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Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

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Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#131

Post by nine_k »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #105
bruce511 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet not having a presence on the desktop stings a bit doesn't it :). You can conquer the world, dominate every space and yet there's thus little voice inside saying "but you're not good enough. See over there, in that one space, you're a weakling. " Welcome to the human condition.

Let’s not pretend it wouldn’t be good if I could run Linux on the desktop the way we run MacOS. It would be great to only have to learn one OS and it worked really smoothly.

Like macOS, that is, all locked down, with abilities to customize things revoked with every release, with most software paid, and only available on a narrow choice of pretty expensive (though powerful) hardware?

No, not really.

You can't make things smooth and flexible at the same time, it takes too much effort. You can't support a ton of varied hardware and make everything work smoothly in every case; it again would take non-viable amounts of work.

You can have a pretty smooth desktop Linux experience if you pick a large mainstream distro, pick reliable, well-supported mainstream hardware, and pick a polished desktop environment such as KDE or that Gnome variant of Pop OS.

But if you want to tweak things, you've got to tweak things.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#132

Post by hgomersall »

hnlmorg wrote: post #114
bruce511 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet not having a presence on the desktop stings a bit doesn't it :). You can conquer the world, dominate every space and yet there's thus little voice inside saying "but you're not good enough. See over there, in that one space, you're a weakling. " Welcome to the human condition.

No. I will use the OS I like and others will use the OS they prefer. It’s called choice. What stung before was that people were forced to use Windows because of lock-ins, software compatibility, etc. That doesn’t really exist any more. If there is one good thing about web apps, it’s that browsers are now the application run time and browsers are more cross platform than any software libraries that have come before it…

I will use the OS I like and others will use the OS I tell them to use. It's called "my choice".

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#134

Post by 76SlashDolphin »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #94
qwytw wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is more to an 'OS' than the kernel. SteamDecks are indistinguishable from PCs, since they run more or less exactly the same software as a Linux desktop/laptop would.

It’s still not a desktop PC. You’ll notice that iOS, Android and iPadOS aren’t included in the list either, even though the devices that run those operating systems can also replicate some subset of the desktop pc experience (and much more comprehensively than the steam deck can). At best it would be a general purpose mobile device, but even that is rather contrived. How many users do you imagine are using a steam de…

Anecdotal but I bring my steam deck with a dock and M&K with me when I visit family since I don't have a desktop computer there.

Also, the Steam Deck's OS is by far the closest you can get to a traditional Linux distro since it's GNU+Linux under the hood. The built-in desktop mode is extremely close to a basic KDE Arch install, especially after you disable read-only mode. Android doesn't have as full-featured of a desktop experience unless we count Samsung DeX and even then display out is available on a vast minority of devices. iOS has no native display out and iPadOS doesn't even support normal 16:9 screens without black borders. The issue with all of the above devices is that their "desktop" modes are janky afterthoughts while on the Steam Deck it's a core feature.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#135

Post by renewiltord »

At some point of time, I ended up with a Linux desktop that I rebooted to play games, and a MacOS laptop. And if I'm being honest, I switch between these so seamlessly it's barely visible to me. I would never have thought we would have gotten here. But Mozilla blazed the way making standards real and now all apps are Electron and the cross-platform future is here.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#136

Post by borissk »

bruce511 wrote: post #89
borissk wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people are locked-in Windows, but as Microsoft more and more ruins the OS by pushing advertisement, telemetry, slow cloud services, new versions of apps optimized for those who don't know how to use a computer, rather than experts - there will be plenty of users switching to Linux.

Most users are not even aware of telemetry. Those who find the cloud services slow can just stop using them. The advertising seems to be local to the US because I've never seen it, but I expect users will ignore it just like they ignore it on TV, Google, Facebook, Twitter, on every roadside, at every mall and do on. Frankly advertising is everywhere, avoiding it doesn't seem to be a priority. I think you summed it up…

>> Those who find the cloud services slow can just stop using them.

Microsoft has made sure users can't stop using cloud services, unless they spend a ton of effort every time a new update that re-enables them is released.

E.g. try to disable the web search in the Windows start menu.

>> And there are 97% of the world like her and, 3% like you ;)

If the 3% expert users switch away from Windows it will be the beginning of the end for Windows.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#137

Post by MichaelMoser123 »

robbyking wrote: post #7

It’s the year of the Linux desktop!

if they really start to shove ads in the start menu of windows 11 then Linux will have a real chance on the desktop. Also you don't need windows for office - you can have it in the browser, and google docs is enough for most users.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#138

Post by branko_d »

sersi wrote: post #65

Seems that this website blocks any access from HK completely through cloudflare... Cloudflare making it easy to block entire countries, allow people to be lazy in protecting their websites and goes completely against the open web. Of course I could use a vpn but it's getting tiring that I have to do so more and more often.

Blocked from Kazakhstan too.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#139

Post by sumuyuda »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #59
electricduck wrote: post #10

I'm kinda surprised this entirely forgot to mention the SteamDeck. I'd love to know how much of an impact that had, considering apparently 3 million units have been sold (according to Valve). Alas, how many of those users know they are running Linux is another question.

SteamDecks aren’t desktop PCs. If you were including gaming consoles/handhelds, then BSD would be way ahead of Linux with all the PlayStations that have been sold (and maybe with Nintendo switches too, depending on how you chose to count those).

You can actually switch to desktop mode, which is a full KDE environment, so it is a Linux desktop PC.

Re: Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share

#140

Post by constantcrying »

bruce511 wrote: post #68
DiabloD3 wrote: post #49

I wonder why they keep making these articles. Linux is on more computers both today and all of the computers ever made put together than any other OS. It is on virtually all servers on the Internet, the majority OS on phones, its in many TVs and STBs and streaming sticks, its one of the few OSes ever in space, its one of the few OSes ever on Mars, and it is also the OS behind ChromeOS (which that article mistakenly b…

And yet not having a presence on the desktop stings a bit doesn't it :). You can conquer the world, dominate every space and yet there's thus little voice inside saying "but you're not good enough. See over there, in that one space, you're a weakling. " Welcome to the human condition.

Who cares? I don't use Linux because it is or isn't popular. Who actually has an emotional bond to the market share of their software?

I use Linux because it works for me and makes my life easier, is free/open and because I don't have to deal with Windows.

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