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Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

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Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with this. Couple years ago I splurged on a nice Thinkpad X1 carbon, and decided to give windows a try after abstaining for many years. I really liked the WSL but overall it was a resource hog. It would blast the fan for seemingly no reason, the task manager would slow down, the laptop would overheat. And even playing basic games like freecell would randomly fail to launch, probably because it couldn't reach…

Can you elaborate about the friction you experienced.

Just in the first week of switching back, I turned off ipv6 DHCP on my router. I left ipv4 unchanged. ( The reason is that I want to switch to ipv6 someday and I want to run my own v6 DHCP and dns). 24 hours later, my fedora Linux host name changed from "fedora" to a uuid!

This somehow wiped my Google chromium profile, lost its sync and dropped all my saved passwords! I know that chromium hasn't had sync since '21 but I swear it worked for a few days and then disappeared. It's like a Mandela effect moment because I don't know how I lost it. I know I didn't import bookmarks, but I did import a passwords csv.

The other thing that made it hard was I tried to simultaneously switch to Wayland and sway. But also wanted to use Nvidia drivers and have cuda ready (for a project I haven't even started). I got sway up and running but it's a PITA and all the fonts and stuff look weird.

I've actually been using Linux almost full time since 2005, but turning 40 and slowing down a bit has made the switch back to Linux way harder than I expected!

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Steam Deck very much runs Linux Desktop. Android runs the Linux kernel, but everything else is different. Linux is a kernel.

So anyone saying "the Windows operating system" is doing wrong?

Windows 11 is an operating system that runs the Windows NT kernel.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#613
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Checkout https://postmarketos.org Those vendor provided kernel trees let you run a real Linux distribution on your phone.

PostmarketOS doesn't use downstream kernel trees because those are useless for anything that's not AOSP-based (unless you use terrible hacks like libhybris) and are often not upgradable to newer versions. They rely on "close-to-mainline" kernels that are much closer to real Linux.

The community / testing devices use close to mainline kernels. But there are hundreds of devices in the downstream category.

https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices#Downstream

Sure, they're less usable than mainline devices, but it's possible to run linux with a vendor-provided old kernel.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 11 only sucks if you get the Home version. If you get the Pro version you can disable all the annoyances. New things pop up here and there with each update every few years (recently asking to connect my phone so I can see notifications), but those can be disabled easily. It does suck resources so using it on Laptops is not ideal, but for desktop its by far the best, mostly because of WSL2 integration, which i…

I agree with this. Couple years ago I splurged on a nice Thinkpad X1 carbon, and decided to give windows a try after abstaining for many years. I really liked the WSL but overall it was a resource hog. It would blast the fan for seemingly no reason, the task manager would slow down, the laptop would overheat. And even playing basic games like freecell would randomly fail to launch, probably because it couldn't reach…

Interesting - using WSL on Thinkpads (T460 and some Carbon from ~ 2018 till 2020, 2020-2024 on T480 and T16 G2 now) with WSL (WSL2 mostly) and cannot say it was/is resource hog or blasting the fan out of the blue. Working with balanced power mode mostly

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#615
Finally switched full time to Fedora KDE back in 2018 and only use Windows in QEMU KVM's. Of course my work laptop is Apple.

I am no power user by any means, but everything I do is supported: minor web dev, Davinci, Blender, Steam, even Battle.net running on Bottles (Diablo II: Resurrected has never crash once and runs at an excellent frame rate), basic browsing, etc. I get random issues here and there, but I also did on Windows and still do on Mac OS.

No regerts.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#617
post #385

I work in the refurb division of an e-waste recycling company. Due to licensing costs and our certifications, we can't sell anything with Windows. My coworkers install Ubuntu, but I install Linux Mint. We don't have any clue if people keep using Linux or install Windows, but it's cool to think we're helping to move this needle. Edit: might as well link to the merch: https://www.ebay.com/str/evolutionecycling

How do you keep them auto-updated? I've just started on Mint and I'm disappointed how the software installer/updater still needs the admin password.

That’s surprising to hear. It’s been many years since I ran Ubuntu, but I never get a password prompt for the updater on Fedora.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#619
Anecdote: I’ve run Linux and MacOS. I switched to Linux when Apple hardware got stupid expensive (soldered memory and harddrive) and Dell offered laptops with Linux installed. My brother was always saying “Apple just works … less hassle”. But he’s now worried about expense and privacy and moving to Linux.

I feel like the geeky bleeding edge is leaving Apple for Linux.

Re: Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share in USA

#620

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate W11 to the point that I am still running W10 (IoT) on my machines (I also run Solus and Mint). That said, I have never experienced what you say in the first paragraph.

Windows has at least three screens in the install that are upsells on other Microsoft products, plus a screen where you have to disable multiple analytics trackers. The GPU driver issue might have been a VM issue but to get even basic support I needed to install the AMD drivers, and ended up in some endless loop of the installer telling me it could install drivers for my GPU, installing them, then saying it wasn't su…

That is not what I referred to, I referred to the comment:

> I'm mostly a Mac user but I tested Windows 11 versus Bazzite in VMs in my Unraid server, and the Windows 11 install was a nightmare to then be left with a nightmare UI and a bundle of GPU driver issues, meanwhile Bazzite took two clicks and worked.

> Obviously there are very cutting edge drivers you can't get on Linux, and Nvidia support is questionable, and some anti-cheat doesn't work, etc, but if you mostly play games released in [current year - a few] on hardware released [current year - a few] it's really a much more enjoyable experience.

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