Analysts Weigh In: Will We Ever See the Year of the Linux Desktop? (windowscentral.com) 224
How popular is Linux? The Windows Central site admits Linux is starting to tempt them. "It made such an imprint on Windows Central that not all of us even bother much with Windows anymore."
"Heck, Germany (part of it, to be specific) is taking another stab at ditching Windows for Linux..."
But what are the odds really that Linux overtakes Windows' market share? "That is the tantalizing question at the kernelled core of the great Linux debate, and it's the one we reached out to analysts to hear their thoughts on...." Every year is a special year for Linux in some way, shape, or form, but in terms of eating Windows' lunch, that's probably not in the cards for a long time, if ever.
Forrester Senior Analyst Andrew Hewitt gave figures to further bolster the argument that Linux is a long ways off from toppling Windows. "Overall, just 1% of employees report usage of Linux on their primary laptop used for work," he said. "That's compared to 60% that still use Windows, and small numbers that use Chrome OS and macOS on a global basis. It is very unlikely that Linux will overtake Windows as the main operating system."
With that said, Hewitt did foresee diversification and growth when it came to Linux, Chrome OS, and macOS, but nothing to a degree that would signal Windows is at risk of losing its dominant market share.
"We commonly see Linux used in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) deployments," he stated, mentioning that he'd expect growth there since "VDI has grown 2% year over year according to our 'State Of VDI, 2021' report."
Gartner VP Analyst Steve Kleynhans also tells the site that the biggest challenge to Windows "on anything that looks like a PC is probably Chrome OS... Could Linux continue to grow? Yes. But it's not likely to grow as a direct competitor replacing Windows."
"Heck, Germany (part of it, to be specific) is taking another stab at ditching Windows for Linux..."
But what are the odds really that Linux overtakes Windows' market share? "That is the tantalizing question at the kernelled core of the great Linux debate, and it's the one we reached out to analysts to hear their thoughts on...." Every year is a special year for Linux in some way, shape, or form, but in terms of eating Windows' lunch, that's probably not in the cards for a long time, if ever.
Forrester Senior Analyst Andrew Hewitt gave figures to further bolster the argument that Linux is a long ways off from toppling Windows. "Overall, just 1% of employees report usage of Linux on their primary laptop used for work," he said. "That's compared to 60% that still use Windows, and small numbers that use Chrome OS and macOS on a global basis. It is very unlikely that Linux will overtake Windows as the main operating system."
With that said, Hewitt did foresee diversification and growth when it came to Linux, Chrome OS, and macOS, but nothing to a degree that would signal Windows is at risk of losing its dominant market share.
"We commonly see Linux used in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) deployments," he stated, mentioning that he'd expect growth there since "VDI has grown 2% year over year according to our 'State Of VDI, 2021' report."
Gartner VP Analyst Steve Kleynhans also tells the site that the biggest challenge to Windows "on anything that looks like a PC is probably Chrome OS... Could Linux continue to grow? Yes. But it's not likely to grow as a direct competitor replacing Windows."
No. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Yes. (Score:5, Funny)
Every year is the Year of the Linux Desktop. Still works great, still has never crashed. If it wasn't for upgrades I'd have 24 years of uptime!
Now quit asking.
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If it wasn't for upgrades I'd have 24 years of uptime!
When was your last upgrade? Asking for a hacker friend who likes knowing just how outdated people's security patches are.
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If it wasn't for upgrades I'd have 24 years of uptime!
When was your last upgrade? Asking for a hacker friend who likes knowing just how outdated people's security patches are.
On my ~5 linux boxen (some cloud, some in my office), about 3 days? At least that's my cadence on `apt get upgrade`. I reboot when it says "system reboot required", otherwise not.
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never crashed
My experience differs oh so slightly from that. It crashes quite a lot on my laptop, either when going to hibernate, going from hibernation, plugging an external screen, etc.
Granted the PC isn't crashed, I can SSH to my laptop, kill X and resume operations, but all my apps are gone.
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Re:No. (Score:5, Interesting)
Linux on the Desktop won't be a thing because the community keeps fighting it. Things that make sense on say, a server, do not work on a desktop. You see this with opposition to things like say, SystemD, PulseAudio, and NetworkManager. These things make perfect sense on a desktop OS, but for a server, are rather excessive overhead.
For example, a server doesn't need network management. A server is plugged into the network and that's it - rarely are servers moved to another network. However, on a desktop, the network can change multiple times a day. A laptop might plug into Ethernet at the office, move to WiFi for a meeting, then get disconnected on the way home. It may then connect to WiFi at a coffeeshop, then disconnect, then connect to Ethernet at home.
A network manager is required in that situation - because network interfaces go up and down constantly, and the same interface may get connected to a private network, or a public one. It may require the firewall to be activated or deactivated, or the firewall rules changed depending on the network it connects to. It may require a VPN to be used Either way, something has to manage all that, and ideally, it should be automated.
Audio is a similar problem - a server might not have a need for sound, but a desktop will need to manage multiple audio sources, audio routing between sources and devices and mixing between sources and devices. And audio devices might appear and disappear at will, with the audio routing changing appropriately. For example, you might have a VoIP program and a music program running. The VoIP program is using sound so it can play a ringtone when appropriate, while the music player is playing music. Then a call comes in, and the ringtone is mixed with the music so you can hear it on your speakers. But you don't want to take the call on your speakers, so you plug in a headset (USB, Bluetooth, or analog), and the VoIP audio should be rerouted to the headset. It's practically impossible to do this with scripts - the VoIP program would have to realize new audio devices get connected and switch devices manually, but if it doesn't support that, then it would be nice if the OS simply switched the audio device transparently.
Things like this are so "non-Unix-way" that people in the community fight against it. And they're not wrong - it's a lot of complexity to implement, but it's necessary to have a desktop OS.
It's why Android is its own thing - because doing it under a traditional environment is difficult and hacky.
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What? SystemD doesn't make sense on a server?
Could have fooled me. Its everywhere now, and its actually pretty great. Writing custom init scripts gets tiresome fast and systemd is so deterministic, handles boot dependencies, and does all the things i actually need it to do, without me having to fuck about with flakey bash scripts.
Its a dead argument anyway. Systemd won. Get over it.
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Though at that time it meant console access, not X11.
Re: No. (Score:2)
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To be fair, if vsync issues bother you in this day and age on either X11 or Wayland then that's probably either a misconfiguration or some very strange hardware issue.
Such issues are about as common on any o.s. and something worth troubleshooting.
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This, again. I'll be convinced Linux On The Desktop has a chance when browsers like Chrome and Firefox can run on the damn thing without V-sync issues and performance problems.
If you're having V-sync issues on multiple browsers in 2022 then it's not the browser's fault.
Yes, but Year of Linux on MS Windows Desktop (Score:2)
Not unlike macOS, *nix plus commercial.
Linux is going go stay relegated to things where it does not provide a user interface, servers end kernels in appliances and phones.
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Better deal? With MS's monstrosity of a UI? No thank you.
The answer is maybe. (Score:3)
To say no is to assume you know all of the facts and can perfectly predict the future from the past. Which, as we all know, is utter drivel.
So what DO we know?
1. Linux has fewer defects per kloc than Windows.
2. Carrier-grade Linux exists.
3. Updates are quick, easy and rarely require reboots.
4. Linux can be made very secure.
5. Linux is very, very fast.
These are the big reasons it's the core of most mobile phones, servers and HPC systems, but a lot of these also benefit home gamers, traditional home users, an
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I agree with most of what you said, but it doesn't matter.
Linux won't hit mainstream adoption until Grandma can use it just like a Windows PC and never think about anything except clicking the mouse.
It's getting closer, but I don't know if it will actually ever get there.
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seems like.. no (Score:3, Insightful)
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Compared to Internet Explorer 6? Yeah, Google can have some of my money.
Google is not free, you pay with personal info (Score:2)
So they can provide free webmail, online/offline rich document editing, Chrome, Chromebooks, phone operating systems, ....
Its not free, the scan the above to build a profile to sell you to targeted advertisers. Unless you are a buy a "business" account that has a monthly fee.
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So they can provide free webmail, online/offline rich document editing, Chrome, Chromebooks, phone operating systems, ..
Nothing about that is free. They want all your email, documents and browsing habits for processing.
I love Linux, professionally and personally . . . (Score:3, Insightful)
. . . but come on, we've have been seeing this story pop up multiple times a year for more than two decades. The year of the Linux desktop has been perpetually happening for years. Linux distros aren't Windows and shouldn't strive to be. They aren't going to replace Windows. This fixation is unhealthy, Linux already won in so many more important ways than being adopted by my grandma.
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With powerful computers and virtualization as well as its sister emulation, no one needs to be a "winner". There can even be multiple winners all working towards the goal of getting the job(s) done.
Re:I love Linux, professionally and personally . . (Score:5, Insightful)
I strongly disagree. Looking at the direction of windows, we desperately need an alternative widely used desktop OS that isn't hell bent on being just another mobile OS with maximum monetization of user via tracking everything they do.
And linux is pretty much the only alternative right now that has any chance of filling the niche of "windows of old", which just functioned as OS that ran things you wanted to run on it, came with commonly used software and didn't constantly do things to fuck with user experience, track the user and spam ads at them.
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I strongly disagree.
Good for you -- no one out here noticed you were the entire computer PC market.
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And linux is pretty much the only alternative right now
Linux is not an alternative at all, in the slightest. There are way too many usability problems and quirks.
If you like using a desktop OS then install Linux. If however you like using applications and don't want to touch or care about your desktop OS then use Windows.
and spam ads at them
I've not seen an advert in Windows for anything other than Edge after one of the updates. So what are you doing wrong? Mind you last time I did a distribution upgrade of Ubuntu I also got a window show up "featuring" a whole lots of apps I don'
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I'm not the one seeing ads, because the first thing I do when I install 10 for a computer that I use is rip out windows update medic service, windows store, multiple telemetry modules and so on. Then I disable windows update until I enable it when I want to get updates, and run multiple clean up utilities to collect the rest of the garbage I missed.
That is why it always hits me when I see a vanilla 10 home install. It's plastered with ads, obvious data collection, unwanted mandatory software that will be re
Re:I love Linux, professionally and personally . . (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not the one seeing ads, because the first thing I do when I install 10 for a computer that I use is rip out windows update medic service, windows store, multiple telemetry modules and so on.
That's cool. I've not done any of that, but congrats on running a less secure system. Just please don't ever setup a computer for someone else. Normal people don't manage their OSes they ignore them.
they either shrug and detail how they uninstall candy crush only to have it come back the next day
Now back in reality: They either completely ignore an icon in a start menu they never press, or they turn off "show suggestions in start" and never see candy crush as a suggested app in the first place. Wait... you did know about that right? An elite OS hackers such as yourself would certainly know all these are controlled by a single easily uncheckable setting right?
Maybe that's your problem, you're too busy hacking away to simply just tick a checkbox and move on with your life.
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>That's cool. I've not done any of that, but congrats on running a less secure system.
Having less points of penetration is less secure? Are you drunk posting this? Or do you not even know the difference between windows update medic service and windows update service?
>They either completely ignore an icon in a start menu they never press, or they turn off "show suggestions in start" and never see candy crush as a suggested app in the first place.
Candy Crush is not "suggested". It's "installed". It come
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Windows has always been about usability problems and quirks, the difference is that they are well known and people are used to working around them.
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There's a difference between a usability frustration and something flat out not working and requiring complex hacking away at a console.
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Mind you last time I did a distribution upgrade of Ubuntu I also got a window show up "featuring" a whole lots of apps
Ubuntu is not Linux, it is a distro. If you do not like the popups install another distro. That is the big benefit of Linux distros, many to choose from. My distro of choice has absolutely nothing resembling popups (of any kind).
For Windows, only 1 is available, so you are stuck with whatever a mega-corp decides is best for you.
If all you do is live in Excel, Word, WEB Browser and Outlook (nothing wrong with that) and unwilling to learn new methods of doing the same thing, then yes, Windows is for you.
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Ubuntu is not Linux, it is a distro. If you do not like the popups install another distro. Ubuntu is not Linux, it is a distro. If you do not like the popups install another distro.
And that comment there is why Linux will never be suitable for the desktop. You've just massively complicated something that should be simple in people's eyes. What you as a hardcore tinkerer see as a big benefit is actually in reality a big downside for Linux's adoption as a desktop OS for the wider audience. People have enough problems with the 3 flavours of Windows available.
Also you're assuming that even for power users the popups outweigh other reasons for running the system. psst don't tell anyone. I'
Re:I love Linux, professionally and personally . . (Score:4, Interesting)
So why hasn't Linux made much progress on the desktop? It seems like it should - free, high quality, no telemetry.
Linus Tech Tips recently did a series of videos where two guys try to switch from Windows to Linux for a month. It's well worth watching because it highlights a number of very long standing problems that they faced, which Linux distros seem unable to fix.
They had hardware compatibility issues. Even when hardware worked, sometimes there was no way to configure it under Linux. One guy resorted to booting Windows, adjusting the settings, and then going back to Linux every time.
They had software compatibility issues. Different distros need things setting up differently, and often instructions are only available in forum posts that have a 50/50 chance of bricking your install. The Linux community is often unfriendly and unhelpful too.
For gaming some games do work great. Others don't, even when they are rated "platinum" on the compatibility chart. It's speculated that the reason the Steam Deck keeps getting delayed is that a lot of popular games simply don't run well on it.
I'm sure people have their fingers poised over the keyboard to tell me why all this stuff happens and how it's not Linux's fault, but from a user point of view they just want to use their computer and expect things to work. They want to be able to buy hardware and just have it work.
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It's because Windows is coming from a position already being installed.
There are plenty of hardware and software compatibility problems under Windows. But people aren't trying to switch from a working Linux setup to a Windows one and deal with the random problems. They have an established, working and more or less debugged Windows install which they then typically try to wholesale switch over to Linux. They've already chucked out all the shitty hardware that didn't work properly, months or even years ago. T
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It's not just that people aren't selecting Linux compatible hardware, it's that selecting Linux compatible hardware means either compromising or simply doing without some functionality.
I'm actually going through a similar issue at the moment. I really want to use the open source Sigrok app with a fast logic analyser, but it doesn't support any of the reasonably priced ones like the Kingst 5016. My only options are either live without Sigrok, buy a worse performing but supported one, or spend a lot more mone
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Your comparison with Windows 11 installation only works when you want to install it on unsupported hardware. It would be very easy to install 10 on that machine. Obviously it would be better if the latest version was supported, but from the user's point of view all the games and all the hardware works on 10. Windows 11 is very unlikely to push many people to Linux.
Most people who complain about linux hardware compatibility issues are trying to install it on unsupported hardware, so it's a pretty valid comparison.
If you try to install a typical mainstream linux distro on hardware that's actually certified for that distro then you don't have any compatibility issues there either.
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Well that's the point, so much hardware is unsupported that it greatly limits your choices.
In the LTT video they could have downgraded to an analogue mixer, but it's not exactly a great selling point for Linux.
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It's not just that people aren't selecting Linux compatible hardware, it's that selecting Linux compatible hardware means either compromising or simply doing without some functionality.
Most people have chucked out the hardware unsupported by Windows, or will do when it becomes hard, because they have little choice in the matter. What's left is only the stuff that works well. Most people haven't done the same process for Linux what with running Windows. Coming from the Linux world it looks quite different.
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Any Linux distro that tries to truly win on the desktop will become the monster that it attempts to slay. Many of those things happen because of the permissiveness of the Windows platform, and the desirability of Windows users as targets. If everyone is on Linux, then you'll see those same spam-spewing apps move off of Windows to where the marks are. Linux is more secure than Windows, but it's not infinitely secure; unfortunately, there are plenty of incredibly intelligent bad actors out there, happy to por
Re: I love Linux, professionally and personally . (Score:2)
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Linux already won in so many more important ways than being adopted by my grandma
I agree but where *nix needs to win is in government. It's not good for our governments to be unnecessarily bound by proprietary solutions that they 1) do not fully control and 2) get locked into a single vendor. Whenever possible, governments should use open standards and leverage open source. They could use BSD and avoid open-sourcing their modifications.
Think about it from just a financial perspective. The Federal government could make it's own GovBSD and spend very little (for the Federal gov't) maintai
Should Linux be on every desktop! Maybe Not! (Score:4, Insightful)
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In order to make that happen they would need make it closer to Windows. And that would truly suck.
Functionality in Linux desktops has decreases since windows users started trying Linux.
I cite workspaces, which was a Linux desktop innovation, which M$ and Apple both adopted and they can't get it right. From selection to window expansion both Microsoft's and Apples implementation of workspaces *suck*. I used to be able to drag windows between workspaces in Linux - but now it has been dumbed down.
In Linux I have *two* cut and paste buffers and I can use one without taking my hand off the mouse. In
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In mac I drag a bit of text and oops I pasted crap
Then don't drag text. I know one who is doing that.
and it doesn't exist at all in windows.
Dragging text exists in Windows, or did you mean something else?
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Not really. Windows isn't on every desktop. MacOS isn't on every desktop, and certainly Linux isn't. Apparently total desktop domination by one entity isn't needed or desired.
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Fvwm95 wasn't the worst.
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Definitons (Score:2)
I always viewed "Year of the Linux desktop" as when Linux overtook Mac OS (or others) and become the 2nd most popular desktop/laptop OS. (Specifically to the point where we end up breaking out different distros)
In rough percentages - that's going from 1% to 10%. That would be a huge deal by itself.. it could:
* Developers target Desktop Linux more
* Those who provide services consider Linux (in airplane media, ISPs, etc)
* Create more competition between distros.
* More Linux pr
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I've learned to be very wary of analysts (Score:2)
I just watched Matrix Resurrections.
No. Let's Move On... (Score:5, Insightful)
It baffles me how so many tech writers and sites just miss the obvious. Take the windows central article:
"Windows 11 was hard to install on some machines... Linux was easy"
So? The vast majority of people *can't install an OS*. The don't know what it is even is really. Power users and gamers don't drive the larger market. Sometimes, people just need to do basic, uncool productivity stuff.
Windows has worked with OEMs to make for a reasonable (reasonable, not perfect) out of box experience from individual buyers all the way to the largest businesses. This provides consistency that Linux users *do not want*. They want choices. They want to argue over which distributions will work best for X and how to replace Y with Z. Easier and cooler way to make money versus just maintaining Windows boxes.
As it stands now, trying to replace Windows is just replacing a widely used, occasionally annoying set of technologies with a much less used, hopefully less (but often not) annoying but sometimes completely useless set of technologies to remove a line item on the budget.
So, no, there may never be the year of the Windows desktop. Microsoft can shoot themselves twice or more in each foot and still hobble back over the finish line before anybody would likely catch up.
And the impact that has on Linux is almost nothing. So why bother fretting over it constantly?
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So? The vast majority of people *can't install an OS*.
The vast majority of people probably could install an OS, but you did hint to something at the core of the debate: Tech writers spend a lot of time focusing on things users flat out simply do not do. People don't install windows. It's just there when they turn on their freshly bought PC.
But really these stupid articles also reek of personal incompetence. I installed Windows 11 here too. USB stick in. Click next, click install, then click next about 8 times. Done.
No, and main reason is Gaming (Score:4, Informative)
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the main reason is the surge in PC gaming during the pandemic making users less likely to switch to Linux
The overwhelming majority of PCs on the market are not for gaming. But there are plenty of other reasons people don't switch to Linux. Support being one of them, leaving a comfort zone is another. But I do get it. Linux requires some tinkering, it's riddled with usability bugs. Something as simple as attaching a second monitor, having it detect the wrong screen resolution and doing a google search will send you down a rabbit hole of incomprehensible console commands which may or may not be correct for your
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And Linux gaming needs to improve. :(
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I've heard Valve is working on it.
What does it mean? (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't know what the "year of the Linux desktop" means anymore. This author seems to think it means Linux passing Windows' market share. I don't think that's what people used to mean by it. It was more that Linux became a reasonable choice for many (not all) ordinary users (not power users) who wanted to do the typical things lots of people do on their computers. We passed that long ago. It's a small part of the market, but that's still millions of people.
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It means ASUS motherboard technical specs [asus.com] does not end with
It means that Gigabyte motherboard technical specs [gigabyte.com] does not end with
or even [gigabyte.com]
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You mean you actually bother to read all those qualifications? All they mean is that those are the OSs they have bothered to test on those motherboards, it certainly does not mean that others won't work on them.
As to drivers, these days most motherboards will run linux without me bothering with special drivers. A lot of that code is now in the kernel, unless you are running bleeding edge. If you're running bleeding edge, the likelihood is that support isn't in there for Windows either.
Just try it. You may b
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I've been running openSUSE for about 7 or 8 years on MSI kit—one desktop, and one laptop. Never have needed to do much relating to the hardware other than setting up the disk (only because I'm fussy about that), and telling YaST to install and switch to the Nvidia drivers (only because I have developed a strong aversion to Nouveau). I just reinstalled the laptop with Leap 15.3 a couple of days ago. Took about an hour this time because my wifi was slow. It's usually more like 30 minutes. No ooh-scary c
R.I.P. desktops (Score:4, Insightful)
Mainstream use of desktop computers will cease long before Linux is dominate on them.
Given a complete lack of antitrust enforcement (Score:2)
Yes! PopOS! (Score:2)
Yes, but not the way enthusiasts want it (Score:2)
There will be a day when some device like the chromebook will be the dominant desktop system. Perhaps as an outgrowth of android or something.
But it will not herald in any special freedom or such, being more likely quite locked down, probably even more so than Android is today.
Basically the actual desktop system is getting less and less important to most people. They do what gaming they do on a console or phone, browse on the tablet, watch netflix or whatever on a TV or chromecast type device and mostly
No, never (Score:2)
No, never. Unless it's just a Linux appliance running teamviewer or RDP or whatever to a virtual Windows desktop.
I run Linux on all my headless servers. I run Windows on my desktop and gaming machines. I gave my Mom a Mac to use. A key part of engineering is *use the right tool for the right job*. Linux's fragmentation and ever-changing UI (both by design) means it will never be a mainstream desktop OS, and except for cost it's inferior to Windows for that whenever I try it (at least once a year). Eve
Not with X11 (Score:3)
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X11 isn't suitable for a modern desktop OS.
X11 has its warts, there is no doubt. I am curious as to what a typical end user would see that would make X11 not work for them? Each wart appears to only affect a small population at the very edge of performance requirements. What am I missing here?
Only if OEM's want this... (Score:2)
... and also if there's one definitive version.
We're talking office desktops here, I think the home market is a very different prospect these days.
The problem with huge corporates adopting Linux, is clearly one of support.
There would have to be a single definitive version of Linux to make support actually work, in terms of training of support tech.
Yes, I know, under the hood, each distro is still Linux, but there's enough difference to make life difficult for support to be able to maintain multiple differen
2009 (Score:2)
was the year for me.
Valve+Canonical should fork Chrome OS (Score:2)
Chromebooks/box + Chrome OS are almost everything a linux desktop should be at this point. The only problem with ChromeOS is the profit model (datamining).
I think selling hardware certification services combined with store profits (especially if Valve joins in) should be able to provide an alternative profit model.
Privacy as a unique selling point (Score:2)
Consumers are very slowly becoming more aware of privacy issues. At the same time Microsoft is increasing telemetry. This is going to hurt them in the long run, and could be an oppportunity for linux.
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I don't think so. If privacy becomes a criteria for your everyday user, MS will be pushing the line that their OS is the most secure ever and that no company can ensure their privacy like MS. None of it will be true, just like MS's past ad campaigns. And then there will be MS's dirty tricks to contend with. Consumers will get confused and go with the Satan they know.
There is simply no "Year of the Linux Desktop"! (Score:2)
1.) Linux took a long way to gain traction
2.) Windows10(Spyware-As-A-Service) helped alot!
3.) Windows11(Naked-As-You-Are) will accelerate that
But basically the Linux Desktop is here to stay, "Kubuntu" everything works - not really fast - other distros are faster - but everything just works without tuning.
Remind Me (Score:2)
If anyone doesn't know why parent = clickbait (Score:2)
They are too clueless to use Linux or anything beyond an Etch A Sketch.
Posting LOTD shit on Slashdot is the same as posting it on 4chan and done for the same reason, B8!
It's the applications, stupid! (Score:3)
Sure, Firefox and Thunderbird are great and ever more things run in a browser but people want to run their security camera or have a Microsoft Office like experience.
The camera and other hardware are in the hands of the (Chinese) manufacturers, some can be set up via a browser and are thus relatively OS-agnostic.
Office packages are around but the problem is usually the compatibility with the Microsoft world, Microsoft did a great job in making the Open Document format near unworkable.
In this household we've been running Linux (Kubuntu) for many years and it makes my life as maintainer easy,
(We use Softmaker Office and for the Canon and Epson scanners we use Vuescan, the Xerox, HP and Brother laser printers are Linux compatible OOTB)
Oh for the love of god. (Score:2)
Can we PLEASE leave the "analysts" out of this?
Analysts are people who pretent to be the know-all, end-all experts in every topic possible, when in fact they just barely know enough to write clever little articles about it - or they would actually work in a field and get paid big $ per hour instead of being paid by word count.
There will NEVER be "the year of the linux desktop" as long as John Doe can't buy a machine preinstalled with ... ok, WHICH distro and WHICH desktop environment, anyway... as easily as
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that being said, writing this in Firefox running on KDE/Plasma on openSUSE Tumbleweed.
Aren't we already kinda there? (Score:2)
I mean in technical areas most people already use Linux on their desktops, even at work. What's left is, to a large part, people who essentially use their computers as a display typewriter or web browser. Operating systems just aren't that important any more.
This is probably because of the shift from "application centric" to "document centric" computing. You no longer have "Word" files which can only be opened in one application, you now have mostly open file formats you can open just about anywhere. Much o
Of course (Score:2)
2022 is going to be the year of Linux desktop, for sure! 25th time lucky!
I'm not sure I want to see Linux on the desktop (Score:2)
If I weren't working or in academia, Linux would be more than adequate. I wouldn't have a need for proprietary software. Most non-work & non-research activiy is done in the browser. I expect that my renewed interest in gaming is a symptom of the Covid lockdown and is not permanent. Even my home budgeting, simple enough to be done now in Excel could be done online if I were inclined to seek a replacement out. I don't forsee needing or wanting Windows much past retirement age, but I do foresee needing to
USA centric reporting (Score:2)
Gartner? Forrester? (Score:2)
Aren't these the bozos who, in 2012, predicted that by 2017 Windows Phone would have a market share larger than the iPhone's, and not far from Android's?
Do these buffoons still have any credibility, one way or the other?
Web apps the secret enemy of the Linux desktop? (Score:2)
I kind of wonder if the rise of web applications isn't partly what's held back "the Linux desktop". With web mail, web calendaring, and so many other day-day things possible with just a browser, I sometimes wonder if Linux really hasn't had to be anything other than "good enough" for running a browser.
But if you think about a world where web apps were much more limited and desktop apps more or less a necessity for day-day productivity, maybe Linux would have had more of push for improving and standardizing
It's long been 'the year of the linux desktop' (Score:2)
We have over two decades of people running Linux desktops as their primary desktop experience. So it's long been viable, but not popular, due to software compatibility in the use case of the traditional desktop.
The things a linux user historically missed out on or struggled with are now greatly reduced. For example, between LibreOffice and Microsoft apps through the browser, my needs for office are largely sated. A lot of productivity software that formerly came as windows executables now pushes people
what are the odds... (Score:2)
Linux is Ultimate VM ... (Score:2)
Maybe for those who use basic stuff (Score:2)
like email and web browser. Pretty much all of the stuff I need to do my work only runs on windows. And please, don't tell me that there are linux alternatives. Yes there are a few, but I need the real stuff, not a half-assed attempt at a minimal clone
No, and I don't care (Score:2)
It will never be the Year of the Linux desktop and I'm fine with that.
I ran Win 7 for years after it was declared passé, and I switched to Linux Mint after the Windows updates started knocking my PC off the air. After a couple of those episodes I installed Mint and never looked back.
Mint works great for me and I don't care if the Year of the Linux Desktop ever materializes.
If it does, the only result I foresee is that malware for Linux will become more popular.
On a similar note, when will it be the Yea
Marketing (Score:2)
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That was true 20 years ago when you started saying it.
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Funny, I'm using Linux in a VM over a network right now and I have been doing so for many years.
I used to used LTSP but that began to get arcane so eventually switched to x2go. My thin client boots a minimum Debian system to x2go login screen in 15 seconds from power-on. The server I connect to has my main system as a KVM client, also Debian. Everything works as if I was local. I can even connect from there to my zoneminder server and watch recordings of last night's hedgehog activities.
The same x2go client
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At this point businesses can get Windows 11 and developers can use WSL2 with WSLG support and nave all the Windows tools for doing work and have a full integrated Linux environment with accelerated GUI support, audio input and output, and machine learning inside WSL2. There is probably a lot less pressure on companies to move to Linux than before. From experience I find that Windows 10 with WSL/WSL2 and later Windows 11 with WSL2+WSLG has been hugely more productive for me compared to using Windows and some
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"At least Apple provides me UNIX that can do this on overpriced hardware"
So you feel Apple should supply their own software to you free of charge and neglect the integration required to marry hardware and software? Even MS isn't that stupid, they have bamboolzed, lied, cheated, whatever it took, to get the hardware manufactures to dance as their moppets.