks. Now, maybe you disagree and that's fine -- but so often those discussions start and end with "Well it's open source and so because you're not making anything better you can't even talk."

No. Some big players put their thumb on the scale and had a vision and a direction for GNOME and what role it would or should play; someone thought it was a good idea to try to out Steve Jobs Steve Jobs.

THOSE moves need more discussion and transparency in order to REALLY talk about "the Linux Desktop."

Re: Desktop Linux Keeps Winning the Wrong Battles

#3

Post by blueflow »

> While this could absolutely happen, the way that Linux as a whole has been developing over the years isn't always conducive to making the world's Windows and macOS users convert en masse.

Its the way Windows is developing that is driving this change. GNOME might be hardly usable but Microsoft managed to top that.

Edit: I retract the last sentence. I'm currently trying GNOME and its less usable than Windows.

Re: Desktop Linux Keeps Winning the Wrong Battles

#5

Post by skydhash »

Linux desktop has already arrived for me. All the apps and utilities I need is there, all installable via apt. It's not a Linux problem anymore when the hardware manufacturers won't support it.

GNOME is nice, KDE is nice, and we have other options for people that don't like the two previous one. The issue we have now is walled garden, when some proprietary software won't support standards and even their own file format.

Re: Desktop Linux Keeps Winning the Wrong Battles

#6

Post by garciansmith »

> The problem is that these are "wins" because they bring Linux closer to Windows or macOS.

I disagree that this is an issue. The main advantage of Linux for me is that I have choice (including using various desktop environments that the author is annoyed by; I used GNOME for years and eventually had too many problems with it so I switched to KDE), and those choices are not controlled by one entity which, in the case of Apple and Microsoft, view me only as a customer to extract money from.

Re: Desktop Linux Keeps Winning the Wrong Battles

#8

Post by pengwinhayden »

jrm4 wrote: post #2

One thing that I think this argument sorely misses is an honest discussion of how e.g. bad (or perhaps unliked) decisions get made that have big impacts here. For example, count me in with those folks who think the "new" GNOME sucks. Now, maybe you disagree and that's fine -- but so often those discussions start and end with "Well it's open source and so because you're not making anything better you can't even talk."…

Those moves are made by Red Hat, to benefit their enterprise customers, because enterprise customers are the ones who pay for Linux, their interests get top priority.

Shuttleworth did so much for desktop Linux by mailing us all free install CDs, but then users everywhere began to expect Linux to be free as in beer.

But until users are willing to pay for desktop Linux again, like some of us may remember, enterprise will always win out.

Re: Desktop Linux Keeps Winning the Wrong Battles

#9

Post by deater »

zb3 wrote: post #4

I don't even want linux to be mainstream.. this will inevitably lead to more for-profit enshittification of the ecosystem..

it's already happened. So many of the main contributors work for IBM, Microsoft, and Intel. It's extremely difficult to have your voice heard / patches accepted if you're just a hobbyist developer

I've gone to the extreme of writing my own OS because I got fed up with how corporate Linux has gotten

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