One of the longest running jokes in our sphere is that the coming year will finally be the year of “Linux on the Desktop.” Never mind that the erosion of the traditional Windows-style desktop form of computing is a thing, or that Linux-derived operating systems such as Android or Chrome OS are running on literally billions of devices across the globe, it sends up the unreasonable optimism of Linux enthusiasts back in the day that their nascent platform could depose Windows from its pedestal.
If there’s one thing we like more than a good tech joke then, it’s a well-written tech rant, and [Artem S. Tashkinov] has penned a doozy in “Why Linux is not ready for the desktop, the final edition“. It’s Linux trolling at its finest, and will surely get many a crusty open source devotee rushing to their keyboard to decry its ideas.
Aside from the inherent humor then, reading it we have to admit that he makes a set of very cogent points. Even having used a Linux desktop exclusively for a very long time indeed there’s no shame in admitting that it’s not perfect, and things such as the mildly annoying state of network file sharing or the complexity for most users of getting to grips with the security model are very fair criticisms. And the last section on the Linux community hits hard, it’s necessary to admit that the world of open source doesn’t always welcome people trying to use its software as well as it could.
But as power users of a Linux desktop for everything, more than just for writing Hackaday, we’d take the view that for all its undoubted faults, it still offers a better experience than the latest version of Windows. Oddly it could now be an acceptable desktop for many people, but the sad thing is that the need for that may well have passed to those Android and Chrome OS devices we mentioned earlier.
We’ve been known to have our own Linux related rants from time to time.
When Microsoft introduced the idea of Recall, I switched to Linux Desktop. Wish I would have done the switch a long time ago, running Linux is great!
When Microsoft introduced the idea of Vista, I switched to Linux.
When Microsoft introduced Windows ME, I switched to Linux.
Wow, really I have been running Linux on my desktop PC since 2001.
However, I have had two windows laptops inbetween.
I wouldn’t call myself a power user. It’s just that, being used to Linux for so long, It’s more comfortable to me.
I would not advice it to newcomers … unless they have a bit of masochism.
But I wouldn’t advice Apple to newcomers either. I always feel utterly lost when I have to work on Apple.
I was two years old when I was asked which operating system I wanted on my first computer. I took one look at Windows and declared that “for moral reasons, I cannot support the use of non-FOSS code so I will not accept Windows as an operating system, now or ever.”
I cannot even imagine ‘switching’ to Linux because using Windows, even for a second indicates a serious ethical failure.
Keep in mind that Current Sheldon is lumbered with boning Current Big Bottomed Blossom once a year.
I started to use Linux after a friend installed it in my “old and outdated” machine. I knew it was outdated because was getting very slow and didn’t supported the last Windows version. ;-) My friend also installed some eye candy desktop just to make a point. My “old” and slow machine was running software fast than Windows and, simultaneously, supporting a window manager with fast 3D effects. I begin to question what was really a “old and outdated” computer after that.
I switched when Covid lockdowns hit and it was the perfect time to learn something new and I haven’t booted Windows since. Having little agency over updates and finding out it enabled or re-enabled another useless feature got really freaking annoying. Oh nice let me rerun the decrapifier script for the 100th time.
Personally I’m not missing anything from the Windows ecosystem, switched to Sublime from notepad++, to fooyin from foobar2k, Steam works great.
Just use the right tool for the job, of course if you need software that isn’t native or doesn’t run via Wine, use Windows.
Some of us also use their computer to get work done, just that the productivity software I have to use also works just fine on Linux.
When my fiance found out about recall,. She had me switch her laptop to Linux for her.
Hmmm… Is full desktop interface use declining in favor of limited mobile interfaces? I had read somewhere that some people had started using iPads instead of laptops or desktops for basic home stuff a decade or so ago, but I hadn’t realized it was so widespread so as to be noticable.
I’d say about 1/3 of people I know my age (millennial) or younger don’t have anything with a keyboard. And I lean techy, so I suspect this trend is even heavier in the general population.
A virtual keyboard is still a keyboard.
Similar story here, but I switched when Microsoft came out with GWX.exe in 2015-16.
The altervista article criticising Linux is ofcourse quite mistaken in many ways, the ONLY real problem with Linux is that it cannot easily run various pieces of Windows only exe software which people rely upon, but Wine (which the article mentions) is helpful there and if all else fails one can have a stable reliable Linux OS (Mint is a good choice) as your actual operating system and keep a Windows OS inside a VM for running any particularly stubborn software that Wine can’t handle. The main thing I would say could get us a “year of Linux on desktop” would be if most of the Linux development effort started focusing on improving compatibility layers so as to make running the Windows programs people are used to easier. We don’t need Linux to try strange and innovative things, it works fine as is, what we need is a focus on making sure that it, as an OS does the only thing an OS is really there to do, providing an environment in which people can run the specific programs they are familiar with.
Windows is a disaster thesedays, since Windows 10 and onwards it has been heavily dependent on cloud services and has not respected the user’s decisions (like if a user doesn’t want to install a particular update, or updates which change settings a user has deliberately changed…). If you run Windows you spend a lot of time having to fight with it to keep it working properly, I don’t have that issue on Linux, some things may take a bit more setup but once set up they stay working “forever” (the system would work forever as it is, but one has to redo all the setup in maybe 5 years when it is time to update the OS version).
P.S. Adam Zeloof, you do know that Notepad++ runs under Wine flawlessly, I use it on Linux this way
I’m halfway through the linked article and I can honestly support his assessment of linux. And I use linux exclusively, and have for more than 15 years. And I chose Mint for its apparent user friendliness.
I just now wrote a long screed identifying problems with linux and just now deleted it, it had a bitter tone.
Linux is a system for people who are highly technical and have no problem breaking out the toolkit and diagnosing problems. Or people skilled enough to make their own workaround.
If you can do that you can wrap the OS around your finger and get it to do all sorts of neat things.
But it’s most definitely not a system for average users. I’m right now almost at the point where I will reformat the drive and reinstall, something that I have to do every 5 years or so because the kinks and quirks of using linux seem to add up over time.
I’m a windows user, not because I don’t see the merits of Linux, but because every build I’ve tried seems to constantly throw up road blocks for basic stuff. I’m definitely not a novice user, but when I use a PC it’s not to tinker with the OS, it’s to achieve other things on top of a stable machine with an OS that doesn’t constantly get in the way. The PC/OS combination is meant to be a tool to get things done, not the thing that needs constant work. For me Linux is constant work, the opposite of what I need.
When I switched to Linux, 90% of my computer problems evaporated. Windows was the one that required constant maintenance. Linux, OTOH, made things just work. For the few and far-between problems I have, I have our son fix it. He’s excellent at that stuff.
“every build I’ve tried seems to constantly throw up road blocks for basic stuff….” Give an example.
Try adding an icon to the icon bar as a normal user! Risc Os from the Archimedes range of computers managed to do it in 1987, Linux still can’t in 2025. I live In Belgium and for certain sites you have to use your electronic id card to log in, It simply does not work on linux. I’ve tried several distributions over the years and none worked. I multiboot Linux and Windows on my Pc depending which thing I need to do. Mail, browsing and the likes on linux. Gaming and secure governmentsites with EID on Windows
WOW …. you get a PC to last 5 years !!! Mine never seem to last more than 2 for various myriad reason. Last one was when some random fool turned off the power supply to an MCU running peripherals and blow out my USB power bus. 5 years and a PC is basically defunct anyway and will face compatibility issues with more modern software, so better to just bin it IMO.
I built my current gaming PC is 2015, I still play WoW on ultra detail…
The PC I am using right now I built initially in 2010 or so. It is a Phenom x6 (1055t) / 890fxa-GD70 mobo.
I ran windows on it for many years…then threw in a SSD and Ubuntu. Much nicer/faster than it ever was on windows.
Aside from adding some ram, SSD and a newer video card it is still the same machine I started with. Still even using a Soundblaster X-fi card (modded with better opamps).
I have built a few PCs for people since which are much faster…but this machine works great for all my work. (Freecad, kicad, etc). Although…I quit gaming over a decade ago when I started my company…so not sure how it would hold up there.
I’ve been running a 5950X since launch, it’ll be well over 5yp when I upgrade in a year or so.
My phone is 5yo now too. My laptop is about 4.
Not sure what kind of crap you’re doing to your hardware.
I’ve noticed with some people that using their hardware also means abusing it to some degree and somehow not being aware of it. I still have functional PC hardware from almost 20y ago. I have full machines that old that I can plug in right now that boot and load their OS no problem with no hardware faults. The difficulty isn’t in taking care of the hardware, it’s trying to convince people to actually do it at all.
“WOW …. you get a PC to last 5 years !!!”
Question: Did you ever work in IT in a professional way?
Because if you did then you would know that 5 years are an eternity in computing.
And not just like now. It has been that way since the 1960s.
Computing constantly changes and an average life time of 5 years for a computer used to be normal.
If you had bought, say, an IMSAI 8080 in the 70s then it was almost obsolete by early 80s.
The disk formats had changed (5,25″ vs 8″ floppies), the RAM expansion was too little, the CPU (i8080 was obsolete, Z80 was needed).
That’s why in a professional environment, PCs are being replaced in ~5 year intervals.
That’s generous, because you have to consider time of migration.
If you start replacing PCs on a large scale, it can take months if not years to complete.
You can’t just start when the system is almost EOL.
Also, you have to maintain uniformity. If the company or agency has laptops and peripherals (docking stations, printers), they must be replaced by same new type simultanously.
Otherwise, it becomes a big mishmash of hardware.
As a home user at your parent’s home that’s not a thing, of course.
Here you can use an 20 years old PC with Windows Vista, Linux Mint or something.
@nobody My mistake, I skimmed the text too quickly. :(
You’re right, of course, sorry about that little rant.
Wow, you can’t get a pc to last 2 years? Maybe buy better components. I have a machine that’s been running for 15 years, still does everything I need it to.
Same here.
Don’t bin it. Give/sell it cheap to someone who can install Linux.
I’m not sure Windows is a system for average users either… It’s just the one they’ve learned to deal with.
Indeed, and by ‘deal with’ it mostly means accept its flaws are just the nature of the beast and forget all about them, just automatically doing the workaround, or search the web and find a ‘fixer’ for their problem that probably has a rather greater than 50:50 chance of being actively malicious…
On the whole I’d suggest for the technically illiterate Linux is not going to be a good experience, though probably still a better experience if you are one of those folks that grew up with Android or Apple so haven’t grown up with the Windows.
But really the technically illiterate (in this field anyway) are always going to have a limited or clunky experience with a ‘real’ computer rather than the locked down do only what we allow devices – the scope of what a this ‘real’ device is capable of is practically without limits, and a fair bit of that scope they will find out exists and think they want! But as soon as you stray out of the safer zones you rather need to know what you are doing – which is where Linux is better than Windows on the whole, as you can learn how it really works if you want to, and much as I personally hate it the Android model (if not the devices) are probably better than Linux from a regular users perspective..
Linux has been traditionally a tinkerer system. If it had been made as traditionally stupid proof as windows with an appropriate intuitive graphic interface that didn’t threaten microstupids massive financial input, who knows.
By analogy, Trabant has been traditionally a tinkerer’s car… but unless you are a sado-masochist who takes delight in trying to get a broken 2-stroke car ersatz to work again, while being far away from home, you might as well buy a used Toyota or KIA, at least their MTBF is measured in years (or decades even – when new), not in hours.
The MTBF of my Linux systems has been orders of magnitude higher than any of my windows systems. Some have been running without a reboot for years. Linux is a ‘tinkerers system’ because the investment is upfront. As opposed to all of my windows computers where Microsoft decides to change things or from under me or break later on some patch. It’s a constant battle to undo all of the crap ms keeps adding.
“Linux has been traditionally a tinkerer system”.. Aye, kiddo. Now listen, please.
In amateur radio, this very role had been performed by the both DOS family of OSes and Windows 9x for a long time.
Many nifty amateur radio programs did directly access the hardware (bit-banging) or used BIOS routines.
That’s how things like Hamcomm modems (data slicer, 741 and compatibles) or BayCom modems (TCM3101 ic) came to be.
DOS is real-time capable, which Linux isn’t (there’s a recent patch, but it’s minuscle).
The use of DOS and Windows 9x allowed directly accessing ISA prototyping cards, too. As if it was 1985. ;)
For example, to access a homebrew rotator interface card for an antenna rotator.
Or for accessing a custom peripheral on parallel port, such as an EPROM programmer built over weekend on a vero board.
DOS also allowed flashing DVD drive firmwares or updating the BIOS, something Linux wasn’t useful for.
Windows 98SE was thus very beloved in ham radio, because it allowed for direct hardware access in a hacky way.
It allowed rapid hardware and software development, in short.
(Windows 3.1x with Visual Basic 3 was the mother of rapid application development, RAD.)
Something that Linux and other *nix systems didn’t allow in same way.
Linux and *nix always were annoyingly restrictive, with “everything is a file” mantra and the obsession with permissions.
Using Linux was a chore, not fun. Even OS/2 was more tolerant.
Windows 98SE was not like that, it wasn’t prohibiting access to the computer.
FAT and FAT32 didn’t have any permissions, everyone was super user etc.
Windows 98SE wasn’t very professional, maybe, but it was great for electronic hobbyists that loved hacking.
–
Ok, and if you now think that this was all just an “old grumpy men” thing, then I must disappoint you.
Especially in gaming, DOS and Windows 9x were cool among the young.
The best emulators and ROM hacking tools had been written for DOS, originally.
There had been flash carts and game copier stations that used parallel port and DOS software.
Even for the original Playstation, which had a port at the back side.
In short, it was DOS software which did the cool things (Win 9x software, too).
In early 90s, before Windows 95, software SDKs (and utilities such as debuggers) for 16-Bit game consoles had been available to DOS/Windows 3.x, as well.
Windows 3.x allowed direct hardware manipulation just like DOS.
Just like Windows 9x, there had been VXDs that could manipulate everything as needed.
–
PS: Windows 98SE can run current Win32 applications via KernelEx and gdiplus.dll and unicows.dll. Programs using .NET runtime will work, too.
It’s not stuck in 1999 by any means. It can be updated quite a lot and still be used for running older microcontroller SDKs, programming IDEs and games from 2010s.
Likewise, the aging Windows XP is still useful for tinkering (offline) and has progressed.
There’s the OneCore API project that can run Windows 10 applications.
It’s also possible to do port access on Windows NT line via port.dll (Delphi dll) and PortTalk driver.
It’s not as smooth as using Windows 98SE, though.
” If it had been made as traditionally stupid proof as windows with an appropriate intuitive graphic interface…”
Sounds like you are describing ChromeOS.
You think Windows is stupid-proof?
I guess we have a worse grade of stupids around here than you do.
That’s probably not the case. In the 90s, Windows 3.1 was very friendly, though, I think.
It could be customized in about every way and be used as a runtime.
Fixing it was a matter of copying files and restoring win.ini and system.ini!
That was a time when users had total freedom about their own PC.
They could hack system files, overwrite DLLs, use their own shells and write their own little drivers.
With Delphi 1.0 and Visual Basic and lesser known tools such as dBase Fast, CA Realizer, FoxPro, Profan they could easily build programs via IDE.
MS Quick C, Visual C++ and Turbo Pascal for Windows (later part in modified form of Borland Pascal 7) and other compilers had existed, too.
This was such an awesome time to experiment, there was so much diversity!
Most simple programs could be run on 286 PCs, even, so that ancient x86 computers and embedded systems were supported.
Some Windows 3.0 programs even ran on Real-Mode of Windows 3.0 and OS/2 (if compiled with WLO runtime support).
Such Real-Mode friendly software would have run on soviet era hardware built around an 8086(processor.
I’m mentioning this, because they had cool motherboard designs.
They looked retro-futuristic. Lots of through-hole circuit boards.
Japanese PC-98 and FM Towns PCs could run such Windows 3 applications, as well, by the way.
Again, Windows 3.x was like an universal runtime.
That’s why the 16-Bit Windows API had been almost standardized internationally.
Linux didn’t feature something like that, I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_Programming_Interface_for_Windows
I’m saying this from an user’s point of view.
Windows 98SE was more beloved by fans, but Windows 3.x as a base technology had big influence behind the curtain.
It was supported by the DOS subsystems of Windows NT (all architectures) and OS/2,
but was also used by Tandy VIS console and C64 Web.it as OS, was supported by WABI environment on Linux and *nix, was supported as a windowed instance in DESQView /X, was used as a runtime for Windows 9x setup (mini.cab) etc.
SoftWindows (Macintosh) ran Windows 3.1 on Macintosh, too.
Windows 3.1 also was used by Microsoft’s first Network OS, Windows for Workgroups.
Windows 3.1 also gave birth to Win32 software development and DirectX (WinG and DCI were predecessors to DirectDraw).
The Win32s extension allowed many Windows NT applications to be made and tested before Windows NT was actually available.
It was an nearly testbed, so to say.
That’s why many Windows 95 applications ran on Windows 3.1+Win32s still.
If certain things were being taken care of (relocation tables, no multi threading etc), then they ran on all three platforms (Win32s, Win32c/Win95, Win32/WinNT).
Delphi 2 created such binaries out of box, even though it maybe wasn’t intentional.
Thanks to all of this, OS/2 Warp 3 and 4 were able run certain Windows 95 applications (Win-OS/2 could use Win32s).
It was Windows 3.1 who got the job done. It was an unsung little hero.
Cool stuff! Thanks
“Linux didn’t feature something like that, I think”
I would counter that with POSIX and X Windows
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSIX
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System_core_protocol
Arguably more standardized since they were adopted by many companies. A linux workstation could display applications which were running on a Solaris box, which represents a pretty high level of openness, standardization and interoperability.
Hi, thanks. Yes, I think these are valid points.
Hm. I think X Windows is comparable to GSX on CP/M, or its predecessor, GKS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEM_(desktop_environment)#GSX
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_Kernel_System
POSIX as such is pretty vague, I think. But that’s probably intentionally by design.
MS-DOS 2 had introduced certain Unix elements way back in 1983.
That’s when MS had sold Xenix still and just had previously being worked on XEDOS.
MS DOS 2 had the ability to use both / and \ characters for paths (via statement “SWITCHAR=” in config.sys).
Some extensions allowed DOS to become more POSIX compliant also.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSIX#POSIX_for_DOS
https://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues/2021/246/Remembering-XENIX
Video about XEDOS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo8NG8T4rWs
Best thing you could have ever done. Is Linux the best?…No (any one involved with Linux from the start knows the road that still has to be traveled). Is Linux going to work for you if you want to be spoon-fed?…No (if you are not even prepared to read the gazillions of man pages, tutorials, and help files, why should any one waste time and effort in trying to figure out what your problem is, if you yourself are not interested enough to do so?). Does Linux leave you in total control of your own machine, where you decide what is done, how, where, and when?…Yes.
Any one old enough to remember the start of Windows, will remember that the same conditions existed. No one spoon fed you in learning Windows. I think what OS you use is more related to your attitude towards life (I know musicians that are experts in Linux, for the simple reason that it gives them more control over their artistic environment)…
Have you RTFM types actually read the manuals hosted on stallman’s wire wrapped server? Or the ZFS docs to find it’s for Oracle ZFS not OpenZFS? Or hey your system doesn’t have ifconfig it’s actually ip or whatever Ubuntu ships this year. Or the joy of file permissions.
Linux is pain, beautiful pain.
Well with virtualization common on most CPUs, the idea of running the “correct” OS should be passee.
I run Windows directly on my server, and then Linux in VMs. Fight me :D
With Ubuntu and Gnome being worse every year and the Wayland transition adding its own trouble in the mix, I think we are furthest away from Linux on the desktop that we have been in past 20 years.
I think things will settle up in about another year… Pop 26.04 with Cosmic should be very stable. The work Valve has and continued to do with game compatibility has been nothing short of amazing.
“So, let’s go through the list of the core issues that are unlikely to be ever solved unless someone invests north of a billion dollars in Linux:”
Hmmmmm, Invitation to Musk for Linux to be integrated into “the cesspool formerly known as Twitter”) ?
Microsoft has really shot itself in the foot. It’s software including Windows 11 gets worse and worse and needlessly grabs resources. It cannot even give a Start menu that users want or can configure themselves. Other software like Outlook they have stripped 90% of the useful features. An operating system shouldnt be noticable really to users, it should just be a means to install and run the tasks you need. Linux isn’t that difficult but people can’t be bothered.
2016 was the year of the Linux desktop. Sorry if you missed it, we’re not having another one.
Part of the problem as I see it is that many/most flavors of Linux don’t follow a user experience standard that Microsoft and Apple pioneered and defined 30 years ago. Of course, Microsoft and Apple have done their level best to get away from those standards themselves, so what I say may not be worth a bucket of spit.
By the way, my desktop experiences include endpoints with Rocky9 with classic GNOME (yes, I’m a glutton for punishment), WIn10/Win11 (with lots of things disabled), and one lone Mac. Use the tool that fits the task, I say.
It took me a few hours sorting out my W11 install so that it worked the way I wanted and didn’t report everything back to M$. Then I installed all my favourite programs: Irfanview, SketchUp 2017, NotePad++, Classic Paint, Epic Store, Steam, GoG Galaxy etc and enjoy using my PC.
I’ve had PuppyDog and Mint (since Mint4) on spare drives to run in case of problems but use them as my main OS? Not a chance. Even my Pi400 sits unused as I wanted 7.1 surround and that’s not happening.
The only way Linux will ever gain a stronghold is if a version is made for abject dummies. I mean like tongue hanging out of the mouth stupid and blissfully ignorant. Absolutely no command line use at all. Until then, it remains the turn-to O.S. for the technically inclined. I’m not saying all Linux users are smart and I’m not saying all Windows users are dumb, however just sitting back and observing the the average majority user – Linux is simply too difficult for them to use.
Arguably, there’s quite a gap in the market right there. For people who are not technically gifted, seniors, kids etc. Something that allows them to do simple things in a simple way – without actually helping them tie themselves into a knot – doesn’t seem to exist. Even Android isn’t there: people somehow unknowingly press the WiFi button, turn the network off and suddenly nothing works. And to bring it back they need to learn the secret swipe from the top edge (but not quite the edge itself but a magical region somewhere near it) and turn it back on. Why is the WiFi button so readily accessible, it’s not like we turn it on or off all the time… Get Linux to solve stuff like that (on desktop OR mobile) and it could be on its way to world domination, especially given that we’re in the age where various OS’s are being installed on every danged thing that runs on electricity. Oh wait, there is something that actually does simple stuff in a simple way: set top boxes. And based on Linux, too.
You really can’t dumb it down much past the android ui. Removing the wifi quick button (or any of them) would actually introduce complexity since you now have to dig into the settings to turn it on and off. That’s not gonna work well when grandma is in a on a plane about to take off and they demand she put her phone in airplane mode. The best you could do in that case is a warning window asking if you really want to turn off the wifi signal they know they hit it.
As soon as you said learn, I knew right there all hope was lost. That’s what people are missing today…the ability to learn.
I agree. The sad thing is that we could regain this ability if we really cared, it’s not too late.
It’s sad insofar, because we’re so close to “fix” it but still don’t do it.
We also can’t handle criticism anymore and lose our composure quickly.
I think what is needed these days is optimism and humor.
Being relaxed and being able to laugh at yourself is important, for example.
We humans are very sensitive these days, which is good in itself. Empathy is good.
But we also need to get a thicker skin again.
In the 80s/90s, for example, we made r*cist jokes about each other, but we could also laugh about them.
They might have hurt us from time to time, sure, but they also made us think and taught us how to deal with bad situations.
Not that I’m advocating these jokes, but they at least made humor a daily part of life.
But I’m probably getting off topic here. What I’m saying is that society has changed.
People want it to be “easy” and effortless, even though life is not easy. Never was.
And if we don’t train and use our brains, we don’t progress, we stagnate.
That’s why Android is so bad in terms of UI, I think. It makes people dumber, makes them numb.
The UI should be reasonably powerful, neat and logically structured.
As was the case with PalmOS or Symbian OS, for example.
Those operating systems had normal UI elements like buttons, scrollbars and dropdown menus.
But that’s apparently something we humans want to avoid, logical thinking and discipline/learning.
Do you learn the details of everything you interact with every day? Of course not. It’s intractable.
Android is Linux based. What are you on about?
It’s not about smart or dumb. People with developmental disorders aside, people aren’t actually dumb. They just have different interests than you, and even smart versus average, smart people are usually only “smarter” at things they’re interested in, as there’s only so much time in the day.
O’how I look back fondly on the times when there was only one article a day, so it had to be a hack, and had to be a good one!
Imagine if we readers were limited to one comment per day. The quality might improve dramatically.
It won’t or ever will be the desktop of choice because the Linux nerfdom has decreed (besides sending you to RTFM) that for almost any problem you need to open a terminal window and type some commands.
In other words they’re making Linux unnecessarily convoluted to get into. 30+ years after inventing the GUI why on earth do we still need to resort to the CLI to fix the most mundane problems and why can’t one have a decent device manager in Linux? Win XP already had a good one which scanned your pc, id’ed your gear and installed the right driver, didn’t stop because the right driver wasn’t open source and if it couldn’t it was almost trivial to solve. Can’t Linux do as much?
I just wrote as much in a Zorin forum apropos my last upgrade based on the 22.04 kernel and the unusual and irritating mishaps doing it.
My, what crap.
IIRC, AIX did something like that.
Click on a menu and it would fill the CLI for you and take off with an silhouette of a man running.
But if it failed it showed a silhouette of a man down pounding the ground.
And then it was up to the sysadmin to fix it.
Desktop Linux can run most games on Steam now. That may be more than enough to push it past Chrome and Android for desktop use cases.
If I make a system from scratch I should be able to chose no password for my own computer. XP and older versions of Ubuntu were cool with this. Now I have to don a cape and become Superuser just to make the screen-off timer stop it’s nag. With a plethora of used computers I have I got one or two to take Ubuntu23-4 but many more with version13. It used to be so easy not now. Whatever ’25 gives us there will lots of expiring Win10 machines and some people jumping ship.
And those Windows machines that want your MS ID and pw before you can complete setup.
That nasty, but actually trivial to skip.
Just two days ago I was installing Win11 in a Hyper-V instance. Make sure Internet connection is disabled during install. When setup reaches “blah blah blah your Microsoft account” press Shift+F10 to open
cmdwindow, thencdtooobedirectory and runBypassNRO.cmd. Now you can complete a regular install with a local account that’s not connected to any MS cloud.Thank you!
B^)
For Steam use, you require a gpu that can run vulkan to play dx11/12 games. A system with Windows is a far better gaming machine, for productivity Linux reigns supreme. I find I need both, but for purchased software I need a Windows machine.
Games are the only thing justifying a Windows installation at home, X-Box can’t quite solve my PC gamer needs. So, dual boot it is. That said, Ubuntu does not smell like roses anymore either, always trying too hard to compete in areas occupied by better players already (someone there has a nonstop identity crisis and big boy envy).
For work my next machine has an offering of Ubuntu I will probably take it. Most MS Office offerings can run ok’ish in a browser, and the work demands MS-Teams, which is bumpy on Linux. That’s the key change, most productivity already runs in a browser. Native MS-Office has been slow and clunky since the move to .net, seems to be getting worse. But that slowdown could be due to the 5 security installs, my IT requires, to make Windows safe.
IT will require just as much on Linux. They don’t live in a fantasy land where Linux is supposedly exploit free. Poorly configured Linux OSes, particularly in a corporate environment, can be a bigger issue than Windows. This is why your IT department exists and why someone’s hobby use of Linux isn’t sufficient for ignoring good security practices (no, the simple presence of Linux does not only good security).
“Some of us need computer to get some actual work done you know.” Tis why I run Linux at home :) . No account needs to be setup with M$, no auto updates. No licenses/fees for software. I update when I want and do much less maintenance than I recall with Windows. Since I moved my elderly dad over to Linux, my maintenance of his computers has dropped to almost 0. Some bring up games… There seems to be a lot that runs on Linux natively from Zork/Adventure text games, card games, Chess, to many many others that I’ve ran across. And if all you want to run is a Internet Browser — Linux has you covered. Take your pick. Need to write a document, update a spreadsheet, do a presentation? LibreOffice has you covered. Convert a document to PDF — LibreOffice has you covered. I use FreeCad for my limited designs, and KiCad for PCBs (admit I’ve never sent one in yet to be made… someday). Need to program? C#/C/C++/Rust/Python/Perl/Pascal/Java/Lisp/Prolog/Fortran/Cobol/Assembly/Forth/Basic/cross compilers/etc. All there. Don’t like a UI? Pick another. Don’t like any? Run at a console and go old school. Choices. Greatest thing since sliced bread. What is not to like?
As for on topic, It ‘IS’ the desktop around here :) . Not a Windows/Apple computer in sight. Has been now for many years. There is nothing that I ‘really’ wish for/or miss from the Windows world. My server(s) over the years just run. My workstation and general box, and laptops … just run. All my RPI SBCs happy run it. Nothing rocket science about running Linux. Granted in the early years you had to be careful with hardware support, but not so much anymore.
–
IMHO, the big reason it’ll never be the desktop for most people is because it isn’t pre-installed on their box/laptop/whatever when they go to a store to buy (or even order on line). Really that is it in a nutshell. While I wipe the OS off and install Linux, I am not ‘most’ people who gravitate to just ‘using the device’ as is.
“Tis why I run Linux at home :) . No account needs to be setup with M$, no auto updates. No licenses/fees for software. I update when I want and do much less maintenance than I recall with Windows.”
This is also my experience. I started using Linux on some machines because Windows was a problem to me. It shined (at least for me) when it came to 3rd party software (freeware on Windows were in huge numbers) but system was terrible to maintain. Despite world’s biggest community I never solved some issues and MS never really addressed some problems.
My sister (50+) spilled juice on her Windows laptop las year and needed a replacement. I had an old ThinkPad kicking around. I installed an HD and RAM to 8GB then installed Linux Mint. I salvaged her files from the old HD and then installed Libre Office. She found – on her own- the way to install programs…. haven’t heard a complaint
Linux has been desktop-ready for years now, you all missed the memo. Mint is basically WinXP and the average person can use it as-is without any further explanation or training. Everything people do is web-based now, so if it runs firefox and doesn’t crash, you’re good. I installed mint on my mom’s macbook when it started having problems, and she’s been using it for over a year now with no issue. Ironically, only nerds think that the average person can’t use linux, usually because they think all of the various incompatible distros are worthwhile (they aren’t). Install mint, turn on auto-updates, and forget about your OS because it just works.
Saying Mint just works is the same as saying any OS just works: you’re purposefully ignoring all the cases when it doesn’t. Yeah, my grandmother’s PC has been running Windows issue free for as long as Windows 10 has been out. That means Windows is problem free, right?
It’s great for people who don’t need or want to do anything on the command line. This means people who would use not much more than Firefox and libreoffice, capping out at pycharm or maybe vscode (though then you’re getting more exposed to the terminal). If one starts dinking around in the terminal, then yes, you can break things, and lose all Mont’s benefits. It doesn’t work for me, but it’s worked great for multiple of my family members.
Now, I don’t agree fully with anonymous, as I think it still suffers from Linux’s reputation and fragmentation. Nobody who’s in Mint’s ideal demographics would know about Mint, or consider using it if they had heard of it, because Linux doesn’t hold the right connotations for them to consider it. Getting people to use mint requires installing it for them, and the target demographics wouldn’t think to spread the word of it, as it’s just their computer. Thus, Mint will never be the wellspring of the year of the Linux desktop.
As someone who has been running a Linux desktop since Windows 95 was released (oh, the utter joy of trying to figure out modelines for X11 by hand!), I’ve long since been over this whole ‘is/is not the year of Linux on the desktop!’ mess that’s constantly trumpeted in the media year after year.
I can do everything I need on a Linux desktop without having to touch the ever larger steaming pile that is Windows. That’s enough for me, and further, it means that every year is the year of Linux on the desktop for me. :P
MacOS folks just chuckling in the corner.
No doubt… chuckling at me, the 30 year IT vet of multiple MS and *nix variants, who couldn’t figure out how to bring up the stupid web browser on the church’s iMac recently without a child’s help.
Yes, my wife and daughter have iPhones, iPads, and “share” a MacBook, there is little I can do to solve any problems on those devices, much less use them.
“couldn’t figure out how to bring up the stupid web browser”
Let me introduce you to the Dock. Seriously, these “macOS is too obscure” comments are absurd. And if a child can do it but you can’t, well…
The Year of the Linux Desktop was 1992; the year the very first Linux Distribution was released (MCC Interim Linux).
But seriously I don’t care which OS you or anyone else uses. This topic and the ensuing debate are both stale in 2025 and so cliche, it doesn’t even make for good clickbait.
But if you still want to discuss it and debate, ‘have at it grandpa’
My large household has been using Debian Linux variants for over 20 years. I get the kids to fire up a copy of Windows in a VM so that they can get suitably annoyed by it and not ask me why we don’t use it.
Why does nobody ever address the elephant in the room here? No the problem is not that Lennox is hard to use. No the problem is not that Linux has bugs. No the problem is not that Linux isn’t as good as windows.
The problem is that everybody is locked into microsoft. Vendor lock-in is Microsoft’s entire business strategy. What bothers me is not so much that nobody is using linux, it’s that nobody cares that they’re locked into Microsoft now.
I wouldn’t say locked in… I’d say they are ‘comfortable’ using M$ products and don’t want to change. We as humans tend to live by seeking the easiest route. A human trait. Easier to tear down, than build. Maybe call it entropy. Any change gets you out of your comfort zone and one may have to learn something… Called ‘work’. You hear all the time about Word or Excel, for example, being the reason they can’t move to Linux… When in reality LibreOffice will meet their needs nicely in most cases… Now companies I would agree with the lock in. Our company is using the ‘cloud’ services with Office 365 for example. Any time you start relying on the cloud, you will have ‘lock in’. It’s a disease, I say. With phones I can see ‘lock’ in for many people as they store there photos in the cloud. Change vendor and you lose your pictures, so better stick with Apple (or whatever). Of course we download our pictures off the phone to our home server, so not a lock-in for us… but for many a phone is a must have from company ‘x’ as I am sure a lot of people don’t even have a computer anymore. So better pay that bill every month!
As for me, I am glad the ‘bleeding’ of the pocketbook stopped many years ago now. No subscriptions for virus checkers, new OSes, etc. My bleeding now comes with buying Picos, SBCs, SSDs, etc. :) which my wife comments on now and then…
“No the problem is not that Lennox is hard to use.”
Our Lennox (furnace) works well, its smart thermostat too!
But repairs call for a Certified technician.
B^)
“And the last section on the Linux community hits hard, it’s necessary to admit that the world of open source doesn’t always welcome people trying to use its software as well as it could.”
This is where I see one of the biggest problems most open source projects have. The lack of a distinction between User and developer is not only Open Source’s biggest strength but also it’s biggest weekness.
Interesting article but I being a Windows 11 user for home and work but with the clientele i have and the support I provide are mainly for Linux. To be honest the article would be agreeable if this was year 2015. Today’s desktop editions have came far along and the opens source softwares have developed way better, they are so good they give better experience on Linux nowadays. Despite the many caveats it comes from, I can say it is fully possible to use Linus as a daily driver for almost everything. Just a coupe of days ago I stumbled across open mandriva and it came with vanilla KDE plasma. The design is too clean. I simply loved the os and it wasn’t even jittery. The ease of taking backup of applications and running them right as they were even after reformatting is something only Linux allows. It’s so nice
I don’t agree with everything in the linked article but I do agree about the underfunding being an issue. Bugs and issues that should’ve been fixed years ago are common on FOSS projects. Being a KDE user I know all about it…
The gaming thing I don’t really agree with. It’s fine enough for me, I don’t expect devs to create a Linux port but I do wish they’d at least test their games in Proton (or on a Steam Deck in general).
That said, my situation is perfect. Linux for my daily work and just regular computing + a spare Mac running macOS for my graphic/design software. No Windows needed.. ever.
A few valid criticisms, but “most” and “usually” are doing some heavy lifting.
I find his comments about the Linux community to be wrong — maybe I’m just not hanging out in the same places online…? And perhaps they were true ~15 years ago, moreso if you asked a particularly n00bish question on a forum for experienced users, or if you’re the the type of person who flat-out refuses to read Wiki or man pages (in which case, it’s likely you’re going to have a terrible time with Linux anyway). But now, even on Arch and Debian (!) forums, as long as a user has put some minimal effort into solving their problem, they’re usually given helpful advice in a timely manner.
I rather use windows on my pc and laptop
I know Linux is a massive security problem
Especially being open source unlike Microsoft Windows
Anyone can slip a backdoor in especially in a Linux distribution, and obfuscate it enough where you wont find it browsing on dat source page
Atleast paying for windows, the money gives me a guarantee, or I’m entitled to a full refund…
You’re not going to catch anything with such low quality bait.
B^)
The irony in your attempt to be ironic is why so many breaches happen.
i did not read the linked article :) but i appreciated that the first paragraph of this one really covered the subject pretty well.
the funny thing is that if you frame it as deposing windows then linux won fantastically, by microsoft’s own terms. it doesn’t seem to be widely known but in the late 90s, C# / dot net had most of the same design choices and future aspirations as android. they wanted the apps to be fully portable with their bytecode java (no no it’s C#, not java) and then run the same app on phones and tablets and PCs. microsoft was really forward-looking. they were almost a decade ahead of google on this one. and then they completely failed to execute. when microsoft gave up on their wince phones (lumia), that was the year linux beat windows. since then, growth markets have been linux and windows is relegated to a shrinking legacy role.
the only part of it i’m dissatisfied with is that ubuntu / gnome etc continue to push non-chromeos / non-android linux in that direction. if you want linux where the bootup/process management system has been thoroughly integrated into the GUI, macos’s launchd (ok it’s not linux but) and android’s zygote are right there, ready to use, very thoroughly supported. i’ve worked with these kind of monolithic systems and they’re really pretty good as GUI-first environments go. and they’re surprisingly open source even though they’re commercial offerings from big evil corporations. but they have downsides and i rejected them and systemd doesn’t need to bring those downsides to my desktop!
luckily it’s easy to bypass. and the nature of open source means these hacks will be maintained ‘just well enough’ indefinitely because of people like me. the same world where Poettering is able to brazenly fork every core utility and start changing their interfaces and architecture with every minor revision leaves that same opportunity open to people with better taste and manners. what a world!
Visual Basic Classic used p-code, too and could have been portable maybe, if the VB runtimes had been ported.
By comparion, .NET Framework and VB.NET weren’t nearly as beloved by bed room programmers as VB3 and VB6.
Microsoft messed up big times when it ignored all the calls by VB6 programmers.
Visual Basic Classic was very popular among casual programmers worldwide.
It was ideal for quick&dirty prototyping and had been a big part of life of the electronic hobbyist.
Just like Turbo Pascal/QB were on DOS. Or the C64 was in the 80s.
Unfortunately, VB.NET had ended all of this. It has caused the dead of the casual hobby programmers on Windows pretty much. It was the final nail in the coffin.
People just got comfy with Windows and it’s never solved problems. In many cases it’s about motivation to make a change rather than change itself. It took vast amount of people just few years switch from Intel/Windows to ARM/Android. They didn’t notice lack of MS Office, Photoshop, Cubase or AutoCAD (and few other “killer apps” or game that were supposed to tie them to Windows) on Android. Also need for computing power appeared to be less than predicted for those people. Already 10 years ago people did gaming, photo/video editing, mailing, learning, shopping, banking and much more on their mobile devices. They have raised their kids already (sometimes with not a single PS at home). So question is not “linux or windows” it’s more like “do I need a PS at all?” – this is real answer why Linux on desktop makes less sense.
About the linked rant – some of his points are valid but many are actually related equally (or more) to Windows and as usual in such texts there is confusion about experience of the user it is referring to. Once he confirmed he is right with AI so I was almost sure he is really lost.
“They didn’t notice lack of MS Office, Photoshop, Cubase or AutoCAD (and few other “killer apps” or game that were supposed to tie them to Windows) on Android.”
Understandable. If they never used a real computer and professional software before then they can’t miss it, either, of course.
We now have a whole generation of users who are incapable of using a real computer with keyboard and mouse,
but use dirty hands to hit on symbols like primates would do.
Except that our hairy cousins do it more gracefully (they have good hand-eye coordinations).
Hence, they are badly educated and don’t understand basic principles such as files, filesystems, permissions, unmounting drives and so on.
Not sure if they deserve the term “user”, even. They are trained consumers, digital babarians.
They grew up in a society being dominated by social media and never had even used an HTML editor such as MS FrontPage Express.
If they grew up using DOS or Windows 98SE, then they would have learnt about many things of the 101 of computing just naturaly.
A lot of the points mentioned are either questionable or applicable to windows just as much (also the article randomly jumps between enterprise and regular users, but that’s somewhat besides the point). Like, “bugs and regressions”: just read bleepingcomputer’s patch Tuesday coverings, or “accidental security”:
* most use sudo where unnecessary — and most windows users are under admin accounts and click yes to every uac prompt;
* download and run software/run commands from the web — even if true (questionable due to flatpaks and entirely different software distribution culture), same on windowdows;
* disable suckure boot — as if Microsoft didn’t use their keys to sign a bunch of vulnerable garbage that can be used to bypass it faster than one can blink;
* in windows you have uac — and in Linux we have graphical password prompts for how many years now?
IMO, Linux has exactly one major problem preventing more widespread desktop use: it’s not being pre-installed. The vast majority of users use the os as the glorified browser bootloader anyways.
It’s too bad some software for Windows like tax software is not available for Linux. And the same for some genealogy programs. I do like using Linux for online access to my bank and credit card accounts. I’ve used Linux Mint and like it’s old XP style interface and no nagging as far as stupid news feeds and such. Most Linux distros also support the built in cameras on laptops and Brother and HP have made their printers accessible to Linux and Android as well.
It’s surprising to me that lab instrumentation vendors like Agilent and Thermo Fisher and others don’t offer Linux versions of their software for their equipment.
Linux will never have a year of the desktop. It’s great for systems that will be built and maintained by people who are technically capable. It’s too fractured of a landscape with no cohesiveness. Decisions made in the open source community regularly run into problems due to this, and I’m coming from a professional setting, where things are attempted to be kept more standardized. I love Linux based OSes for what they are. Can we stop pretending they’re destined to be everything?
It won’t be the year of the Linux desktop until a newbie asking how to do something is no longer told to open a terminal and type sudo – type command here-
I’ve used Linux since 1998, when I could login as root in X and do administration. I remember a time when it was said that you no longer had to use the command line to do things in Linux. Then as I remember, Ubuntu came along with the idea of using sudo. To me, since then the user friendliness, options and freedom of how I can run a computer that I assembled and configured to use as a desktop machine have declined.
I know the danger of running root on a server that is being accessed across the Internet, but a desktop or laptop that is sitting behind an NAT router that has UPNP and remote access disabled and has its own firewall tuned on is less likely to be hacked.
I also wonder if the time and energy spent on creating new desktop environments could be better spent on polishing the ones we already have.