This is one of the biggest problems to Linux on the desktop that hasn't been addressed with all the work. If it gets large enough, Patents. Design patents by M

This is one of the biggest problems to Linux on the desktop that hasn't been addressed with all the work. If it gets large enough, Patents. Design patents by Microsoft, Design patents by Apple, Design patents by Google, Design patents by third parties, software patents on algorithms, and countless codec patents that Linux users violate every time they download an H.264, H.265, or AAC, or AptX encoder or decoder, and DMCA laws they violate every time they play a DVD. To this day, Fluendo sells $20-$30 Gstreamer Codec Packs that are legally licensed in the US for businesses who notice and care. However, so few care at this point Fluendo discontinued the legal DVD player, leaving basically no legal equivalent on Linux. It's easy to ignore when the companies that own most of them don't feel threatened. But if GNU/Linux was on 40% of PC Desktops, Microsoft would be absolutely eyeing those patents, and MPEG LA + Access Advance would be figuring out how to launch codec lawsuits, and the DVD CCA with the MPA would be running after anyone with a copy of VLC, Adobe might be hunting for patents in the printing stack that could be construed as PostScript-related, and on and on.