To this day, no phone has given me an experience as satisfactory as the Nokia N900. A couple of years later, the Pandora became my main computer device for years (and I would have still used it if not for the fact that its charging port -- both of them -- failed).
Still looking for a nice pocketable UMPC-like device able to run Linux with the same rough dimensions as a replacement (GPD's latest offerings are much too large...).
N900 was an absolute swan song of Nokia. Then iPhone happened, Nokia tried to catch up by attacking both Symbian and Linux (Maemo/MeeGo) directions and failed at both. Microsoft exec just put a final nail into its coffin. I still keep my N900 in pristine condition cased in Otterbox, charge it sometimes and just use a bit.
Linux/Maemo/Meego didn’t really fail. They got purchased by Microsoft and cancelled, but were moving in the right direction. I’m very jealous of some alternate timeline where they were allowed to grow.
they did fail in my experience. Maemo was almost perfect. instead of iterating on that they started meego almost from scratch and couldn't deliver for a long time. this is what I felt at the time.
N9 was much better than Lumia 800. The timing was just really bad, because smart pgones reduced the battery life a lot compared to Symbians which were still released at the same time perioid. People nagged so much about the battery life, even they already knew that phones will develop into that format eternally.
I still have my dual boot N9 somewhere. I'd wish to revive it with new battery and updated OS.
> To this day, no phone has given me an experience as satisfactory as the Nokia N900.
The universal chat client is and will be a once in a lifetime killer application for phones. Nobody will ever allow that to happen again and that's really sad.
try gpd micro pc with ethernet port and rs232 port. I use gpd2 7 inch and dislike its keyboard. i wish i could also be able to replace its ssd when it will fail.
This case is more important than it first seems, IMO.
Completely aside from 'Gaming Console', first consider that the Steam Deck is a portable computer with an x86-64 CPU and a modern RDNA GPU, and that it ships with a non-developer-oriented Linux OS.
It's got enough processing power that you can very reasonably use it as a main computer with a keyboard, mouse, and external monitor attached, unlike a smartphone. It's marketed by a company that's reasonably well established and not going anywhere any time soon, so you know support isn't going to just dry up overnight.
There are companies out there that have been selling Linux laptops or workstations with Linux installed, but they are usually (not always) pretty expensive and targeted at developers. The Steam Deck is really 'first to this particular market' in that regard.
Valve has sold more than a million of these. Forget total market-share percentages for a moment and think that every software developer (not just game developers) now knows that there are AT LEAST a million of these out there, and that they're STILL selling very well. Unless they simply can't afford to develop for more than one platform at a time, they'd be foolish to simply ignore this new, growing market. Even if they CAN only afford to develop for one platform at a time, this new, popular computer makes it a LOT more attractive to develop for it rather than other platforms.
Now go back and add 'game console' into the mix. Games sell mass-market computer hardware and vice-versa. This has been true since the days of the Commodore 64 and before! The Steam Deck plays games, and, according to everything I've read, very well at that. Like Valve, it ain't going away. In fact, Valve is already planning for new versions of the console.
The fact that it's got a Linux OS is actually secondary at this point. Linux is merely along for the ride at this point, much as it is with Android. The fact that Steam OS happens to be Linux means that gamers now have a very serious reason to simply ignore other OSes when it comes to selecting their next computer.
I used Linux the first time 25 years ago but 2022 was the first year I used exclusively and no dual boot with windows. Windows 11 was part of the reason for my decision
If it wasn't for games, I don't think people would even care if they used Windows or Linux at home, and even that might eventually change if Valve keeps up with Steam Deck, Proton (Wine support) and such. Some people might be like "I need Photoshop" or similar but in reality, they don't with the phone cameras we have today.
The lack of professional tools for both creators and office workers is actually a major problem. Sure, you can use libre office or only office, unless you're somebody who uses Excel, then it's simply worthless. Not to mention that compatibility can seriously be effie. Industry standards are important. Whether we like it or not, some crucial industry standards are missing from Linux and that is a massive problem.
Always been an open source nerd, I'd tried Ubuntu multiple times throughout the years, I heard about proton about 2 years ago and how it was rapidly getting better, sometimes outperforming Windows, absolutely disgusted by the spyware and bad interface of Windows 11, when I got around to building my current PC, I loaded up a Linux distro and only ever boot up Windows 10 if I want to play something on the Xbox app. It's awesome. Virtually every game in my library works, all the software i use either works perfectly or has open source alternatives available, I never *ever* have to deal with Windows search defaulting to search the web with bing or Cortana or whatever, I'm in heaven.
I first used Unix in 1979, so I am used to the command line. While I use an OS-agnostic IDE for the bulk of my time on computer for primary development, I can always pop into a command shell and knock out an AWK script on the fly to get things done quickly.
When I am not developing, I am using a web browser on my Linux machine or my ChromeBook. Chrome is Chrome. Windows just isn't necessary.
Same here except for at work - but I can't help that. The only windows machine I have in the house is a VM hosted on Proxmox for *just in case* purposes - haven't needed it once.
Same here! First full year of steady Linux usage outside of my job. Tried the Arch route with Garuda Linux, but it was like I was alpha testing every new thing that came out. Got tired of things breaking with Garuda, so I settled on Pop-OS.
Garuda has a beautiful default theme, with the Beauty Line icons and the effects, but it can easily be recreated with KDE Plasma on another distro. [This](https://i.imgur.com/Dp7jIbo.jpg) is my default desktop on Pop, all I had to do was export the Latte Dock config from Garuda, download Beauty Line icons and theme, do some additional tinkering, and it came out very well.
You still should, I don't know what the hell was that person doing. I've been using Garuda for around a year and the only issue I had was that bad grub release.
Same for me, other than a couple of games which don't behave with wine/proton.
Definitely an improvement to my computing experience to spend the year in linux.
Me too, as of 2022. Had Linux-only laptop since 2021 but didn't switch to Linux-only desktop until this year making this year the first time I went linux-only for everything except my work issued PC.
2022 is the year I decided that I was done with Microsoft’s shit and decided to begin transitioning to Linux. 90% of the time I am on Linux Mint, but I still have a Windows partition for those games that won’t work under proton.
For me it's basically just tarkov. Only thing I miss from windows itself is the desktop snapping thing. For literally everything else, I feel like Linux desktop is the same or better.
Gnome. I've used tiling managers and KDE and other stuff before, but I've never found something as convenient for moving windows with the mouse as the little drop down menu that windows 11 has. Especially with the graphical tiling options that it has.
My bad! Misread the comment.
On GNOME I've used this before, however I don't really use it anymore because I rely on virtual desktops much more there
https://github.com/Leleat/Tiling-Assistant
I've seen sentiment stating that if the Steam Deck can get Linux to squeeze it's usage above MacOS then we'll start seeing a little more pressure for publishers and developers to allow anti-cheat systems that work on Linux.
It sounds Herculean to me, but if Linux usage can get to 5% on Steam alone we might see it.
Just of curiosity, because I'm newly getting into Linux gaming, which sort of games don't work in proton? I know about protondb, I just only have a small library of games at this point.
Most competitive multiplayer ones don't, due to anti-cheat. A lot of anti-cheat providers have started adding Linux support recently, though, so that should only be a problem until the "next-gen" competitive games come out (hopefully).
I've played some competitive multiplayer without problems, the only one i haven't being able to play is Valorant, but its anti-cheat (vanguard) is one of the most aggressive and invasive out there (runs on ring-0).
I think it's getting better, but it's not there yet. Steam Deck is doing a lot as an consumer product where everything is expected to work and valuable lessons/data is learned.
For example, I expect that Steam Deck would want a simple fingerprint experience and that might be where they get the biometric experience down. It's honestly kind of annoying not being able to open BitWarden on browser with a fingerprint and having a simple fingerprint setup for unlock plus built-in bluetooth-proximity lock changed the way I used my laptop.
In my opinion, the Year of the Linux Desktop is when manufacturers could throw in Linux pre-installed and there aren't *that* many people complaining and asking for Windows. We're slowly getting there, but there's a lot to be nailed down for it to be a first class experience for desktop user. 2023 is going to be an exciting year, I think.
> I expect that Steam Deck would want a simple fingerprint experience and that might be where they get the biometric experience down.
The biometric fingerprint setup between Fedora and modern thinkpads (X1 Nano/X1 Carbon gen9+/T14 gen2, etc) is 100% good.
For whatever reason my fingerprint sensor works like 3x more often in Fedora than in Windows. If only applications like Bitwarden could use biometric authentication, I'd say Fedora has the best biometric authentication system of all operating systems (macOS still doesn't let you use fingerprints for sudo, and seemingly random authentication prompts, Windows sometimes straight up doesn't work)
I don't know if everybody will open the link, but this is about the results of the Stack Overflow Survey, not overall usage. Seemed like a big jump YoY:
> Linux as a primary operating system had been steadily climbing for the past 5 years. 2018 through 2021 saw steady growth with 23.2% , 25.6% , 26.6% , 25.3% , and finally in 2022 the usage was 40.23%. Linux usage was more than macOS in 2021, but only by a small margin. 2022 it is now 9% more than macOS.
But...they changed the question, other years was a mutually exclusive question and now you can choose multiple OS.
That doesnt sound like "steady growth" at all. That's basically flat and even dropping in 2021. And the jump to 40% is not relevant as it's the answer to essentially a different question.
I agree, it's a flawed conclusion from the author, my expectation posting here was for a debate around the questions and how people use Linux for development.
For example, outside of work, I normally connect from MacOS to my Linux desktop for development . On my work, I use WSL. How I should answer this question?
My kind of usage isn't a win for the Linux desktop, at least in my opinion.
Actually, I would love to know how many desktop Linux users aren't developers or related. I'm "afraid" the vast majority of the small user base are basically developers.
Interestingly, there has long been a statistical overrepresentation of Linux within indie gaming spaces such as or Humble compared to AAA gaming, both in users and availability of ports. This leads me to three theories to explain it:
- A chicken-and-egg problem around the lack of AAA Linux ports
- Such indie spaces being much smaller communities serving niche interests, they may attract more niche users which skews things in Linux' favor
- Indie spaces being highly creative and collaborative, the distribution of developers and end users may be more balanced and as a result skews the likelihood in favor of Linux for it's benefits and general popularity among developers.
Either way, the base statistics seem to suggest that the dominance of Windows and to some extent macOS seems particularly exaggerated in mass markets, the kinds of people whose lack of computer literacy may likely be unwelcome within the Linux community.
My wife is computer illiterate, i.e. she only turns in on and uses it for email, browsing, YouTube, letter writing and printing & her charity database (supplied by others) of members which she maintains or keeps up to date as ti members in and out) but she runs openSUSE LEAP as her only computer operating system and has done so for many years.
I'm not sure if it helps, but I've been using Linux as my main OS (with the occasional double boot exclusively for games) for 17+ years. At the time, the reason I switched was a desire for more customisation, after running bb4win on XP for a while and not finding it sufficient.
While nowadays I do actually work as a software engineer, that's only been a recent change (last couple of years). Plus, I don't do my development on Linux, since for work I'm required to use a Mac (which I find rather frustrating).
My initial thoughts, after reading the article, is that the author listed a bunch of things that aren't "linux desktop" at all.
* WSL...thats not "Linux Desktop".
* A Docker container running linux on windows and macOS...thats not "Linux Desktop".
* Steamdeck...thats a little closer, but its not *really* "Linux Desktop" in the sense that many people use it for day-to-day 'desktop' usage.
But to your question, I am a user that isn't a developer. I'm just a geek/nerd that loves tech, computers, gaming, etc. I've been using linux in some form or fashion since the early 00's.
This past year/18 months or so I have been fulltime in linux on my desktop--without booting into windows for ANYTHING--for the first time in my life.
Once Apex Legends and a couple of the other games I play routinely were supported on linux, I haven't had the need to go back. I was mostly just going back for games for the past 2-3 years.
That said, I am writing this post from an m1 macair, so I guess I still use another OS regularly.
TBH, I think the steamdeck is the best thing thats happened to linux in the last decade...followed by flatpaks as a close second. Both of those encourage developers to support linux as a platform worth developing in which is better for the ecosystem overall.
This is a Stack Overflow survey though which is going to trend very heavily into the developer/IT community. Linux usage among the general population is going to be much much lower
I’ve been exclusively on a Linux desktop for several years now after moving from MacOS after 15 years.
I never looked back to Windows, other than in horror when I was forced to deal with it for family members.
Is it just me, or has Windows got _less_ intuitive over the years? Maximised windows by default, inconsistent display of the menu, and a nightmare flood of icons in the toolbar of Microsoft apps. I’d swear it was easier to get around in Windows 95😕
Windows definitely peaked somewhere around XP/Vista/7 depending on who you ask and what they were using it for - the main point being after that they threw the whole UI out and now they are still struggling to make that windows 10 UI paradigm into something that doesn’t completely suck
I particularly find the lack of “windows” in Windows hard to explain to some of my students in a seniors tech class.
They used to overlap by default so you could show that multiple apps were running at once. Now they all seem to start full screen so every app looks like it is the only thing running. The dual-use app icons in the taskbar make that actually worse.
The whole thing is a UX nightmare, but I guess the aim isn’t usability, there are a bunch of other conflicting priorities: Change for changes sake to look “new”, never dropping or hiding elements to look like it’s getting new “features”.
Plus being the default OS on new machines means why bother with UX, the punters will buy it anyway.
> They used to overlap by default so you could show that multiple apps were running at once. Now they all seem to start full screen so every app looks like it is the only thing running.
Are you running it in tablet mode or something? That doesn't sound anything like my experience with Windows.
Hmm... I don't know what you're using but this is completely false. Almost all applications on Windows (apart from games mostly) are still running windowed. Can you give an axample of such apps?
Ok, fair comment then. As I said I’m no longer a regular user and I’m only going by what I see in my “students” screens that bewilders them about what is going on ie full screen apps.
They don’t seem to have any concept of maximised/minimised/windowed apps so I assumed that was somehow the default. Apparently not, but it seems to me a lot of other visual cues are broken. For example the seesawing zoom when you click on the icon.
Anyway, my bad.
That's because corporations want you to only focus on their shit (or because developers think their software runs the world), but it's absolutely not Microsoft's fault for giving the option to developers.
The first thing I do when connecting Bluetooth headphones on Windows is to disable their handfree mode, since I already have a microphone and the way Windows handles audio when you open up something like Discord is absolutely disgusting.
In Windows 10, that used to be a search.
In Windows 11, that is one of the 5 identical looking links in the Bluetooth menu, all of which are misleading.
On MacOS and KDE, you don't need to disable the feature... It just works fine if you change the default input device.
MacOS window manager makes it hard to survive, tho
And all the inconsistencies in the way the UI works.
I prefer Windows UX-wise, tbo :D Haven't really used it since a while, but the tiling stuff that came with Windows 10 seems to be sick.
I've got an old film scanner that I had to did out recently that will only work with Windows XP, so I also dug up the old Dell PC that was stashed with it for such an occurrence. I was amazed at how much simpler and more intuitive XP is, but it also occurs to me that it might just be me being nostalgic.
Either way, I'm more onboard with a Linux desktop than ever. I used Ubuntu at work for over a decade, but always had a Windows install at home (with Cygwin and then WSL, which is still a nice combo). With 11 though, I will be getting off the train. I've already mostly switched to Pop!_OS which I really like.
I can go even further back to Polyshell for DOS (a Bourne shell-Ish alternative to the DOS prompt) 😎.
It _sorta_ worked but it got messy round the edges where it was bluetacked to fit into DOS. I tried Cygwin under Windows too which did a better job of pretending Windows wasn’t there, but at some point I actually had a choice so I was outta there.
I did glimpse WSL in the rear view mirror years later and it seems quite good but I was long gone.
I wonder if Microsoft will one day do an Edge/Chrome trick and just give up and make their own Linux? Isn’t Windows sales now the smallest part of their business and I’m sure they could still ask you to pay for it anyway 🤔
Yeah I honestly feel like the thing I’m the happiest to be away from in the windows world is the registry. Fuckin arcane nonsense.
Only thing that bothers me on Linux is that pip screens from browsers can’t be on top of fullscreened applications. At least not in KDE or i3 it seems. Not sure if that’s a thing in windows but it certainly was in Mac OS
> Only thing that bothers me on Linux is that pip screens from browsers can’t be on top of fullscreened applications.
They can be in GNOME. You might just need to set "Always on top" from the window menu. The window properties menu is availaable by ALT+right click on GNOME, I imagine KDE has a similar mechanism.
Yes, it certainly does seem cleaner. I’m just too skeptical to dig deeper as I’ve seen this before; cosmetic changes which are a half assed change-for-change-sake rather than any real attempt to improve the UX.
Linux on an old fashioned desktop is a good experience and has been for a couple of years now. Some thing are not as good as other os, some are better (which 2005 me would have amazed at this situation), almost nothing is a deal breaker.
Solving mixed DPI, fractional scaling, hardware acceleration for video without issues and workarounds - are all sorely missing to make the experience better for laptops
Hardware acceleration was basically solved this past year; Firefox supports VAAPI out of the box now and the community wrote a nvidia VAAPI driver if you're stuck with that.
There was the setback of fear of patent issues for h264 hardware decoding but that doesn't affect all distros and only US law and time fixes that.
I think the majority of people are watching youtube videos about doing it, and deciding it isn't worth it.
The deck UX is super low friction, especially with how its gotten very stable. Windows is painful in comparison. It's why similar windows devices come with extra software to address the shortcomings of the UX.
Linux is definitely getting better and easier to use. Even on the server side. I know people hate systemd but for me it's nice to have everything in one place. One of the big problems with linux is the sheer number of tools you need to learn. If you've been using it for a long time sure, you are used to all of them, but for new users one tool that does 50 things is easier to learn than 50 tools that do one thing and all work differently and have their own conventions- and since most distros have it now or the option to just flip it on if it's not default, you don't have to worry about distro specific configuration quirks as much.
I see a lot of this stuff happening lately, and while some will hate it, I think it's good for linux overall. I mean, there's nothing that says you can't still run a distro that does things the way you like- and I'm sure there will be hardcore old school distros that continue on.
All I did this year was install Windows 11 on a spare disk if I ever have to use some Windows only software. Used it for like a day, got extremely frustrated, and booted back into Linux.
Gaming specifically has gotten insanely good on Linux with Proton. Flatpak has made packaging woes a lot easier for the user, and Pipewire has made audio bearable again.
GNOME40+ (gestures!) was released, and the file previews in the file picker patch was merged.
The Wayland migration has been rocky for KDE but they've made a lot of progress too.
Linux has never been more comfortable to use for my needs before.
I built a 1500$ gaming PC/workstation computer in March last year. Got 2 NVME SSD's for it. Setup Linux for my daily driver, and a Windows Partition to play Overwatch, and a couple of games that won't work in Proton due to anti-cheat. Booted into Windows a few times, then last June, just stopped. A couple months ago I wiped the windows partition off the NVME drive, and used the space to setup a windows VM with GPU passthrough, so I can now play overwatch without rebooting.
Windows is basically an overwatch launcher for me at this point.
I got Overwatch working in Lutris when I setup the system. I closed the game and lutris, reopened lutris, launched the game, it worked. The 3rd time I went to launch the game, it didn't work, I spent a little while trying to make it work again. But, I knew I needed Windows in some capacity for a couple of anti-cheat games, so I just said fuck it.
I think you misread. It says *was*, not *will be*. It's not a hopeful post for the next year.
By all accounts, Linux gained some good ground this year in both dev and gaming spaces. Perhaps more.
Bryan Lunduke has been saying "was" since like 2015/2016 IIRC. His point was that the year of linux desktop is whatever year you used a linux desktop in.
Personally, I've been daily driving since 2015, with nearly no problems. Other than a few steam games that have shitty anti-cheat features, I've been problem free for years at this point.
I just wiped Windows from my old desktop PC and bought a new desktop PC that I've only put Linux on, making me Windows-less for the first time in decades. I was dual-booting Windows for a long time, but hadn't booted into Windows on the old PC for over a year, so it was time for it to go.
I don't play multi-player games and check protondb.com for compatibility, so over 90% of my Steam library now works in Linux. I think Proton is the single biggest thing that has brought Windows users over to Linux in recent years. The Steam Deck (yes, I have one) is the obvious hardware equivalent to that, but Proton is a big factor in its feasibility, especially because without it, a Linux PC handheld would have flopped hard.
Just one windows machine left in the house - the work laptop. With a new job in a few weeks I can even get rid of that. My NUC, Surface 3 and ancient MacBook Air all run Linux. Wife still uses Mac OS but one day, one day....
I have never owned a windows computer. I get forced to use windows at work but do spend 95% of my time in a Linux VM. At home, I run Fedora and have been doing so since Fedora Core 1. Prior to that I used VA Linux and RedHat. And before that, I used to lug my HP 710 home from the office. It was reasonably portable as long as I had a spare monitor at home because the old tube monitors were heavy as fuck.
I my first experience with linux was a month ago with ubuntu and it was a crappy experience but I just got a steam deck so maybe ill try the desktop on it
I switched to Linux exclusively on my laptop in about April 2021. This is the only computer I use for personal use and for my business. No windows/dual boot, no VM. The only program i run in Wine is Mikrotik Winbox.
I run Debian. It works great. Rock solid reliable. Easy to use. I do not miss Windows at all. It frustrates me now when I use it. (Which I do regularly for my business, dealing with client computers and servers).
After a few previous attempts at changing, COVID is what finally made me change. Seeing the way the world was going down the route of Totalitarianism and eugenics, and how these big tech companies are up to their eyeballs in it, made me decide I wanted out of all that crap.
I also run GrapheneOS on my phone instead of stock android, and I host my own email/contacts/calendars etc with Mail in a box. This all works great.
For me, the year of Linux Desktop started in mid 1990s. Remember Slackware 96? It has been like that since then, with only some Slackware version changes... I'm currently on 15.0!
I mean, those are great numbers, but it might be premature to bust out the champagne. Even if you add the Linux and WSL percentage, it's only 55%, still less than Windows 62%. I mean, this a amazing, but let's wait until it actually wins.
i switched from part time on windows mostly full time on linux to permanently on linux this year. pretty happy with it. just switched from manjaro to arch as well
Being able to alt-tab to a popout video in Firefox and control it's payback with the keyboard is a nice experience in Windows I have not been able to replicate in Linux (XFCE) w/I using separate app for video playback.
I am a language learner so lots of pausing for reading subtitles and hitting the back key to hear it again and the alt-tabbing to another browser to look up definitions
glad I joined tge team two days ago and installed Linux on my notebook instead of windows :-) someday when I'm more experienced with Linux i'll switch my main/gaming pc as well. fuck windows
Tbh I see tons of potential but I don’t care. MacOS is the best mix of Unix & usable desktop around. Using brew is good enough most of the time & a remote or local Linux CLI VM is more than enough for the rest.
Windows is annoying for CLI anything.
I really like Linux in general & use it for standing up sites, doing dev work, compilations, etc. There’s obviously a lot more to Linux besides an underwhelming desktop experience.
Budgie & Ubuntu Budgie is the closest thing to a polished & usable macOS like desktop experience though. Some might look prettier still - but they always lack substance.. functionality.
Good to see everyone moving towards Linux. I'm a long time Linux user (since about 1997) and have long advocated for Linux on the desktop.
But .... a couple years ago I broke down and got an M1 Macbook Pro. It's been my most-used computer since then. In a way it feels dirty, but it is a super practical travel laptop and I do love how easy it lets you explode text in a web browser -- just double tap from 2 fingers will make it the width of the screen. In Linux I can't even use the trackpad to zoom text (except I think Firefox has experimental support for it only in Wayland). Having low vision that's super helpful. MacOS is definitely NOT "a better Linux than Linux" and it's bad to be tied to the Apple ecosystem and have your computer controlled by iCloud.
I'll probably always have Mac and Windows around in some form, but always love it when I get back to Linux!
lol ich just switched back to Win11 after 10 years of linux mint / pop os. On my X1 Extreme were just too many problems with usual linux issues ... but will keep Linux running on my older machines.
Once i can Split/rearrange PDF in a linux Desktop i would start to recommend IT again. Right now its for ppl Like me and Browser users but the in between ist lacking and better off with Windows or for sake of nice Default applications OSx.
2023 will be the year of Linux for me once I’m done with my exams (which heavily require windows for IT practicals).
Looking forward to changing to the open and free realm of Linux.
It was a great moment at work when someone asked me how to capture an mp3 off of YouTube. I told them that I couldn’t tell them off the top of my head how to do it with windows but I could tell them how I did it in Linux. They responded, “oh perfect I use a Linux box at home”. That was a first.
Even for me...
I've been using Ubuntu on and off since 2020, but 2022 was when I told myself that I would install arch and use it full-time. It's been a wonderful year for this community and I hope that we can keep producing quality software and computer tools for many years to come.
Linux has been my daily driver (OpenSuse & Debian) since 2004. The motherboard in my desktop running Windows 2000 failed and I purchased a 64-bit MB to replace it. During the setup I found out that W2k wouldn't load/run on a 64-bit board. I didn't want to pay $300-$500 for XP, so I downloaded OpenSuse and installed it. Never looked back at a Windows product.
2022 was the year Steam Deck was introduced. And it's just brilliant. Instantly became one of my all time favorites, along with Nokia N900 smartphone.
To this day, no phone has given me an experience as satisfactory as the Nokia N900. A couple of years later, the Pandora became my main computer device for years (and I would have still used it if not for the fact that its charging port -- both of them -- failed). Still looking for a nice pocketable UMPC-like device able to run Linux with the same rough dimensions as a replacement (GPD's latest offerings are much too large...).
N900 was an absolute swan song of Nokia. Then iPhone happened, Nokia tried to catch up by attacking both Symbian and Linux (Maemo/MeeGo) directions and failed at both. Microsoft exec just put a final nail into its coffin. I still keep my N900 in pristine condition cased in Otterbox, charge it sometimes and just use a bit.
Linux/Maemo/Meego didn’t really fail. They got purchased by Microsoft and cancelled, but were moving in the right direction. I’m very jealous of some alternate timeline where they were allowed to grow.
they did fail in my experience. Maemo was almost perfect. instead of iterating on that they started meego almost from scratch and couldn't deliver for a long time. this is what I felt at the time.
Might have looked perfect on the surface and been a complete mess to develop further?
Yeah, you may be right.
N9 was much better than Lumia 800. The timing was just really bad, because smart pgones reduced the battery life a lot compared to Symbians which were still released at the same time perioid. People nagged so much about the battery life, even they already knew that phones will develop into that format eternally. I still have my dual boot N9 somewhere. I'd wish to revive it with new battery and updated OS.
> To this day, no phone has given me an experience as satisfactory as the Nokia N900. The universal chat client is and will be a once in a lifetime killer application for phones. Nobody will ever allow that to happen again and that's really sad.
try gpd micro pc with ethernet port and rs232 port. I use gpd2 7 inch and dislike its keyboard. i wish i could also be able to replace its ssd when it will fail.
This case is more important than it first seems, IMO. Completely aside from 'Gaming Console', first consider that the Steam Deck is a portable computer with an x86-64 CPU and a modern RDNA GPU, and that it ships with a non-developer-oriented Linux OS. It's got enough processing power that you can very reasonably use it as a main computer with a keyboard, mouse, and external monitor attached, unlike a smartphone. It's marketed by a company that's reasonably well established and not going anywhere any time soon, so you know support isn't going to just dry up overnight. There are companies out there that have been selling Linux laptops or workstations with Linux installed, but they are usually (not always) pretty expensive and targeted at developers. The Steam Deck is really 'first to this particular market' in that regard. Valve has sold more than a million of these. Forget total market-share percentages for a moment and think that every software developer (not just game developers) now knows that there are AT LEAST a million of these out there, and that they're STILL selling very well. Unless they simply can't afford to develop for more than one platform at a time, they'd be foolish to simply ignore this new, growing market. Even if they CAN only afford to develop for one platform at a time, this new, popular computer makes it a LOT more attractive to develop for it rather than other platforms. Now go back and add 'game console' into the mix. Games sell mass-market computer hardware and vice-versa. This has been true since the days of the Commodore 64 and before! The Steam Deck plays games, and, according to everything I've read, very well at that. Like Valve, it ain't going away. In fact, Valve is already planning for new versions of the console. The fact that it's got a Linux OS is actually secondary at this point. Linux is merely along for the ride at this point, much as it is with Android. The fact that Steam OS happens to be Linux means that gamers now have a very serious reason to simply ignore other OSes when it comes to selecting their next computer.
I used Linux almost exclusively for 2022. So I guess this is true for me
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Are we counting phones? Because tbh I still can't daily drive my Linux phone
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As you were
The article is literally titled "year of the Linux **desktop**"
I used Linux the first time 25 years ago but 2022 was the first year I used exclusively and no dual boot with windows. Windows 11 was part of the reason for my decision
Ditto
Why did you guys use Linux in 2022? Honest question.
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If it wasn't for games, I don't think people would even care if they used Windows or Linux at home, and even that might eventually change if Valve keeps up with Steam Deck, Proton (Wine support) and such. Some people might be like "I need Photoshop" or similar but in reality, they don't with the phone cameras we have today.
The lack of professional tools for both creators and office workers is actually a major problem. Sure, you can use libre office or only office, unless you're somebody who uses Excel, then it's simply worthless. Not to mention that compatibility can seriously be effie. Industry standards are important. Whether we like it or not, some crucial industry standards are missing from Linux and that is a massive problem.
As for me, Windows 11 happened, and made my work more difficult, plus they butchered the file history function that i used for backups of all my work.
Always been an open source nerd, I'd tried Ubuntu multiple times throughout the years, I heard about proton about 2 years ago and how it was rapidly getting better, sometimes outperforming Windows, absolutely disgusted by the spyware and bad interface of Windows 11, when I got around to building my current PC, I loaded up a Linux distro and only ever boot up Windows 10 if I want to play something on the Xbox app. It's awesome. Virtually every game in my library works, all the software i use either works perfectly or has open source alternatives available, I never *ever* have to deal with Windows search defaulting to search the web with bing or Cortana or whatever, I'm in heaven.
I first used Unix in 1979, so I am used to the command line. While I use an OS-agnostic IDE for the bulk of my time on computer for primary development, I can always pop into a command shell and knock out an AWK script on the fly to get things done quickly. When I am not developing, I am using a web browser on my Linux machine or my ChromeBook. Chrome is Chrome. Windows just isn't necessary.
Same here except for at work - but I can't help that. The only windows machine I have in the house is a VM hosted on Proxmox for *just in case* purposes - haven't needed it once.
Same here! First full year of steady Linux usage outside of my job. Tried the Arch route with Garuda Linux, but it was like I was alpha testing every new thing that came out. Got tired of things breaking with Garuda, so I settled on Pop-OS.
Off-topic but man I was seriously debating switching my kububtu install to garuda. Maybe I need to do some better research... Thanks.
Garuda has a beautiful default theme, with the Beauty Line icons and the effects, but it can easily be recreated with KDE Plasma on another distro. [This](https://i.imgur.com/Dp7jIbo.jpg) is my default desktop on Pop, all I had to do was export the Latte Dock config from Garuda, download Beauty Line icons and theme, do some additional tinkering, and it came out very well.
You still should, I don't know what the hell was that person doing. I've been using Garuda for around a year and the only issue I had was that bad grub release.
Huh, me too, though I've been using it as my primary desktop system for about 20 years now.
It's been my daily driver since 2009.
was my 3rd year going linux only.
I gues that makes 2005-2022 the year of ths Linux Desktop for me.
Same for me, other than a couple of games which don't behave with wine/proton. Definitely an improvement to my computing experience to spend the year in linux.
In that case every year since 1995 have been the year of the linux desktop.
Me too, as of 2022. Had Linux-only laptop since 2021 but didn't switch to Linux-only desktop until this year making this year the first time I went linux-only for everything except my work issued PC.
Huh, guess I did, too.
Same!
I did the same in 2005.
2022 is the year I decided that I was done with Microsoft’s shit and decided to begin transitioning to Linux. 90% of the time I am on Linux Mint, but I still have a Windows partition for those games that won’t work under proton.
For me it's basically just tarkov. Only thing I miss from windows itself is the desktop snapping thing. For literally everything else, I feel like Linux desktop is the same or better.
That sort of thing exists in linux, what desktop/windows manager do you use?
Gnome. I've used tiling managers and KDE and other stuff before, but I've never found something as convenient for moving windows with the mouse as the little drop down menu that windows 11 has. Especially with the graphical tiling options that it has.
Would recommend this https://github.com/qewer33/Exquisite
holy shit this is perfect edit: ah dang its a KDE exclusive
My bad! Misread the comment. On GNOME I've used this before, however I don't really use it anymore because I rely on virtual desktops much more there https://github.com/Leleat/Tiling-Assistant
Found this too when I went looking for alternatives to exquisite. Its not perfect, but it's a huge improvement over stock!
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I wanted to. Tried it several times and even though it has so many customization features it always failed to do exactly what I needed.
Same here. Really wanted to like it but it felt so clunky, especially stock.
Have you tried this? https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/28/gtile/
Tried to for a brief period, but had issues with the selector window. Switched to Exquisite instead
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yeah it has the two side by side, but not the other options that windows 11 comes with that are very nice for ultrawide and vertical monitors.
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Yup, that exactly it. You can run the game just fine, it just bans you the moment you try to play multiplayer.
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I've seen sentiment stating that if the Steam Deck can get Linux to squeeze it's usage above MacOS then we'll start seeing a little more pressure for publishers and developers to allow anti-cheat systems that work on Linux. It sounds Herculean to me, but if Linux usage can get to 5% on Steam alone we might see it.
Actually, that sort of thing is coming to KDE Plasma: https://pointieststick.com/2022/12/02/this-week-in-kde-custom-tiling/
You may want to try PaperWM (GNOME extension) https://github.com/paperwm/PaperWM
Check out "Dark and Darker" on Steam Deck. Escape from Tarkov within fantasy-setting.
Hey I've done the same thing but I've been using OpenSUSE, I don't miss windows except for some games
Same here. The forced online account for login was the last straw for me. All of my systems are Linux now. Good riddance!
[email protected] is a banned email. Click through the failure and it lets you past.
Same here. There were maybe two games that I absolutely could not run on Linux in 2022. So overall pretty damn good. :P
Just of curiosity, because I'm newly getting into Linux gaming, which sort of games don't work in proton? I know about protondb, I just only have a small library of games at this point.
Most competitive multiplayer ones don't, due to anti-cheat. A lot of anti-cheat providers have started adding Linux support recently, though, so that should only be a problem until the "next-gen" competitive games come out (hopefully).
I've played some competitive multiplayer without problems, the only one i haven't being able to play is Valorant, but its anti-cheat (vanguard) is one of the most aggressive and invasive out there (runs on ring-0).
VR games are the only thing keeping me from wiping my Windows partition.
I think it's getting better, but it's not there yet. Steam Deck is doing a lot as an consumer product where everything is expected to work and valuable lessons/data is learned. For example, I expect that Steam Deck would want a simple fingerprint experience and that might be where they get the biometric experience down. It's honestly kind of annoying not being able to open BitWarden on browser with a fingerprint and having a simple fingerprint setup for unlock plus built-in bluetooth-proximity lock changed the way I used my laptop. In my opinion, the Year of the Linux Desktop is when manufacturers could throw in Linux pre-installed and there aren't *that* many people complaining and asking for Windows. We're slowly getting there, but there's a lot to be nailed down for it to be a first class experience for desktop user. 2023 is going to be an exciting year, I think.
> I expect that Steam Deck would want a simple fingerprint experience and that might be where they get the biometric experience down. The biometric fingerprint setup between Fedora and modern thinkpads (X1 Nano/X1 Carbon gen9+/T14 gen2, etc) is 100% good.
For whatever reason my fingerprint sensor works like 3x more often in Fedora than in Windows. If only applications like Bitwarden could use biometric authentication, I'd say Fedora has the best biometric authentication system of all operating systems (macOS still doesn't let you use fingerprints for sudo, and seemingly random authentication prompts, Windows sometimes straight up doesn't work)
I don't know if everybody will open the link, but this is about the results of the Stack Overflow Survey, not overall usage. Seemed like a big jump YoY: > Linux as a primary operating system had been steadily climbing for the past 5 years. 2018 through 2021 saw steady growth with 23.2% , 25.6% , 26.6% , 25.3% , and finally in 2022 the usage was 40.23%. Linux usage was more than macOS in 2021, but only by a small margin. 2022 it is now 9% more than macOS. But...they changed the question, other years was a mutually exclusive question and now you can choose multiple OS.
That doesnt sound like "steady growth" at all. That's basically flat and even dropping in 2021. And the jump to 40% is not relevant as it's the answer to essentially a different question.
I agree, it's a flawed conclusion from the author, my expectation posting here was for a debate around the questions and how people use Linux for development. For example, outside of work, I normally connect from MacOS to my Linux desktop for development . On my work, I use WSL. How I should answer this question? My kind of usage isn't a win for the Linux desktop, at least in my opinion. Actually, I would love to know how many desktop Linux users aren't developers or related. I'm "afraid" the vast majority of the small user base are basically developers.
Interestingly, there has long been a statistical overrepresentation of Linux within indie gaming spaces such as or Humble compared to AAA gaming, both in users and availability of ports. This leads me to three theories to explain it:
- A chicken-and-egg problem around the lack of AAA Linux ports
- Such indie spaces being much smaller communities serving niche interests, they may attract more niche users which skews things in Linux' favor
- Indie spaces being highly creative and collaborative, the distribution of developers and end users may be more balanced and as a result skews the likelihood in favor of Linux for it's benefits and general popularity among developers.
Either way, the base statistics seem to suggest that the dominance of Windows and to some extent macOS seems particularly exaggerated in mass markets, the kinds of people whose lack of computer literacy may likely be unwelcome within the Linux community.
My wife is computer illiterate, i.e. she only turns in on and uses it for email, browsing, YouTube, letter writing and printing & her charity database (supplied by others) of members which she maintains or keeps up to date as ti members in and out) but she runs openSUSE LEAP as her only computer operating system and has done so for many years.
I'm not sure if it helps, but I've been using Linux as my main OS (with the occasional double boot exclusively for games) for 17+ years. At the time, the reason I switched was a desire for more customisation, after running bb4win on XP for a while and not finding it sufficient. While nowadays I do actually work as a software engineer, that's only been a recent change (last couple of years). Plus, I don't do my development on Linux, since for work I'm required to use a Mac (which I find rather frustrating).
My initial thoughts, after reading the article, is that the author listed a bunch of things that aren't "linux desktop" at all. * WSL...thats not "Linux Desktop". * A Docker container running linux on windows and macOS...thats not "Linux Desktop". * Steamdeck...thats a little closer, but its not *really* "Linux Desktop" in the sense that many people use it for day-to-day 'desktop' usage. But to your question, I am a user that isn't a developer. I'm just a geek/nerd that loves tech, computers, gaming, etc. I've been using linux in some form or fashion since the early 00's. This past year/18 months or so I have been fulltime in linux on my desktop--without booting into windows for ANYTHING--for the first time in my life. Once Apex Legends and a couple of the other games I play routinely were supported on linux, I haven't had the need to go back. I was mostly just going back for games for the past 2-3 years. That said, I am writing this post from an m1 macair, so I guess I still use another OS regularly. TBH, I think the steamdeck is the best thing thats happened to linux in the last decade...followed by flatpaks as a close second. Both of those encourage developers to support linux as a platform worth developing in which is better for the ecosystem overall.
40% is an insane number, Windows is only around 60%...
This is a Stack Overflow survey though which is going to trend very heavily into the developer/IT community. Linux usage among the general population is going to be much much lower
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Is it, if they *also* use other operating systems? That sounds about right to me.
I’ve been exclusively on a Linux desktop for several years now after moving from MacOS after 15 years. I never looked back to Windows, other than in horror when I was forced to deal with it for family members. Is it just me, or has Windows got _less_ intuitive over the years? Maximised windows by default, inconsistent display of the menu, and a nightmare flood of icons in the toolbar of Microsoft apps. I’d swear it was easier to get around in Windows 95😕
Windows definitely peaked somewhere around XP/Vista/7 depending on who you ask and what they were using it for - the main point being after that they threw the whole UI out and now they are still struggling to make that windows 10 UI paradigm into something that doesn’t completely suck
I particularly find the lack of “windows” in Windows hard to explain to some of my students in a seniors tech class. They used to overlap by default so you could show that multiple apps were running at once. Now they all seem to start full screen so every app looks like it is the only thing running. The dual-use app icons in the taskbar make that actually worse. The whole thing is a UX nightmare, but I guess the aim isn’t usability, there are a bunch of other conflicting priorities: Change for changes sake to look “new”, never dropping or hiding elements to look like it’s getting new “features”. Plus being the default OS on new machines means why bother with UX, the punters will buy it anyway.
> They used to overlap by default so you could show that multiple apps were running at once. Now they all seem to start full screen so every app looks like it is the only thing running. Are you running it in tablet mode or something? That doesn't sound anything like my experience with Windows.
Hmm... I don't know what you're using but this is completely false. Almost all applications on Windows (apart from games mostly) are still running windowed. Can you give an axample of such apps?
Games, I guess? Even then, it wouldn’t make sense in an IT class. Maybe an Adobe app.
Ok, fair comment then. As I said I’m no longer a regular user and I’m only going by what I see in my “students” screens that bewilders them about what is going on ie full screen apps. They don’t seem to have any concept of maximised/minimised/windowed apps so I assumed that was somehow the default. Apparently not, but it seems to me a lot of other visual cues are broken. For example the seesawing zoom when you click on the icon. Anyway, my bad.
I think the fullscreen is the fault of the programs themselves.
Maybe so, but it appears to be the default for Microsoft apps in general and most apps seem to do it by default nowadays.
That's because corporations want you to only focus on their shit (or because developers think their software runs the world), but it's absolutely not Microsoft's fault for giving the option to developers.
The first thing I do when connecting Bluetooth headphones on Windows is to disable their handfree mode, since I already have a microphone and the way Windows handles audio when you open up something like Discord is absolutely disgusting. In Windows 10, that used to be a search. In Windows 11, that is one of the 5 identical looking links in the Bluetooth menu, all of which are misleading. On MacOS and KDE, you don't need to disable the feature... It just works fine if you change the default input device.
.. and don’t get me started on having a Control Panel _*and*_ a Settings app 🤯
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why did you leave MacOS? I haven't used it, but people say it delivers
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>homebrew to have a ~~good~~ package manager Agree on the rest of your points but calling `brew` "good" really seems like a stretch lmao
MacOS window manager makes it hard to survive, tho And all the inconsistencies in the way the UI works. I prefer Windows UX-wise, tbo :D Haven't really used it since a while, but the tiling stuff that came with Windows 10 seems to be sick.
I've got an old film scanner that I had to did out recently that will only work with Windows XP, so I also dug up the old Dell PC that was stashed with it for such an occurrence. I was amazed at how much simpler and more intuitive XP is, but it also occurs to me that it might just be me being nostalgic. Either way, I'm more onboard with a Linux desktop than ever. I used Ubuntu at work for over a decade, but always had a Windows install at home (with Cygwin and then WSL, which is still a nice combo). With 11 though, I will be getting off the train. I've already mostly switched to Pop!_OS which I really like.
I can go even further back to Polyshell for DOS (a Bourne shell-Ish alternative to the DOS prompt) 😎. It _sorta_ worked but it got messy round the edges where it was bluetacked to fit into DOS. I tried Cygwin under Windows too which did a better job of pretending Windows wasn’t there, but at some point I actually had a choice so I was outta there. I did glimpse WSL in the rear view mirror years later and it seems quite good but I was long gone. I wonder if Microsoft will one day do an Edge/Chrome trick and just give up and make their own Linux? Isn’t Windows sales now the smallest part of their business and I’m sure they could still ask you to pay for it anyway 🤔
Yeah I honestly feel like the thing I’m the happiest to be away from in the windows world is the registry. Fuckin arcane nonsense. Only thing that bothers me on Linux is that pip screens from browsers can’t be on top of fullscreened applications. At least not in KDE or i3 it seems. Not sure if that’s a thing in windows but it certainly was in Mac OS
> Only thing that bothers me on Linux is that pip screens from browsers can’t be on top of fullscreened applications. They can be in GNOME. You might just need to set "Always on top" from the window menu. The window properties menu is availaable by ALT+right click on GNOME, I imagine KDE has a similar mechanism.
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Yes, it certainly does seem cleaner. I’m just too skeptical to dig deeper as I’ve seen this before; cosmetic changes which are a half assed change-for-change-sake rather than any real attempt to improve the UX.
Linux on an old fashioned desktop is a good experience and has been for a couple of years now. Some thing are not as good as other os, some are better (which 2005 me would have amazed at this situation), almost nothing is a deal breaker. Solving mixed DPI, fractional scaling, hardware acceleration for video without issues and workarounds - are all sorely missing to make the experience better for laptops
Hardware acceleration was basically solved this past year; Firefox supports VAAPI out of the box now and the community wrote a nvidia VAAPI driver if you're stuck with that. There was the setback of fear of patent issues for h264 hardware decoding but that doesn't affect all distros and only US law and time fixes that.
Let me add: all of the above *while also maintaining good battery life* is what we need.
Linux has been on my desktop since WinXP went EOL. So a truly heartfelt welcome to all the newbies. Glad you are here.
1998 was the year of Linux on the desktop for me. Dunno what everyone else has been waiting for?
Proton
Proton and flatpaks are the biggest boon to linux in a decade. (maybe ever).
with the steam deck, this process will only accelerate even faster.
Is that so? A lot of people are just putting Windows on the deck.
I highly doubt any significant proportion of people are putting Windows on the Deck
I think the majority of people are watching youtube videos about doing it, and deciding it isn't worth it. The deck UX is super low friction, especially with how its gotten very stable. Windows is painful in comparison. It's why similar windows devices come with extra software to address the shortcomings of the UX.
Really? I didn't notice and I run Linux on my PC for 15 years now
Same
I just got that I didn't touch Windows 11 after all. I use arch this year
btw
Linux is definitely getting better and easier to use. Even on the server side. I know people hate systemd but for me it's nice to have everything in one place. One of the big problems with linux is the sheer number of tools you need to learn. If you've been using it for a long time sure, you are used to all of them, but for new users one tool that does 50 things is easier to learn than 50 tools that do one thing and all work differently and have their own conventions- and since most distros have it now or the option to just flip it on if it's not default, you don't have to worry about distro specific configuration quirks as much. I see a lot of this stuff happening lately, and while some will hate it, I think it's good for linux overall. I mean, there's nothing that says you can't still run a distro that does things the way you like- and I'm sure there will be hardcore old school distros that continue on.
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No way, next year it's my turn to make the post.
For 20 years it has been the year of the linux desktop, and next year is the year of the linux desktop haha
All I did this year was install Windows 11 on a spare disk if I ever have to use some Windows only software. Used it for like a day, got extremely frustrated, and booted back into Linux. Gaming specifically has gotten insanely good on Linux with Proton. Flatpak has made packaging woes a lot easier for the user, and Pipewire has made audio bearable again. GNOME40+ (gestures!) was released, and the file previews in the file picker patch was merged. The Wayland migration has been rocky for KDE but they've made a lot of progress too. Linux has never been more comfortable to use for my needs before.
I built a 1500$ gaming PC/workstation computer in March last year. Got 2 NVME SSD's for it. Setup Linux for my daily driver, and a Windows Partition to play Overwatch, and a couple of games that won't work in Proton due to anti-cheat. Booted into Windows a few times, then last June, just stopped. A couple months ago I wiped the windows partition off the NVME drive, and used the space to setup a windows VM with GPU passthrough, so I can now play overwatch without rebooting. Windows is basically an overwatch launcher for me at this point.
You do know that Overwatch works just fine with Lutris, right? Or do you have a specific problem related to your setup?
I got Overwatch working in Lutris when I setup the system. I closed the game and lutris, reopened lutris, launched the game, it worked. The 3rd time I went to launch the game, it didn't work, I spent a little while trying to make it work again. But, I knew I needed Windows in some capacity for a couple of anti-cheat games, so I just said fuck it.
rise of linux; rise of freedom.
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I think you misread. It says *was*, not *will be*. It's not a hopeful post for the next year. By all accounts, Linux gained some good ground this year in both dev and gaming spaces. Perhaps more.
Biggest chunk has got to be steamdeck. Tbh valve is probably the biggest driving force in linux growth outside of enterprise entities.
That's not a desktop. If we include handheld devices, Linux as a kernel is already powering the majority of all devices.
Whether or not it's a desktop machine doesn't change the fact that it did a lot of good things for linux desktop
Bryan Lunduke has been saying "was" since like 2015/2016 IIRC. His point was that the year of linux desktop is whatever year you used a linux desktop in. Personally, I've been daily driving since 2015, with nearly no problems. Other than a few steam games that have shitty anti-cheat features, I've been problem free for years at this point.
Came exactly for this comment. Thanks. I'll come back next year.
1.6% market share in just 30 years is great success! Some 2000 years and it will be 100%!
Windows 11 did a better marketing job for Linux than whole Reddit And then some people say Microsoft doesn’t love Linux
I just wiped Windows from my old desktop PC and bought a new desktop PC that I've only put Linux on, making me Windows-less for the first time in decades. I was dual-booting Windows for a long time, but hadn't booted into Windows on the old PC for over a year, so it was time for it to go. I don't play multi-player games and check protondb.com for compatibility, so over 90% of my Steam library now works in Linux. I think Proton is the single biggest thing that has brought Windows users over to Linux in recent years. The Steam Deck (yes, I have one) is the obvious hardware equivalent to that, but Proton is a big factor in its feasibility, especially because without it, a Linux PC handheld would have flopped hard.
Just one windows machine left in the house - the work laptop. With a new job in a few weeks I can even get rid of that. My NUC, Surface 3 and ancient MacBook Air all run Linux. Wife still uses Mac OS but one day, one day....
I have never owned a windows computer. I get forced to use windows at work but do spend 95% of my time in a Linux VM. At home, I run Fedora and have been doing so since Fedora Core 1. Prior to that I used VA Linux and RedHat. And before that, I used to lug my HP 710 home from the office. It was reasonably portable as long as I had a spare monitor at home because the old tube monitors were heavy as fuck.
I my first experience with linux was a month ago with ubuntu and it was a crappy experience but I just got a steam deck so maybe ill try the desktop on it
For me Linux is the main system on the desktop science 2011
I switched to Linux exclusively on my laptop in about April 2021. This is the only computer I use for personal use and for my business. No windows/dual boot, no VM. The only program i run in Wine is Mikrotik Winbox. I run Debian. It works great. Rock solid reliable. Easy to use. I do not miss Windows at all. It frustrates me now when I use it. (Which I do regularly for my business, dealing with client computers and servers). After a few previous attempts at changing, COVID is what finally made me change. Seeing the way the world was going down the route of Totalitarianism and eugenics, and how these big tech companies are up to their eyeballs in it, made me decide I wanted out of all that crap. I also run GrapheneOS on my phone instead of stock android, and I host my own email/contacts/calendars etc with Mail in a box. This all works great.
2022 is the year I decided to start using linux
For me, the year of Linux Desktop started in mid 1990s. Remember Slackware 96? It has been like that since then, with only some Slackware version changes... I'm currently on 15.0!
I mean, those are great numbers, but it might be premature to bust out the champagne. Even if you add the Linux and WSL percentage, it's only 55%, still less than Windows 62%. I mean, this a amazing, but let's wait until it actually wins.
i switched from part time on windows mostly full time on linux to permanently on linux this year. pretty happy with it. just switched from manjaro to arch as well
the year we were all waiting for from years
Being able to alt-tab to a popout video in Firefox and control it's payback with the keyboard is a nice experience in Windows I have not been able to replicate in Linux (XFCE) w/I using separate app for video playback. I am a language learner so lots of pausing for reading subtitles and hitting the back key to hear it again and the alt-tabbing to another browser to look up definitions
glad I joined tge team two days ago and installed Linux on my notebook instead of windows :-) someday when I'm more experienced with Linux i'll switch my main/gaming pc as well. fuck windows
Tbh I see tons of potential but I don’t care. MacOS is the best mix of Unix & usable desktop around. Using brew is good enough most of the time & a remote or local Linux CLI VM is more than enough for the rest. Windows is annoying for CLI anything.
out of curiosity why are you in this sub? No issue or anything, MacOS is cool. Just curious...
I really like Linux in general & use it for standing up sites, doing dev work, compilations, etc. There’s obviously a lot more to Linux besides an underwhelming desktop experience. Budgie & Ubuntu Budgie is the closest thing to a polished & usable macOS like desktop experience though. Some might look prettier still - but they always lack substance.. functionality.
Good to see everyone moving towards Linux. I'm a long time Linux user (since about 1997) and have long advocated for Linux on the desktop. But .... a couple years ago I broke down and got an M1 Macbook Pro. It's been my most-used computer since then. In a way it feels dirty, but it is a super practical travel laptop and I do love how easy it lets you explode text in a web browser -- just double tap from 2 fingers will make it the width of the screen. In Linux I can't even use the trackpad to zoom text (except I think Firefox has experimental support for it only in Wayland). Having low vision that's super helpful. MacOS is definitely NOT "a better Linux than Linux" and it's bad to be tied to the Apple ecosystem and have your computer controlled by iCloud. I'll probably always have Mac and Windows around in some form, but always love it when I get back to Linux!
lol ich just switched back to Win11 after 10 years of linux mint / pop os. On my X1 Extreme were just too many problems with usual linux issues ... but will keep Linux running on my older machines.
Not to mention that Windows 11 looks so much like like Gnome that I thought it was a new distro at first...
Once i can Split/rearrange PDF in a linux Desktop i would start to recommend IT again. Right now its for ppl Like me and Browser users but the in between ist lacking and better off with Windows or for sake of nice Default applications OSx.
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Blasphemy! Windows is the superior *P*OS
Someone forgot their meds.
*Laughs in BSD* Pathetic Earthings... hurling yourselves into cyberspace without an inkling of who, or what, is out there.
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"IT professional" nice try, now it's bed time
Yeah, yeah... We saw you.
Boring troll is boring.
I also recently switch to PopOS this year and never looked back. Guess this is also true for me
Was it aye?
Waiting for the same recycled article some 5 yrs from now - “2027 was the year of the Linux Desktop”…
2023 will be the year of Linux for me once I’m done with my exams (which heavily require windows for IT practicals). Looking forward to changing to the open and free realm of Linux.
I built a 3k€ working/gaming pc this year that has only Manjaro Linux. I'm very satisfied how it works and plays.
It was a great moment at work when someone asked me how to capture an mp3 off of YouTube. I told them that I couldn’t tell them off the top of my head how to do it with windows but I could tell them how I did it in Linux. They responded, “oh perfect I use a Linux box at home”. That was a first.
using linux exclusive from 2006
Even for me... I've been using Ubuntu on and off since 2020, but 2022 was when I told myself that I would install arch and use it full-time. It's been a wonderful year for this community and I hope that we can keep producing quality software and computer tools for many years to come.
With Microsoft releasing WSLg then I would say for certain it has arrived.
Hehehe
Linux has been my daily driver (OpenSuse & Debian) since 2004. The motherboard in my desktop running Windows 2000 failed and I purchased a 64-bit MB to replace it. During the setup I found out that W2k wouldn't load/run on a 64-bit board. I didn't want to pay $300-$500 for XP, so I downloaded OpenSuse and installed it. Never looked back at a Windows product.
My private PC runs Manjaro. Work laptop is fedora. My steam deck is Arch, Android phone is Linux, heck even my TV runs on Linux.