
Another non-year of Linux on the desktop - grahamlee
https://www.sicpers.info/2020/07/another-non-year-of-desktop-linux/
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kyriakos
Maybe it's happening the other way around, with Microsoft adding a Linux
kernel in Windows for Wsl2, the final hybrid OS may be neither Linux nor
Windows. Windows may never be open source but it will eventually have enough
open source baked into it it may no longer matter.

~~~
grahamlee
Yes, that’s where I was trying to take this. Open source parts can always
(GPL3 excluded) be pulled into other environments, so it is basically
impossible for a Linux environment to be “better” than an alternative, unless
the “better” you seek is software freedom.

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simonblack
This is now my twentieth year of 'Linux on the Desktop'. Prior to that I spent
10 years with 'UNIX on the Desktop'.

I've never had a year of 'Windows on the Desktop' or 'MacOS on the Desktop.'

Just lucky, I guess.

~~~
grahamlee
I’m guessing that the 10 years you spent on other Unix led, at least in part,
to subsequently choosing Linux. That’s quite a niche experience, one mainly
encountered by tech enthusiasts or professionals, and cannot be a counter to
the argument that the reason desktop Linux is not yet popular is a lack of
compelling reason for many people to switch from the popular platforms.

I first switched to desktop Linux in around 2001, after people on technical
usenet forums said that it helps you understand computers better.
Incidentally, that’s not true: I learned how to use Linux and Unix tools and
the frustration of editing XFree86 configs. Anyway, that tech enthusiasm, or
commitment to the idea of software freedom, is a common reason for enthusiasts
or pros to switch to Linux. But it can’t carry everyone else, and for many
situations a Linux desktop can at best be just as good as what they currently
have, and therefore not compelling to switch to.

I didn’t fully colour this thought in because the article was already getting
too long, but my position is that that is the best that can happen. The bazaar
model means that there isn’t the same pressure to have a well-integrated
environment of free software tools as there is for an integrated vendor and
that therefore any free software “killer app” will be adopted on
Windows/Mac/iOS/Android/whatever and not lead to switchers.

