13 ms·

Year of the Linux on the desktop might never come, but we do have Linux on everything else. Servers have been mostly Linux since at least -00, smartphones have

Year of the Linux on the desktop might never come, but we do have Linux on everything else. Servers have been mostly Linux since at least -00, smartphones have been mostly Linux since about 2010, various embedded devices have been mostly Linux, if they need a full OS, since about 2000 I guess and now Linux has a serious bid in game consoles also.

notwokeno 4y ago
The Linux desktop is here for people who want it and has been for years. That only 2% or so of people use it is IMO irrelevant.
- coldpie 4y ago
  Yeah. There's two camps of the "year of the Linux desktop" topic. "I want Linux to be the majority of usage share" and "I want Linux to be good enough for me to use." The 2nd goal has been accomplished for many potential users since the mid-2000s, and only increasing especially since the web has nearly killed off native application development. The first goal is one I'm not interested in, myself.
  - notwokeno 4y ago
    I don't think the web killed native app development as much as the OS vendors themselves did by making everything miserable trying to build moats.
- czx4f4bd 4y ago
  Even if "only" 2.5% of desktops and laptops use it, that is not a small number by any stretch of the imagination -- that's like 30-50 million people. For comparison, ChromeOS has a market share of about 2.4%, and that's with a fairly concerted effort by Google to drive adoption. Meanwhile, the Stack Overflow Developer Survey showed a massive jump from 25% of respondents using Linux last year to 40% using it this year. Even if you assume some sampling bias, that's still a huge swing. Then you have major manufacturers like Dell shipping laptops with Ubuntu, Proton and Wine getting better and better at running Windows games and apps, projects like WSL and the Steam Deck giving more people the opportunity to try Linux out, etc. Even if there are still flaws and barriers to adoption, those barriers are diminishing and momentum is clearly building in Linux's favor. It will only get easier to run Linux going forward. It probably won't overtake Windows or become a huge competitor (at least, not in the foreseeable future), but I think in the near future it will become more of a "mainstream niche" like OS X was in the 2000s. Most people won't run it, but they'll probably know someone who does and it will be at least conceivable that they could run it themselves.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - mikepurvis 4y ago
    Google is playing the long game on ChromeOS though, by getting it into schools— those are kids who are going to hit adulthood in 10-15 years with their primary (and maybe even only) computing experiences having been iOS devices and Chromebooks. Which is all well and good for Google, but that's just not the kind of time horizon that open source projects can work on.
- cmrdporcupine 4y ago
  Desktops themselves are increasingly becoming 'irrelevant' for people who aren't specialists or using them for office-productivity tasks. Judging from what I see from my family and people I meet, many homes no longer have any kind of desktop or laptop computers, and rely exclusively on mobile devices of various types. The era of the 'home computer' will probably turn out to be a "brief" window between the early 80s and this decade. Some people who need specific functionality might have a laptop. But even there, tablets or other restricted mobile-type devices are making inroads.
  - prmoustache 4y ago
    Aren't the tablets nearly dead already now that smartphones have become huge?
    - cmrdporcupine 4y ago
      Yes, but chromebooks are hugely big. Also Linux.
  - hamilton987 4y ago
    [flagged]
unixhero 4y ago
The desktop is almost dead beyond corporate.
- fragmede 4y ago
  Which is an interesting shift in the situation, but I don't think corporations are going anywhere.
  - vladvasiliu 4y ago
    More and more corporations use some kind of on-line SaaS software. Those only need browsers. What's funny, is that for a long time MS Office was one of the reasons why enterprises would stick with Windows. But now, with Office365, the web experience is better than the installed-app, one. I understand "more advanced" features aren't there yet. As someone fairly basic, I have no idea what those are, but from what I see most people do in Excel, it's just basically an easy way to get a table. That works fine on the web version. There's also the tendency of locking down workstations, by installing all kinds of detection agents, usually billed per node. With the two combined, I would expect more and more companies to switch to some kind of dumb terminal, that would only show a browser. Sure, this would probably not work well for everybody, but for many office workers it would likely be perfect. Hell, even for developers, with all the "remote dev" things coming out lately.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  Until 3D Web APIs stop being 10 years behind native ones, the desktop has a safe future.
  - cjbgkagh 4y ago
    This is my biggest gripe with WebDev, followed by thread limits.
- esjeon 4y ago
  The traditional desktop is dead, but we’re getting app-based desktops - something look similar, but with completely different ecosystem from developer to consumer.
dgunay 4y ago
Rather than Linux rising to meet the expectations of users, I think it is more likely that Windows will continue to decline in usability until it is on par with the top Linux DEs. Dunno what to make of MacOS in this.
- vladvasiliu 4y ago
  > it is more likely that Windows will continue to decline in usability until it is on par with the top Linux DEs For me, that threshold has been shattered. I'm not even going to talk about ads and similar telemetry crap. All in all, the Windows desktop is more sluggish and loves, LOVES, to get in my way. And I'm basing this impression on my desktop: 8 core xeon, 64 GB ram, fast pcie3 nvme drive, mid-range gpu (I can comfortably play most games with full settings in FHD). Maybe not the greatest out there, but a comfortable machine still. It may be due to animations in part, but many, many things just lag. Try to launch some app by clicking the start menu. First, it takes a while to appear, then it waits for ages until it shows my app. I only have a few apps. I know it looks for something on the internet. I don't care. It's on Windows. I never asked it to do that. On win 10, I could jump through some hoops and disable that in between updates. I don't think that's possible anymore. The freaking control center, or whatever it's called, which pops up when you click on the sound / network icons. One out of three times it will seemingly ignore my click, even though there's an animation. And then jump up three times when I click it multiple times. Same for opening the settings up from said menu. The gear turns, but nothing happens for several seconds. Speaking of settings, every other update it figures it should reactivate the freaking "use alt-tab to change between edge tabs". No. I don't want that. Please. stop. changing. my. settings. Then there's the light / dark circus. Sometimes the explorer ends up in some kind of grey color for some reason. It's neither the light nor dark ones. The task manager has a hard time figuring that my screen is quite big (4k at 100%). So it just chops off the right hand side of the memory info in the performance tab. The graph does take the whole size, though. Also, quite often, when I try to maximize it, it will take the whole screen, and end up with the bottom part behind the taskbar. I don't use any interface tweaks, everything is at its default, with a fresh install of windows when 11-22h2 came out. Then, you decide you've had enough and what to shut down. For some reason, the task manager doesn't feel like it and will block it. There's also often, but now always, an unnamed process that will delay the shutdown. Then, there's the whole hardware support question. I've complained about this like a broken record, but my work laptop only got full GPU support a few weeks ago. For a laptop bought in December 2021. With an 11th gen Intel GPU. Same for another similar laptop, whose webcam had only worked intermittently. Both laptops are your usual HP Enterprise fare. Both worked 100% on Linux since day one.
shmerl 4y ago
You don't need to wait for it to come, you can simply use it on the desktop.
yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
> smartphones have been mostly Linux since about 2010 Although I've seen Android described as the monkey's paw of Linux phones. (Granted, Android/Linux is Linux even without GNU.)
- fragmede 4y ago
  ChromeOS is a similar Faustian deal.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
    At least ChromeOS devices (nearly?) universally support being unlocked to allow the owner root access and to flash whatever they want; I would love for Android to have the same "developer mode". Not that I really disagree with you.
  - AshamedCaptain 4y ago
    I think ChromeOS is much closer to desktop Linux than Android is. Among other things, I have seen more contributions overall from ChromeOS guys than from Android guys, despite the huge differences in user numbers.
    - kaba0 4y ago
      Wasn’t pretty much every battery-preserving feature made by android kernel devs? Android is just no longer in its early days to need bit kernel changes.
      - AshamedCaptain 4y ago
        I absolutely disagree. The early Android was using a very simplistic approach to powersaving that was not only not a good fit compared to what desktop Linux was using, but also disagreed with the previous work that had been done for Linux from other vendors (e.g. TI). Android did not start the craze of Linux on devices, they just surfed on it...
pjmlp 4y ago
iOS isn't Linux, and Android isn't GNU/Linux either regardless how much people keep patting themselves on the back for having the Linux kernel. Android userspace is Java and Kotlin based, and the NDK officially only allows for Android specific APIs, C and C++ standard library as per ISO, and that is about it. Nothing else from Linux kernel is considered part of Android's public API. Google could move to Fucshia on a whim and only OEMs, and people that root their devices would notice, Java/Kotlin apps would work as usual without recompilation from source, while NDK code would suffice a recompile.
- hpaavola 4y ago
  iOS is not majority, not even close, Android dominates the smartphone market. Android runs on Linux, not GNU/Linux, but definitely Linux.
  - pjmlp 4y ago
    Android uses the Linux kernel, which is anyway invisible to app developers, that is about it. My Sony blue ray player and LG smarttv also run the Linux kernel, so what, doesn't change anything for the movies I watch on them, and I doubt they have contributed anything to upstream A phyrric victory.
    - hpaavola 4y ago
      I have no idea what victory you are talking about. Linux dominates roughly everything, except desktop. You can go argue about your own things somewhere else. EDIT: runs -> dominates
      - pjmlp 4y ago
        Linux kernel yes, GNU/Linux only dominates the server room, and fails everywhere else. A kernel alone doesn't make an operating system.
        lrvick 4y ago
kodah 4y ago
I use PopOS as a daily driver. Linux gaming has picked up quite a bit, to the degree that the Steam Deck runs on it. Linux now comes as part of Windows. QEMU is now running on any developers Mac who uses containers. Anecdotally, my girlfriend (who is not a technologist) is now a Linux power user, to the extent of fully customizing her Gnome environment. If that isn't Linux on the desktop, then yeah, it may never come. Personally, I would say that Linux lacks two things: 1. Cross platform integrations. The way MacOS can intelligently switch AirPods over or share with your tablet is nice. Linux doesn't really have that. 2. DirectX that's compatible with Windows DirectX. That would slay Windows gaming. For now, there's Proton.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  That is still Windows gaming as far as game studios are concerned.
  - notwokeno 4y ago
    "Wine is the Linux ABI."
    - pjmlp 4y ago
      OS/2 says hello.
    - tigeroil 4y ago
      Indeed. I hate to say it because I love Linux but Wine has genuinely been by far the most stable ABI on Linux.
      - notwokeno 4y ago
        I don't hate it. The GNU user space is built around a paradigm of source sharing and using the shared source to build a very coherent and pleasant OS. Having some kind of clear separation between that and closed software makes things more pleasant IMO.
patrickk 4y ago
If Valve decides to make a standard ‘game console’ - miniature gaming PC with a PlayStation-like form factor, standard hardware for game devs to target, SteamOS - then add gaming consoles to that list. There was an interview recently with someone in Valves steam deck team who mentioned that it’s on their radar but they don’t have the manpower yet to consider it. It does seem like an obvious next step, especially if Steam Controller 2 is released.
- guipsp 4y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Machine_%28computer%29?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Machine_%28computer%29?w...
  - patrickk 4y ago
    I'm aware. This time, SteamOS is much more mature and consumers are primed for such a move. Especially if it's more tightly controlled by Valve instead of allowing 3rd parties more leeway.
  - Xelynega 4y ago
    Those were capable of nothing but streaming games(didn't even have a native web browser). Why would it be comparable at all to a machine that runs games locally?
    - haunter 4y ago
      You are mistaking the Steam Link hardware with Steam Machines which were real computers made by several 3rd party vendors (Alienware, Asus, Gigabyte etc.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Link https://web.archive.org/web/20151008050254/https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines https://web.archive.org/web/20151008050254/https://store.ste...
- veridies 4y ago
  I honestly don't see the point. The Deck is like the Switch: easy to use in both docked and handheld mode. All Valve has to do is to bundle a dock and some new controllers and they have a full fledged game console.
Lorkki 4y ago
> Year of the Linux on the desktop might never come I'm not even sure what that would mean practically. By brute market share, possibly not. But I've had Ubuntu as my personal daily driver for many years, and at the moment it's honestly just a much better experience than either Windows or macOS. Microsoft and Apple seem to have turned their operating systems into advertising platforms for their other products, largely disregarding the basics of what makes a desktop actually work well.
pmarreck 4y ago
After distro-hopping for a while, I've finally settled on NixOS on ZFS root. The ability to boot into any previously working configuration if you manage to screw something up that doesn't work with your hardware or whatever (which is unfortunately still far more common on Linux than on Windows or macOS, if ever... and this feature is via GRUB and NixOS, this doesn't even touch ZFS snapshots which are yet another layer of security), as well as having all configuration be declarative (and storeable in, say, a github repo, and deterministically reproducible) is frankly "the only safe way to fly" in the Linux ecosystem IMHO. The only trouble is, it's still definitely for power-user Linux folks. There is at least 1 fork trying to put a dent in this problem, though: https://snowflakeos.org/ https://snowflakeos.org/
fulafel 4y ago
"Year of the linux desktop" has transformed from a mock into just a self-referential meme joke as nontechnical end-users moved away from desktop computers and the Windows competition started to slide into irrelevance. The corpo world Windows market is still there, and "enthusiast" windows gaming is there, but personal computing for was mostly taken over by mobile / iPad / chromebook competition. And most of gaming of course is on mobile and consoles. The remaining corpo world use supplies mass market PC hardware to run desktop Linux on and we should keep an eye on its viability. (Linux is of course a completely mainstream platform in the dev / maker / engineering world, windows only slightly ahead eg in stack overflow dev survey, has been working well and steadily improving for less technical users for 2-3 decades)

notwokeno 4y ago

The Linux desktop is here for people who want it and has been for years. That only 2% or so of people use it is IMO irrelevant.

coldpie 4y ago
Yeah. There's two camps of the "year of the Linux desktop" topic. "I want Linux to be the majority of usage share" and "I want Linux to be good enough for me to use." The 2nd goal has been accomplished for many potential users since the mid-2000s, and only increasing especially since the web has nearly killed off native application development. The first goal is one I'm not interested in, myself.
- notwokeno 4y ago
  I don't think the web killed native app development as much as the OS vendors themselves did by making everything miserable trying to build moats.
czx4f4bd 4y ago
Even if "only" 2.5% of desktops and laptops use it, that is not a small number by any stretch of the imagination -- that's like 30-50 million people. For comparison, ChromeOS has a market share of about 2.4%, and that's with a fairly concerted effort by Google to drive adoption. Meanwhile, the Stack Overflow Developer Survey showed a massive jump from 25% of respondents using Linux last year to 40% using it this year. Even if you assume some sampling bias, that's still a huge swing. Then you have major manufacturers like Dell shipping laptops with Ubuntu, Proton and Wine getting better and better at running Windows games and apps, projects like WSL and the Steam Deck giving more people the opportunity to try Linux out, etc. Even if there are still flaws and barriers to adoption, those barriers are diminishing and momentum is clearly building in Linux's favor. It will only get easier to run Linux going forward. It probably won't overtake Windows or become a huge competitor (at least, not in the foreseeable future), but I think in the near future it will become more of a "mainstream niche" like OS X was in the 2000s. Most people won't run it, but they'll probably know someone who does and it will be at least conceivable that they could run it themselves.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- mikepurvis 4y ago
  Google is playing the long game on ChromeOS though, by getting it into schools— those are kids who are going to hit adulthood in 10-15 years with their primary (and maybe even only) computing experiences having been iOS devices and Chromebooks. Which is all well and good for Google, but that's just not the kind of time horizon that open source projects can work on.
cmrdporcupine 4y ago
Desktops themselves are increasingly becoming 'irrelevant' for people who aren't specialists or using them for office-productivity tasks. Judging from what I see from my family and people I meet, many homes no longer have any kind of desktop or laptop computers, and rely exclusively on mobile devices of various types. The era of the 'home computer' will probably turn out to be a "brief" window between the early 80s and this decade. Some people who need specific functionality might have a laptop. But even there, tablets or other restricted mobile-type devices are making inroads.
- prmoustache 4y ago
  Aren't the tablets nearly dead already now that smartphones have become huge?
  - cmrdporcupine 4y ago
    Yes, but chromebooks are hugely big. Also Linux.
- hamilton987 4y ago
  [flagged]

unixhero 4y ago

The desktop is almost dead beyond corporate.

fragmede 4y ago
Which is an interesting shift in the situation, but I don't think corporations are going anywhere.
- vladvasiliu 4y ago
  More and more corporations use some kind of on-line SaaS software. Those only need browsers. What's funny, is that for a long time MS Office was one of the reasons why enterprises would stick with Windows. But now, with Office365, the web experience is better than the installed-app, one. I understand "more advanced" features aren't there yet. As someone fairly basic, I have no idea what those are, but from what I see most people do in Excel, it's just basically an easy way to get a table. That works fine on the web version. There's also the tendency of locking down workstations, by installing all kinds of detection agents, usually billed per node. With the two combined, I would expect more and more companies to switch to some kind of dumb terminal, that would only show a browser. Sure, this would probably not work well for everybody, but for many office workers it would likely be perfect. Hell, even for developers, with all the "remote dev" things coming out lately.
pjmlp 4y ago
Until 3D Web APIs stop being 10 years behind native ones, the desktop has a safe future.
- cjbgkagh 4y ago
  This is my biggest gripe with WebDev, followed by thread limits.
esjeon 4y ago
The traditional desktop is dead, but we’re getting app-based desktops - something look similar, but with completely different ecosystem from developer to consumer.

dgunay 4y ago

Rather than Linux rising to meet the expectations of users, I think it is more likely that Windows will continue to decline in usability until it is on par with the top Linux DEs. Dunno what to make of MacOS in this.

vladvasiliu 4y ago
> it is more likely that Windows will continue to decline in usability until it is on par with the top Linux DEs For me, that threshold has been shattered. I'm not even going to talk about ads and similar telemetry crap. All in all, the Windows desktop is more sluggish and loves, LOVES, to get in my way. And I'm basing this impression on my desktop: 8 core xeon, 64 GB ram, fast pcie3 nvme drive, mid-range gpu (I can comfortably play most games with full settings in FHD). Maybe not the greatest out there, but a comfortable machine still. It may be due to animations in part, but many, many things just lag. Try to launch some app by clicking the start menu. First, it takes a while to appear, then it waits for ages until it shows my app. I only have a few apps. I know it looks for something on the internet. I don't care. It's on Windows. I never asked it to do that. On win 10, I could jump through some hoops and disable that in between updates. I don't think that's possible anymore. The freaking control center, or whatever it's called, which pops up when you click on the sound / network icons. One out of three times it will seemingly ignore my click, even though there's an animation. And then jump up three times when I click it multiple times. Same for opening the settings up from said menu. The gear turns, but nothing happens for several seconds. Speaking of settings, every other update it figures it should reactivate the freaking "use alt-tab to change between edge tabs". No. I don't want that. Please. stop. changing. my. settings. Then there's the light / dark circus. Sometimes the explorer ends up in some kind of grey color for some reason. It's neither the light nor dark ones. The task manager has a hard time figuring that my screen is quite big (4k at 100%). So it just chops off the right hand side of the memory info in the performance tab. The graph does take the whole size, though. Also, quite often, when I try to maximize it, it will take the whole screen, and end up with the bottom part behind the taskbar. I don't use any interface tweaks, everything is at its default, with a fresh install of windows when 11-22h2 came out. Then, you decide you've had enough and what to shut down. For some reason, the task manager doesn't feel like it and will block it. There's also often, but now always, an unnamed process that will delay the shutdown. Then, there's the whole hardware support question. I've complained about this like a broken record, but my work laptop only got full GPU support a few weeks ago. For a laptop bought in December 2021. With an 11th gen Intel GPU. Same for another similar laptop, whose webcam had only worked intermittently. Both laptops are your usual HP Enterprise fare. Both worked 100% on Linux since day one.

shmerl 4y ago

You don't need to wait for it to come, you can simply use it on the desktop.

yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago

> smartphones have been mostly Linux since about 2010 Although I've seen Android described as the monkey's paw of Linux phones. (Granted, Android/Linux is Linux even without GNU.)

fragmede 4y ago
ChromeOS is a similar Faustian deal.
- yjftsjthsd-h 4y ago
  At least ChromeOS devices (nearly?) universally support being unlocked to allow the owner root access and to flash whatever they want; I would love for Android to have the same "developer mode". Not that I really disagree with you.
- AshamedCaptain 4y ago
  I think ChromeOS is much closer to desktop Linux than Android is. Among other things, I have seen more contributions overall from ChromeOS guys than from Android guys, despite the huge differences in user numbers.
  - kaba0 4y ago
    Wasn’t pretty much every battery-preserving feature made by android kernel devs? Android is just no longer in its early days to need bit kernel changes.
    - AshamedCaptain 4y ago
      I absolutely disagree. The early Android was using a very simplistic approach to powersaving that was not only not a good fit compared to what desktop Linux was using, but also disagreed with the previous work that had been done for Linux from other vendors (e.g. TI). Android did not start the craze of Linux on devices, they just surfed on it...

pjmlp 4y ago

iOS isn't Linux, and Android isn't GNU/Linux either regardless how much people keep patting themselves on the back for having the Linux kernel. Android userspace is Java and Kotlin based, and the NDK officially only allows for Android specific APIs, C and C++ standard library as per ISO, and that is about it. Nothing else from Linux kernel is considered part of Android's public API. Google could move to Fucshia on a whim and only OEMs, and people that root their devices would notice, Java/Kotlin apps would work as usual without recompilation from source, while NDK code would suffice a recompile.

hpaavola 4y ago
iOS is not majority, not even close, Android dominates the smartphone market. Android runs on Linux, not GNU/Linux, but definitely Linux.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  Android uses the Linux kernel, which is anyway invisible to app developers, that is about it. My Sony blue ray player and LG smarttv also run the Linux kernel, so what, doesn't change anything for the movies I watch on them, and I doubt they have contributed anything to upstream A phyrric victory.
  - hpaavola 4y ago
    I have no idea what victory you are talking about. Linux dominates roughly everything, except desktop. You can go argue about your own things somewhere else. EDIT: runs -> dominates
    - pjmlp 4y ago
      Linux kernel yes, GNU/Linux only dominates the server room, and fails everywhere else. A kernel alone doesn't make an operating system.
      - lrvick 4y ago

kodah 4y ago

I use PopOS as a daily driver. Linux gaming has picked up quite a bit, to the degree that the Steam Deck runs on it. Linux now comes as part of Windows. QEMU is now running on any developers Mac who uses containers. Anecdotally, my girlfriend (who is not a technologist) is now a Linux power user, to the extent of fully customizing her Gnome environment. If that isn't Linux on the desktop, then yeah, it may never come. Personally, I would say that Linux lacks two things: 1. Cross platform integrations. The way MacOS can intelligently switch AirPods over or share with your tablet is nice. Linux doesn't really have that. 2. DirectX that's compatible with Windows DirectX. That would slay Windows gaming. For now, there's Proton.

pjmlp 4y ago
That is still Windows gaming as far as game studios are concerned.
- notwokeno 4y ago
  "Wine is the Linux ABI."
  - pjmlp 4y ago
    OS/2 says hello.
  - tigeroil 4y ago
    Indeed. I hate to say it because I love Linux but Wine has genuinely been by far the most stable ABI on Linux.
    - notwokeno 4y ago
      I don't hate it. The GNU user space is built around a paradigm of source sharing and using the shared source to build a very coherent and pleasant OS. Having some kind of clear separation between that and closed software makes things more pleasant IMO.

patrickk 4y ago

If Valve decides to make a standard ‘game console’ - miniature gaming PC with a PlayStation-like form factor, standard hardware for game devs to target, SteamOS - then add gaming consoles to that list. There was an interview recently with someone in Valves steam deck team who mentioned that it’s on their radar but they don’t have the manpower yet to consider it. It does seem like an obvious next step, especially if Steam Controller 2 is released.

guipsp 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Machine_%28computer%29?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Machine_%28computer%29?w...
- patrickk 4y ago
  I'm aware. This time, SteamOS is much more mature and consumers are primed for such a move. Especially if it's more tightly controlled by Valve instead of allowing 3rd parties more leeway.
- Xelynega 4y ago
  Those were capable of nothing but streaming games(didn't even have a native web browser). Why would it be comparable at all to a machine that runs games locally?
  - haunter 4y ago
    You are mistaking the Steam Link hardware with Steam Machines which were real computers made by several 3rd party vendors (Alienware, Asus, Gigabyte etc.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_Link https://web.archive.org/web/20151008050254/https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steam_machines https://web.archive.org/web/20151008050254/https://store.ste...
veridies 4y ago
I honestly don't see the point. The Deck is like the Switch: easy to use in both docked and handheld mode. All Valve has to do is to bundle a dock and some new controllers and they have a full fledged game console.

Lorkki 4y ago

> Year of the Linux on the desktop might never come I'm not even sure what that would mean practically. By brute market share, possibly not. But I've had Ubuntu as my personal daily driver for many years, and at the moment it's honestly just a much better experience than either Windows or macOS. Microsoft and Apple seem to have turned their operating systems into advertising platforms for their other products, largely disregarding the basics of what makes a desktop actually work well.

pmarreck 4y ago

After distro-hopping for a while, I've finally settled on NixOS on ZFS root. The ability to boot into any previously working configuration if you manage to screw something up that doesn't work with your hardware or whatever (which is unfortunately still far more common on Linux than on Windows or macOS, if ever... and this feature is via GRUB and NixOS, this doesn't even touch ZFS snapshots which are yet another layer of security), as well as having all configuration be declarative (and storeable in, say, a github repo, and deterministically reproducible) is frankly "the only safe way to fly" in the Linux ecosystem IMHO. The only trouble is, it's still definitely for power-user Linux folks. There is at least 1 fork trying to put a dent in this problem, though: https://snowflakeos.org/ https://snowflakeos.org/

fulafel 4y ago

"Year of the linux desktop" has transformed from a mock into just a self-referential meme joke as nontechnical end-users moved away from desktop computers and the Windows competition started to slide into irrelevance. The corpo world Windows market is still there, and "enthusiast" windows gaming is there, but personal computing for was mostly taken over by mobile / iPad / chromebook competition. And most of gaming of course is on mobile and consoles. The remaining corpo world use supplies mass market PC hardware to run desktop Linux on and we should keep an eye on its viability. (Linux is of course a completely mainstream platform in the dev / maker / engineering world, windows only slightly ahead eg in stack overflow dev survey, has been working well and steadily improving for less technical users for 2-3 decades)