Alright. Let's talk about the esr blogpost. Will Windows become a linux distro with an emulation layer over it? Personally, I wouldn't rule it out, but extrapolating that from a edge port for linux is a bit far fetched I think.

  • eduardog3000 [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Even before reading this post I would’ve said that the future of the desktop computer is Linux just by extrapolating current trends.

    How long have people been saying this? Is 2021 finally going to be the year of the Linux desktop?!

    • DialecticalWeed [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Where in my post did I say anything about a timeline? Obviously the meme of the "year of the Linux desktop" hasn't happened yet because technology doesn't work like that. Linux could be (and arguably already is) objectively better than Windows but it wont take market share because nobody other than tech nerds install an operating system on their machine. So yea while people have been saying this for years they are correct. Anyone claiming to give a timeline on it is just guessing but if you have any basic knowledge of computers and operating systems you should know that Linux is the future, sorry.

      • eduardog3000 [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        Again, this kind of shit is what Linux nerds have been saying forever. Linux will never be more popular than Windows. I didn't say you gave a timeline, but there just is no timeline.

        WSL hurts Linux as a desktop environment, relegating it to just a shell within a completely different desktop environment. That's how I use it. Proton allows game devs to care even less about Linux. Why bother actually porting a game when it can already run on Linux with next to no work on the dev's side?

        Linux could be (and arguably already is) objectively better than Windows but it wont take market share because nobody other than tech nerds install an operating system on their machine

        It's been objectively better in a lot of ways for some time now. But those don't matter. Your second point there is exactly why Linux won't be the future of the desktop.

        • DialecticalWeed [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          I disagree about WSL and Proton hurting Linux. Specifically about Proton I feel that its ability to bring Windows users over to Linux far outweighs its downsides in making devs not focus on native applications. Again only time will tell but if a game runs perfect on Proton I legitimately do not know what the problem is. Also on your last point I literally brought up how companies are starting to ship devices with Linux operating systems pre-installed. Again only time will tell but I firmly believe that there will be a point where Linux operating systems rule the desktop market. It might not be Ubuntu, Arch, or Fedora but the idea of an open source kernel and operating system is legitimately just better.

          • eduardog3000 [he/him]
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            edit-2
            4 years ago

            The idea is better, of course. But nothing really points to Linux taking over. Computer manufacturers have been giving the option to buy one with Linux for a little bit now, it hasn't changed much.

            The average person is going to stick to what they know. If anyone who isn't a techie gets a computer with Linux pre installed it will either be because they didn't know, or because their Linux fanboy nephew told them to. Either way they will just get annoyed that it's different and likely take it back.

            And again, WSL allows even those who might be willing to use Linux to get away with just using WSL and otherwise sticking to Windows. That's exactly what I do. I only have Ubuntu installed because I thought it would be neat to triple boot all three major OSes.