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What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

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Re: What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

#131

Post by wolfgke »

patrickaljord wrote: post #49
Kenji wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows solved many of the GUI problems 20 years ago that Linux still struggles with today. Windows was and is ahead and this is why it was and is more successful. It is that simple. I would take Windows 95's window manager over Ubuntu's Unity every day of the week.

I think Unity (and KDE) were good enough to replace Windows but Windows won 10 years before Gnome and KDE became a thing. And yes Windows95 was not only good enough but great as you pointed. The lack of hardware support was because it made no sense for hardware companies to support an OS with less than 1% market share and same for the gigantic ecosystem of software that ran on windows which had a very long tail. My p…

> I think Unity (and KDE) were good enough to replace Windows

Also in terms of long-term backwards compatibility? I doubt...

Re: What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

#132

Post by oblio »

Shorel wrote: post #66
PaulHoule wrote: post #24

The original sin of the Linux desktop was the kde/gnome split over licensing. Had Linux had one good desktop, like the other operating systems, it could have had a future on the desktop. Instead it has had a number of almost-good desktops that are still fragmented by hate and the desire to thwart interoperability. For instance, the GTK team won't fix certain bugs that affect running in a rootless X server because the…

And that was mainly the job of the author of this article. Who is currently working for Microsoft. I smell an agenda here.

I think he was well meaning. And at some point he just gave up.

As a long time Linux user I agree with him. FOSS is just not conducive to the kind of development needed for a high quality, long term stable desktop experience.

Re: What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

#133

Post by flukus »

VonGuard wrote: post #6

I think it was the inability for GUI's to stay stable. Gnome went off the rails, Unity completely ruined Ubuntu[1], and KDE always felt very cheap and hard to navigate. My opinion, yes, but I always felt the GUI changes in Linux were extremely gratuitous after Gnome 2. Couple this with the fact that for a decade, the actual GUI was tied very, very heavily to the apps. So you had to use Gedit in Gnome, or whatever the…

At least 10 years ago x11/xorg was a reliable component. Now there's an extra layer of churn below the desktop level too.

Re: What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

#134

Post by stan_rogers »

killacodeninja wrote: post #113

How many Linux distros and their many different GUI/UI variations have been listed here??? No wonder the Linux desktop was dead upon arrival. Too many flavors of developers to satisfy. But it wasn't about developers; it was about end users who just wanted something simple. No matter the changes that Windows has made, from 95 to 10, for end users, the changes caused relatively minor disruption, especially with everyth…

That's the dichotomy right there: the "I can fix everything" versus the "I shouldn't have to" user bases. "I shouldn't have to" is much, much larger. There does come a point where freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.

Re: What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

#136

Post by mnadkvlb »

dcdevito wrote: post #67
ramblenode wrote: post #17

The people I know who use desktop Linux love their Linux rigs a whole lot more than my Windows and Mac acquaintances enjoy their computers--which in many cases just borders on tolerance, especially with Windows 10. Maybe software needs something beyond market share, sort of like what Bhutan did with Gross National Happiness. We'll rank products based on how much people enjoy them and then see who's the dominant deskt…

That's because it takes more work and knowledge to get a Linux machine running smoothly, so in the end you feel a sense of accomplishment, when in the end all that was done was just getting a local desktop OS running the way a computer should be used in the first place. It's all smoke and mirrors.

That's the whole point. You can't achieve this with windows, because it runs an update whenever it wants and will just give you a restart at a random time. Happened to me at work during a presentation when i turned on a vm after few days. And then you have same privacy settings scattered around the OS trying to scam you into giving your data to Microsoft, which turns on by default after every godamn update. I would have never moved to linux, if microsoft didn't shove their crap down the users throats everytime it updates.

I have now complete control over everything, and i feel very happy by using a fedora workstation on my personal pc/laptop. I am not into gaming, and even if i were, i would rather sacrifice my windows games just to support an OS which is more fair to the users and doesn't steal their privacy.

Re: What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

#137

Post by feedjoelpie »

VonGuard wrote: post #6

I think it was the inability for GUI's to stay stable. Gnome went off the rails, Unity completely ruined Ubuntu[1], and KDE always felt very cheap and hard to navigate. My opinion, yes, but I always felt the GUI changes in Linux were extremely gratuitous after Gnome 2. Couple this with the fact that for a decade, the actual GUI was tied very, very heavily to the apps. So you had to use Gedit in Gnome, or whatever the…

Can someone please explain to me why everyone says that Gnome went off the rails? Gnome 3 to me was, except for leaving behind a lot of legacy systems, an extremely usable and downright pretty UI. Menu, search, windows, and virtual desktops all available from one keypress or one hotspot. I thought that was a stroke of genius myself.

Re: What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

#138

Post by mnadkvlb »

seibelj wrote: post #27

As a programmer, I find Fedora with the Gnome Classic theme and the No Topleft Hot Corner extension[0] to be an excellent, clean, effective desktop UI. But in order to get this working properly, I had to go through package hell for a few hours to get the right graphics drivers and tweak a bunch of settings. I've heard Linux Mint is good for non-programmers, but I've never tried. Unity in Ubuntu is the worst desktop e…

I have moved to fedora since almost 2 years now and i can't say more. It had been one of the best experiences ever after the initial set-up and learning curve. I have all my settings on git now and whenever i do a new install of any linux i just get those settings and boom.

I am very happy linux user and support the philosophy. Its way more fair than any other os where the main purpose is to rip of the people who support them by selling their private data etc.

Re: What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

#139

Post by MrFurious »

The linux desktop was killed for desktop developers. We haved good desktops with gnome 2 and kde 3, only needed evolution (kde 4 is true that was evolution,but plasma 5 is a buggy horrible slow thing), and nerds decided that the cool thing was transparencies or twisted cubes, then came KDE4 with unstable first versions, Gnome 3 with many icons triyng look how a mac, and unity.

I was KDE user but with Plasma 5, the kde people spit again to users with a new buggy version that broke all things as with kde4.

I use MATE now, and i'm happy. Simples menus, file browser, no problems with graphic card because incompatible drivers with desktop...

Re: What Killed the Linux Desktop (2012)

#140

Post by j3097736 »

julian_1 wrote: post #121
VonGuard wrote: post #6

I think it was the inability for GUI's to stay stable. Gnome went off the rails, Unity completely ruined Ubuntu[1], and KDE always felt very cheap and hard to navigate. My opinion, yes, but I always felt the GUI changes in Linux were extremely gratuitous after Gnome 2. Couple this with the fact that for a decade, the actual GUI was tied very, very heavily to the apps. So you had to use Gedit in Gnome, or whatever the…

> Gnome went off the rails, Unity completely ruined Ubuntu[1], and KDE always felt very cheap and hard to navigate. Completely agree, and as a user of Desktop Linux for a very long time - I always felt that Linux GUI have been inferior to the options available on Mac and Windows. It's not for everyone, but I found a personal solution with tiling window managers (Xmonad, I3) and related tools (suckless' dmenu). They r…

But why switch to a tiling window manager when XFCE + dmenu + custom shortcuts is good enough?
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