5 ms·

Why Desktop Linux Still Matters

23 points by axiomdata316 6y ago

devenblake 6y ago
It's staggering the amount of things I can do on Linux. One basic feature that I can't believe isn't on macOS or Windows is in Xfce, where I can right-click a window titlebar and put it always on top. I'm sure Windows has the capacity to do this - WinAmp iirc lets the user toggle this in the app - but I can't do it for programs like Firefox. It's the little things that make me like Linux, things like that. It's endlessly customizable, and if nobody's made something I want yet, I can just make it myself. Nobody's stopping me. Plus, it doesn't have Candy Crush preinstalled in the year 2020.
- shultays 6y ago
  Funny thing is it was that little things that made me switch to windows as well. The last time I tried to usimg ubuntu, I wasn't able to drag drop a subtitle file from an archieve directly to vlc. I had to drag it to a temp folder to decompress it. And then I was able to drag that subtitle file to vlc
- m463 6y ago
  You're right. I have a ubuntu machine I have to use and being able to set it up to match my macos keystrokes (like cmd-n for new terminal window, cmd-k to reset terminal, etc) was ... key, so to speak. Of course customization can also fix stuff. It was maddening when dragging a window to graze the menu bar at the top and have it maximize. ugh. (magic setting: edge-tiling=false in two places)
- PhilippGille 6y ago
  You can just install a tool that allows you to do that. Dexpot [1] is one of those. Its main feature was to allow you to have multiple workspaces back when Windows didn't have that natively. In a similar way, back when Windows didn't allow you to move individual taskbar items you could install a tool like Taskbar Shuffle [2] for that. So in many cases you can simply extend the features of the OS with tools. And you can even choose which one to use. That's not too bad, right? And no one's stopping you from writing your own tools either :) . [1] https://dexpot.de/ https://dexpot.de/ [2] https://nerdcave.com/projects https://nerdcave.com/projects
aruggirello 6y ago
> About two percent of desktop PCs and laptops use Linux, and there were over 2 billion in use in 2015. That’s about 4 million computers running Linux Yawn...I'm not sure what to expect from someone who cannot even do basic math...
- jhardy54 6y ago
  They dropped a zero. The correction is useful, the snark is not.
  - aruggirello 6y ago
    They didn't just drop a zero. They based their reasoning on that number, the next sentence suggests it's like the population of Kuwait (~4.5M). No, it's more like California: https://worldpopulationreview.com/states/california-population/ https://worldpopulationreview.com/states/california-populati... Or Canada. Or Iraq, to stay in the Middle East.
    - ChristianBundy 6y ago
      I agree that the assertion was at the beginning of the article, but I don't think the remainder of the article is predicated on this claim. In other words: I don't think the order of magnitude invalidates the rest of their argument.
adarioble 6y ago
Linux on desktop is one of those things where reputation precedes reality. It runs fine most of the time, but many remember or have read the nightmare stories about non-functioning hardware, the need to compile drivers and so on. While Linux has been sorting out those issues, a lot of things moved ahead to SaaS and Web applications and for majority the device is just a terminal. Which runs Windows or MacOS because people are complacent and don’t care.
type0 6y ago
> I’ve met Mac owners who thought their computer was running Windows “the Apple way,” I also have met those people, eventually they will figure out that you can install Windows on Mac just fine.
altspace 6y ago
> Linux would penetrate the PC desktop market and displace Windows Linux would penetrate the PC desktop market and will be called Windows... and I believe it’ll be good for users and good for Microsoft

23 points by axiomdata316 6y ago

It's staggering the amount of things I can do on Linux. One basic feature that I can't believe isn't on macOS or Windows is in Xfce, where I can right-click a window titlebar and put it always on top. I'm sure Windows has the capacity to do this - WinAmp iirc lets the user toggle this in the app - but I can't do it for programs like Firefox. It's the little things that make me like Linux, things like that. It's endlessly customizable, and if nobody's made something I want yet, I can just make it myself. Nobody's stopping me. Plus, it doesn't have Candy Crush preinstalled in the year 2020.

shultays 6y ago
Funny thing is it was that little things that made me switch to windows as well. The last time I tried to usimg ubuntu, I wasn't able to drag drop a subtitle file from an archieve directly to vlc. I had to drag it to a temp folder to decompress it. And then I was able to drag that subtitle file to vlc
m463 6y ago
You're right. I have a ubuntu machine I have to use and being able to set it up to match my macos keystrokes (like cmd-n for new terminal window, cmd-k to reset terminal, etc) was ... key, so to speak. Of course customization can also fix stuff. It was maddening when dragging a window to graze the menu bar at the top and have it maximize. ugh. (magic setting: edge-tiling=false in two places)
PhilippGille 6y ago
You can just install a tool that allows you to do that. Dexpot [1] is one of those. Its main feature was to allow you to have multiple workspaces back when Windows didn't have that natively. In a similar way, back when Windows didn't allow you to move individual taskbar items you could install a tool like Taskbar Shuffle [2] for that. So in many cases you can simply extend the features of the OS with tools. And you can even choose which one to use. That's not too bad, right? And no one's stopping you from writing your own tools either :) . [1] https://dexpot.de/ https://dexpot.de/ [2] https://nerdcave.com/projects https://nerdcave.com/projects

aruggirello 6y ago

> About two percent of desktop PCs and laptops use Linux, and there were over 2 billion in use in 2015. That’s about 4 million computers running Linux Yawn...I'm not sure what to expect from someone who cannot even do basic math...

jhardy54 6y ago
They dropped a zero. The correction is useful, the snark is not.
- aruggirello 6y ago
  They didn't just drop a zero. They based their reasoning on that number, the next sentence suggests it's like the population of Kuwait (~4.5M). No, it's more like California: https://worldpopulationreview.com/states/california-population/ https://worldpopulationreview.com/states/california-populati... Or Canada. Or Iraq, to stay in the Middle East.
  - ChristianBundy 6y ago
    I agree that the assertion was at the beginning of the article, but I don't think the remainder of the article is predicated on this claim. In other words: I don't think the order of magnitude invalidates the rest of their argument.

adarioble 6y ago

Linux on desktop is one of those things where reputation precedes reality. It runs fine most of the time, but many remember or have read the nightmare stories about non-functioning hardware, the need to compile drivers and so on. While Linux has been sorting out those issues, a lot of things moved ahead to SaaS and Web applications and for majority the device is just a terminal. Which runs Windows or MacOS because people are complacent and don’t care.

type0 6y ago

> I’ve met Mac owners who thought their computer was running Windows “the Apple way,” I also have met those people, eventually they will figure out that you can install Windows on Mac just fine.

altspace 6y ago

> Linux would penetrate the PC desktop market and displace Windows Linux would penetrate the PC desktop market and will be called Windows... and I believe it’ll be good for users and good for Microsoft