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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

#431

Post by sevensor »

buccal wrote: post #295
CjHuber wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK the Start Menu itself is still C++ and XAML however only the Recommended section is build with React Native [1]. Funnily or rather sadly, they seem to be quite proud of using it as seen in the video. 1: https://youtu.be/kMJNEFHj8b8?t=4m47s

Still in some cases you have to wait a few minutes to get working Start menu search or menu itself on a new not low-end device.

My work computer takes a full five minutes to become usable on the first login after a cold boot, and that’s not even counting the time from boot to entering my password. Before the upgrade from Windows 10, it only took three. Teams, of course, takes another five minutes to become functional. Meanwhile I have a 13 year old low end Asus laptop at home that boots to a fully usable Linux desktop in well under a minute.

It’s been this way for over a decade. The year of the Linux desktop was 2009; the world is only just catching up.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#432

Post by Kon5ole »

I think the main problem for Linux is the fragmentation and lack of focus. If you can live without the Adobe suite and such, any number of distros and desktops can serve you well, but it often tries to do so

An initiative like Omarchy got a lot of traction just by "picking one" of all the infinite options available, writing decent documentation for how it all works in Omarchy specifically, and having the whole thing install in minutes.

Omarchy and tiling VM's are not for everyone but I think the principles are great, and can surely be applied to other DE's as well.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#433

Post by tonyedgecombe »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #35
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.

Microsoft has a history of creating new UI frameworks. IMHO it's the result of Ballmer's "Developers, developers, developers!" attitude, which I think is a good thing at core (court the developers that add value to your platform!) But this results in chasing a new paradigm every few years to elicit new excitement from the developers. It'll always be more newsworthy to bring in a new framework than add incremental fix…

>Tangentially, see also the mixed reaction to Mac native apps switching from AppKit to SwiftUI

I'll take AppKit -> SwiftUI over Win32-> windowsx.h -> VB6 -> MFC -> ATL -> WTL -> WFC -> WinForms -> WPF -> WinRT -> UWP -> WinUI3 -> MAUI.

Even with all that Microsoft still went outside and used React Native for the start menu and Electron for the Visual Studio installer and Visual Studio Code.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#434

Post by fiforpg »

roryrjb wrote: post #328
layer8 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I see this contradiction all the time. Windows is a mess but there are lots of examples of rock solid, performant applications that have been developed and maintained over decades. Everything is one, also one that springs to mind which is much more performant compared to Linux alternatives is WinMerge.

> much more performant compared to Linux alternatives is WinMerge

I have found Beyond Compare to be very good on Linux, even on large files/directories.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#435

Post by tonyedgecombe »

trinix912 wrote: post #368
pjmlp wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Win32 is basically frozen on Windows XP. Since Vista most newer APIs are done in COM, or WinRT nowadays.

I remember a thin book describing changes to the API in Vista and 7 compared to XP and it was really thin. Just a few extra APIs to be able to show controls in the taskbar preview and things like that. Win32 is a stable API and I hope they don't let anyone from the Windows 11 modernization team touch it.

>Win32 is a stable API and I hope they don't let anyone from the Windows 11 modernization team touch it.

I've heard a Microsoft executive talk about win32 as legacy that they want to replace. I don't think that's realistic though, it's probably the last piece of technology keeping people on the platform.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#436

Post by ivell »

CjHuber wrote: post #94
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.

AFAIK the Start Menu itself is still C++ and XAML however only the Recommended section is build with React Native [1]. Funnily or rather sadly, they seem to be quite proud of using it as seen in the video. 1: https://youtu.be/kMJNEFHj8b8?t=4m47s

In the challenges section, they list a few challenges with React Native that they had to overcome. Interesting thing is that MS already has XAML, WinUI etc., that they built and control and don't havr those "challenges". I don't understand what the team got by using React Native compared to using XAML. Anyone from MS here who could provide some technical benefits for this decision?

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#437

Post by terhechte »

sails wrote: post #291
nntwozz wrote: post #144

I'm giving Apple the benefit of the doubt until macOS 27 (but I'm still on 15.7.4 hehe). Mac OS X and Aqua wasn't very well received either at launch. A similar thing happened with the flat design of iOS 7. Apple's pattern is initially going overboard with a new design and then scaling it back slowly like a sculptor. I think they're happy with this method, even if things miss at first the big changes usually create a…

Adding from Mac perspective, I am also keeping an eye on Linux. I’ve hit a wall with Mac window management, and find the operating system just gets in the way for professional use across multiple of their digital “desktops”. I have no useful way to isolate work streams, and would gladly move to something better. The blocker for Linux for me as someone who wants some level of reliability has always been fiddling with…

There's a mix of both worlds that I've tried for a while and want to pick up again in 2026: Use macOS so that I can utilize the great hardware and the well integrated drivers (e.g. sleep, performance, silence), but then for each project / work stream just fire up a lightweight linux VM fullscreen and do everything related there. E.g. all browser windows/tabs, apps, file explorer windows, terminal sessions. When I stop working I pause the VM. When I need to continue everything is as I left it. The main reason why I stopped was that the 2d hardware acceleration for Linux didn't work in UTM.app. I think I'll just need switch to Parallels or VMWare

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#438

Post by Notjoanbaez »

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.

It might be the alignment of several forces :

- macOS is kind of crapifying, with Liquid Glass UI, iCloud services pushed down your throat… - Windows 11… - (some) Europeans are getting concerned about their complete lack of sovereignty on the tech stack, and Linux is one way to reclaim a small part of it. - LLM agents like Claude code have lowered the bar so much for any setup operation and bash commands.

All in all, it seems like a good time for Linux to broaden a bit its adoption.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#439

Post by xena »

voxleone wrote: post #425

Welcome to the Linux desktop club. One small heads-up from experience: if you’re running NVIDIA hardware, expect a few bumps along the way. The proprietary drivers work well once set up, but kernel updates, Wayland quirks, and driver installs can be more hands-on than with AMD or Intel. Not a dealbreaker, just something to be aware of. Overall though, solid choice. Hope 2026 really is your year of the Linux desktop.

I had to set up a machine owner key in my motherboard's UEFI to get my 4080 working, but it's fine enough. I haven't had any issues with nvidia drivers since.

Re: 2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

#440

Post by xena »

whalesalad wrote: post #53

Been following this blog for a while and this is the last person I would have expected to be a Windows user.

About half the reason I used windows so much is for vtubing software. It barely works on windows, getting it working on Linux used to be a process fraught with agony and torment.
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