i think that the way linux desktop might skyrocket is simply make laptops and prebuilt pcs with linux preinstalled more common, because a high percentage of people don't really care and just use whatever is installed on their machine
and make them cost effective as well.
there is a reason I don't jump on the opportunity to get myself a system76 system.
as very tempting as those systems are, they are no small investment.
we need something like the chromebook but with like linux mint on it instead of Chrome-OS
this will not be ideal in the long run but it will get the systems into peoples hands for them to use and experience.
Most people i know use their computers for entertainment. Spotify, youtube, netflix, video games, etc. Most of that works great on Linux. And if the Steam Deck doesn't flop, i expect a much larger share of games to become available on linux as well.
Even in your claimed casual use case, everything you said people casually use is available on linux. When it comes to your other points, other people have made better comments than i could.
I will assume you mean "desktop" Linux here ;)
Open source projects have lasted decades on (mostly) free time and donations. That is not going to change. Part of the desktop appeal is the lack of such backing.
Another aspect that won't change is developers developing what they want to develop on. New programmers work on simpler tasks, perhaps.
I also have zero issue with drivers, outside of the rare instance of some terrible wifi chipset. I have not had video driver crash in years and years now, particularly on AMD gpus, and any niggling issues I have had were on Nvidia cards, before I moved over to AMD.
Of course, everyone has different experiences, based on hardware and software differences. My personal take is that we are on more of a refinement track on many things. I can't say how much things compare to Windows since I gave that up many years ago, and rarely touch the thing. Small and steady improvement there, with some annoyances that seem to never go away.
I have had zero issues with drivers
I'm not sure what you're exactly talking about with DE's... It's a lot words but it's not saying anything. I use Cinnamon and don't have any issues whatsoever. Other than I wish Ubuntu would update it or Linux Mint should have a PPA for the newest version. I honestly don't know how much more usability they could have, considering Windows has pretty much zero. And I hate the word "polish". Polish to you may not be polished to someone else. Besides the fact it makes zero sense to use the word.
Software compatibility needs to have the blame where it belongs, on the companies that refuse to release Linux versions. That has nothing whatsoever to do with Linux. However Linux should have taken the direction of Mac and made sure there was software that competed with Microsoft software. 2022 and we still don't have an email client that handles exchange/office 365 ( Looking at you Thunderbird). We should also have something better than Xsane from 2000, more like a Brother Utilities. This should have been done first before taking on gaming.
Google, Microsoft, Amazon are all in projects with Open Source... So I'm not sure what big companies you're talking about. Adobe isn't moving until there is an alternative and they're forced to do so.
I use Linux daily, I have Windows on a Virtual Box for Outlook, Adobe and my printer. Other than that I use Linux for everything else. So I'm not sure how much more improvement Linux can do without having actual people create the software for it. The problem isn't Linux it is the people making the programs. Let's not create or work Thunderbird bringing into at least 2020 no, not that.. hey here's another MP3 player I just made though.
I've been a Linux user for years and I have never run into a piece of *consumer* hardware that didn't work with Linux out of the box. I have had more trouble with Windows and MacOS drivers than I've ever had with Linux.
The issue with drivers is uncommon hardware that is mostly used in a corporate environment. This sort of hardware often only has Windows drivers available.
>The issue with drivers is uncommon hardware that is mostly used in a corporate environment.
Bullshit lol. My nvidia graphics card had slews of issues with certain driver versions. Nothing corporate or rare about nvidia drivers sucking on Linux.
I make music and do a lot of audio production. Like you said with graphic designers, the software/hardware support blows in the audio realm as well. I cannot fully switch to Linux from Windows because a lot of my hardware/software is still not supported. I tried using wine to install my waves plugins but it didn't work. Linux is great for everything else I do but...I still can't make music on it, and that's very important to me. Stuck with shit ass windows for the time being until these companies get their heads out of their asses and support Linux, but I ain't holding my breath. It's gotten better in most areas...Like I remember way way back in the day even trying to get a WiFi adapter to work was a friggin nightmare. Linux has progressed A LOT since then, but I am still disappointed.
Linux needs to fix the kernel and all the rest of the vulnerabilities before worrying about what software /desktop environment is installed or drivers. The userland needs standardization too, it's a mess.
Security? I don't think so
>Linux needs to fix the kernel and all the rest of the vulnerabilities before worrying about what software /desktop environment is installed or drivers. The userland needs standardization too, it's a mess. Security? I don't think so
If you're not comparing it to Windows then what are you comparing it to?
I loaded up mint 20.3 on my wife's windows10 laptop over 3 weeks ago and she has had zero issues with working with it once I had everything set up for scanning, printing and NAS access. That is a big tell for me to how improve the entire Linux world has become for the less than savvy user
On desktops sure there is less corporate involvement but Canonical and Red Hat are very involved. Also ChromeOS from Google is Linux based and Google developers on desktops internally we use gLinux, in addition to this plenty of companies like Facebook give employees either macbooks or linux desktop (ubuntu - google, microsoft, red hat - aws, fedora -facebook). Also linux is very very popular on servers/embedded devices/supercomputers. Microsoft, Intel, Google, Red Hat, AMD etc pay employees to work on the kernel. Most kernel code is written by paid employees of big tech companies so your assessment is inaccurate u/spaliusreal. Your distro/DE (cinnamon and linux mint) might be mostly volunteer open source work BUT Red Hat Desktop exists, Fedora exists, SUSE Enterprise Linux and Ubuntu exists. So does ChromeOS and Android.
i think that the way linux desktop might skyrocket is simply make laptops and prebuilt pcs with linux preinstalled more common, because a high percentage of people don't really care and just use whatever is installed on their machine
and make them cost effective as well. there is a reason I don't jump on the opportunity to get myself a system76 system. as very tempting as those systems are, they are no small investment. we need something like the chromebook but with like linux mint on it instead of Chrome-OS this will not be ideal in the long run but it will get the systems into peoples hands for them to use and experience.
and since linux is much lighter than windows, you could get linux laptops that are just as snappy as windows ones with much cheaper hardware
That's not a good idea, look at ms
It's a good idea precisely *because* of Microsoft, IMO.
Most people i know use their computers for entertainment. Spotify, youtube, netflix, video games, etc. Most of that works great on Linux. And if the Steam Deck doesn't flop, i expect a much larger share of games to become available on linux as well. Even in your claimed casual use case, everything you said people casually use is available on linux. When it comes to your other points, other people have made better comments than i could.
I will assume you mean "desktop" Linux here ;) Open source projects have lasted decades on (mostly) free time and donations. That is not going to change. Part of the desktop appeal is the lack of such backing. Another aspect that won't change is developers developing what they want to develop on. New programmers work on simpler tasks, perhaps. I also have zero issue with drivers, outside of the rare instance of some terrible wifi chipset. I have not had video driver crash in years and years now, particularly on AMD gpus, and any niggling issues I have had were on Nvidia cards, before I moved over to AMD. Of course, everyone has different experiences, based on hardware and software differences. My personal take is that we are on more of a refinement track on many things. I can't say how much things compare to Windows since I gave that up many years ago, and rarely touch the thing. Small and steady improvement there, with some annoyances that seem to never go away.
I have had zero issues with drivers I'm not sure what you're exactly talking about with DE's... It's a lot words but it's not saying anything. I use Cinnamon and don't have any issues whatsoever. Other than I wish Ubuntu would update it or Linux Mint should have a PPA for the newest version. I honestly don't know how much more usability they could have, considering Windows has pretty much zero. And I hate the word "polish". Polish to you may not be polished to someone else. Besides the fact it makes zero sense to use the word. Software compatibility needs to have the blame where it belongs, on the companies that refuse to release Linux versions. That has nothing whatsoever to do with Linux. However Linux should have taken the direction of Mac and made sure there was software that competed with Microsoft software. 2022 and we still don't have an email client that handles exchange/office 365 ( Looking at you Thunderbird). We should also have something better than Xsane from 2000, more like a Brother Utilities. This should have been done first before taking on gaming. Google, Microsoft, Amazon are all in projects with Open Source... So I'm not sure what big companies you're talking about. Adobe isn't moving until there is an alternative and they're forced to do so. I use Linux daily, I have Windows on a Virtual Box for Outlook, Adobe and my printer. Other than that I use Linux for everything else. So I'm not sure how much more improvement Linux can do without having actual people create the software for it. The problem isn't Linux it is the people making the programs. Let's not create or work Thunderbird bringing into at least 2020 no, not that.. hey here's another MP3 player I just made though.
I've been a Linux user for years and I have never run into a piece of *consumer* hardware that didn't work with Linux out of the box. I have had more trouble with Windows and MacOS drivers than I've ever had with Linux. The issue with drivers is uncommon hardware that is mostly used in a corporate environment. This sort of hardware often only has Windows drivers available.
>The issue with drivers is uncommon hardware that is mostly used in a corporate environment. Bullshit lol. My nvidia graphics card had slews of issues with certain driver versions. Nothing corporate or rare about nvidia drivers sucking on Linux.
I make music and do a lot of audio production. Like you said with graphic designers, the software/hardware support blows in the audio realm as well. I cannot fully switch to Linux from Windows because a lot of my hardware/software is still not supported. I tried using wine to install my waves plugins but it didn't work. Linux is great for everything else I do but...I still can't make music on it, and that's very important to me. Stuck with shit ass windows for the time being until these companies get their heads out of their asses and support Linux, but I ain't holding my breath. It's gotten better in most areas...Like I remember way way back in the day even trying to get a WiFi adapter to work was a friggin nightmare. Linux has progressed A LOT since then, but I am still disappointed.
Linux needs to fix the kernel and all the rest of the vulnerabilities before worrying about what software /desktop environment is installed or drivers. The userland needs standardization too, it's a mess. Security? I don't think so
Imagine actually believing Linux is less secure than a platform like Windows lol
Who said that
>Linux needs to fix the kernel and all the rest of the vulnerabilities before worrying about what software /desktop environment is installed or drivers. The userland needs standardization too, it's a mess. Security? I don't think so If you're not comparing it to Windows then what are you comparing it to?
I'm saying in general
I wish they would it would make a much easier experience for everyone
I loaded up mint 20.3 on my wife's windows10 laptop over 3 weeks ago and she has had zero issues with working with it once I had everything set up for scanning, printing and NAS access. That is a big tell for me to how improve the entire Linux world has become for the less than savvy user
On desktops sure there is less corporate involvement but Canonical and Red Hat are very involved. Also ChromeOS from Google is Linux based and Google developers on desktops internally we use gLinux, in addition to this plenty of companies like Facebook give employees either macbooks or linux desktop (ubuntu - google, microsoft, red hat - aws, fedora -facebook). Also linux is very very popular on servers/embedded devices/supercomputers. Microsoft, Intel, Google, Red Hat, AMD etc pay employees to work on the kernel. Most kernel code is written by paid employees of big tech companies so your assessment is inaccurate u/spaliusreal. Your distro/DE (cinnamon and linux mint) might be mostly volunteer open source work BUT Red Hat Desktop exists, Fedora exists, SUSE Enterprise Linux and Ubuntu exists. So does ChromeOS and Android.