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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

#331

Post by eviks »

handbanana_ wrote: post #214

I really don't understand what is different about my installs of Windows 11 compared to what I read in all these types of articles. I have zero issues with the platform day in and day out with heavy workloads like Pro Tools and Unreal Engine devkit. Games run without stutter and issue, all my features are snappy, Explorer loads instantly, etc. Even search is performant and gives decent results. I have tweaked a few s…

> Explorer loads instantly, etc. Even search is performant and gives decent results.

There is likely too big of a gap in "terminology".

For example, the file explorer startup is so "Instant" that even Microsoft officially added an option to preload the app to fix the delay. But if you don't notice / don't appreciate real instant, then sure, you won't understand the complaints. (or maybe your hardware masks it well enough)

Similarly, if you've never used Everything or better file manager for search, you might get used to the bad search results and call them "decent" since you're not aware how awesome it can be

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#332

Post by eviks »

jimbob45 wrote: post #266
jama211 wrote: post #102

This post does examplefy what we’re seeing, a general indication of some swelling of momentum but I bet it’s still going to be from 2% to maybe 3 or 5% at most until Linux can fix a few things about the community, issues with install difficulty such as dual booting and other issues, and the technical knowledge barrier to entry until more distribution with hardware comes along. Although of course system 76 and steam d…

I can’t upgrade to Windows 11. I simply can’t justify a major purchase (now a major major purchase) for a new machine for a downgraded OS. My wife would never allow it and I would hate myself for asking. If Microsoft doesn’t relent, I’ll have no other choice. I have to believe there are a great many in my shoes.

There are ways to upgrade to Win11 on unsupported hardware, though also ways to extend security on Win10 for a few more years

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#333

Post by SeriousM »

layer8 wrote: post #206
seemaze wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It was faster to rg to search files This continuously drives me crazy on Windows and macOS. I am befuddled at the number of times where I'm searching for a top level subdirectory that starts with 'foo' but the search bar spins and spins.. Eventually I get fed up and just sort by name and perform an alphabetical visual search in meat-space.

On Windows, just use Everything: https://www.voidtools.com/

Yes, "Everything" is the tool to use, but to be honest, why isn't MS getting the same speed?

I'm a SE for 25 years now, sticking with C#. Microsoft always did great tech platforms and left the missing 20% to the developers. Look at the .net framework (the old one), microsoft windows until win11, office until 2025, and even Excel that can't open csv files because the delimeter is a region setting.

On one side I hated this attitude, on the other side it allowed and enabled developers to get their own business running - see jetbrains resharper functionality - visual studio up until 2024 was a mess without it...

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#334

Post by adithyassekhar »

bytefish wrote: post #284
jsheard wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typing "Visual Studio" into the new start menu may randomly trigger a Bing search for "Visual Studio" instead of running it, but on the other hand that makes Bings KPIs go up so it's impossible to say if it's bad or not.

It takes literally a click to deactivate it though. One could argue about Bing Search being the default, but I didn’t run the user surveys to see, which is best for the average user.

Either I am stupid or you're being dishonest. There is no one click way to disable it. Only on pro versions of windows, with a group policy otherwise a couple of obscure registry keys no regular users know.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#335

Post by delta_p_delta_x »

bitwize wrote: post #267
cosmic_cheese wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t agree with this at all. I’ll take AppKit (preferably with Swift, but Obj-C is fine too) over anything web. There’s a number of reasons, but the biggest is that AppKit has an expansive set of well implemented, accessible, flexible, efficient, and ready to use widgets that are all designed to work together, and the truth is that this isn’t something you can get on the web. Even the most complete “UI frameworks”…

There's one problem: If you're competent with non-web UI technologies, it's probably time to schedule your colonoscopy. Late millennials and gen Z have been spoiled by declarative, reactive frameworks that work identically whether you're doing a local UI or the Web, and the tools (for example Figma) that have grown up around these frameworks. Using C++, Objective-C, or even Swift will be just fine for a personal proj…

> Virtually all of the younger system developers are already working in Rust

I'd love to know where you get your statistics from.

FYI, as an anecdote, I am 'younger', in the sense of 'only recently joined the workforce', and I write 100+ lines of C and C++ a day, both at work and in side projects. Haven't touched Rust once, although I would like to get into it.

And funnily, the one UI framework I did use at work is Avalonia, which is strongly inspired by Windows Presentation Foundation.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#336

Post by eviks »

solstice wrote: post #326
eviks wrote: post #316

> I think that Linux on the desktop is ready for the masses now, not because it's advanced in a huge leap/bound. Yeah, right, these types of shallow pieces about Linux "for the masses" have the same structure without addressing the obvious issues: - Windows has the following 3 components that became worse. Well, they were bad 10 years ago (the ones that existed), so you could've spent a few hours per component to rep…

I get your general point but as others said things are getting better. > Want to find any file anywhere instantly (including newly created)? No, impossible, there is only NTFS Everything app that does it. Fsearch exists and is pretty much exactly that afaict. https://cboxdoerfer.github.io/fsearch/

> Fsearch exists and is pretty much exactly that afaict

No it's not, it's worse, and Fsearch dev said that it's not possible to implement it as well due to OS deficiencies. So nothing is getting better here.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#337

Post by necovek »

bawolff wrote: post #118
publicdebates wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I missing something, or hasn't Microsoft done this since Windows 9x with apps like Explorer and Control Panel heavily using web views internally rather than "native" WinAPI GUIs?

Remember when Active Desktop! Was the shiny new thing?

That was actually fun if not very useful (I had a dynamic school timetable programmed as my "wallpaper" as I was in high school at the time).

Not very useful because you quickly realize you mostly obscure your desktop with actual applications you want to use on your computer.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#339

Post by _fzslm »

trueismywork wrote: post #77
roxolotl wrote: post #4

“start menus made with React Native, control-alt-delete menus that are actually just webviews” Haven’t used windows in five years or so but I’ve kept hearing bad things. This really is the icing on the cake though. Yea the AI stuff is dumb but if a OS manufacturer can’t be bothered to interact with their own UI libraries to build native UIs something has gone horribly wrong.

Long time ago, I read a blog about how the user must absolutely trust the dialog boxes for Ctrl+Alt+Delete and Adminstrator passwords and why they were tricky to get right.. Then I hear that now ctrl alt delete is a webview. Its difficult to believe. Do you have a reference?

bump, tbh I think this is hyperbole as on my w11 pc the ctrl alt delete menu hasn't changed since 2021's RC (which was just a reskinned version of w10's, which was just a reskinned version of w8.1's... going all the way back to vista)

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#340

Post by eviks »

rrgok wrote: post #322
eviks wrote: post #316

> I think that Linux on the desktop is ready for the masses now, not because it's advanced in a huge leap/bound. Yeah, right, these types of shallow pieces about Linux "for the masses" have the same structure without addressing the obvious issues: - Windows has the following 3 components that became worse. Well, they were bad 10 years ago (the ones that existed), so you could've spent a few hours per component to rep…

Yeah, I started to appreciate Windows more recently. In fact I prefer it over MacOS and Linux. WSL2 it's great when I need a linux shell. File manager is one those reason. Damn, there is no alternatives to DOPUS. Don't get me started with AutoHotkey. There is nothing compared to that.

> Don't get me started with AutoHotkey.

Indeed, I've purposefully avoided mentioning that because thought it's less "mass-relevant", but yeah, that's a huge blocker for any "advanced" customization OS workflow.

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