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All the technical arguments are entirely valid. But they are irrelevant to the end user, who has been using this so-called "bad software" perfectly fine for the

by veeti 3y ago

All the technical arguments are entirely valid. But they are irrelevant to the end user, who has been using this so-called "bad software" perfectly fine for the past 40 years. What sort of reaction do you expect when you come in and break their workflow and then belittle users by pretty much saying "you're holding it wrong"? It happens most people are more concerned with getting their personal computing done than the ideological purity, technical merits or 80s baggage of their display server. The most popular desktop operating system, Microsoft Windows, takes an entirely different approach to backwards compatibility. Do I have to ask why it has the market share and not Linux?

zepolen 3y ago
To take your example and flip it on its head: Apple takes a support nothing old approach, rewrite all the things, including the cpu. Windows desktop market share vs Apple has been dropping, and Linux is slowly creeping up as well.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
  > Windows desktop market share vs Apple has been dropping, ...to a mere 73%? That's not the most compelling argument. https://www.statista.com/statistics/218089/global-market-share-of-windows-7/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/218089/global-market-sha...
  - zepolen 3y ago
    That link doesn't work for me, asks for a subscription. Besides, the trend is what matters.
    - pjmlp 3y ago
      Tread is meaningless when it spawns multiple generations, and there are markets where it is irrelevant. Below a certain threshold no one is buying Apple, as they can't afford to, and after 20 years GNU/Linux managed 2%, maybe will reach 5% in the next 20 years at current velocity. Android, ChromeOS and WebOS don't count, as it is irrelevant for users and respective app developers, that they are powered by the Linux kernel.
    - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
      Okay, the trend is that it's taken ~30 years for MS to not be >>90% of the market. A person could even argue that them finally losing ground correlates with them not taking stability and continuity as seriously.
bee_rider 3y ago
X has been and still is available in Linux so I think losing backwards compatibility is not the reason for the lack of popularity (compared to Windows). Linux is a community project, not a product, so market share is not important. There’s no reason to chase after users unless they are likely to convert to developers. The graphics stack developers appear to like Wayland better for some reason. I’m sure some day it will be better than X. Some day…
hollerith 3y ago
>The most popular desktop operating system, Microsoft Windows, takes an entirely different approach to backwards compatibility. Do I have to ask why it has the market share and not Linux? Apple regularly makes sweeping changes to MacOS and expects apps to adapt, and MacOS is pretty popular.

by veeti 3y ago

zepolen 3y ago

To take your example and flip it on its head: Apple takes a support nothing old approach, rewrite all the things, including the cpu. Windows desktop market share vs Apple has been dropping, and Linux is slowly creeping up as well.

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
> Windows desktop market share vs Apple has been dropping, ...to a mere 73%? That's not the most compelling argument. https://www.statista.com/statistics/218089/global-market-share-of-windows-7/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/218089/global-market-sha...
- zepolen 3y ago
  That link doesn't work for me, asks for a subscription. Besides, the trend is what matters.
  - pjmlp 3y ago
    Tread is meaningless when it spawns multiple generations, and there are markets where it is irrelevant. Below a certain threshold no one is buying Apple, as they can't afford to, and after 20 years GNU/Linux managed 2%, maybe will reach 5% in the next 20 years at current velocity. Android, ChromeOS and WebOS don't count, as it is irrelevant for users and respective app developers, that they are powered by the Linux kernel.
  - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
    Okay, the trend is that it's taken ~30 years for MS to not be >>90% of the market. A person could even argue that them finally losing ground correlates with them not taking stability and continuity as seriously.

bee_rider 3y ago

X has been and still is available in Linux so I think losing backwards compatibility is not the reason for the lack of popularity (compared to Windows). Linux is a community project, not a product, so market share is not important. There’s no reason to chase after users unless they are likely to convert to developers. The graphics stack developers appear to like Wayland better for some reason. I’m sure some day it will be better than X. Some day…

hollerith 3y ago

>The most popular desktop operating system, Microsoft Windows, takes an entirely different approach to backwards compatibility. Do I have to ask why it has the market share and not Linux? Apple regularly makes sweeping changes to MacOS and expects apps to adapt, and MacOS is pretty popular.