
The Year of Linux on Everything but the Desktop - sf_tony
http://media.bemyapp.com/year-linux-everything-desktop/?utm_source=bma&utm_medium=ycombin&utm_content=&utm_campaign=media
======
shmerl
_> Windows users would not switch simply because they didn’t need Linux._

Not really. The author identified the real reason before that. Users wouldn't
switch because most users don't even think about the choice of OS, which would
mean switching. I.e. they only ever use what comes on the computer pre-
installed, and that's it. They don't care much what it even is.

Therefore the main blocker wasn't the bad advocacy or anything of the sort,
but the old and crooked stranglehold of MS on manufacturers. The only way to
seriously increase Linux desktop adoption is for availability of Linux pre-
instsalled computers to significantly rise. And MS use their heavy leverage of
Windows pricing to prevent that.

 _> and the desktop itself became irrelevant_

I hear this often, but it remains as wrong as ever. Desktop usage has its
place, and it's not going anywhere in the foreseeable future.

 _> They still just want something that plays games and checks the Internet._

And Linux is good for that already. So, as above, that's not what prevents its
adoption.

~~~
jimmaswell
Most popular/AAA titles aren't released for Linux, unless you mean
Facebook/other web games.

~~~
qplex
Steam Top 3 (# of players playing right now)

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (518008), Dota 2 (456350), ARK: Survival
Evolved (58477)

Linux version? 3/3.

~~~
azemetre
How many users of those games are actually playing on Linux? Genuinely curious
because I doubt it's more than 10%.

~~~
qplex
Probably 1% or less (based on the steam hwsurvey).

Considering the share that Linux has on the desktop, this is hardly a
surprise.

~~~
shmerl
Steam survey doesn't show percentage of usage per OS for cross platform games.
At least I've never seen such data published. It's tossed around often, but
it's not useful really.

~~~
qplex
That's true. However, I'd wager that the data would still correlate with the
hwsurvey results. Would be interesting to see the actual numbers, especially
for CS:GO and Dota 2.

~~~
shmerl
I don't think it would. I saw some reports from actual developers, that differ
quite a lot from that survey. So, I wouldn't use it as any sort of definitive
metric.

------
RandyRanderson
Using Ubuntu 16* again after maybe a decade of not using Linux has not left me
impressed at the desktop progress.

By it's nature, the Open Source (OS) community doesn't have the man-hours or
leadership structure in place to make a coordinated desktop system.

I would argue that it is at least the rare combination of technical know-how,
leadership structure, man-hours and perseverance that makes a system
successful. An example would be Linus Torvalds with Linux but there are many
others.

Further to this, I believe a commercial structure in conjunction with an open-
source component/ecosystem has a much greater chance for success, by it's
nature.

So in this respect I think RemixOS/Android on Linux is a better path to a
successful Linux desktop as Android today allows 95%+ of users to do
everything they need while also allowing the rest of us the use of all the
great facets of the Linux/GNU components.

~~~
mikekchar
Linus uses KDE, IIRC ;-) I don't really know _anybody_ who liked Unity (what's
shipped by default on Ubuntu) out of the box. I know people who have learned
to like it, so I suppose it's an acquired taste.

I actually like Gnome 3 because it is highly configurable for a programmer
(plugins are really, really easy to write). But, in the end, I don't like all
the Gnome infrastructure -- especially they really broke internationalised
input for a long time and pretty much forced me to change.

My wife uses KDE and absolutely loves it. I had previously introduced her to
Gnome 3, which she didn't like and Cinnamon, which she was pretty neutral
about. She was originally a non-computer user -- she had only ever used a cell
phone for her whole life if you can believe it.

I eventually migrated to XMonad and I don't think I will ever change to a more
integrated desktop environment.

Free software is about freedom. It's freedom to use your computer how you see
fit. It's freedom to write whatever software you want, or to tweak it, or to
fix bugs. It's freedom to help other people by writing software, or tweaking
it or fixing bugs.

The idea of having some coordinated effort that makes decisions for everybody
and provides a lowest common denominator is appealing for a lot of reasons.
Probably that's what it takes to compete with the vendors who see the computer
as an integrated consumer good -- a black box that is highly targeted to a
particular market.

As a user of free software who enjoys his freedom, penetrating the mass
market, but removing choice is not something I look forward to. I think some
people have this idea that Linux needs to have mass market appeal to be
successful. I am not one of those. I'm happy if more people want to enjoy
software freedom, but I could care less about Linux market penetration on the
desktop.

But anyway, if you are interested, I would give KDE a shot. Personally, I find
it over complicated, but it has some really compelling features if you're into
that kind of thing.

~~~
ChuckMcM

       > I suppose it's an acquired taste.
    

I think it is true, and there has always been desktops that are a small taste
variation away from Windows and desktops that are a small taste variation away
from MacOS X, and desktops that are a small taste variation away from
CDE/Motif.

I have always felt that this was the single largest impediment to Linux as a
desktop, not because there were several different tastes but that the APIs
used to provide the UX were different across all of them as well. GtK2, GtK3,
Qt4, Qt5, XMotif, Etc. Some FOSS apps try to 'adapt' depending on which
desktop you are using, many just punt and look like what ever their 'birth'
desktop looked like, and many suck in that other desktop as a function of
being installed. My Ubuntu 16 deskop has XFCE on it (Xubuntu) but other apps
have sucked in both versions of GTK, and all of Qt and the KDE libs.

While it lets people complain if you force a single desktop metaphor down
their virtual throats, at least it has a good shot of the Apps all working, in
a general way, the same way. And that is what separates (in my opinion) more
general adoption of the Linux desktop from the specialize adoption we have
now.

------
JeremyMorgan
I am a minority when I say that I don't want the Linux desktop to flourish?

I've been using Linux since 1996. Though I also use Windows and OSX, I haven't
been without a Linux machine for 20 years, and I've seen a lot.

It seems the more Linux distributions try to target the "average user" they
just dumb it down and/or make it more proprietary. I can barely stand using
Ubuntu these days for that reason.

I know, it's configurable, I can change anything I want but I don't really
want to see that trend continue. I would like to see innovation focused on
making Linux better for work, not focusing on the average Joe who doesn't
want/need it.

~~~
foolfoolz
I'm with you. I think the best user experience for a home or work desktop is
Windows. the best user experience for technical work is Linux. I want to use
Windows and have a clean way to do my work in Linux from there. the new Linux
subsytem in Windows seems like it might actually be possible.

until then I use osx which gets me ok user experience and pretty good work
experience. it's a decent compromise

~~~
nindalf
In what way does Windows offer a superior user experience than macOS?
Certainly more games are available for Windows and that's a key feature for
many. Are there any other advantages?

I've used both and I appreciate a few things macOS gets right - installing and
uninstalling applications is copy and delete, which is simple. Most
applications have a consistent look and feel.

~~~
flukus
> installing and uninstalling applications is copy and delete, which is simple

It's still black magic to most people.

As for user experience, I've never liked OSX, it never clicked with me. I find
the menu bar at the top especially confusing, I run apps side by side a lot.

------
johnsmith21006
Excellent article. Last year both Mac sales and Windows sales declined YoY.
Only one "desktop" grew. ChromeOS is Linux base and grew over 35% YoY. Still
small numbers but is now #2 in the US and growing quickly.

"Chromebooks surpass Macs in U.S. sales for the first time"

[http://www.zdnet.com/article/chromebooks-surpass-macs-in-
u-s...](http://www.zdnet.com/article/chromebooks-surpass-macs-in-u-s-sales-
for-the-first-time/)

~~~
Radle
I disagree. The Article i stupid. There's never been a war. A war is
destructive. Microsoft is doing well for itself. Win10 is arguably the best
Windows ever. The world is going cross platform. Ubuntu is a great distro,
Linux server Systems are awesome. Android is awesome.

Everyone did their best and many people and organisations are doing well for
themselves. If that was a "war", everyone seems to have won it.

------
coldtea
Give it some time, it will be mostly just on the server again -- as Android
will be switching to Google's own OS:

[http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/15/12480566/google-fuchsia-
ne...](http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/15/12480566/google-fuchsia-new-
operating-system)

~~~
contextfree
The success rate for new ground-up modern OS projects achieving broad adoption
isn't great - Microsoft's Midori, GNU Hurd, Apple's "Pink", etc. AFAIK there
basically hasn't been a broadly successful one since Windows NT in 1993. Which
isn't to say people should stop trying and it'll be fantastic if they do
succeed with this, I just wouldn't count on it.

~~~
harigov
It may not be so bad because most of Android apps are built on Java which
isolates a lot of what OS does. For other native apps, if Google builds a
POSIX compliant OS, it should be fairly easy to port/run.

------
kev009
There's really nothing special about Linux, but timing was right and political
blunders beset all other contenders. In the end the price tag of a free UNIX
was too good for cheap web hosts and eventually hyperscalers and Linux had
insatiable hype and sidestepped most blunders. Less importantly for numbers
but critically important for actual engineering talent (hyperscalers are
pretty low on anything other than ops talent), high end IT applications like
RDBMS and three letter acronym software from IBM, Oracle and HPC also needed
to land somewhere as the commercial UNIX market shit the bed. That brought in
things like RCU and high core count scalability relatively early on that
turned out to be well suited for mainstream servers a short few years later.

One interesting thought experiment is that cost model is the primary thing
holding the WinNT kernel back as again hyperscalers tend to have very low
expertise and contribution to the systems software space. A free WinNT heavily
focused on the Linux (I want to say POSIX but that would be unnecessary
friction at this point) personality that did containers and orchestration well
would actually be interesting and a pretty easy path for MS to navigate. The
space is terrible enough the MS could navigate a superior solution due to
vertical integration. Think Joyent's SDC but from MS. In effect, this was what
happened to Linux on the desktop -- Apple executed in a way that vertical
integration can always out-engineer the bazaar model on coherence, and OS X
took over desktop UNIX.

Linux on the phone and embedded space I actually expect to see this erode as
IoT disasters come home to roost. Things like Google's Magenta kernel,
capability kernels, seL4 will probably displace it. As in the server space,
the Linux personality may live on in image activation here due to entrenched
developer mindset, but it's really never been a good platform to build these
things on.

------
catnaroek
> Meanwhile Linux advocates have to be happy with the hollow victory of The
> Year Of Linux (Android) On The Smartphone, because how do you hack on a
> smartphone? Type in C code on the onscreen keyboard?

If that's victory, I don't even want to imagine what defeat looks like...

~~~
hutzlibu
"Meanwhile Linux advocates have to be happy with the hollow victory of The
Year Of Linux (Android) On The Smartphone, because how do you hack on a
smartphone? Type in C code on the onscreen keyboard?"

Cyanogenmod ?

------
qplex
So what Linux did not have was a proper pitch to the OEMs, so that you could
buy a pre-configured, pre-installed Linux computer from Walmart that would be
compatible with existing standards.

This was pretty much impossible because of many things, but mainly because of
the proprietary standards in both hardware and software.

Even if you'd manage it technically, you'd then have to face with the legal
trouble.

~~~
icc97
I'd love to know the number of people who bought a computer with Linux
installed on it and decided to put Windows on it. I think this must be some
alternate dictionary definition of zero.

Linux is so impressive that people will spend days and months learning and
figuring out how to switch. It's a really painful process (because of all the
problems you mention with proprietary hardware).

I tried to persuade Novatech in the UK [0] who will sell machines without
operating systems to actually sell machines with Linux on them. It just wasn't
worth the support overhead.

    
    
      [0]: https://www.novatech.co.uk/

~~~
qplex
I'm sure some people did that - or rather, returned the Linux machine because
it didn't run the software they were expecting it to run.

I've heard the netbooks that had Linux pre-installed (circa 2009) had a higher
return rate than their Windows counterparts.

~~~
digi_owl
Best i recall there was one company that claimed this, and they made one with
a half-assed Suse install that were lacking drivers for various parts (webcam
included).

Sadly they were also the company many retail chains turned to for rebranded
netbooks.

------
randomsearch
It does seem that Apple are keen on migrating their users to Linux of late.

I'm actively considering going back to Linux myself, and have already
jettisoned a bunch of apple products.

Is it conceivable that the conventional desktop market will shrink to a core
of Linux hackers developing software that runs on the tablets and phones of
everyone else? With IDEs provided by MS/Google/whoever but not OSs? Finally,
the year of the Linux desktop arrives, when the desktop comes to an end.

~~~
shmerl
_> It does seem that Apple are keen on migrating their users to Linux of
late._

Indeed, especially MacOS gamers. Wine on Apple won't be able to play DX11
games (because Apple abandoned OpenGL there), and it's some incentive for them
to switch to Linux.

------
davidgerard
This history misses netbooks. 2007 was the year of Linux on a desktop: when
Microsoft actually had to start giving Windows to netbook manufacturers at $5
down to $0 because they were selling computers with a fully-functioning Linux
desktop on them.

~~~
scholia
No. The actual price of Windows XP ULCPC was $11 to $15, though OEMs could get
that close to zero by installing crapware.

Sales soon evaporated because the high cost of installing Linux on netbooks --
and the even higher cost of supporting them -- made them unprofitable.

Worse, a lot of those netbooks were returned, which killed manufacturers
working on very slim margins.

~~~
type0
I had one of those netbooks, it came with both XP and some sort of Linux in
dual boot. The thing worked like crap though.

~~~
digi_owl
Because Intel freaked and pushed everyone over to ATOMs where as the early
EEEPCs etc had used discount celerons.

Basically Intel feared that the netbooks plus citrix would strangle the
lucrative ultraportable market segment.

At the same time MS gave Windows XP another stay of execution just to have a
Windows option to offer OEMs (Vista was just too darn bulky).

Thing is that XP, or more correctly the version of the Windows Update version
it used, had a flaw where it would grow slower and slower over time as it
tried to enumerate all the patches on each boot.

~~~
scholia
Intel and Microsoft gave discounts to manufacturers who followed the agreed
netbook specification, and the spec evolved slightly over time...

Anybody who didn't want to follow the spec was free to do whatever they liked.

------
throw2016
10 years ago maybe not, but today things like Unity, Gnome, Mate etc given you
a modern, stable and reasonably seamless desktop experience. Even games work
now if you look at the recent benchmarks done by phoronix.

But the whole idea of installing an OS is something very few people do or plan
to ever do. That itself limits Linux desktops to enthusiasts or managed
deployments. People are also used to applications like Office and will always
be reluctant to try something else because its not worth their time. There are
applications like adobe creative suite and games that tie users to Windows or
OSX and force the OS choice.

The only way Linux becomes widespread is if an entity pushes it aggressively
like Google does for Android. Without that for the general user what possible
reason could there be to turn away from their preinstalled perfectly working
windows desktops to reach for Linux?

~~~
APCarr
The privacy concerns. Also, older people like me don't enjoy things constantly
changing, so having more control over updates is appealing.

I despise Windows 10, enough that it prevented me from buying a laptop, until
I eventually found a vendor willing to install Windows 8.1, which I merely
dislike.

I wanted Windows 7 or was willing to try Mint. However they are not available,
"no drivers" and so Linux is dead to me.

------
soulbadguy
I am a linux die-hard, and for my use case (dev C++ target other UNIX
platforms), it think it's simply the best OS around by far. For anybody even
remotely interested in computer science and software engineering, linux is a
great place to be.

But i am having a really hard time understanding the reasoning of people
trying to put the failure of linux on desktop on anything else than the fact
that the linux desktop experience sucks... always have and probably always
will be lagging. The recent uptake and use of linux desktop have much more to
do with the browsers overtaking everything than anything else...

------
baxuz
Don't really agree with the claims in the article. I myself and dozen of my
friends and colleagues have been trying to get linux as a desktop OS all the
way back when the Tango / Gnome aesthetics emerged as a counter to the glossy
3d aesthetics of XP and OSX.

The thing is... It just didn't work. There wasn't any available software for
it. The open-source alternatives such as OpenOffice, Inkscape and Gimp were
lacking to put it mildly. Games were out of the question. But that isn't the
worst part.

The desktop itself, and by extension the OS as a desktop OS didn't work.
Getting hardware video acceleration to work was almost impossible. Time to
edit xorg.conf again and run the glsl demo. Maybe it won't crash the xserver
this time. You want your microphone to work? Time to download and compile some
obscure ALSA forks. UTF-8? Here, have some EN-US whether you like it or not.
God help you if you have a USB device which isn't a mouse or a keyboard. And
then there were the crashes. I still remember typing `startx` regularly as the
GUI would crash all the time.

I really want linux to succeed as a desktop OS, but I don't see that happening
ever.

~~~
Zancarius
I think it's a matter of expectations and needs. I've been using Linux as my
primary desktop OS off and on since 2005ish (first Gentoo, now Arch); it's
been fine for me, but I suspect my experience is largely different for a
variety of reasons--mostly due to needs.

However, therein lies the rub: If you use Linux as a desktop environment with
the _expectation_ that everything is going to magically Just Work™, there's a
greater chance you're going to be unpleasantly surprised. Then again, you
might not (again, depending on needs), but if you're using predominantly
Windows software and expect to be able to carry that over, _it might not
happen_. I play some Windows games under Wine, and they generally work well,
but there's a few that don't (like Guild Wars 2, but it's probably because the
game is CPU bound). It happens. Use whatever works for you.

As to your specific complaints, it seems to me that _most_ of them are largely
outdated by now. OpenOffice/LibreOffice are good enough for the most part
(certainly not as polished as MS Office), and the same applies to Inkscape and
Gimp (both of which I use under Windows, so there's that). My GeForce GTX 1060
works fine with the NVIDIA kernel drivers; I've not had to edit my xorg.conf
file in years (with dual monitors!); audio works fine, yes even using
PulseAudio; and UTF-8 is a non-issue (installing the correct fonts does
wonders, but make sure to change them in your browser profile!). My webcam
works great as well, but I selected it _specifically for its Linux
compatibility_. Same for an ancient HP LaserJet printer.

So, I think things have certainly improved--they have since I started using
Gentoo. That's not to say you should expect smooth sailing, of course. For my
part, I like tinkering with my OS and generally don't mind it when I break
something. If that's out of the question and you need something that's going
to work out of the box, Linux _probably_ isn't something you should be using
in the first place, especially if you have esoteric needs. I won't wax
philosophical about "oh, you just need to do X" when certain software is going
to work _better_ on Windows, for instance, but having used Linux for my
desktop OS as long as I have, _I can 't complain_. I actually grumble more
when I have to boot to Windows. ;)

However, I have a friend who has a particular penchant for breaking literally
everything he touches (coincidentally, he works in QC now). Every time he
speculates out loud about trying some random Linux distro, I politely change
the subject!

~~~
rini17
And your point is? Having average user, without any esoteric needs, jump over
these hoops, is not "probably", but definitely unfeasible. Complaints, such as
about Office, aren't and probably won't ever get outdated, all diehard Excel
users I know rejected LibreOffice Calc due to incompatibilities and missing
features.

I know enough C to mess with the kernel, but even I must choose my battles -
sometime around kernel 4.0 ACPI support for my otherwise perfectly functional
and performant 8y old mainboard broke, freezing on boot. I had to disable
ACPI, it means shutting it down manually by power switch. It reminds me every
time not to lie to myself "I can't complain" :) Fortunately it's desktop, not
laptop.

~~~
Zancarius
>And your point is? Having average user, without any esoteric needs, jump over
these hoops, is not "probably", but definitely unfeasible.

Did you read my post _or_ the OP?

1) The OP made claims about specific features not working in Linux.
_Generally_ , those complaints aren't true anymore and haven't been for a long
time (audio, UTF-8, among other things). I can't remember the last time I had
xorg crash _or_ the last time I had to use startx and not my login manager.

2) I acknowledge on _a number of points_ that it's most certainly _not
something the average user should use_. I honestly have no idea how else to
express this in a way that is suitable enough to satisfy everyone. I think
you're misunderstanding the tone of my original post?

>my otherwise perfectly functional and performant 8y old mainboard broke,
freezing on boot. I had to disable ACPI, it means shutting it down manually by
power switch. It reminds me every time not to lie to myself "I can't complain"
:)

If it's a hardware problem due to a fault, I'm not sure what you expect...

~~~
rini17
I guess you have your anecdotal evidence that "Generally, those complaints
aren't true anymore..", me and parent poster have ours and different. I can
agree audio is now OK, but everything else is as sketchy as ever was.

It was _the software ACPI support that broke,_ not hardware. With old kernels
it all works. That at least I'd like to expect not broken.

~~~
Zancarius
> I can agree audio is now OK, but everything else is as sketchy as ever was.

I politely disagree. It has its warts, but most of the OP's complaints were
true--10-12 years ago. Now, not so much, and it's not anecdotal either. Let's
go back over it by point:

\- Hardware video acceleration? Works on most hardware ("most" in this
instance refers primarily to vendor). NVIDIA cards are almost always
guaranteed to work well, provided there's driver support. This is usually the
case except for brand new cards. \- xorg.conf edits required? Nope. Maybe for
exceedingly special cases. It's rare now unless you're using a card that's not
well supported (see above). \- xserver crashes? Almost unheard of outside
hardware problems or driver-related issues. Usually a PEBKAC-instigated fault.
\- UTF-8? No point talking about this... \- Random USB devices? Depends on the
device. Same for Windows, really. \- Manual invocation of `startx` required?
Uncommon. Most distributions ship with login managers that work quite well. If
you're using a rolling release, you'll probably have to do this infrequently
if an update broke something (but then, you should be expecting that with a
rolling release _anyway_ ; if not, then you shouldn't be using rolling
releases).

> It was _the software ACPI support that broke,_ not hardware

I apologize. I misread your original comment due to misleading verb ordering,
and the fact that I'm a horrible, horrible person who has an awful habit of
skimming comments.

 _Generally_ this shouldn't be the case and is certainly the fault of the
kernel. However, 4.0 was released on April 12, 2015 and there have been a
number of improvements since, including with ACPI. I would encourage you to
try a newer kernel. Preferably something around the 4.7-4.8 vintage. (Or lack
thereof.)

It's also plausible your issue was cased by module renaming/removal. My memory
is hazy on this part, but I recall support for some hardware being rolled up
into a single module, requiring some manual intervention. Unfortunately, the
_actual working solution_ can be hit or miss with some hardware (what
motherboard are you using?). I've had ACPI work fine on ancient boards from
circa 2000ish or earlier (tested recently for my own amusement) but fail
completely on recent laptops (2014-2015) out of the box. I'd suggest starting
here [1], although this guide may or may not be useful as it's for Arch. It'll
at least give you a good start.

ACPI is one of Linux's primary warts, but it depends on your hardware
selection. Is it a problem? Absolutely. But I'd also point out that Microsoft
used to publish hardware compatibility guides for NT and its various
successors. :)

Common hardware will go a long way to improving your experience with Linux,
but it's no replacement for researching one's selection. Linux may be
condemned to a hobbyist's operating system (on the desktop, at least), but
some of us _do_ use it everyday with no ill effects!

[1]
[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ACPI_modules](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ACPI_modules)

------
pgtan
I use the non-preemptive (server) scheduler on my linux desktop machines with
fvwm as favorite long-time WM. At work: RHEL with dwm, which I'm starting to
love, also forced to use Windos 7. Boy, this MS sh*t drives me mad. The focus
stealing alone is enough to go berserk. The slowness, the deadkeys, the
placement of the windows, the lack of virtual desktops...

~~~
tomjen3
For the rest of us who were confused: only the kernel part is non-preemptive.
A user program can still be interrupted at any time.

That said, how much better performance are you seeing.

~~~
pgtan
well, running heavy multiprocess pipes (netpbm, imagemagick, tesseract, TeX)
in the background does not slow down the graphic apps, mainly emacs, firefox,
gimp, feh, etc. Even watching a video with mplayer is mostly without any
freezing. Distro is Gentoo as cleaned and lean as possibe. And this on 10
years old Opteron PCs.

------
scythe
The year of Linux on the desktop was somewhere around 2009 (whenever we got
multiple monitors working for the most part), but nobody noticed, because we
had all switched to laptops. The year of Linux on the laptop will probably be
a few years after we all stop using laptops.

~~~
Arizhel
I have a laptop, running Linux Mint, which uses multiple monitors through a
docking station. Since when does using a laptop preclude having multiple
monitors?

And how would people possibly stop using laptops? What are they going to
switch to? Tablets? Don't make me laugh. Maybe they'll switch to using
"laptops" with VR goggles.

~~~
scythe
I think you're misinterpreting my comment. Pretty much the last reasonably
common piece of desktop hardware that Linux had trouble supporting was
multiple monitors, which was largely a solved problem by 2009. As of then, you
could use Linux on a desktop and get all the functionality you had on other
OSs.

By contrast, suspend and Wi-Fi on laptops has been a perpetual headache, and
suboptimal GPU utilization is a common cause of battery life issues on Linux
laptop setups. Furthermore, the peculiarities in laptop keyboards, webcams and
touchpads are often incompletely supported; generally only the most common
laptop models will get support for the topbar keys before they're obsolete.
These problems all have a common root, which is that installing an OS on a
laptop is fundamentally harder than a desktop and often requires some
intervention/software from the OEM, and this happens because of the more
idiosyncratic nature of laptop hardware, which is necessary to exploit the
small form factor as efficiently as possible. However, because OEMs are
forever tied to the commercial enterprise market, the patent encumberance of
some popular Linux software creates big legal problems for any manufacturer
who wants to ship a laptop with the kind of hardware support usually reserved
for Linux laptops. The result is that only huge companies (Dell, IBM) and a
few dedicated "ideological businesses" like system76 ship Linux on the laptop,
and the preinstalled OS often requires significant intervention from the user
in order to do tasks which are mundane on Windows, like playing mp4s or Flash,
or watching Netflix. These factors combine to stymie the deployment of quality
Linux laptops at a reasonable price point despite the apparent technical and
economic feasibility of the project.

~~~
Arizhel
>By contrast, suspend and Wi-Fi on laptops has been a perpetual headache

I completely disagree about WiFi. I haven't had problems with that on Linux in
many years. Maybe you're buying some really crappy WiFi chips, but I've done
fine with both Broadcom and Intel. I'd stick to Intel though.

>and suboptimal GPU utilization is a common cause of battery life issues on
Linux laptop setups

I'd say that GPUs are the perpetual headache on Linux with regards to hardware
support. More than anything else. All the problems with getting Linux to run
on desktop/laptop machines has usually come down to poor GPU support for many
years now.

>Furthermore, the peculiarities in laptop keyboards, webcams and touchpads are
often incompletely supported; generally only the most common laptop models
will get support for the topbar keys before they're obsolete.

I haven't had any trouble with this stuff for ages. It all "just works" on
Latitudes and Thinkpads. I don't do anything special; I just install the
latest Linux Mint and it just works.

>and the preinstalled OS often requires significant intervention from the user
in order to do tasks which are mundane on Windows, like playing mp4s or Flash,
or watching Netflix.

Watching Netflix hasn't been a problem for a while now. All you have to do is
install Google Chrome and use that.

------
digi_owl
The big problem, outside of questionable conduct from MS, is the lack of
stability surrounding the userspace plumbing. The DEs and their friends lower
in the stack can't stop CADTing the APIs etc, and that scares away third
parties.

------
jimmaswell
What about chromebooks? They did alright.

~~~
scholia
Sales are tiny -- probably around 8 million a year -- and the majority are in
the education market. (This is why sales are hard to track.) This isn't a lot
for a product launched in 2011.

I'll be delighted if you can find an authoritative figure.

~~~
digi_owl
I think the recent years of TLA over-reach has not helped much, because the
major sales pitch of the Chromebooks is that everything is stored (backed up?)
by Google.

------
franciscop
> _You set up Windows for grandma, installed AOL, and then came back once a
> month to scrape the inevitable viruses and malware out of her computer until
> the box was dead, and then you bought a new desktop with more Windows on it_

Arguably that's a place where Linux has won in the desktop; all my family uses
is the browser, some times LibreOffice Writer and Skype. So I'm guessing like
me, many other developers installed Ubuntu or other user-friendly distro for
the family so the maintenance described here is down to 0.

------
MisterBastahrd
I've yet to find a reason to switch to Linux as a user of computers when I
could instead use a Mac. I get most of the Unixy goodness along with a
sensible structure for my personal documents and applications.

Oh, and the dock doesn't suck / require reboots / break constantly / be
forbidden to be on the bottom of the screen due to fiat of crazy owner of
distro, and installing other apps doesn't mean that I get all of the ugly lack
of aesthetics as beta-era Swing.

------
smartmic
Even when installed on a desktop, Linux is not a desktop system but remains a
server OS from its heart. This makes it so extraordinary powerful for any
users who want to keep control of their software/system.

For folks like me, there is no big point to distinguish between server and
desktop. But yes, this view does not hold for the mainstream/non-technical IT
user.

~~~
lucaspiller
This is pretty much why I switched from Mac. The main apps I use are a
terminal emulator and web browser. Yes it's not going to be as pretty, but in
terms of work it's a lot more productive.

------
didibus
I just installed openSuse with KDE Plasma on my laptop after years of windows,
and I have to admit, it's great. All that's missing is app support.

------
rascul
Next year is always the year of the Linux desktop.

