12 ms·

2026 will be my year of the Linux desktop

• dmix 10mo ago
  If I didnt have a macbook from work I'd use Linux, but I got a macbook
• djaouen 10mo ago
  See, now this is how a website *should* look: mainly text, with non-obtrusive ads at the bottom. It's really not that hard!
  • 8n4vidtmkvmk 10mo ago
    There's a stickied ad at the bottom that says > The AI Agent that gets your codebase Copilot & Cursor letting you down? Try Augment. Install Now
    • djaouen 10mo ago
      Hey, gotta pay the bills, somehow! *shrug*
    • dspillett 10mo ago
      Very observant of you. The comment you replied to mentioned “non-obtrusive ads at the bottom” so they noticed that too. IMO “non-obtrusive” is a fair description, given that it doesn't seem to be doing excessive tracking (I didn't spot any extra cookies or other storage, so it is presumably logging little, if any, more than web server logs did in the 90s/00s, which is better than the stalking done by most adtech these days).
• ktpsns 10mo ago
  Best luck! My year of the Linux desktop has been 2006, so it's now 20 years (with a short 5yrs relapse around 2012). I never look back. (Similarities to smoking cessation are neither coincidental nor intentional, but unavoidable.)
  • gerdesj 10mo ago
    Mine was a few years earlier (YoLotD). Sadly, I kept up with the fags until 2018 ...
    • chrisweekly 10mo ago
      FTR to other readers, "fags" in this context refers to cigarettes (per the GP's parenthetical remark about smoking).
      • gerdesj 10mo ago
        Very kind of you to note a potential en_GB => en_US buggeration.
• roxolotl 10mo ago
  “start menus made with React Native, control-alt-delete menus that are actually just webviews” Haven’t used windows in five years or so but I’ve kept hearing bad things. This really is the icing on the cake though. Yea the AI stuff is dumb but if a OS manufacturer can’t be bothered to interact with their own UI libraries to build native UIs something has gone horribly wrong.
  • cogman10 10mo ago
    The windows problem is every other OS release has included new UI libraries. Over the last 10 years they've made something like 5 different new ways to make native windows UIs. And, of course, they support all of them. You can use the classic Win32 API or you can use the newest WinUI 3
  • memoriuaysj 10mo ago
    what has gone horribly wrong is the native UIs. they are completely worthless, across all OSes - difficult to use, limited, and in general suck compared to HTML/CSS. I've worked with all major GUI frameworks, from MFC to Qt, they all suck compared with React/Vue
    • cogman10 10mo ago
      I generally agree with you, but it does entirely depend on the type of application you want to make. If you need a lot of graphical elements and customization to get a look and feel that matches what you want, then yeah, nothing really beats html/css/js for both it's flexibility and available ecosystem. But if what you need is an application with a button that does magic things when you push it, or a text box or table that allows for customization of the text color, then all the other types of UX frameworks work just fine. You just can't expect to do something like make a pretty chart.
    • Barrin92 10mo ago
      and yet the Telegram Desktop App, written in Qt/C++ is the only goddamn desktop messenger app that actually feels smooth and feature rich rather than the webclient wrapper abominations of everyone else that eat half a gig of ram on startup and randomly hang on searches
• xattt 10mo ago
  I’d love to be a fly on the wall at Microsoft right now, to see if they are in red alert to get users back, planning subterfuge by breaking APIs used by Wine or what have you, or if they are taking it as a loss. I recently jumped to Debian/KDE as a daily driver, and it feels great. I am coming after many years of running Linux via cli on my home server. I am also unironically enjoying wobbly windows.
  • flanked-evergl 10mo ago
    I think they have moved on to other sources of revenue, so I don't think they care that much anymore.
    • tormeh 10mo ago
      Very much this. I bet the Xbox/games division would be up in arms about it, but they got told to spend less money and also not to bother the important people. The Windows people might care, but with how bad they've been shepherding the OS I'm not so sure. Nadella is focused on AI and Azure. Bet he could hardly care less.
      • cogman10 10mo ago
        Yeah, it's all AI, Azure, and Office 365. Everything else is basically a forgotten product by microsoft. Even xbox is basically dead at this point.
        • dspillett 10mo ago
          VS (and vscode) also get some love, though mainly as drivers towards getting things published using Azure infrastructure, SQL Server too.
        • tormeh 10mo ago
          Honestly I get the Xbox apathy. There's not that much profit in being what, third or fourth place? After Steam, Playstation and Nintendo? Depends how you define it, I guess, but to me they're in fourth place. Microsoft needs to either cut their losses or invest a ton of money. It looks like they will pick some weird thing in the middle, keeping Xbox on life support. Probably some unhappy compromise internally.
• 7e 10mo ago
  They're going from Microsoft to... Linux. From bad to worse. Just use macOS and get on with your life.
  • JCattheATM 10mo ago
    macOS is particularly annoying and gets in the way more than an OS should. Windows can be tamed and the Linux experience can be perfectly smooth depending on distro and hardware. I assume macOS can be tamed as well, but it seems like much more of an uphill battle.
    • ruszki 10mo ago
      If you just install MacOS, Windows, or any major Linux distros, all work okay with default settings and drivers, almost all the time. Problems start when you want something else or more. It’s like when you want Docker on MacOS. Helpful people will say that you should just use colima. Yeah it works perfectly well… until you want to open udp ports (this was the case half a year ago). All 3 OSes are like that, just the flavor is different. If you know how to find “reject all” on all cookie banners, Windows will be easier for you. If you know networking and pf, then MacOS will be easier for you. If you know how to debug driver bugs, Linux will be easier for you (and fun as hell imho) Anyway, if you don’t want to do much more than internet browsing/video playing/basic gaming/basic coding, it simply doesn’t matter. // I would still say that the default network/firewall settings for MacOS is sketchy as hell however
      • DustinEchoes 10mo ago
        What’s sketchy about it?
        • ruszki 10mo ago
          A ton of open ports, some of them completely undocumented, and many Macs are shipped with all firewalls turned off by default. Also, I was quite surprised how easy to turn on an unencrypted VNC server without a single warning.
• orochimaaru 10mo ago
  I've been using a system 76 laptop for the past 3 years. Runs perfectly, no surprises. Unfortunately, I need a mac for work because the laptop service folks do not know what to do with linux and do not have a relationship with a vendor like system76. Pros: The best development experience you can have. Everything is native linux. There is no beating that. This of course will be a problem if hobbies/work use windows. I've never been a windows person. So I've never missed it. Power and peripherals work on the system76 seamlessly. Cons: Battery life. Runs out in about 2.5 hrs but its an AMD not an ARM. I did run linux on a tower exclusively while I did my PhD. Did everything on it - code, writing my thesis in LaTeX, store data, connect to dropbox for backup, watch netflix, etc. You're not missing much by dumping windows.
  • xmcp123 10mo ago
    Really only Photoshop is the big gaping hole I feel as a linux user. Gimp is just atrocious. There is a desktop webview of PhotoPea, but it's not the same.
    • grugagag 10mo ago
      2.5 hours of battery is a serious gaping hole imo.
      • newsoftheday 10mo ago
        I removed the batteries in our laptops because we use them like desktops all the time and it's one less fire hazard to worry about.
        • grugagag 10mo ago
          I guess it works out for you but I’d be inconvenienced for not being able to move around and paranoid that I may jerk the wire powering the machine. Still glad you were able to find a solution for your setup though.
        • bluecalm 10mo ago
• markus_zhang 10mo ago
  “They've managed to take some of their most revolutionary technological innovations (the NT kernel's hybrid design allowing it to restart drivers, NTFS, ReFS, WSL, Hyper-V, etc.) then just shat all over them”. Well said. I wonder what the kernel team thinks about it.
  • gerdesj 10mo ago
    ReFS riffs on reflinks - take a gander at XFS.
• sylens 10mo ago
  If this wasn’t HN, I would swear that my personal recommendation algorithm has gotten Linux desktop-pilled and that’s why I’m seeing so many posts like these every day. But in reality I think there is a groundswell of momentum happening here, and with component prices rising, I only see this continuing as more people look to breathe new life into older hardware.
  • pshc 10mo ago
    Yeah, myself and several friends of mine with EOL Windows 10 PCs are looking to jump ship.
  • cogman10 10mo ago
    I've been seeing it a lot on reddit as well, with a lot of non-technical users asking "how do I get started with linux?" I think this is a real thing and I think a combination of MS demanding everyone get new hardware and Valve really polishing a lot of linux has gone a long way to get non-technical users to start seriously considering linux. It's a huge added bonus that old hardware simply flies with linux. I have a 5 year old laptop that feels about 10x more responsive since I killed the windows install and put linux on it. And I know that laptop will continue to fly because, unlike windows, it's never going to get any sort of serious bloatware added on as I update it.
    • monero-xmr 10mo ago
      Anecdotally I’ve seen among my non-tech friends more questions about VPNs. Several of my friends own Steam Decks which is pretty wild to me given they are just normie gamers. It’s literally the ads and bloatware. Windows is horrible unless you are technical enough to strategically disable the bloatware, and keep on disabling it as the updates continually reenable it. And if you are technical enough to disable it then Linux isn’t a problem. Microsoft really is enterprise, cloud, and GitHub / AI tools. Windows for personal users is harvesting as much cash as possible from boomers and gamers, but the gamers are leaving en masse now. Software professionals only use macOS or Linux unless they are a MS shop that has to use Windows stack. It is an incredible shift for those of us who have been around forever. But it’s a true look at how impossible things shift, bit by bit, until all of a sudden it all washes away. Never believe the tech cos on top today can’t be beat. It can and will happen someday
• ideasphere 10mo ago
  2026 will certainly be the year of the 'I'm switching to Linux' thinkpieces
• dbcooper 10mo ago
  https://x.com/EnterpriseCPU/status/1972103355012124891?s=20 https://x.com/EnterpriseCPU/status/1972103355012124891?s=20
  • cheema33 10mo ago
    I am not sure why people do this. Why post a link without providing any explanation of what the link is. It is quite annoying. No, I am not going to click the link to find out.
• TACIXAT 10mo ago
  I strongly agree on this. I mained Windows for the last few years and got to the point where I was comfortable doing development similarly to how I would on Linux (text editor and command line build tools, cl, ml64, batch, etc.). I did that mostly so I could game and develop on the same machine. I learned a ton doing it but it has just gotten too awful to carry on. It was faster to rg to search files, drop into WSL and run find for file name searches. The start menu was laggy, explorer was laggy (open up a folder with a couple dozen OGG files and it won't render for a solid minute). Mystery memory usage from privileged processes I had little control over. Once I realized that the one game I play (Overwatch) ran on Linux I decided to swap back. I installed Linux Mint earlier this year and I've been extremely happy. The memory consumption is stable and low, and if something is broken I have the control to fix it. It just feels so much less hostile. This is largely possible thanks to the work Steam has done with Proton. The last real barrier is kernel level anti-cheat which prevented me from trying out this years Call of Duty. Oh well!
  • seemaze 10mo ago
    >It was faster to rg to search files This continuously drives me crazy on Windows and macOS. I am befuddled at the number of times where I'm searching for a top level subdirectory that starts with 'foo' but the search bar spins and spins.. Eventually I get fed up and just sort by name and perform an alphabetical visual search in meat-space.
    • layer8 10mo ago
      On Windows, just use Everything: https://www.voidtools.com/ https://www.voidtools.com/
      • roryrjb 10mo ago
        I see this contradiction all the time. Windows is a mess but there are lots of examples of rock solid, performant applications that have been developed and maintained over decades. Everything is one, also one that springs to mind which is much more performant compared to Linux alternatives is WinMerge.
• cjk 10mo ago
  Yeah. I feel the same way. If not for the fact that my gaming PC pulls double duty as a work PC, I'd seriously consider ditching Windows 11 for Bazzite. I worry that we are edging closer and closer to a similar phenomenon with macOS as well. Apple seems intent on squandering every bit of stability and sanity that macOS used to represent. Maybe now that Alan Dye is gone, we will at least see the abomination that is Liquid Glass fixed…somehow.
  • newsoftheday 10mo ago
    I game on standard Kubuntu, not a custom distro but to each their own.
  • bradley13 10mo ago
    All of my Steam games work under Linux. For one or two, I gave to select a specific Proton version, but that's the only issue. Try dual-booting, and see if your games work...
    • cjk 10mo ago
      It's mostly Mass Effect that's trouble under Proton. It requires the stupid EA launcher, which is trash. I have a Lenovo Legion Go S and getting it to work reliably is an absolute nightmare. Most other games I play are fine.
      • theandrewbailey 10mo ago
        I just finished playing through Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Linux with Lutris. The EA Launcher gave me a few issues (like not launching sometimes), but it eventually worked. I did not have the game through Steam. https://theandrewbailey.com/article/290/Mass-Effect-Legendary-Edition.html https://theandrewbailey.com/article/290/Mass-Effect-Legendar...
    • jama211 10mo ago
      Depends on your hardware. I have a pascal era nvidia card, and everything _supposedly_ works, but games have issues for me still that aren’t concrete, e.g. cyberpunk crashes in specific and repeatable locations for seemingly no reason and it never happens to me on windows. New amd cards are probably much more reliable. It’s no one’s fault but nvidias really that my card is unreliable in Linux, but as an end user I’ve been told many times Linux “just works” now and I’m upset that that hasn’t been my experience.
• amelius 10mo ago
  My main problem with Linux is that I have to trust all the applications that I install (unless I am willing to do an extreme amount of sysadmin which I am not). On a smartphone at least I can easily assign permissions to each app.
  • evilduck 10mo ago
    Flatpak gives you a lot of permission controls for GUI apps and you can similarly sandbox a lot of CLI tools with toolbx or distrobox.
  • Alupis 10mo ago
    GUI apps often come in Flatpak[1] these days - which are sandboxed[2] like you are expecting. Flathub[3] is the primary place to get GUI apps, but many distros also have their own app store too. Flatseal[4] is a GUI that allows you to mange the sandboxes/permissions. You can also manage them via cli if you prefer. For CLI apps, you can use distrobox[5] or toolbx[6]. [1] https://flatpak.org/ https://flatpak.org/ [2] https://docs.flatpak.org/en/latest/basic-concepts.html#sandboxes https://docs.flatpak.org/en/latest/basic-concepts.html#sandb... [3] https://flathub.org/en https://flathub.org/en [4] https://flathub.org/en/apps/com.github.tchx84.Flatseal https://flathub.org/en/apps/com.github.tchx84.Flatseal [5] https://distrobox.it/ https://distrobox.it/ [6] https://containertoolbx.org/ https://containertoolbx.org/
    • Conan_Kudo 10mo ago
      If you use KDE Plasma (like with Fedora KDE or Kinoite), you do not need Flatseal, as the functionality is integrated into System Settings.
      • Alupis 10mo ago
        Great tip - I do use KDE but didn't know this. Always just reached for Flatseal - but the functionality being integrated is even better. Very cool.
    • deleted 10mo ago
      [deleted]
• Alupis 10mo ago
  I've used Fedora on my laptop for over a decade. I switched my main home workstation to Fedora in 2023, and haven't looked back since. My workstation runs Kinoite[1], an immutable/atomic version of Fedora. I started with Fedora 38, and now am running 43. Flawless major-release upgrades. I develop using distrobox[2] (pet containers) on podman. It "Just Works". Nearly 99% of my Steam library is playable on Fedora too. Many games even have native Linux support these days - the rest run under Proton. The only games that won't play have windows-only kernel-level anti-cheat. For some of those games, it's a developer choice (there's apparently a checkbox to enable Linux support on EasyAntiCheat - and some don't "check" it). I use Flatpaks to install many GUI apps, such as FreeCAD, KiCad, Darktable, Steam, Reaper, and a lot more. It's a great, extremely stable system. [1] https://fedoraproject.org/atomic-desktops/kinoite/ https://fedoraproject.org/atomic-desktops/kinoite/ [2] https://distrobox.it/ https://distrobox.it/
  • ThatPlayer 10mo ago
    > there's apparently a checkbox to enable Linux support on EasyAntiCheat - and some don't "check" it Because support doesn't mean full features. It's like saying iPad supports Microsoft Excel. At some point it's the same name for different software. I think especially because it's under Proton, that means it's the Windows version of the game you're weakening to anti-cheat too. Even Valve's own VAC has issues running under Proton.
    • hohithere 10mo ago
      Reading comments like that really don't motive me to switch to Linux for gaming on my +2000 gaming library.
  • Blackthorn 10mo ago
    > FreeCAD Here's the one that kills me. Not FreeCAD, but rather Zw3d. It has a fully complete, native Linux version. But it's Chinese language only! Even though the Windows version is fully international! Come on, wtf!
• josefritzishere 10mo ago
  I am one full page ad away from deleting Windows 11 forever. I will struggle through infinite driver compatibility issues before I sit through a single ad while trying to work. That is my redline.
  • bbkane 10mo ago
    For me it was the OneDrive ads on the lock screen. And, when I accidentally clicked "enable OneDrive" (a few years ago, this might have changed), IT TOOK OVER MY DOCUMENTS FOLDER AND TOLD ME THERE WAS NO WAY TO REVERT IT!
    • pynappo 10mo ago
      Yeah onedrive is seriously annoying. It's nice when the free 15GB backup/sync for the desktop, pictures, and documents folder works (for people who put things there) but the way other MS products work with it seems user-hostile to me. e.g. it took until 2025 for this RFC to be opened on moving PowerShell profiles and modules out of Onedrive: https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell-RFC/pull/388 https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell-RFC/pull/388. It should not be taking seconds for my powershell profile to load just because i have onedrive enabled by default. I also had a non-technical friend recently get burned by a default MS Office setting where edited documents located in the OneDrive folder save directly to onedrive, and it only gets saved on disk when onedrive gets the new copy and uploads it back it to the user's disk. So if the MS office to onedrive integration fails your changes won't save. Apparently users have to enable a setting to first save to a folder on disk? That folder can even be the onedrive folder so onedrive will eventually sync it back up.
  • ab71e5 10mo ago
    What devices are you expecting driver issues with? Even NVidia is not much of a problem these days
• nialv7 10mo ago
  Actually surprised that Xe wasn't already a Linux user.
  • xena 10mo ago
    Have been for a while, had Windows for games, but now Fedora runs them well enough I don't have to care.
    • rasmus-kirk 10mo ago
      I thought you used NixOS? Is it just your gaming system that's Fedora? Do you still use Nix?
  • deleted 10mo ago
    [deleted]
• bilsbie 10mo ago
  I wish iPhone users had a new os option. iOS is getting so unbearable with each update.
  • readdit 10mo ago
    Why not just use an Android phone?
    • layer8 10mo ago
      Google.
      • akimbostrawman 10mo ago
        https://grapheneos.org https://grapheneos.org
  • debo_ 10mo ago
    This is the perfect iPhone user meme.
  • gorfian_robot 10mo ago
    yeah ios26 is objectively a piece of shit
• RachelF 10mo ago
  Windows has been my main operating system for the last 35 years (from version 2). I've used Linux and to a lessor extent BSD and Mac as well, but my main desktop has always been Windows, as it ran most of the apps that I needed. Windows 11 UI and spyware are so bad, that Windows 10 is where my 35 years of using Windows as my main OS has ended.
  • jama211 10mo ago
    I dislike windows 11 also and mostly use a mac these days and my gaming pc is dual booted with arch… but windows 10 and windows 11 for me are so very similar that I’m confused about the outrage between them. In both situations I turned off all the crap that was awful like the bloatware and so on, and then it’s kinda the same experience after that.
• whalesalad 10mo ago
  Been following this blog for a while and this is the last person I would have expected to be a Windows user.
  • xena 10mo ago
    About half the reason I used windows so much is for vtubing software. It barely works on windows, getting it working on Linux used to be a process fraught with agony and torment.
• Havoc 10mo ago
  This rings true...outside of users that play competitive FPS...the anticheat continues to be a challenge As a side note - if you're in that venn diagram overlap group of linux and gaming...check out "beyond all reason" RTS if you haven't. High chance it'll tickle you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wxwIxz4PaY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wxwIxz4PaY edit: not affiliate to linked yt - organic enthusiastism
  • zamalek 10mo ago
    BAR is definitely one of the stars of OSS game dev.
  • girvo 10mo ago
    As someone who plays competitive FPS at quite a high level (I compete in the Contenders division in Valorant's Premier tournament system, lots of fun!), honestly even that's not the biggest deal. I'll eventually get to a point where the only reason I have a Windows install at all is for Valorant. Everything else will be Linux.
• rubyn00bie 10mo ago
  I've been using Linux as my desktop since 2020, I switched because I wanted to play games and maintain a development environment I'm familiar with (having run Linux servers for ~15 years at that point) that would be stable. I had long used a Windows machine for gaming and a Mac laptop for development. My Mac was stable enough, but Windows was not-- it wasn't blue screens it was constant unpredictable updates (sometimes erratically running when I didn't want them to). I had an SSD in the machine with Windows, but after installing Pop_OS! (as a happy accident) I never found a compelling reason to use Windows again. Steam has worked perfectly, clicking install and then hitting play, no futzing with drivers or weird updates. The only games I haven't been able to play are League of Legends and some of the new AAA shooters. I'm okay with that because I don't particularly care at this point, and it's not worth maintaining a Windows install to periodically play for an hour or so. Linux has been unbelievably stable. This year, I fully upgraded the system and planned on reinstalling but I didn't even need to. On first boot, my old install was picked up and mostly just worked. On Windows I've tried that before, and it was an unrelenting shit show (that resulted in having to nuke the old windows install). The only hitch I've had was installing conflicting NVidia drivers (open source vs proprietary); which, I was able to fix by booting into the command line then nuking both sets of drivers via apt remove and installing the one I wanted. Took me less than five minutes and my system was working. It also wouldn't have happened if I hadn't tried being too clever (and Pop_OS! having some quirks). I recently setup a MiniPC to use while traveling to game on and this time I tried Arch. To my surprise the install was ridiculously easy. The most recent installer makes it a breeze. My only mistake was not noticing I'd installed a few desktop environments and the default wasn't what I wanted so things seemed broken. After selecting KDE from the login menu et volia! It worked perfectly. I'm considering switching my primary rig to Arch, but I'll give the most recent Pop_OS! release a try to see if the newer LTS version gets me access to some new packages first. Linux is great folks. If you stick with a major distro you're likely going to love it. It's really low maintenance and just works. 11/10 would recommend to anyone.
  • cogman10 10mo ago
    > If you stick with a major distro you're likely going to love it. Even the smaller ones are unironically pretty fun to work with now-a-days. I'm currently rocking Gentoo on my stuff. After the painful setup, it's actually quiet easy to maintain.
• cromka 10mo ago
  Things like this don't help: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46471081 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46471081
• linusr 10mo ago
  “for me” - this should had been in the title but missed out. Linux has got better but not yet there.
  • grugagag 10mo ago
    Linux isn’t perfect but it’s far away from the compromises one needs to make to use Windows. It’s weird frogs are comfortable slowly boiling even when Microsoft turns on the heat to the max.
• temp0826 10mo ago
  Welcome...1998 was my year of the Linux desktop. Valve seems to have been dredging all of the "maybe"s over the last few years on a few different fronts. Big ups to them (not that they don't get enough praise...still!)
• debo_ 10mo ago
  People loudly declaring they are switching to Linux feel to me like people loudly declaring they are leaving Twitter. That's nice? I've had my home machines on Linux since forever and it's fun. I like trying new distros about once a year to see what people are up to. It's been possible to run a basic setup for normies for a solid decade now, it's unfortunate that it took Microsoft waging UX war for some techies to notice.
• MarkSweep 10mo ago
  I made the switch as well. For many years I dual-booted Ubuntu and Windows, hanging on to my familiarity with Windows and love for Visual Studio. Finally October 2025 some update made games laggy on Windows while they still worked fine on Ubuntu. I attempted to fix this by reinstalling Windows 11 and found I could not figure out how to remove advertisements from the start menu. So I finally transferred all my files from ReFS to ZFS and committed to 100% Linux. Something has gone wrong in Microsoft in the product management organization where they are more concerned with chasing advertising dollars and upselling OneDruge than building a good product. It is depressing because all the Microsoft engineers I’ve interacted with in open source work have been excellent.
  • le-mark 10mo ago
    They’ve done the research and they know x% will never change and that’s enough for them to monetize. So that’s what they’re doing.
    • joe_the_user 10mo ago
      Even, I would imagine those who switch are least likely to click on desktop adds anyway.
• tormeh 10mo ago
  I have to use Windows sometimes at work, and of all indignities, this is surely a small one, but it is an indignity. Everyone complains about ads, which is a real issue, but to me the biggest issue is how blatantly suboptimal everything is. Nobody has put any effort into making Windows good for a very very long time. The terminal and/or powershell is incredibly slow - ls should not take perceptible time to execute. The settings menus are made with 3 to 5 different layers of UI frameworks and design guidelines. Forced OneDrive. The pestering about copilot... I even like LLMs, but my user experience is so clearly subordinate to some KPI that it annoys me anyway. I'm sure I could come up with more if I had touched it recently, but I thankfully haven't.
• jama211 10mo ago
  This post does examplefy what we’re seeing, a general indication of some swelling of momentum but I bet it’s still going to be from 2% to maybe 3 or 5% at most until Linux can fix a few things about the community, issues with install difficulty such as dual booting and other issues, and the technical knowledge barrier to entry until more distribution with hardware comes along. Although of course system 76 and steam deck are great moves in this direction they’re still relatively niche for now. There will never be a “year of the Linux desktop” the same way that there has never been a “year of the Mac desktop”, it’s just a slow building of users over time anyway.
  • Macha 10mo ago
    Regarding the Steam Deck, Linux is _already_ 3% of Steam users: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey, while MacOS is under 2%. I think it's also maybe worth pointing out that "non-enthusiast desktop OS user" is a segment that is shrinking. A lot of the people that aren't going to Linux are just going to smartphones only rather than buy a new laptop for Win11.
    • jama211 10mo ago
      Steam users represent well the pc gaming crowd, but they don’t represent well the majority of the mac or Linux user crowd, of course. But you raise a good point that some users will stop using windows without ever picking up another desktop os at all. Not many that don’t already not use desktops, but some for sure.
  • newsoftheday 10mo ago
    Most charts I've seen indicate Linux already passed 5% usage worldwide.
    • layer8 10mo ago
      Not quite: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/#monthly-202411-202512 https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide...
• darubedarob 10mo ago
  Saw a fascinating talk on gui and ui development today, lamenting the stagnation at M$ and apple when it comes to desktop computing (including browsing). " there simply is nothing for open source to copy but ux-decline" and that sentence rings like a bell of all the problems.
  • tuetuopay 10mo ago
    Can you ring the same bell at the GTK and GNOME folks? The GTK4 thing with hamburger menus that replace everything is just a mess. I stumbled on nemo the other day while looking for nautilus. That… was a breath of fresh air: compact UI, menus, features, etc. It’s painful seeing FOSS making some of the same mistakes as corporations
    • zzo38computer 10mo ago
      Yes, I don't like all of that stuff either. Too many FOSS does make those and other same mistakes; there is much more than just that. There are a few people that try to improve some aspects of them, but leave other the same, and sometimes it is not really an improvement (although sometimes it is a matter of opinion). But, I mostly use command-line programs and write my own programs (and sometimes use older DOS programs, even though I have Linux), without emoji and without LLM, and also avoiding Unicode when I can, and without a desktop environment, etc.
  • GeoAtreides 10mo ago
    was it this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fZTOjd_bOQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fZTOjd_bOQ
    • shmeeed 10mo ago
      Whoa. At around 21:30 he mentions Raph Koster. I'm 99.9% sure I read that name for the first time in my life... yesterday over at the Digital Antiquarian's blog in a story of how Ultima Online came to be. Baader-Meinhof phenomenon sure is creepy like that.
  • 10mo ago
• gorfian_robot 10mo ago
  my 2017 mac air is getting real long in the tooth. I'd definitely considering switching to *nix with it but everything I keep reading is that process is not so easy.
  • sgc 10mo ago
    Write a strongly worded letter to the manager (apple). It's easy on other hardware.
  • Normal_gaussian 10mo ago
    I've been on linux since 2014; I'm an ocassional user of windows, booting into it with much regret to deal with client's issues. I generally dislike working with MacOS... but for someone used to macOS I see no meaningful degradation of the kind there is with windows - your time is better spent earning/buying/setting up an m series mac air.
    • gorfian_robot 10mo ago
      I am holding out for an M5 air!
• Havoc 10mo ago
  Among the average hn reader...I think it'll stick. Wider man on street, less sure As for me - having a good time on linux
• prhn 10mo ago
  I only really ever play one game, so that's not a blocker for me. I would have switched by now but film and audio production software, including VSTs, don't seem to be greatly supported on Linux. I'd love to hear from someone if you are successfully doing this.
  • Normal_gaussian 10mo ago
    > I only really ever play one game, so that's not a blocker for me. I play loads of games; its mainly AAA multiplayers that aren't able to run on linux due to kernel anti-cheat - nearly everything else runs well with minimal effort using proton via steam (either installed via steam or imported as a non-steam game).
  • newsoftheday 10mo ago
    I'd say about less than .00000001 percent of the world is in the same use case as you.
  • einr 10mo ago
    Music production is indeed still a blocker. I used to use Windows for that; I am now on macOS for work and music (much better than Windows in every way! I use an old trashcan Mac Pro with Monterey for my studio computer) and Debian for my personal machines.
• tedk-42 10mo ago
  See you in 2027 with the same prediction!
• etempleton 10mo ago
  I do think Linux is accessible to many more people, but I would not say it is ready for the masses. The terminal is going to be a non-starter for your average computer user. But, with that said, I started seriously using Linux for the first time in 2025. I bounce between Debian, Windows 11, and MacOS, and Debian is probably the most refreshing to use. I don’t find Windows 11 as oppressive as other seem to, but I have turned off most of what people cite as the issues. I find MacOSs Liquid Glass redesign to be more aggressively bad.
  • grugagag 10mo ago
    >I don’t find Windows 11 as oppressive as other seem to, but I have turned off most of what people cite as the issues. So you debloated your windows but at any update you have to spin your wheels and try to remove any crap they put back in. At any time there’s the possibility you can no longer remove x or y. The vast majority don’t have the energy to play this game or don’t know how to.
    • etempleton 10mo ago
      I agree, it is bad and I don't like it, but I think it is bad in a way most users won't care about. I have not really considered a version of Windows to be good since...Windows 2000...maybe 3.1.1. They have all had major issues, so I just kind of shrug off the issues when I use Windows. The enshitification of MacOS is relatively new and so still stings a bit. I think where Microsoft is playing with fire is that while most users will not care about some of these changes power users do. And the 5% of power users ultimately make the decisions and provide the recommendations for the other 95%. With so many apps and SAAS services going web or web app only there will be less and less reason to need to stick with Windows and that is where Microsoft will start to lose control.
      • grugagag 10mo ago
        I hope they will get burned this time. MS has been playing with fire, I agree.
    • 10mo ago
• spankibalt 10mo ago
  I'll still be a Windows/Unix dual user. But then again I don't do the Windows "Home version" experience so many here seem eager to humiliate themselves with over and over.
• deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
• ecommerceguy 10mo ago
  I'll toss in my 2 cents: 1. people that have no business whatsoever now know what linux is ie sales dawgs that only touch a computer for the occasional spreadsheet. 2. 70 year old man fed up with windows, moved to linux. it looks great, its fast and responsive let's make this happen.
• cryptica 10mo ago
  I love the fact that there are different Linux distros optimized for every person. I started using Linux almost a decade ago; starting with Ubuntu, then I moved to Kubuntu and now I'm on Omarchy which is even more optimized for developers. I feel very comfortable recommending Linux to people now though I would recommend a different distro depending on who is asking. IMO Ubuntu is the simplest general-purpose one. Kubuntu is the same but more customizable slightly more developer-focused. Omarchy (which is a fork of Arch Linux) is very developer-focused.
  • fantasizr 10mo ago
    I've loaded up omarchy and I'm really digging all the keyboard short cuts and window tiling.
    • cryptica 10mo ago
      My previous setup with Kubuntu was quite developer friendly with workspaces but Omarchy takes it to the next level. I'm very happy with it. I actually like most of the default tools that come with it. For example,.I was using a lot of vim before but actually neovim is a big improvement. It has a lot of nice-to-haves which I wouldn't have bothered setting up individually but having them altogether out of the box does improve the overall developer experience significantly.
  • coffeebeqn 10mo ago
    I would also recommend Mint Cinnamon for anyone. Everything worked out of the box, super fast and simple. Just a breath of fresh air compared to the bloat of the big corporation OSes these days. It’s like being back in simpler times with Windows XP where things are snappy and it doesn’t get in your way
• deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
• newsoftheday 10mo ago
  I run Kubuntu on this gaming machine (AlienWare) and I run it on my 16 year old Dell laptop I used for work back then. Runs great and with RAM prices high and people looking to make their older machines useful instead of trashing them, there's a really good chance they can run Linux.
• nntwozz 10mo ago
  I'm giving Apple the benefit of the doubt until macOS 27 (but I'm still on 15.7.4 hehe). Mac OS X and Aqua wasn't very well received either at launch. A similar thing happened with the flat design of iOS 7. Apple's pattern is initially going overboard with a new design and then scaling it back slowly like a sculptor. I think they're happy with this method, even if things miss at first the big changes usually create a lot of hype and excitement for the masses. The vast majority of users don't care about the finer things, Apple knows that the nerds can sweat it out until they straighten things out at which point everyone is happy in a hero's journey kind of way. I just hope this pattern stays true and that this isn't an inflection point.
  • sails 10mo ago
    Adding from Mac perspective, I am also keeping an eye on Linux. I’ve hit a wall with Mac window management, and find the operating system just gets in the way for professional use across multiple of their digital “desktops”. I have no useful way to isolate work streams, and would gladly move to something better. The blocker for Linux for me as someone who wants some level of reliability has always been fiddling with low level config, but now with Claude Code, low level config appeals!
    • terhechte 10mo ago
      There's a mix of both worlds that I've tried for a while and want to pick up again in 2026: Use macOS so that I can utilize the great hardware and the well integrated drivers (e.g. sleep, performance, silence), but then for each project / work stream just fire up a lightweight linux VM fullscreen and do everything related there. E.g. all browser windows/tabs, apps, file explorer windows, terminal sessions. When I stop working I pause the VM. When I need to continue everything is as I left it. The main reason why I stopped was that the 2d hardware acceleration for Linux didn't work in UTM.app. I think I'll just need switch to Parallels or VMWare
    • rasmus-kirk 10mo ago
      Keep an eye out for PopOS Cosmic. I have daily drived it since alpha with admittedly some issues, but I see the improvement! Unlike a lot of other "Just Works" distros, it actually has proper tiling, and unlike the specialized tiling WM's I don't have to configure a bunch of stuff! I do heavily configure applications, but all of these are terminal based now-a-days.
• pkaodev 10mo ago
  Funnily enough today windows pissed me off with a random breaking bug (no login screen yay) so now only have Ubuntu installed. Only one application I use that's windows only anyways and can use a VM for that, so sayonara...
• gethly 10mo ago
  It will take few more years before people start abandoning W10 due to security concerns(somehow "hackers" always find some insane backdoors and bugs in old windows, it must be a pure coincidence), hardware upgrade or just need to reinstall. But indeed, it looks like Linux is finally taking over. I'd say that beside Microsoft being so bad at their job, it's Valve and gaming on Linux in general. It's actually doable. What a miracle!
• _zagj 10mo ago
  Wait, does Xe not know about this? https://www.thurrott.com/dev/330980/microsoft-to-replace-all-c-c-code-with-rust-by-2030 https://www.thurrott.com/dev/330980/microsoft-to-replace-all... But more seriously, it's pretty ironic to see all of these posts on HN, a supposed "tech" community, about switching to Linux, especially the comments describing how it defied their low expectations (tacitly revealing their own lack of prior first-hand experience). You never would have seen this on Slashdot 20 years ago, where dual booting Linux (or some BSD, despite it dying) was the minimum "geek cred" to not be seen as a poser. And this was at a time when distros were far less user-friendly and had far more hardware compatibility issues and far less support for running Windows software.
• yakattak 10mo ago
  > At the very least, when something goes wrong on Linux you have log messages that can let you know what went wrong so you can search for it. It is hilarious how accurate this is. When something crashes on Windows you better hope it has its own logs you can find because the OS itself will tell you nothing. Event Viewer can't hold a candle to journald!
• SamDc73 10mo ago
  > then just shat all over them with start menus made with React Native, control-alt-delete menus that are actually just webviews, and forcing Copilot down everyone's throats Thank god I've been using Linux long enough to not experience any of that. At my job in a large non-tech company, almost everyone uses Windows (except for the dev team) purely because of Microsoft Office. As long as that thing exists, they can do all the dumb things they want and still dominate.
  • torginus 10mo ago
    Ironically, MS Office is one of the best working Microsoft software on Linux, through Office 365. It works so well, that on my Windows work computer, I worked for months editing Word docs and Excel sheets every now and then, without realizing I didn't have Ms Office installed.
    • kgwxd 10mo ago
      The funny thing is, MS office apps looks less out-of-place on Linux because most apps are already different. On Windows 11, it looks like the forgotten step-child of Windows 8.
• billy99k 10mo ago
  Good luck. I've tried to completely replace Windows with Linux over the last two decades or so, and it's still lacks polish. I really don't enjoy having half-written GUIs for different apps and having to compile my own fixes after searching for 3 hours. I think I finally gave it up in anger, when it was on a laptop I was using for a few important projects and it cost me days of work. I now use Windows+WSL and it has the best of both worlds: A fully functional GUI with everything I would ever need with Linux. MacOS is really the best Nix Desktop OS out there. I would use this instead, but I still require some windows apps.
• kakadu 10mo ago
  I ve been a happy user of debian stable for 15 years now, if I could get a Linux laptop with a comparable battery life to apple's then it's done for me. I think linux people tend to forget how important battery life is on a laptop
  • aprilnya 10mo ago
    Would be great... what I've heard is, Apple's incredible battery life comes from the vertical integration - they make everything, the laptop, the OS... so they are able to optimize it incredibly well. Even running Linux on a Apple Silicon Mac doesn't get you the same kind of battery life because of how much work the OS does putting different components to sleep etc. (though one could argue Apple's arbitrarily making it harder for Linux by making it so much reverse engineering work to get everything to go into sleep mode!)
    • martinald 10mo ago
      I don't think it's that per se, it's just apple has a lot of resources to optimise/test a relatively small amount of configurations. The big "issue" with Linux on non-server workloads imo is a lack of testing like this - which is completely understandable. Afiak Microsoft runs millions of automated tests on various hardware configurations _a day_. Intel does something similar for the Linux kernel, which no doubt explains the relative stability of Linux server vs Desktop (servers are running far less "OS level" software in general in day to day use than the desktop). The desktop experience itself needs more automated testing. There are so many bugs/regressions which I've noticed in eg gnome which should have been caught by e2e testing - I do try to report them when I see them. Doing a bit more digging there seems to be some basic e2e testing for gnome ran nightly but currently most tests are failing https://openqa.gnome.org/tests/12128 https://openqa.gnome.org/tests/12128. This isn't a criticism at all btw, it's quite boring and resource intensive work for a project like gnome to do. I hope soon some large corp decides to go all in on realLinux desktop (not ChromeOS) and can devote resources to this.
      • chuckadams 10mo ago
• aprilnya 10mo ago
  > I haven't booted into Windows in over 3 months on my tower and I'm starting to realize that it's not worth wasting the space for. Kind of glad to read this, I went into it thinking it will be another person saying "I'll use Linux forever!" the day after installing it, similar to everyone who says their new years resolution is to work out more, then proceeds to go to the gym 2 times total :) (oh, and then, I noticed this is Xe!)
  • Root_Denied 10mo ago
    Moved to NobaraOS back in April (gaming focused Fedora based distro) on my desktop tower and haven't used Windows since, nor have I felt the need to. Some minor tinkering with launch options for Steam games aside it's been a smoother experience than Windows was the previous 5 years. The last Windows computer that I have is my work laptop, which is an acceptable compromise as far as I"m concerned.
• colordrops 10mo ago
  Niri + DankMaterialShell is an amazing desktop experience. I've heard great things about the COSMIC DE as well.
• panick21_ 10mo ago
  There are still so many issues around Wayland and fragmentation. Gnome is the most popular and has lots of issues and sometimes is downright user hostile. Luckily some of the distributions try to revert some of the insanity sometimes. But there are still many protocols and portals needed and much more standardization.
  • mixmastamyk 10mo ago
    Just install Mint/Cinnamon and forget about it.
    • panick21_ 10mo ago
      They are moving to Wayland too and will not get around any of these issues. And using those things brings with it a number of other issues.
      • mixmastamyk 10mo ago
        I’m a user and the experience has been great.
        • panick21_ 10mo ago
          Almost as if a single users experience isn't a good way to judge a gigantic ecosystems with millions of users.
          • mixmastamyk 10mo ago
            You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46478677 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46478677 I handed you the fix to nearly every issue you listed, and you won’t take it. That’s a you problem. Another factor is hardware friendly to Linux. We have multiple laptops here with different components, different distros X/W etc, and all working great… at least as well as mac or win ones.
• teleforce 10mo ago
  Every year starting back around the year 2000, every year until now there's always at least an article from Slashdot and then HN on the year of the Linux desktop from believers and non-believers alike [1],[2]. [1] Laugh all you want. There will be a year of the Linux desktop (2023): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33213663 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33213663 [2] Why there should never be a "year of the Linux desktop" (2009): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=821673 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=821673
  • kgwxd 10mo ago
    The phrase itself has been a well established joke since I can remember.
• Forgeties79 10mo ago
  Been bazzite-only since April and I love it
• hifikuno 10mo ago
  Maybe someone here knows a solution. The ONLY thing keeping me on windows is that my employer uses F5/Big IP edge clients. I cannot find a Linux client that can also handle Web SSO. Does anyone have any Linux experience with this?
  • mixmastamyk 10mo ago
    I did fight with that a few years ago. Memory is that you can get through some steps running Windows in a VM to get thru MFA checks, and then close it later.
  • bradley13 10mo ago
    I'm no expert here, but my employer uses no less that three different SSO services (don't ask).., and all of them work under Linux. Web-based really ought to work. Maybe your admins are being weird, and checking the user agent? Try using a plug-in to change your user-agent to Windows
• loumf 10mo ago
  I recently switched to Linux for all development. I still use my Mac for everything else. The main reason was to protect my personal data from possible supply chain issues or LLM agent mishaps. I’m 99% in VSCode, a browser, and a terminal. There’s hardly a difference day-to-day.
  • deleted 10mo ago
    [deleted]
• handbanana_ 10mo ago
  I really don't understand what is different about my installs of Windows 11 compared to what I read in all these types of articles. I have zero issues with the platform day in and day out with heavy workloads like Pro Tools and Unreal Engine devkit. Games run without stutter and issue, all my features are snappy, Explorer loads instantly, etc. Even search is performant and gives decent results. I have tweaked a few settings but nothing you can't find in settings menus. I'm not sure a lot of people having issues with pretty damn stable platform are going to have a better experience in something they have zero familiarity with and isn't exactly going to be intuitive when things go sideways, as they most undoubtedly will.
  • applied_heat 10mo ago
    Is your windows 11 home edition or managed by corporate IT?
    • handbanana_ 10mo ago
      I have pro edition on multiple home systems, definitely have had more issues with my corporate issued Win11 laptop, but it's also many major versions behind what I have at home.
  • mirpa 10mo ago
    I had to edit windows registry to fix the worst misfeatures of start & context menu. I never found solution to random wake up after suspend or missing icons after wake up - MS support was useless. Linux desktop even with non-zero amount of issues can't frustrate me nearly as much as Windows. All games I ran so far on Linux worked as good or better as/than on Windows. I keep Windows installed just in case some game really won't work, but combination of SteamDeck (Proton) and Vulkan did wonders for Linux compatibility kudos to Steam/Valve. And I would not want to do software development on Windows, that is number one reason I am using Linux (not that I am using Unreal Engine). Recent MS fever dream with LLMs only adds to general frustration with Windows.
  • stateofinquiry 10mo ago
    I have the same confusion as you do. Note, I am not ignorant about Linux or MacOS. I ran Linux as my main OS from 2001 - 2015, still run it on a server. MacOS from 2015 - 2021. Since 2021 I am on Windows for my main machine (a laptop) and my gaming desktop. Win 11 seems fine to me. I do see Copilot appearing everywhere. I don't see ads from MS at all, though- sometimes my vendor driver-management software asks me if I was to extend my warranty. Not Win11 fault, though. Start menu seems fine, phone integration is nice, OS runs very stable (in the very early days of using Linux 20y ago I marveled at how much more stable it was than Win98! That gap is gone now as far as I can tell). My suspicion: I am paying for M365 (or whatever they call it now) and so they don't advertise it (or anything?) to me. I don't see CandyCrush or other random things added to my machine. All seems OK. I've read that Win12 will be subscription-based. Maybe I am personally already there. For now, M365 offers me good value- I use MS Office and OneDrive. But if this changes I can see the equation balance shifting and I will then change platforms again. TMI, I left MacOS because of Gatekeeper and the inability to repair hardware. Before that I left Linux for work interoperability and regressions I saw on my personal mobile hardware. Neither were "bad", really, I have experienced different trade-offs among the three choices I have used. For now, Win 11 is working just fine for me, with no fuss.
• NoMoreNicksLeft 10mo ago
  This headline couldn't be more absurd. Who cares... computing ceased being desktop-centric 12 or 15 years ago.
  • mrweasel 10mo ago
    So at that point a ton of people are going to be forced onto Linux? I don't really disagree with you. More and more I see people living with just their phones. Personally it's not for me, but it's getting more and more prevalent. Even some business just have people using iPads/tables in the field, no point in lugging a laptop around when you're only using one or two apps and email. For developers and systems administrators though, we're going to need the desktop for decades to come. Nothing else comes close in terms of flexibility. Just think how many SREs live in the terminal still. Not because there aren't UIs and applications, but because those applications can only be installed and configured from the command line. Accounting is also a long way away from dropping the desktop, again, they need a ton of flexibility. Microsoft is probably "correct" in that it's not really worth spending to much time on the desktop, because the average user launched a browser, Steam or some custom piece of software and just stays there all day. It's not really financially viable to make something good for the last 10%, on the other hand, those people would probably be fine with being stuck on the Windows 2000 or XP UI.
• thunderbong 10mo ago
  For the last few days I was trying to revive an old MacBook Air for a non-techie friend. It had 4 GB of RAM. It had Catalina on it and was completely unusable. Hovering on anything would bring up the spinner which would take a couple of minutes to resolve itself. I tried reinstalling the OS, which didn't help. The top recommendation was to revert to Mojave. Finally, after three days of struggle, I gave up and installed Linux Mint. The difference is absolutely unbelievable. Even heavy applications like LibreOffice and Zoom are snappy. Apple makes such good hardware. I felt really sad about the state of their software compatibility with older machines. So, I don't know about the rest of the world, but I know one more person will be using Linux in 2026!
  • mixmastamyk 10mo ago
    Yep, we upgraded an old ~2010 iMac to 8gb and put Mint on it, good as new.
  • henrebotha 10mo ago
    Yeah I've been running EndeavourOS on my 2015 Air (4 GB) and it is so incredibly snappy and efficient now. Makes macOS look like a lurching zombie of an OS.
• 8bitsrule 10mo ago
  Considering how the load at Linux Mint's forums has recently increased to the point that some of it is being re-directed to gitHummed (a minute ago there were "3362 users online :: 35 registered, 3 hidden and 3324 guests" >10 secs to respond, needed to login), it appears that distro at least is seeing a lot of newcomers.
  • xena 10mo ago
    Those 3324 guests are all AI scrapers sadly.
• the_hoser 10mo ago
  For those of us that have been using Linux for a long time (since 1999, here), the improvements have been incremental, and hard to spot over time. But sometimes I encounter something and it just blows my mind how good desktop Linux has become. I just bought a laptop that came with Fedora installed. This isn't anything new, but what really blew me away is that everything... just worked. No tinkering. No alternative modules built from source (hopefully with a good DKMS script). Everything... just worked. I'd blocked out a few hours to get everything working in a satisfactory state and... I had nothing to do, really. And when I say everything I mean EVERYTHING, not just the features that were significant to my own use cases. Mind-blowing, if you think about it.
  • parker-3461 10mo ago
    This has been my experience too, with installing common (Ubuntu, Fedora, and other popular ones) distros. The only exception is when we got a really new batch of Lenovo P1 laptops for work, and the patches likely were not fully merged yet. So as long as you’re not getting the first batch it is generally pretty good.
  • naet 10mo ago
    I wanted to try Fedora recently but it crashed over and over in the install on the screen where you select a time zone. Looked it up and tons of people had the same issue and didn't find any fix that worked for me. Turned me off Fedora completely. Tried two other distros on the same machine right afterwards with no problems though.
  • Groxx 10mo ago
    yeah, the "it actually just works now" is quite a powerful transition. for all my hardware, that happened like 3 years ago, but I've been Mac-bound for a decade until recently so I'm only really sinking in now.
  • 0000000000100 10mo ago
    To temper expectations a bit, I’ve installed Linux recently on my HP Omen to pretty decent results. Still having some lingering issues, e.g the WiFi adapter going dead after a sleep. But have found the experience relatively similar to my recent windows installs. For a laptop user who likes to game, you’ll definitely encounter some issues based on my experience. Better than it was 2 years ago, but it’s not a seamless experience (laptops!!) that you’d expect from posts like these. For a Linux savvy user, it’s definitely worth the switch. I haven’t had any ads in months and it’s magical
• WackyFighter 10mo ago
  > TL;DR: 2026 is going to be The Year of The Linux Desktop for me. I haven't booted into Windows in over 3 months on my tower and I'm starting to realize that it's not worth wasting the space for. Similarly I haven't booted up Windows in months now. Debian is super stable as a desktop OS and does everything I want at it now. I am in this weird position where I am keeping a Windows installation around just in case I need it for something. I had a one job interview where they wanted me to use Visual Studio (C#) and it turned out they were fine with me using Rider anyway.
• gogasca 10mo ago
  [dead]
• lobito25 10mo ago
  Judging by the website repo readme.md, the developer seems very obnoxious.
  • kgwxd 10mo ago
    Then you'd probably get along pretty well.
  • episode404 10mo ago
    Agreed. I’m not at all surprised that they are the main contributor to anubis, which is also very obnoxious.
• flakiness 10mo ago
  The sad part of this narrative is that Linux Desktop can be a thing, mostly because other options have gotten worse/enshittified vs Linux Desktop itself has gotten better (It has, but it is probably not the reason of the rise.)
• sandreas 10mo ago
  Long time Linux Desktop user here. I really think Linux is a great choice as a Desktop in days of liquid glass and webviews. There are a lot of choices to make, but in the end it is working out really well (at least for me). KDE and the new COSMIC desktop environment with tiling support are tempting, but for now I keep using GNOME until I have more time to check them out. The things I personally had problems with is BTRFS and printers. BTRFS was completely irrecoverable after a system crash, full story see here [1]. Since I've read a lot of these horror stories while doing some research after the crash, I would encourage everyone using it to be careful and backup your system on a daily basis. I switched to ZFS with ZFSBootMenu[2] and never looked back. Printer-wise, I have a Canon network printer / scanner which seems to use a strange proprietary protocol. On Fedora everything worked fine while on Arch I did not find a way to get this thing working (I tried hard with different options like driverless, gutenprint, cupsd etc.) - printing also seems to be a bit of a security nightmare when changing firewall settings is mandatory. Everything else is working absolutely stunning. 1: https://forum.cgsecurity.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=13013 https://forum.cgsecurity.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=13013 2: https://github.com/sandreas/zarch https://github.com/sandreas/zarch
  • E39M5S62 10mo ago
    Quick note on #2 - there aren't really any issues with storing your encryption root passphrase in a file. If the file is owned by root, with no read permissions for any account, only root can access it. Since it's stored on an encrypted dataset, and your initramfs is as well, it's unreadable when the machine is off. Lastly, if anybody _does_ have a root shell on your machine, they can change the encryption passphrase without needing to know the current value. In short, I'm not sure there are any real issues with having it on disk but unreadable by anybody but root.
    • sandreas 10mo ago
      Absolutely - I know that but thanks for pointing that out again. There is no real "use case" for NOT storing the key into a root owned file. However, as I don't do it for myself there is no way of accidentally deleting the file, copying it quickly from my system to another drive when I accidentally left a root shell open and went to the restrooms (that never happens;) and the one single place I store the key (my head) is pretty much unreadable for everyone except me (at least for now :-) Being paranoid doesn't mean they are not after you :p Since I reboot my notebook only about once in a month it is no real hassle to enter the key twice 12 times a year :-)
• qaq 10mo ago
  MY NY resolution is to switch to Linux after two decades of using MacOS as primary OS. The UI direction, abysmal quality of software and people getting randomly banned from the ecosystem without good reason and with no recourse finally pushed me over the edge.
• ivanb 10mo ago
  It will be mine as well but only because consumer agentic AI became available and good. Only it makes all quirks and hardware incompatibilities bearable. I tell it to investigate the problem and it does an incredible amount of digging to help find the cause and eventually, after several iteration, either fix it or implement a good enough crutch. Even then it takes minutes to hours and I would take months.
  • throwaway894345 10mo ago
    How does this work? Do you give the AI read permissions on your system, or is it just running arbitrary commands?In the latter case, is it prompting you before each?
• gorgoiler 10mo ago
  Proprietary, closed user experiences are like microwave home dinners. There’s every reason to hope they can be good, it is very common for them to be crap, and while its possible to hack your own microwave meals you will be doing so in a sub optimal environment with limited options. An open, modular, diverse UX is like having a stocked kitchen of staples, pans, tools, fresh produce, and a stove. You add a toaster oven, smoker, water bath, grow a kitchen garden of your own, find local butchers and fishmongers. Over time you build up a small collection of both your own and others’ recipes and books and articles on food theory and trends. You can also have a microwave of course, but you’ll use it in many different ways than before. It’s harder work but so is walking instead of driving or reading instead of watching TV. It can seem irritatingly virtuous to some that you put this extra effort into your daily life but they’ll be swayed when they see you serve up a ZFS snapshot to temporarily test an edit over 20GB of data, or pop up a new niri workspace to track and purchase concert tickets, or dive into editing your journal in a custom distraction free mode you put together showing only your editor and this week’s GPS logs. You aren’t making everything from scratch, but you do make a few ingredients yourself — pickles and bread in the kitchen and scripts and local web hacks on your computer — and you certainly have complete control over the finished product in a way that simply isn’t possible with a microwave and a boxed lasagna, or a copy of Windows 11. You don’t even have to cook! You can have pre-made microwave meals with a Linux desktop. They still taste better because they were made with love by a global network of friends and family instead of by Nestlé, Kraft, and Heinz.
• ergonaught 10mo ago
  On my Windows machines, every time I have to click my Bluetooth icon, which is about a dozen times every day, the full second pause before it presents me with a menu makes me wish I didn't need Windows on two of my systems. It's mindbogglingly stupid that a UI element has a one second delay to present a menu on...any hardware, much less "2025" hardware. But that's the kind of product they're shipping, because that's the kind of people they're employing, and that's the kind of decisions they're allowed to make. It permeates everything.
  • kwanbix 10mo ago
    Why do you touch your bluetooth icon so many times?
  • bluecalm 10mo ago
    And on laptops you may need to write a script to disable Bluetooth before the lid closes and re-enable it when the lid opens because Microsoft in its wisdom forced S0 sleep but didn't care to make it stable enough so a drivers can't crash your system during it. Additionally there is no reliable mechanism to do so as doing it through Task Scheduler causes a race condition - will your script be allowed to run and finish before S0 sleep cuts power to it? You can not be sure. Additionally if you got cornered into making an online account Task Scheduler doesn't even work with that reliably (for task that require privileges like turning off BT on lock and turning it on on unlock) so then you have disable the online account Microsoft manipulated you to make. Of course the failure is silent so you have to discover all that by yourself. That is a a driver but Windows can also crash during S0 sleep because of its own updater failing to update some random app (like Microsoft Phone w/e that is). On Linux it's just not an issue. The script runs on events and is guaranteed to finish. Random updates at random times won't happen either.
• bradley13 10mo ago
  Welcome to the club. After years of dual-booting, I deleted my Windows partition a few years ago. And it's not just techies. My non-technical brother-in-law asked me to install Linux for him last fall. I installed Xubuntu, showed him how everything worked, and haven't had a single "support call" since.
• 6ak74rfy 10mo ago
  For me, 2025 was the year of the Linux desktop. I wanted a replacement for an M1, something beefy to build side projects etc., so I custom built a PC and put NixOS on it. Still rocking it and quite happy with it.
• iamcalledrob 10mo ago
  Same. After decades of macOS, and a bit of Windows, I tried Linux again recently and it was... good? For the first time in 20+ years, I ran into no big issues and no need to switch back. The new UI stuff happening in Gnome-land, while controversial, has started to make the desktop feel modern and cohesive. After years of Windows Explorer, clicking around in ~~Nautilus~~Files felt so snappy. The built-in Gnome document viewer is fantastic. Gnome is starting to show glimmers of being the natural evolution of the Mac desktop, not a poor imitation -- which is very exciting.
• eviks 10mo ago
  > I think that Linux on the desktop is ready for the masses now, not because it's advanced in a huge leap/bound. Yeah, right, these types of shallow pieces about Linux "for the masses" have the same structure without addressing the obvious issues: - Windows has the following 3 components that became worse. Well, they were bad 10 years ago (the ones that existed), so you could've spent a few hours per component to replace it (Start menu), disable it (Copilot), or find a workaround (invoke process manager with a shortcut without going through the webview in ctrl-alt-del or maybe there is some non-web app the presents the same menu of a few items) or even just ingore it (what are the serious practical issues with using dumb webviews for a tiny menu?) But the alternative would require you spending many days learning the whole new OS where many things you're used to would simply not exist. Want to find any file anywhere instantly (including newly created)? No, impossible, there is only NTFS Everything app that does it. Got tired of the File Explorer garbage and got used to the greatness of Opus? Well, good luck, there is not a single great file manager over there Want to relax and play X, Y, Z games? Oops, only A, B, C have good support, will take another decade to fix that (but at least someone is working on that) Want to use your favorite Productivity/VideoShop app? No one is even working on that, so another decade would not fix that. So how is it reasonable (for the masses, not you!) to replace a few fixable annoyances with a bigger list of the same and an even bigger list of unfixable stuff?
  • rrgok 10mo ago
    Yeah, I started to appreciate Windows more recently. In fact I prefer it over MacOS and Linux. WSL2 it's great when I need a linux shell. File manager is one those reason. Damn, there is no alternatives to DOPUS. Don't get me started with AutoHotkey. There is nothing compared to that.
    • eviks 10mo ago
      > Don't get me started with AutoHotkey. Indeed, I've purposefully avoided mentioning that because thought it's less "mass-relevant", but yeah, that's a huge blocker for any "advanced" customization OS workflow.
  • solstice 10mo ago
• benbristow 10mo ago
  Cool, see you back on Windows in a month. There's always something. It'll be like the New Year's resolution of going to the gym.
  • kreijstal 10mo ago
    wait until you see you can use wine..
    • benbristow 10mo ago
      Not my first rodeo, Wine is brilliant, especially recently with Valve's support for gaming (albeit hindered by games with incompatible anti-cheat), but it's not a one-size fits all solution. You're going to struggle running professional apps on it. You might be able to scrape-by. There might be open-source alternatives (rarely as suitable). Something always ends up bringing me back. The only thing I haven't tried is the whole GPU-passthrough VM solution which seems the best, but then you need a nice rig and a decent amount of dough.
• bobek 10mo ago
  Welcome ;) Linux is my desktop last 20+ years.
• ojr 10mo ago
  Windows still have the gamers. A lot of anti-cheat system completely block out Linux users. The Year of the Linux Desktop will still be a meme at the end of this year as well.
  • ivanjermakov 10mo ago
    Except ProtonDB website reports that completely blocked games make up 3% of the top 1000 Steam games. Meanwhile, 84% is perfectly playable (some with minor tweaks). https://www.protondb.com/ https://www.protondb.com/
    • timpera 10mo ago
      To be honest, I've found ProtonDB to be way too optimistic when saying that games are "playable" (for example, a game running with no multiplayer still counted as "playable").
    • Root_Denied 10mo ago
      I saw someone make a good point about this the other day that that 3% of games represents a much larger percentage of the gamer population - Pareto distribution comes into play with popular games where a small number of games account for a larger share of gamers' attention.
    • jama211 10mo ago
      So you’re still rolling a 6 sided dice every time you try a new game as to whether it works at all, and half the time you need to tweak it still? That’s a reasonably large barrier to entry then. I have arch Linux but I still boot into windows to play games that are supposed to be supported because I got sick of playing through 20 min or so of a game for it to crash in a specific spot and I’d have to start over in windows if I couldn’t find a reliable solution. After that happens a few times in a few games, I gave up and now I just go to windows to play games every time so I stop running into issues.
      • rasmus-kirk 10mo ago
        I buy games for my steam deck, only stopping to read up if they're "unsupported". Surprisingly, they seem to often STILL work in that case, this happened with Ghosts of Tsushima, which was unsupported because their online play didn't work (good riddance lol). Never had an issue with any game running through proton. Only issue was Stardew Valley that couldn't play online. Turns out the Linux version (was default) had an unfixed bug, and choosing the Windows version with proton "Just Worked". Hilariously, "Win32 is the most stable Linux ABI"...
• faraixyz 10mo ago
  Tempted to do the same. Like it’s a good OS but Microsoft seems intent to drive it into the ground by being insanely annoying. PowerToys is the only bright spot right now.
• timpera 10mo ago
  I don't really understand why everyone is complaining about Windows here, I'm not at all experiencing the same issues. The ARM64 version of W11 absolutely is the best OS I've ever used. I enjoy using Fedora but it's not coming close for professional use in my opinion.
  • vanviegen 10mo ago
    If you want to understand why everyone is complaining about Windows, you just need to read what is said in those comments. On the other hand, if I want to understand why you think W11 is absolutely the best OS you've ever used, I... guess I'll have to ask you. So, would you mind sharing what makes W11 great for 'professional use'?
    • timpera 10mo ago
      I'll obviously depend on what you're doing for work. Most people here are programmers, and I'm not, so your mileage may vary. I find that W11 just works: the multitasking is awesome (especially window and monitor management, huge improvement over W10), everything is snappy, the ARM64 battery life (especially in standby) is Macbook-like, I never have issues with USB-C docks and monitors (unlike Fedora where I always have to tinker with the terminal at some point), and the Windows version of Microsoft Excel is still unmatched. Also, the UI is very pretty, but that's obviously subjective! And you get way more customization options on Linux. I am not encountering most issues listed here, which I why I was confused, although I agree that Microsoft AI-bullshit-driven "vision" for Windows is a bit worrying.
      • 2b3a51 10mo ago
        You mention arm64 bit. What sku is that? a 'pro' version or did it come installed on retail hardware? (We use Windows 11 on plastic Thinkpads (L15s, intel) at the centre I work in, an educational organisation. They have ads, insist on switching to edge even though we need Chrome for single sign on and do seem a tad sluggish).
• fainpul 10mo ago
  Let's use the influx of new users to get some money flowing! It would be great if all those "I switched to Linux" articles would mention a few ways to donate to some important projects, helping to make FOSS thrive.
• wazoox 10mo ago
  For me Windows XP was the intolerably ugly release that made me switch once and for all in 2002. Never looked back.
• hexbin010 10mo ago
  BTRFS is certainly adventurous. That's one way to make sure you have a good backup policy in place. Corey (a character of mine) says stick with ext4.
• yigalirani 10mo ago
  where is ChromeOS in this story
• socialcommenter 10mo ago
  I do what I can by serving webapps from my Linux server, or using command line, but I haven't had much success with a Linux RDP or VNC server that can compete with MS RDP for performance. If I could do that I'd switch fully. Does anyone have recommendations?
• voxleone 10mo ago
  Welcome to the Linux desktop club. One small heads-up from experience: if you’re running NVIDIA hardware, expect a few bumps along the way. The proprietary drivers work well once set up, but kernel updates, Wayland quirks, and driver installs can be more hands-on than with AMD or Intel. Not a dealbreaker, just something to be aware of. Overall though, solid choice. Hope 2026 really is your year of the Linux desktop.
  • xena 10mo ago
    I had to set up a machine owner key in my motherboard's UEFI to get my 4080 working, but it's fine enough. I haven't had any issues with nvidia drivers since.
• harel 10mo ago
  Maybe I'm more tolerant, but for me Linux was ready for the desktop in 2005 and windows 11 is ok for what I use it for (cubase and games). When I switched my laptop from Windows XP it was a test. 3 years later I noticed I didn't boot back into windows not even once so concluded the test successful. My desktop later was windows only because cubase (and later steam) runs on it, but I honestly don't mind. However, I had to do some development on windows once for a client and that was indeed a horrible experience.
  • prmoustache 10mo ago
    Linux and freebsd have been ready for the desktop for me in 1998 already.
    • harel 10mo ago
      Yeah I know, I spoke to "you" around that time and a bit earlier, but I wasn't convinced enough to switch. It seemed like arcane magic to me then.
  • theandrewbailey 10mo ago
    Not only is Linux on desktop "ready", it's been parent-proof for a long time. Sometime around 2012, Windows XP started having issues on my parent's PC, so I installed Xubuntu on it (my preferred distro at the time). I told them that "it works like Windows", showed them how to check email, browse the web, play solitare, and shut down. Even the random HP printer + scanner they had worked great! I went back home 2 states away, and expected a call from them to "put it back to what it was", but it never happened. (The closest was Mom wondering why solitare (the gnome-games version) was different, then guided her on how to change the game type to klondike.) If "it [Xubuntu] works like Windows" offended you, I'd like to point out that normies don't care about how operating system kernels are designed. Normies care about things like a start menu, and that the X in the corner closes programs. The interface is paramount for non-technical users. I've run Linux almost everywhere (work machines excluded) outside of my main desktop/gaming rig for over 15 years, up until a year ago when I switched my desktop. My last Windows install is on my retro PC (98SE), and it'll stay that way, because changing that would ruin the nostalgia.
• Kon5ole 10mo ago
  I think the main problem for Linux is the fragmentation and lack of focus. If you can live without the Adobe suite and such, any number of distros and desktops can serve you well, but it often tries to do so An initiative like Omarchy got a lot of traction just by "picking one" of all the infinite options available, writing decent documentation for how it all works in Omarchy specifically, and having the whole thing install in minutes. Omarchy and tiling VM's are not for everyone but I think the principles are great, and can surely be applied to other DE's as well.
• xs4ndro 10mo ago
  2026 marks the year of IPv6 and Linux on the desktop.
• prism56 10mo ago
  I started using Linux Mint on my Framework laptop. That's 99% of my desktop usage. I do have a gaming PC that's rarely used that I keep for windows. Mainly for the odd game and/or the odd windows thing but it's pretty rare since nearly all my gaming is now on my Steam Deck.
• InfiniteQwert 10mo ago
  Are there any alternatives to Lightroom that are not as complex or overwhelming as Darktable. I understand that people say it’s more powerful, but it also looks like it has a steep learning curve I’m not particularly interested in tbh.
• wkjagt 10mo ago
  Maybe Microsoft knows Windows is terrible and won't last forever, so their short term goal is to exploit their marketshare as much as possible to grab as much cash as they can until the market moves to something else.
• polyterative 10mo ago
  Given the current situation regarding the hardware getting more pricey, I was so fed up with the inconsistencies, the constant micro lagging frame rate drops that I finally bit the bullet on a Mac studio a couple of weeks ago. This happened after 17 years of being a Windows user and having built more than 20 machines unfortunately Linux does not have a lot commercial software that I needed
• deleted 10mo ago
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• hexbin010 10mo ago
  So I just tried KDE with Fedora 43 on a 4 year old Intel Dell laptop (I've used Linux pretty extensively for 15+ years). It's hilariously bad : - I managed to make a process crash just clicking around the Settings app - Sleep doesn't work (spins up the fans, then turns them down, then turns off off displays etc but I then the fan are spinning, so something is running). Looking at the menu, supposedly Firefox is 'blocking' sleep, but I blocked it, and that just meant the fans stayed spun up during sleep. Wtf? - Monitor connected via dock via USB-C only worked after I plugged it directly into the laptop then back into the dock - WiFi is preferenced over Ethernet (?!) - KDE default panel is 'floating' which means wasted pixels below it. Looks ugly and wastes precious vertical space. And the blue highglight of the active window is over the top. And the default panel height is 44 pixels! - Default fonts especially in Konsole look ugly on a 1920x1080 laptop LCD. - Booting takes forever - Impressive it can stream to Homepods out the box...but it cuts out when you open the sound widget in the taskbar. And also at random points - The default pop-up notifications are too numerous - The Night Light quick option is to suspend it, not to enable it. Which is interesting, as it's not enabled currently. I want to enable it! There is no option to once-off enable. EDIT: - And during boot, the LVM2 unlock is only shown on the built-in display. Then the Login Screen is kind of mirrored, but updates are only shown on the external display ?! (ie password characters not filled in on the built-in display). Very odd I love Linux, and MacOS might be turning into iOS and becoming buggier, but MacOS has none of those issues.
  • Alupis 10mo ago
    Can you run MacOS on your 4 year old Intel Dell laptop? I've been running Fedora full-time for years and have not experienced any of the issues you have listed here. Some of your issues sound like hardware to me?
    • hexbin010 10mo ago
      It was running headless Debian for a while with no issues, and Windows prior to that. The hardware is fine (it's a Dell dock too fwiw). Drives are NVMe I'm not sure what you mean by your question. --- So I tried KDE on Debian Stable, which is a bit less broken (it gets the Ethernet preferencing correct). But still: - Logout causes the monitor to turn off then on, introducing more delays and flickering - Only certain application seem blessed to be permitted to be pinned to the task manager when you right click in the applications menu. For the others, you have to drag and drop. You can only drop to the left of the existing icons, not the right. You can't change the order or remove them unless you enter the editing mode which is non-obviously done by right clicking then "Show panel configuration". You are however allowed to drag the open windows around without editing? Go figure - Switching from the Dark theme to the Light theme just crashed plasmashell - GWenview stutters between images because its default animation is enabled, and set to software. Much better turned off. - Dolphin "Duration" column doesn't work for videos (I checked baloo was indexing properly, including with 'content') (edit: had to fully relaunch Dolphin...) - Display scaling set itself to 170%. Seems like an odd number? - Konsole configuration has many options, but none that I can immediately see to change the default font size ?! Well, at least I can configure Thumbnail generation and Memory Monitoring (edit: oh right you have to create a new Profile - oh and you can't edit the current "built-in" profile. What a mess. Steps: hamburger menu, Settings, Configure Konsole, Profiles, New, Appearance, "Choose", Apply, OK, OK... not done yet...got to make your new profile the default one..."set as default", OK. Finally, you've changed the default font. Madness!) I don't know how anyone defends this
• basisword 10mo ago
  There is something massive missing from Linux that for me has made it even less likely that I would use it full-time (I've tinkered with it in my youth): personal data. I have so much personal, important data generated regularly thanks to smartphones. Photos, videos, voice memos, notes, computer files I want to access anywhere, health data etc. etc. iOS/Mac has made this seamless, secure, and in 15-20 years it has not gone wrong for me. Sure there are horror stories posted from time to time but for 99.9% of people it works really well almost all of the time. Replicating this with Linux systems is difficult, requires lots of setup and maintenance, and incurs significant risk for me in terms of data loss.
• rd07 10mo ago
  Funny that at the last minute of 2025 (at least in my country), I wrote a blog post titled "2025 is the Year of Linux Desktop, at least for me". It is just a short post to note about how in 2025 some of my friends are finally migrating to Linux. And that was something awesome for me. https://blog.juliardi.com/2025-is-the-year-of-linux-desktop-at-least-for-me https://blog.juliardi.com/2025-is-the-year-of-linux-desktop-...
• neogodless 10mo ago
  I believe this was Dec. 2023 through Feb. 2024 (I should add dates to my little "blog"...): https://www.retorch.com/blog/linux-mint.htm https://www.retorch.com/blog/linux-mint.htm If I remember, Linux Mint was on kernel 5.15 at the time. The TL;DR is that fractional scaling was broken under Cinnamon, and Brightness controls were broken under KDE. Most gaming was good, but a brand new game (Hogwart's Legacy) had major issues, including crashing and vastly worse performance compared to Windows. Another game wouldn't work with multiplayer (Anno 1800) which meant I couldn't play it with my spouse. So I'm tempted to go back, give Linux 6.8 or 6.11 a try, and see if those issues are fixed. (I sold that laptop to a family member, so I'd probably try it on a newer Legion 5 Pro, but still with Nvidia graphics.) For my primary machine though... what I would miss most is DxO PhotoLab. I love my Fujifilm XT-5 and mirrorless photography, and I love editing with DxO. I tried Lightroom, darktable, and a few other pieces of software, but I kept going back to PhotoLab. It's not objective - it's very subjective but I get the most joy out of using PhotoLab for editing. I really hope (like throw a wish in a bottle) that companies like DxO consider supporting Linux[0] but I doubt it's even on their radar. Software like this uses hardware in demanding ways, and it isn't trivial to support it. Now, this is one person's anecdote, but I do think it's a factor in overall mainstream acceptance. For Linux users, after years or decades of use, they've embraced the software available to them, but for Windows / macOS users, they will often have to consider what compromises they'll have to make. (I know Adobe is thrown around a lot, and it's a fine example, but I don't like Adobe's subscription model... I still gave it a fair shake but enjoyed PhotoLab much more!) But I think my point will still be that there's a chicken-and-egg scenario, and it's taking a very long time to get Linux to the kind of market share it needs to start forcing the hands of the thousands of companies that don't currently support Linux. [0] https://support.dxo.com/hc/en-us/articles/4406558299537-System-requirements-for-DxO-PhotoLab https://support.dxo.com/hc/en-us/articles/4406558299537-Syst...
• jjaksic 10mo ago
  "I'm going to go with Fedora on my tower and Bazzite (or SteamOS) on my handhelds." Why not Bazzite on both? Bazzite is a fantastic desktop OS! Easier to use than naked Fedora and virtually unbreakable.
• mcswell 10mo ago
  I switched to Linux from Win11 a few months ago, because of all the CoPilot junk. Not sure what the native vs. HTML UIs is all about, though. Are the HTML UIs slower, or is it a question of developers' time?
• petabyt 10mo ago
  I've spent the past 8 years going back and forth between Linux and Windows. When I switched back to Linux last year I was shocked how well steam/proton/wine worked compared to a few years prior. Valve is truly making incredible progress.
  • kgwxd 10mo ago
    My only hold out until this year was my gaming PC. When Windows 10 became unsupported, so did Minecraft updates. I tried Windows 11 just enough to get MC installed, only to find out I must log into the Microsoft Store to get it to run at all. The launcher installed, the desired versions downloaded and installed, click play, Store login required. Bedrock and Java editions. Just because... why not, I guess? I decided as long as Rocket League (Steam) runs fine, I'll stick with Linux. It did, without any tweaking (other than telling it to use Proton because, technically, it has native Linux support, just not online play), and it used to require a ton of weird tweaking. Every game I cared about in my Steam library worked too, way more than when I tried in 2020, also without any tweaking. So did MC Java edition. The machine has a RTX 3080, which I almost didn't buy, because I've had issue with Nvidia on Linux in the past, but haven't had to do a single tweak this time.
    • episode404 10mo ago
      cool story bro
• ku1ik 10mo ago
  Here's a copy of my Mastodon post [1] from Oct 2025: --- I had a job interview yesterday, which happened via Google Meet. Even though I use my desktop Linux workstation and Firefox 99% of the time for everything, my first instinct was to do this interview on a MacBook and Chrome, to avoid surprises and not look unprofessional if something doesn't work, which has happened in the past. Last year, when I was asked to share the screen during a daily, I had to say "um, I'm sorry, Zoom and desktop sharing don't work on my system." But I thought I'd first do a test on my workstation, just to see if maybe I shouldn't be concerned anymore. I was sceptical. The ideal scenario was that on my standard GNOME 48 / Wayland / PipeWire desktop I'd be able to use Firefox for this call, and AirPods, a Logitech webcam, and desktop sharing (5K ultrawide scaled at 125%) would just work with no tweaks whatsoever. And it did! I've been using Linux on the desktop for over 20 years (on and off, but mostly on) and I know how to hold my Linux systems, but the situation with Bluetooth audio and desktop sharing in previous years has been... spotty. I was less worried about AirPods — I switched to PipeWire ~3 years ago and so I know Linux audio has been rock-solid and pretty much solved already. But desktop sharing used to be hit-or-miss, highly dependent on whether you used X11 or Wayland, further complicated by the use of Flatpaks. Since my test went well, I did the interview on the desktop machine. It went smoothly, with no surprises. Therefore, I announce 2025 as the Year of the Linux desktop :) [1] https://hachyderm.io/@ku1ik/115388713511052943 https://hachyderm.io/@ku1ik/115388713511052943
• kshanowski 10mo ago
  Glad linux works for many. Personally I've switched to windows 10 ltsc on my work laptop. Main reason for it was the scaling issues with hidpi monitors that I connect/disconnect frequently. I think scaling is better on win and no issues with any blurry app or font or anything related. I also think its faster for my tasks, supports hibernation and has better power management. The other thing was that I'm a tinkerer and under linux I've lost countless hours with optimization and tweaking. I've always monitored and had to had everything under control. Windows takes it out of my head, so I could finally work. Still linux on my desktop tho.
• wannabe_loser 10mo ago
  I have been using arch for a while now everything is good except BIOS updates after which I need to reset & fix secure boot everytime
• abustamam 10mo ago
  I installed Ubuntu in October just to play around with AI models (python and CLI in general was so hard to deal with in Windows) and I realized that I didn't ever need to boot back into windows, not for gaming, not for anything. It was really relieving.
• the__alchemist 10mo ago
  Wishlist: - No sudo, or at least no conflict between "Sudo is dangerous and can break your system" / "You need sudo to do routine things" - Executable compatibility across distro versions and distros - No CLI required to install software - Lag-free pen experience - Good touch support - Less fragile. I shouldn't have to worry about the PC booting up into a no-GUI terminal after I installed something, or edited a file. (See point 1; don't make me edit system files to do routine stuff like communicate with a USB device without sudo, if they can break the system) - Focus on speed, and clawing back the performance losses that have been accumulating in all OSs over the years - Let me open an application by double-clicking it I would love to ditch Windows and its corporate BS, but the UX is IMO not there yet. I am running a Ubuntu 24 Laptop for work and it's generally fine as I run only a small set of software, but historically things get messy when I install a broader range of software or use non-typical hardware. So, not better than Win yet for my personal uses Bonus: Something like PowerToys. I recognize this diverges from core OS functionality.
  • amenod 10mo ago
    It's not that I don't have my own set of gripes about linux, but this wishlist is weird, at least to me: - There is nothing wrong with sudo - or to be precise, it is good thing that administrative operations are explicit. And sudo is still less annoying than Windows "admin prompt" anyway. - Why do you care? Use apt install, yum install or apk add, whatever your distro supports. - It is not required, there are GUI managers, but again - why? - Got me there. I don't use pen. - Used touch on ThinkPad some years ago, it just worked, maybe depends on the laptop? - Until 15 years ago this was true, but I haven't seen this happen since then. Debian here if it matters. - I'm typing this on a 15 years old desktop (with NVME, admittedly) and it boots and feels faster than a new MacBook Pro I am testing. Linux accumulated much less, if any, performance losses. I agree that Windows and Mac both became bloated. - I think doubleclick is the default way, at least in xfce? Or I might be missing what you mean. That said, I use keyboard shortcuts mostly as I try to avoid mouse for this. With all that said, of course it will not look and feel the same as Windows. It is a different OS, with different priorities. I like it better than both Windows and MacOS, but maybe it's because I found the combination that fits me (Debian + XFCE). Maybe take a look at KDE and XFCE?
• vlod 10mo ago
  With the new PopOS Cosmic and them dumping GNOME for their own UI framework based on Iced [0] (and based on rust), I have high hopes that things will move to more linux (especially for folks here who are rust-heads). [0]: https://iced.rs/ https://iced.rs/
• ihaveone 10mo ago
  I already switched to Cachyos. It's Arch based with really good defaults.
• woile 10mo ago
  Last year I got a laptop with Linux, after a Mac gap of 6 years (work) and it's been super smooth with NixOS and KDE. My main issue now was the 16GB of RAM using a VM and working on rust, which would kill the system, but now I have more, so all the issues are gone. One of the machines has become a media-center, with a remote keyboard, anyone at home can operate now. Multiple screens, bluetooth, drag and drop, night/light all seems to be working
• mindcrash 10mo ago
  I've just finished the base install of Gentoo on my brand new Framework 16 and I still wonder why I didn't make the move sooner. Hardware: HX370, 128G RAM, Radeon 860M iGPU, Radeon RX7700S dGPU, Xbox Wireless Cntroller, 2T + 8T SSD storage Software (as of today, still making additions and refinements): Gentoo/OpenRC (I don't like systemd), Kernel 6.12.58 with additional module for the Xbox controller, Pipewire+EasyEffects 8, KDE Plasma 6.5.4/Wayland, Steam Experience: KDE runs pretty stable, and only has the things I really need (and not the things a vendor thinks I need). The first game I benchmarked today was Doom (2016), which runs smoothly on 90-120 fps on high settings. The second game I benchmarked today was Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (2024) running on ~56fps on recommended settings on the 7700. The one game I tried today and could not get to run properly was Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl. I suspect that, given the many positives on ProtonDB, that's mainly either a configuration or Proton issue. I'll do some more research and give it another try in the near future. Right now performance drops to 5 fps immediately after starting a new game, and the CPU running on 600Mhz maximum when starting the game on Proton Experimental. For now I am quite happy with the results, and the fact that I likely finally am able to eject Windows out of my life.
• lkglglgllm 10mo ago
  Heavily invested in Microsoft tech, but not using windows. At all. Couldn’t be happier. Due to word being too buggy, I switched to libre office in windows. Local outlook was also too buggy in windows, I ended up running the web version. Switched to vscode b/c VS was to buggy and slow. Teams works better in macos. Web version of teams is ok in Linux, you don’t want to run the native app in windows, it’s a resource hog written as a web app anyway. Dotnet and powershell (pwsh) actually works better in both macos and in Linux, than in windows. Not a little better, but much better, that ecosystem is very stable and reliable. And azure has of course no dependency on any local windows, on the contrary, dealing with remote systems are easier in Linux, particular if you accessing remote Linux systems as well. Then I realized there was no reason to run windows. At all. It will only drag you down when it comes to productivity, it’s an awful os, filled with malware and other shit.
• gverrilla 10mo ago
  Been playing with linux for 20y or so. Used it to program, mostly. Now after 15 days only of having Claude Code I'm flipping my setup to delete windows and have ubuntu as my main. I've never been so happy using a computer in my entire life: in this short time I already have dozens of customizations, custom scripts, opensource stuff personal custom forks, etc. Not to mention the fixes, oh so many fixes that could have taken DAYS of work from me and got solved by cc in minutes. I even tried vibecoding my own custom text editor to use for todo and notes management, but that didn't go quite well lmao. (if anyone curious about my journey: after that I vibe-coded a Sublime Text 4 plugin that kinda worked, then I discovered Dynalist and it's more structured experience was a big hit. When I found out with Dynalist I didn't own my data, I tried other outliners (liked none), then I spent a couple of days trying to sort out some sort of scheme to use Obsidian similarly to Dynalist, didn't look too promising and also Obsidian is not open source, so now I'm finally trying Emacs (spacemacs) for the first time in my life for org-mode. Wish me luck!)
• LePetitPrince 10mo ago
  [dead]
• QuiEgo 10mo ago
  I’ve reached the point where I just use a Mac for most computer stuff and a console for gaming. Maybe one day I’ll set up a Linux gaming box but after spending all day at work trying to wrangle Linux boxes, that sounds a bit too much like my job to be relaxing.
• yewenjie 10mo ago
  Wait didn't xeiaso use NixOS? https://xeiaso.net/talks/asg-2023-nixos/ https://xeiaso.net/talks/asg-2023-nixos/
  • xena 10mo ago
    Did, past tense. I'm no longer using it.
• bibimsz 10mo ago
  cachyos has been rock solid for me, including gaming. nvidia 40xx series, HDR OLED monitor
• gingersnap 10mo ago
  I've been using Linux now as my personal desktop OS for 10-15 years. I actually really liked windows, and still think that windows XP and 7 was great OS for me. My Linux mint is still in style of the old windows versions. But this year I used windows at a new work, and tested using my wife's windows computer. And for the first time I really feel it's shit. First when I moved to Linux, 10-15 years ago, windows was better and smoother. 10-5 years ago Linux was getting close and worked equally for everyday, only being problem when things really break. Now is the first time that Linux actually is equal and probably overtakes windows. Microsoft making the move of discontinuation windows 11 puts the nail in the coffin So I agree, 2026 is the year of Linux desktop.
• lelele 10mo ago
  There is no such thing as "desktop Linux". What we have instead is a large collection of distros, each with its own UX, unlike Windows or macOS which present a relatively unified platform. I switched to Linux many years ago because a new laptop was unusably slow under the Windows Vista it came with, and I have not looked back since, yet I'd never recommend Linux to "the masses". Linux can work well for people who just browse the web and read email. Beyond that, the experience quickly becomes dependent on having a knowledgeable person nearby to help with choosing software and supported hardware or troubleshooting it. To me, articles like this show how disconnected many technically inclined people are from average users' experience. Things like bloated software or aggressive advertising may be annoying to us, but to most users they are just part of using a computer.
• dplesh 10mo ago
  I'm a windows user since I was 5. My favorite OS. both for home and for professional environment. Seems that Windows 11 will be the last Microsoft OS I'll ever use
  • casey2 10mo ago
    Same since I was 3. Windows 2000, XP, 7. With 8 it was obvious they didn't believe in personal computing anymore, for me that was the end of the "Decade of Windows Desktop". I'm naive cause I did and switched to Linux without looking back
• bschmidt25010 10mo ago
  [dead]