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2022 was the year of Linux on the Desktop?

justingarrison.com

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Re: 2022 was the year of Linux on the Desktop?

#301

Post by solraph »

mumblemumble wrote: post #30

If you click through to the link, you'll see that the results add up to 150%. That should be a sign that something odd is going on with this survey result and we need to interpret it with caution. The question was "What is the primary operating system in which you work." (Emphasis mine.) The question itself implies that we should only be able to pick one, and yet the results clearly indicate that more than one was al…

> It's implausibly high for the number of people who use it as their primary workstation OS

This might just be the bias of the circles I move in, but over the last five years me running Linux on the desktop in a development work environment has gone from a weird oddity, to uncommon, to boringly normal. I've had a few non-work tech-adjacent friends ask for opinions on running Linux on Thinkpads for example.

I strongly suspect there's a multitude of factors including the rise of the cloud, the maturation of Linux desktop distros, Linux being the default/only options for things like Raspberry Pi's, developer software being multi-platform, etc.

While some hardware issue still remain, getting Linux compatible hardware of any type is pretty easy. It's not 100% guaranteed situation like Windows is, but you'll have multiple options for whatever you are looking for, which is a massive difference compared to years passed where some hardware categories simply did not have a fully fledge Linux compatible option.

Re: 2022 was the year of Linux on the Desktop?

#302

Post by woojoo666 »

mboto wrote: post #150
joe_the_user wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but that is a fairly obscure setting that I don't think merits your earlier build-up "Something as simple as..." . On the one hand, I'd certainly admit Linux has "warts". It's GUI is perfectly usable and clear - it's more now what one is doing than the horror that is Windows 11 imo (and I'm working on that occasionally now). But the warts of Linux are accentuated by the OS attracting a certain kind of "OCD" use…

I agree with the parent comment. This isn't that niche a requirement and its just one of huge list. Dismissing people's needs isnt the way to solve this.

I'd like to see a comparison between, say, how many people want to customize their scroll speed (hard on linux, easy in windows/macos) and some other use cases, like how many people to sandbox and control permissions for individual apps (easy on Linux using Flatseal, hard on window/macos).

Then we can get a better sense of how niche these demands are, and how well these desktop OSes support them

Re: 2022 was the year of Linux on the Desktop?

#303

Post by JadeNB »

flatiron wrote: post #291
JadeNB wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think that recommending Ubuntu is an anachronism from the mid to late 00s. What would you recommend as a modern-day user-friendly Linux experience? I've been looking for something not too demanding to put on an old X220.

Honestly you should take a stab at arch. There is a cli wizard installer now.

Arch was what I first tried, probably about a decade ago (on the same hardware). I had some networking troubles, the details of which I don't recall, and probably some other failures of understanding on my part.

Re: 2022 was the year of Linux on the Desktop?

#304

Post by woojoo666 »

jorvi wrote: post #57
nverno wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sleep states are faulty on the Linux laptop I'm currently on, and I do occasionally waste time on interoperability with various commercial software, although countless hours seems excessive. But when it comes to running dev software or getting up and running with a new project, or compiling some github source, I think I save much more time than I've lost.

What frustrates me is that other Linux users will tell you with a straight face that you must be flat-out lying if you bring up sleep problems. Had three users tell me that on HN just about a day ago.

I think it's because it's an apples to oranges comparison. I'm guessing you installed Linux yourself on your PCs, instead of it coming pre-installed. Whereas for Mac OS, you can only get it on devices pre-installed, so naturally all hardware functions like sleep will work perfectly. I'm guessing if you buy a laptop from those distributors with Linux pre-installed, you will also get great hardware support

Re: 2022 was the year of Linux on the Desktop?

#305

Post by lmm »

DesiLurker wrote: post #296
lmm wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NVidia makes the best Linux driver + graphics card combination going, and always have. If you actually want to play games on Linux, NVidia cards are the way to go. But open-source people don't like them because their driver isn't open-source, and Wayland people don't like them because their driver has limited Wayland support.

the creator and maintainer of linux .. Linus Trovalds .. would disagree with you a bit [1]. 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2lhwb_OckQ

Torvalds tries to have his cake and eat it with the ridiculous Linux approach to drivers; there's no stable API, and he wants you to contribute your drivers to the kernel tree, but also even leaving aside copyright issues he won't accept drivers into the kernel tree if he's not happy with them.

Re: 2022 was the year of Linux on the Desktop?

#306

Post by ThatMedicIsASpy »

enneff wrote: post #46
ThrowawayTestr wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would they? Private companies don't need to brag.

Also, on track record, Valve have been very quiet in general about the huge piles of money they have raked in over the last 20 years.

While also investing heavily in hard and software BUT never really expanding their teams by thousands of new people.

Steam link, steam controllers, steam machines, vr headsets, steam deck

inhome streaming, remote play together, steam workshop, family sharing, mobile apps

Re: 2022 was the year of Linux on the Desktop?

#307

Post by telcal »

pepperidgeFarm wrote: post #284

Pepperidge Farm remembers when 1998 was the year of Linux on the Desktop. Red Hat and StarCraft boxes lined the shelves of CompUSA.

It's funny sad that every year is the year of Linux on the Desktop. I used it as my desktop from around '97-'99 and eventually gave it up for Mac. It was fun to tinker with and get my Enlightenment setting just right but I can't see it ever taking much marketshare.

Re: 2022 was the year of Linux on the Desktop?

#308

Post by seanmcdirmid »

TylerE wrote: post #241
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but it is the desktop I’m used to, and it’s running on Linux.

> . I have never tried an actual Linux desktop at work Which is it? Your statements are contradictory

I meant something with a GUI. Though I guess all the web stuff technically runs on Linux.

Re: 2022 was the year of Linux on the Desktop?

#309

Post by whateveracct »

alpaca128 wrote: post #242
whateveracct wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Software development is full of anti-intellectualism and friends. So many "professionals" don't think they should Learn New Things. Said "professionals" tend to be excellent org chart climbers otoh.

People don't have enough time in their life to learn about everything they touch and need to say no to some things to get anything done. Maybe those professionals want to learn tools for their actual job instead of fighting with the platform underneath. Just like artists want to draw, not learn how to fix their graphic tablet's broken driver.

Most of the learning I'm talking about is like an hour of work. But the resistance doesn't even let people get to that point.

Re: 2022 was the year of Linux on the Desktop?

#310

Post by TylerE »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #308
TylerE wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> . I have never tried an actual Linux desktop at work Which is it? Your statements are contradictory

I meant something with a GUI. Though I guess all the web stuff technically runs on Linux.

That isn’t what people mean when they say a Linux desktop.
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