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> Surely, 2025 will be the year of the Linux desktop! I don't know if that joke was more funny in the late nineties when Linux was basically nowhere (I was alr

> Surely, 2025 will be the year of the Linux desktop! I don't know if that joke was more funny in the late nineties when Linux was basically nowhere (I was already using Desktop Linux back then though) or if it's more funny today, when Linux powers the entire real world. I mean: Linux powers 500 of the Top 500 supercomputers, billions (if not tens of billions) of devices, rockets (SpaceX uses Linux extensively), servers all around the world, routers in every single household or near that etc. Basically: Linux powers everything besides the desktop. Somehow I think there's some irony in thinking that joke is still funny in the same way it was funny in 1998 or so.

Fnoord 2y ago
It is a reoccurring joke, aka a meme (before internet memes were internet memes). If you liked it, it builds on repetition and nostalgia. If you disliked it, you won't like when repeated. On top of that, whether you liked it or not it may get boring. Nowadays, it is out of date. Reality surpassed it: 99,9%+ of all smartphones is powered by either Linux or Unix (macOS). Are these desktops, with a pointer device? No. But they are GUI clients with touch UI. The Windows version? Too little, too late. Same counts for Linux desktop: too little, too late. If it ever wants to overtake Windows or macOS it has to be substantially better. This is why some FOSS people dislike efforts like Cygwin, SFU, and successors (such as WSL). It allows Windows to use unique utilities which were tailored for FOSS OSes.
ThrowawayB7 2y ago
It's the "...on the desktop", i.e. that the general public would have a stated preference for Linux because it served them better than proprietary OSes, putting their makers out of business, that makes it funny. Linus even said "Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect." in a NYT interview back in '03. Much like "640k ought to be enough for anyone." and "There will be a market for only 5 computers in the world." (only in this case Linus is actually on record saying it), it's a testament to the overweening hubris of the early FOSS movement. The things that you list matter only to a small number of nerds and the general public wouldn't care a bit if they were all replaced by FreeBSD, Fuchsia, or TempleOS tomorrow. Even for the consumer applications, Linux is being primarily chosen just because the hardware manufacturer didn't want to pay money to license another OS to benefit their profit margins as much as anything else. So, yeah, the joke is still funny and it looks like it will be funny for the next few decades too.

Fnoord 2y ago

It is a reoccurring joke, aka a meme (before internet memes were internet memes). If you liked it, it builds on repetition and nostalgia. If you disliked it, you won't like when repeated. On top of that, whether you liked it or not it may get boring. Nowadays, it is out of date. Reality surpassed it: 99,9%+ of all smartphones is powered by either Linux or Unix (macOS). Are these desktops, with a pointer device? No. But they are GUI clients with touch UI. The Windows version? Too little, too late. Same counts for Linux desktop: too little, too late. If it ever wants to overtake Windows or macOS it has to be substantially better. This is why some FOSS people dislike efforts like Cygwin, SFU, and successors (such as WSL). It allows Windows to use unique utilities which were tailored for FOSS OSes.

ThrowawayB7 2y ago

It's the "...on the desktop", i.e. that the general public would have a stated preference for Linux because it served them better than proprietary OSes, putting their makers out of business, that makes it funny. Linus even said "Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect." in a NYT interview back in '03. Much like "640k ought to be enough for anyone." and "There will be a market for only 5 computers in the world." (only in this case Linus is actually on record saying it), it's a testament to the overweening hubris of the early FOSS movement. The things that you list matter only to a small number of nerds and the general public wouldn't care a bit if they were all replaced by FreeBSD, Fuchsia, or TempleOS tomorrow. Even for the consumer applications, Linux is being primarily chosen just because the hardware manufacturer didn't want to pay money to license another OS to benefit their profit margins as much as anything else. So, yeah, the joke is still funny and it looks like it will be funny for the next few decades too.