[HN Gopher] Linux on the desktop is gaining ground
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       Linux on the desktop is gaining ground
        
       Author : alexzeitler
       Score  : 25 points
       Date   : 2024-03-12 19:19 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (techcentral.co.za)
 (TXT) w3m dump (techcentral.co.za)
        
       | rqtwteye wrote:
       | Is this finally the year of the Linux desktop? I tried to go full
       | Linux two years ago but gave up and went back to Mac. Between
       | lots of software not available on Linux and weird problems with
       | screens and audio I couldn't recommend Linux to non tech people.
       | It's great for dev though.
       | 
       | I think the traditional desktop will go away slowly anyways and
       | most people will use operating systems like iOS and Android.
        
         | pjmlp wrote:
         | Laptops are the new desktop, and in those GNU/Linux still has
         | issues with 100% hardware support, even the ones from Linux
         | OEMs still have issues with fingerprint readers, dual GPUs,
         | sleep modes, hibernation.
         | 
         | Where GNU/Linux works just fine are classical desktops,
         | preferably self built.
        
           | throwway120385 wrote:
           | I'm running a 6.7 kernel on an AMD lenovo and would
           | respectfully disagree that there's a hardware support
           | problem. I have full suspend/hibernate/resume and everything
           | comes back up just like it would in Windows or Mac OSX.
        
           | fsflover wrote:
           | Laptops originally designed for GNU/Linux work flawlessly.
           | Even better when you buy preinstalled. Works for me.
        
             | dieselgate wrote:
             | Do you have any recommendations for laptops fitting this
             | criteria?
        
               | fsflover wrote:
               | I'm happy with Librem 14.
        
               | Libcat99 wrote:
               | Lack of a pointer stick is a 100% a showstopper for me.
               | 
               | I can't stand using a trackpad.
        
         | aNoob7000 wrote:
         | I hope the "traditional" desktop doesn't disappear. Personally,
         | I think using iOS and Android would be a step backward as a
         | desktop computer.
        
         | nullwarp wrote:
         | > I think the traditional desktop will go away slowly anyways
         | and most people will use operating systems like iOS and
         | Android.
         | 
         | What a nightmarish hellscape that sounds like.
        
         | fsflover wrote:
         | There are also GNU/Linux phones. Sent from my Librem 5.
        
         | ActorNightly wrote:
         | Ever since WSL2, Windows has been objectively the best desktop
         | os (with the only caveat that you have to have the pro version
         | which lets you disable a bunch of the annoying stuff, and
         | disabling that stuff takes a little bit of tweaking).
         | 
         | You get the advantage of having all the software that doesn't
         | work under linux, while having a linux dev environment that
         | works very well even with Cuda for ML.
        
       | dredmorbius wrote:
       | Related recent discussion:
       | 
       | Linux Hits 4% on the Desktop (imgur.com) 2024-03-02 | 47 comments
       | <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39576200>
       | 
       | Why desktop Linux is finally growing in popularity (zdnet.com)
       | 2024-03-05 | 40 comments
       | <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39607080>
        
       | ryan-c wrote:
       | From the other discussion, there are clear data problems with the
       | source this is based on:
       | 
       | https://gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/android/m...
        
         | wkat4242 wrote:
         | > "I wish we were better at having a standardised desktop that
         | goes across all the distributions. This is not a kernel issue;
         | it's more of a personal annoyance of how the fragmentation
         | among different vendors has perhaps held the desktop back a
         | bit," said Torvalds in a TFiR interview in 2018.
         | 
         | Absolutely NOT. I would not use Linux if it forced a desktop
         | environment on me. The whole reason of me not using windows or
         | osx is because they do.
         | 
         | This is the problem with "Linux on the desktop" becoming
         | mainstream. Mainstream users want a company to tell them how to
         | work with their computers. I have my own opinions.
        
       | projektfu wrote:
       | I find it less aggravating than other systems. I have a Mac I use
       | every now and again and every update it seems to have lost a
       | feature. And Windows has gotten to the point where it's just a
       | constant battle against Microsoft trying to steer you into their
       | next distraction, and they reboot the computer on their schedule,
       | not yours. If I leave my Ubuntu desktop for a while, when I come
       | back it does some security updates but is otherwise how I left
       | it.
        
         | FirmwareBurner wrote:
         | _> and they reboot the computer on their schedule, not yours_
         | 
         | When was the last time you used modern Windows and encountered
         | this issue?
         | 
         | Windows rebooting you by force was an issues in the early days
         | for Windows 10 to the point it became a meme people like to
         | refer back to, but that hasn't been an issue in years.
        
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       (page generated 2024-03-12 23:01 UTC)