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2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

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Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#171

Post by lynndotpy »

sylens wrote: post #14

If this wasn’t HN, I would swear that my personal recommendation algorithm has gotten Linux desktop-pilled and that’s why I’m seeing so many posts like these every day. But in reality I think there is a groundswell of momentum happening here, and with component prices rising, I only see this continuing as more people look to breathe new life into older hardware.

Just anecdotally, I'm seeing a lot of momentum in my social circles. My friends and their parents (!!!) who are asking about Linux.

My "year of the Linux desktop" was in 2010, because even then everything was much, much faster on Ubuntu. (It helps major browsers were shipping 64-bit versions for Linux only, but Minecraft simply did not run on my laptop under Windows).

Does anyone else feel kind of sick (something like pity?) when they see people using Windows 11? Right click menus which have a loading spinner, advertisements littered throughout, and headlines from right-wing tabloids spammed in news widgets.

These past six years have been absolutely bonkers incredible for Linux, and it can all be attributed to Microsoft shooting themselves in the head with Windows. Proton work started after Windows 8 and really became usable in late 2019. Now we're seeing something again with Windows 11. It's awesome, hope it sticks.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#172

Post by grugagag »

cogman10 wrote: post #65
tormeh wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very much this. I bet the Xbox/games division would be up in arms about it, but they got told to spend less money and also not to bother the important people. The Windows people might care, but with how bad they've been shepherding the OS I'm not so sure. Nadella is focused on AI and Azure. Bet he could hardly care less.

Yeah, it's all AI, Azure, and Office 365. Everything else is basically a forgotten product by microsoft. Even xbox is basically dead at this point.

If it were forgotten it’s worked as it did. The problem it’s that it’s nerfed to funnel you through the new AI or Cloud user harvesting.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#173

Post by billy99k »

Good luck. I've tried to completely replace Windows with Linux over the last two decades or so, and it's still lacks polish. I really don't enjoy having half-written GUIs for different apps and having to compile my own fixes after searching for 3 hours.

I think I finally gave it up in anger, when it was on a laptop I was using for a few important projects and it cost me days of work.

I now use Windows+WSL and it has the best of both worlds: A fully functional GUI with everything I would ever need with Linux.

MacOS is really the best Nix Desktop OS out there. I would use this instead, but I still require some windows apps.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#174

Post by chrisweekly »

gerdesj wrote: post #123
ktpsns wrote: post #3

Best luck! My year of the Linux desktop has been 2006, so it's now 20 years (with a short 5yrs relapse around 2012). I never look back. (Similarities to smoking cessation are neither coincidental nor intentional, but unavoidable.)

Mine was a few years earlier (YoLotD). Sadly, I kept up with the fags until 2018 ...

FTR to other readers, "fags" in this context refers to cigarettes (per the GP's parenthetical remark about smoking).

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#175

Post by grugagag »

linusr wrote: post #68

“for me” - this should had been in the title but missed out. Linux has got better but not yet there.

Linux isn’t perfect but it’s far away from the compromises one needs to make to use Windows. It’s weird frogs are comfortable slowly boiling even when Microsoft turns on the heat to the max.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#176

Post by kombine »

cjbgkagh wrote: post #126
easton wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the outside looking in one wonders why this is allowed to continue. Microsoft’s old school “developer tools for money” business is slowly dying (because Visual Studio proper is less popular than its ever been since so much is targeting web), you would think they’d reorganize and move .net and GitHub and stuff into their cloud team and yeet whatever toxic leadership is preventing Windows from using Microsoft’s ow…

It’s a largely dysfunctional org creating largely dysfunctional software, I.e. Conway law. Dysfunctional orgs tend not to be capable of fixing themselves, especially without external threat. Satya Nadella, like many CEOs, seems mostly interested in impressing his peers and these days that means fancy AI, before that it was Quantum chips. Microsoft has produced some great technology and when I was last there I was def…

Yeah, .NET is actually an impressive piece of tech. They have F# too which is a really solid programming language. And then they chose React of all things to build core OS UI.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#177

Post by stn8188 »

sylens wrote: post #14

If this wasn’t HN, I would swear that my personal recommendation algorithm has gotten Linux desktop-pilled and that’s why I’m seeing so many posts like these every day. But in reality I think there is a groundswell of momentum happening here, and with component prices rising, I only see this continuing as more people look to breathe new life into older hardware.

Same here. I spent a good chunk of the evening just today messing around with Steam to see what I could get running on Linux. It's been a while since I tried in earnest, but I got all the games I wanted running (minus VR, but that felt like it was close). Even though I barely play any games anymore, it's the last reason I haven't wiped my Win10 drive.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#179

Post by aprilnya »

> I haven't booted into Windows in over 3 months on my tower and I'm starting to realize that it's not worth wasting the space for.

Kind of glad to read this, I went into it thinking it will be another person saying "I'll use Linux forever!" the day after installing it, similar to everyone who says their new years resolution is to work out more, then proceeds to go to the gym 2 times total :)

(oh, and then, I noticed this is Xe!)

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