4 ms·

Yeah, the 'Year of Linux on the Desktop'-trope comes from the end of the nineties. Mainstream Windows was still the Windows 9x branch. Consumers didn't switch t

Yeah, the 'Year of Linux on the Desktop'-trope comes from the end of the nineties. Mainstream Windows was still the Windows 9x branch. Consumers didn't switch to the NT line until Windows XP. And there were a bunch of well-funded Linux distributions that wanted to be serious competitors to Windows (Corel Linux, Caldera OpenLinux, etc.). Given the sorry state of Windows at the time and the strong interest of the industry and press in Linux, there was a contingent within the press and Linux community that believed that desktop Linux could replace Windows. Which lead to the regular question "will this be the year of Linux on the desktop?". The year of the Linux desktop didn't happen (unless you consider Android phones desktops), but Linux has been massively successful in other ways (servers, phones, embedded, IoT). If anything, the underlying OS matters less and less, since applications are steadily moving to the web (for better or worse).

ghaff 4y ago
It also came from an era when utter Microsoft dominance seemed like an existential threat to many people--and the native desktop (and its applications) was an important front in that war. So winning over a material number of governments and companies to Linux, OpenOffice, etc. on PCs seemed an important objective. Today, what operating system people choose to run on their desktop/laptop just isn't a terribly important question any longer in the scheme of things especially given that most live largely in their browser anyway.
- ofrzeta 4y ago
  > given that most live largely in their browser anyway You mean like ... in MS Edge? EDIT: Adding to my remark by referring to another quote "an era when utter Microsoft dominance seemed like an existential threat". I still see this as an existential threat and that's why I posted the above. We no longer have a healthy competition of browsers and the fact that Microsoft pushes some kind of Chrome fork doesn't improve the situation. The same goes for MS Teams. It's ubiquitous, even in schools, and therefore drives people into the Microsoft ecosystem.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    Yep with 4.5% browser market share, Microsoft Edge has sure crushed the rest of the industry. [1] Teams is better in its category at 16% but that's a case of Office 365 pulling in teams rather than the other way around. (The same way Google Workplace pulls in Meet.) [1] https://mspoweruser.com/edge-november-2022-desktop-browser-market-share/ https://mspoweruser.com/edge-november-2022-desktop-browser-m...
    - ofrzeta 4y ago
      From the chart you posted the desktop market share of Edge is 11%. It's the second most used browser behind Chrome. Also I wonder what's the "category" for Teams.
      - ghaff 4y ago
        Ah, the 4.5% was from a different article and I linked to this one. Teams is video conferencing software. It competes with Zoom, which is the category leader, Google Meet, Bluejeans, Webex, etc.
pjmlp 4y ago
Regarding Android, there is hardly any Linux on it besides the Linux kernel, which isn't exposed as stable API to Android's userspace.
- NotYourLawyer 4y ago
  Linux is the kernel.
  - pjmlp 4y ago
    Which is something that those that equate Android with GNU/Linux keep forgetting.
- dredmorbius 4y ago
  Whilst I agree strongly with your general point: Android is not GNU Linux (that is, the Linux kernel plus a userland largely based on and around the GNU's Not Unix toolchain), there is Termux, an Android app which provides a Linux-like userland, including X11 applications for what it's worth. You'll need to install it through a third-party app store or source, such as F-Droid. Software is packaged under APT, and whilst the package selection is markedly less than, say, Debian (roughly 70k distinct packages last I checked), there are now several thousand available packages, plus more available through Python, Ruby, Perl, and Node.js package managers (and probably others). You're still subject to Android limitation: - No general filesystem access outside Termux's and specifically-shared areas. - Very limited file permissions options unless rooted. - No privilege escalation unless you've rooted your device. - Android's mysterious and quite frequently annoying app process management killing off sessions with no discernible rhyme or reason, let alone owner-based control. But you'll get all the standard base shell utilities, scripting and programming environments, a selection of networking tools (which function again depends in part on whether your device is or isn't rooted), editors, and even a number of servers, though typically running on high-numbered (unprivileged) ports. There's also a slew of tools for interacting with Android itself, including clipboard, screen brightness, wifi, flashlight (if available), "toasts" (alerts/messages), and more. Termux has long been the one Android app Which Does Not Precisely and Exactly Suck. It was the first app I found which made the OS vaguely useful to me rather than a captured walled-garden toy.

ghaff 4y ago

It also came from an era when utter Microsoft dominance seemed like an existential threat to many people--and the native desktop (and its applications) was an important front in that war. So winning over a material number of governments and companies to Linux, OpenOffice, etc. on PCs seemed an important objective. Today, what operating system people choose to run on their desktop/laptop just isn't a terribly important question any longer in the scheme of things especially given that most live largely in their browser anyway.

ofrzeta 4y ago
> given that most live largely in their browser anyway You mean like ... in MS Edge? EDIT: Adding to my remark by referring to another quote "an era when utter Microsoft dominance seemed like an existential threat". I still see this as an existential threat and that's why I posted the above. We no longer have a healthy competition of browsers and the fact that Microsoft pushes some kind of Chrome fork doesn't improve the situation. The same goes for MS Teams. It's ubiquitous, even in schools, and therefore drives people into the Microsoft ecosystem.
- ghaff 4y ago
  Yep with 4.5% browser market share, Microsoft Edge has sure crushed the rest of the industry. [1] Teams is better in its category at 16% but that's a case of Office 365 pulling in teams rather than the other way around. (The same way Google Workplace pulls in Meet.) [1] https://mspoweruser.com/edge-november-2022-desktop-browser-market-share/ https://mspoweruser.com/edge-november-2022-desktop-browser-m...
  - ofrzeta 4y ago
    From the chart you posted the desktop market share of Edge is 11%. It's the second most used browser behind Chrome. Also I wonder what's the "category" for Teams.
    - ghaff 4y ago
      Ah, the 4.5% was from a different article and I linked to this one. Teams is video conferencing software. It competes with Zoom, which is the category leader, Google Meet, Bluejeans, Webex, etc.

pjmlp 4y ago

Regarding Android, there is hardly any Linux on it besides the Linux kernel, which isn't exposed as stable API to Android's userspace.

NotYourLawyer 4y ago
Linux is the kernel.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  Which is something that those that equate Android with GNU/Linux keep forgetting.
dredmorbius 4y ago
Whilst I agree strongly with your general point: Android is not GNU Linux (that is, the Linux kernel plus a userland largely based on and around the GNU's Not Unix toolchain), there is Termux, an Android app which provides a Linux-like userland, including X11 applications for what it's worth. You'll need to install it through a third-party app store or source, such as F-Droid. Software is packaged under APT, and whilst the package selection is markedly less than, say, Debian (roughly 70k distinct packages last I checked), there are now several thousand available packages, plus more available through Python, Ruby, Perl, and Node.js package managers (and probably others). You're still subject to Android limitation: - No general filesystem access outside Termux's and specifically-shared areas. - Very limited file permissions options unless rooted. - No privilege escalation unless you've rooted your device. - Android's mysterious and quite frequently annoying app process management killing off sessions with no discernible rhyme or reason, let alone owner-based control. But you'll get all the standard base shell utilities, scripting and programming environments, a selection of networking tools (which function again depends in part on whether your device is or isn't rooted), editors, and even a number of servers, though typically running on high-numbered (unprivileged) ports. There's also a slew of tools for interacting with Android itself, including clipboard, screen brightness, wifi, flashlight (if available), "toasts" (alerts/messages), and more. Termux has long been the one Android app Which Does Not Precisely and Exactly Suck. It was the first app I found which made the OS vaguely useful to me rather than a captured walled-garden toy.