this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2024
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Funny how he made it basically for his desktop computer.
33 years later, and Linux is dominating in every part of the OS world except ... the desktop.
(I'm paraphrasing his quote -- he said something like this years ago, can't find it, though.)
(Edit: to be more fair with quotes, it might be the case that I "hallucinated" the quote. he might not have said that, or he might have just said part of it and other part would be someone else's comment. This cio.com article is probably a better source on his position )
I would argue that it does dominate the desktop now as well, just not by usage numbers.
If I was told I had to use a windows desktop these days at home I think I'd start investing in a very large book collection.
Without a distro to rally behind I'm personally somewhat skeptical. Ubuntu was the best shot we had but since switching everything over to SNAPs it's on the slow side. With the number of Windows ads and early end of support for Windows 10 there's a real opportunity for desktop Linux, but until there's a well supported distro that genuinely doesn't require using the terminal I can't see there being mass adoption.
My grandmother ran Linux for a couple decades until her death at 101 years old. My 80+ year old mom has been running Linux for at least 2 decades. Yes, I'm tech support, but I don't really have to do anything. It just works.
And I'm cracking up at the scammers phoning up my 85 year old father telling him his Windows has been compromised on his Linux desktop.
It's not about the distro. Most distros out right now are pretty good. What you need is hardware that lots of people want to buy with Linux installed on it as the default choice. Normal people don't want to install any OS, be it Linux, Windows, MacOS or BSD. Whatever comes by default, it's good.
I'm pretty sure that right now the most popular Linux distros are ChromeOS and SteamOS. I wonder why
Any distro that ships KDE/Plasma as its default desktop should do the trick. I'm not personally using it right now but I hear OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is kicking a lot of rear end lately.
When I used TW few years ago it kicked every ass too.