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The fact that people cite "desktop market share" as a measure of "commercial success" is even more surprising. The world is all phones and data centers now, an

by ajross 2y ago

The fact that people cite "desktop market share" as a measure of "commercial success" is even more surprising. The world is all phones and data centers now, and Linux dominates both. "Desktops" are a weird thing corporate types have to use to get paid, when they aren't glued to TikTok or Insta or whatever on their phones.

fsflover 2y ago
> The world is all phones For some strange reason, when people speak about Linux adoption, they mean GNU/Linux but never say it. Then comments like yours appear. Android has almost nothing to do with actual Linux. You can't run Linux-specific software or drivers. Case in point: Librem 5 runs GNU/Linux, and it's not very popular.
- vkazanov 2y ago
  The proper name would be then Android/Linux, I.e. Linux kernel with a non-gnu userspace. Either way, Linux the kernel has won everywhere but the desktop: server space, handheld, embedded, etc. In my house there is not a single device without a Linux kernel. This includes my NAS, the fridge, both washing machines, all routers, our tv, a gaming console, all mobile devices, my kids PC, my wife's laptop, and mine as well. It wasn't even a religious choice or something. Out of 20+ devices only 5 required some kind of choice: buying 2 Samsung phones instead of whatever apple sells, 2 dell laptops with Linux preinstalled and a steam deck. Linux success is so massive, I couldn't even imagine it 25 years ago.
- ajross 2y ago
  > You can't run Linux-specific software Except the whole driver, storage, security and network stack, which people spend whole careers working on. Look if the kernel doesn't interest you, that's fine. But it's (by far) the biggest component of the system and to some of us it's kinda notable that it's taken over the world. You can semantically define us out of existence but it doesn't make the software go away. You're just not paying attention to it.
  - fsflover 2y ago
    We are speaking of users here, not developers.
    - ajross 2y ago
      You are. Look, I'll just repeat. I think it's notable and important the extent to which the Linux has come to dominate computing at virtually every scale. Pretty much every application that is not user-facing code running on a Windows or Apple device is Linux. Period. And that's the majority of all software running anywhere! Now, sure, you can define that as unimportant. But you can't define it as unsuccessful, which was the criterion I responded to upthread.

by ajross 2y ago

fsflover 2y ago

> The world is all phones For some strange reason, when people speak about Linux adoption, they mean GNU/Linux but never say it. Then comments like yours appear. Android has almost nothing to do with actual Linux. You can't run Linux-specific software or drivers. Case in point: Librem 5 runs GNU/Linux, and it's not very popular.

vkazanov 2y ago
The proper name would be then Android/Linux, I.e. Linux kernel with a non-gnu userspace. Either way, Linux the kernel has won everywhere but the desktop: server space, handheld, embedded, etc. In my house there is not a single device without a Linux kernel. This includes my NAS, the fridge, both washing machines, all routers, our tv, a gaming console, all mobile devices, my kids PC, my wife's laptop, and mine as well. It wasn't even a religious choice or something. Out of 20+ devices only 5 required some kind of choice: buying 2 Samsung phones instead of whatever apple sells, 2 dell laptops with Linux preinstalled and a steam deck. Linux success is so massive, I couldn't even imagine it 25 years ago.
ajross 2y ago
> You can't run Linux-specific software Except the whole driver, storage, security and network stack, which people spend whole careers working on. Look if the kernel doesn't interest you, that's fine. But it's (by far) the biggest component of the system and to some of us it's kinda notable that it's taken over the world. You can semantically define us out of existence but it doesn't make the software go away. You're just not paying attention to it.
- fsflover 2y ago
  We are speaking of users here, not developers.
  - ajross 2y ago
    You are. Look, I'll just repeat. I think it's notable and important the extent to which the Linux has come to dominate computing at virtually every scale. Pretty much every application that is not user-facing code running on a Windows or Apple device is Linux. Period. And that's the majority of all software running anywhere! Now, sure, you can define that as unimportant. But you can't define it as unsuccessful, which was the criterion I responded to upthread.