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It Will Never Be the Year of the Linux Desktop

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Re: It Will Never Be the Year of the Linux Desktop

#72

Post by card_zero »

the__alchemist wrote: post #13

I would like to see a non-big-corp-controlled (e.g. Open source) OS that is focused on single-user systems. (Personal /"Desktop" computers) ABI compatibilty, no sudo or permissions; "just works". Schedule software, provide a GUI, threads, memory allocation etc. But get out of the way; no complicated user system; no delicate balance of text config files scattered throughout a file system. Currently, OSS (etc) OSes are…

EasyOS is a very unlinuxy Linux that somebody here mentioned once when I was having a similar whine.

https://easyos.org/about/how-and-why-easyos-is-different.htm...

Note the remarks about sudo, folders, and GUIs.

Re: It Will Never Be the Year of the Linux Desktop

#74

Post by godelski »

mmh0000 wrote: post #64
godelski wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> tmux+vim is as good as your Visual Studio. You probably don't need tmux. The utility is really when you're remoting into machines and want to keep your session (or are too lazy to use nohup or disown) Your terminal should split panes for and do tabs. Ghostty is my preferred but use whatever. And fwiw, even if your terminal sucks vim can do this all for you too (:term), so you don't even need to leave vim. > vim is…

Everybody needs tmux, especially locally. My terminal splits panes (which I don't use), but what if I want to open two terminals that share the same set of splits? Can't. But tmux can! What if I want to SSH back into my desktop (because I'm on a laptop or whatever) and grab something from my desktop terminal? Can't. But tmux can! Vim splits and the vim terminal are poorly implemented. Technically, yes, they work. But…

  > but what if I want to open two terminals that share the same set of splits?
You want clones? I'll admit most terminals can't do this (some can), but I'm struggling to see the use case. What's the advantage of having 2 windows displaying the same information?

  > What if I want to SSH back into my desktop
Agreed! That was the explicitly stated usecase where I said tmux was for[0]

  > Vim splits and the vim terminal are poorly implemented.
Completely fair and I avoid for exactly those reasons. But they're still handy in a pinch and they're good to know about

BUT tmux is also poorly implemented. Start trying to use sixel (or kitty graphics) in your fzf previews, yazi, or whatever you're displaying things with. This is a big pain point.

  > please don't criticize my scripts
Do you want friendly comments? All code sucks so I'll not going to call you dumb or anything. But do upload somewhere so I don't have to download 0x0.st is perfect for this usecase.

  > Using titles
Your terminal doesn't do titles? What terminal are you using?

[0] I'll also admit Claude code is another use case. But that is because it is so poorly written not because the terminals suck. I absolutely believe Dario when he says Claude does most of the coding... it shows...

Re: It Will Never Be the Year of the Linux Desktop

#75

Post by godelski »

maxeda wrote: post #61
godelski wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> tmux+vim is as good as your Visual Studio. You probably don't need tmux. The utility is really when you're remoting into machines and want to keep your session (or are too lazy to use nohup or disown) Your terminal should split panes for and do tabs. Ghostty is my preferred but use whatever. And fwiw, even if your terminal sucks vim can do this all for you too (:term), so you don't even need to leave vim. > vim is…

Just because tmux doesn't work for you doesn't mean it can't be useful for someone else. I for one really appreciate having the same interface and keybinds across several devices and I've never felt a need to look elsewhere.

  > having the same interface and keybinds across several devices
I'm a bit lost. I use my dotfiles for this.

If it is a machine I control: I control the terminal so there's no issues.

If it's a machine I'm sshd into: that's my explicitly stated tmux case right there.

If it's a machine I don't control: well I can't do anything anyways, so conversation is moot. This situation is exceptionally rare though (where I can't even do local installs)

I agree that you should use what works for you, but I'm curious what you're getting that isn't already offered by your system

Re: It Will Never Be the Year of the Linux Desktop

#78

Post by BrannonKing »

I'm not saying the article is wrong, but here's why I think we've struggled to have the year of the Linux Desktop: the corporations want control over users and computers that are on the network. They like their Windows domain user and computer GUI controls, that let them add/remove users and computers at will. They like the control of that centralized management. Centralized user management is more work on Linux, and tools for it aren't as pretty. The Hypervisor GUI is another tool that executives like to see.

Re: It Will Never Be the Year of the Linux Desktop

#79

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

I mean, the consumer desktop pc segment must have changed dramatically, once smartphones showed up, desktops are either work machine or specifically tied to some hobby that requires such performance (video editing, gaming come to mind), it's such a niche in comparison to what it was, so saying "linux is a very small percentage" could potentially change as most desktop PCs disappear from homes and remain only in the homes of certain hobbyist, which could end up with mostly Linux users
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