4 ms·

The year of Linux on the desktop already happened. It was March 2020 to sometime in 2022 when millions of people were given a Chromebook and told to work from

by mattl 3y ago

The year of Linux on the desktop already happened. It was March 2020 to sometime in 2022 when millions of people were given a Chromebook and told to work from home.

LorenDB 3y ago
The problem is that ChromeOS is not the Linux that should succeed. I sincerely don't want to live in a world where Google not only controls most of search and over half of mobile but also ends up with majority desktop share. It would be a genuine privacy nightmare. ChromeOS may be Linux at the core, but it lacks the privacy that has driven so many to Linux already.
- mattl 3y ago
  Yeah, I don't think it should be the one that succeeded, but it was and I think that opportunity is over now, sadly. Chromebooks don't seem to last very long. There are ways to make a Chromebook run Linux -- https://vkc.sh/linux-on-a-chromebook-but-interesting-er/ https://vkc.sh/linux-on-a-chromebook-but-interesting-er/ -- but I doubt a lot of this was of interest to the vast majority of people using a Chromebook. Windows is for gamers. macOS is for creatives. Both appeal to developers in different ways. Linux doesn't really have a compelling user story. If you care about software freedom, maybe you use Linux, but there are so many different distros out there that it's hard to know what most people would even use Linux for at all. I finally stopped trying to use it as a desktop in 2021 and haven't looked back.
  - logtempo 3y ago
    Have been using linux since 6-8 years now. It's not perfect but it's really friendly for the major distributions (ubuntu,mint, mainly), more than when I started. Today most of the people do two things: browser and mails/chat. People who want more will chose the OS depending of the software they want to use. Or the one they're used to.
    - mattl 3y ago
      If that’s all people are doing why use Linux or even Windows? Seems like ChromeOS is a perfect device for that. I think people do a lot more that just that.

by mattl 3y ago

The year of Linux on the desktop already happened. It was March 2020 to sometime in 2022 when millions of people were given a Chromebook and told to work from home.

LorenDB 3y ago

The problem is that ChromeOS is not the Linux that should succeed. I sincerely don't want to live in a world where Google not only controls most of search and over half of mobile but also ends up with majority desktop share. It would be a genuine privacy nightmare. ChromeOS may be Linux at the core, but it lacks the privacy that has driven so many to Linux already.

mattl 3y ago
Yeah, I don't think it should be the one that succeeded, but it was and I think that opportunity is over now, sadly. Chromebooks don't seem to last very long. There are ways to make a Chromebook run Linux -- https://vkc.sh/linux-on-a-chromebook-but-interesting-er/ https://vkc.sh/linux-on-a-chromebook-but-interesting-er/ -- but I doubt a lot of this was of interest to the vast majority of people using a Chromebook. Windows is for gamers. macOS is for creatives. Both appeal to developers in different ways. Linux doesn't really have a compelling user story. If you care about software freedom, maybe you use Linux, but there are so many different distros out there that it's hard to know what most people would even use Linux for at all. I finally stopped trying to use it as a desktop in 2021 and haven't looked back.
- logtempo 3y ago
  Have been using linux since 6-8 years now. It's not perfect but it's really friendly for the major distributions (ubuntu,mint, mainly), more than when I started. Today most of the people do two things: browser and mails/chat. People who want more will chose the OS depending of the software they want to use. Or the one they're used to.
  - mattl 3y ago
    If that’s all people are doing why use Linux or even Windows? Seems like ChromeOS is a perfect device for that. I think people do a lot more that just that.