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2024: The Year Linux Dethrones Windows on the Desktop – Are You Ready?

  • NTSync coming in Kernel 6.11 for better Wine/Proton game performance and porting.
  • Wine-Wayland last 4/5 parts left to be merged before end of 2024
  • Wayland HDR/Game color protocol will be finished before end of 2024
  • Nvidia 555/560 will be out for a perfect no stutter Nvidia performance
  • KDE/Gnome reaching stability and usability with NO FKN ADS
  • VR being usable
  • More Wine development and more Games being ported
  • Better LibreOffice/Word compatibility
  • Windows 10 coming to EOL
  • Improved Linux simplicity and support
  • Web-native apps (Including Msft Office and Adobe)
  • .Net cross platform (in VSCode or Jetbrains Rider)

What else am I missing?

jjjalljs ,

Been seriously thinking of switching to linux for my desktop. I mostly use it for games. Today I was looking at mods for Mass Effect, and the mod manager says in all caps - LINUX IS NOT SUPPORTED :(

There’s probably going to be a lot of that sort of annoyance for years.

Theharpyeagle ,

You might still try using Proton or Lutris to run it. It may be a pain to get working, but hopefully someone out there has a guide for the mod manager you’re using.

urska OP ,

Nah. What hes saying its that they are not supported natively. The game is Gold on protondb, so its playable on Linux. Just use Wine to run your mods. Simple

Joltey ,

Any source regarding “VR being usable” on linux? The current development seems pretty stale and it doesn’t seem like that’s gonna change anytime soon, especially if you own any Oculus headsets that predates the quest. I do hope the rumors of valve making the deckard are true, but those are just rumors and should be taken with a grain of salt.

MentalEdge ,
@MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz avatar

SteamVR 2.0 dropped a bit ago, though it didn’t do much for Linux users…

But it does point to something still happening with VR over at Valve.

utopiah ,

I mean… it just works? Since the Index is out it’s just been working basically. Not sure what else would be needed. Sure being able to use Quest headsets would be nice but unless Meta decides to open up, I don’t think it would happen. IMHO that’s a vendor problem, not the OS lacking support, sadly.

Joltey ,

It’s definitely a vendor problem rather than an os problem. But it’s still a problem that the biggest manufacturer in the VR space has no support for Linux, hence i find it a bit farfetched to say VR is usable on Linux when the most popular hardware is not being supported by it’s vendor.

Though there are community efforts like Monado that looks pretty promising!

utopiah ,

I mean if the vendor specifically decides NOT to support Linux AND there are viable alternative that do, e.g Valve Index, that run IMHO some of the best content, i.e Half-life:Alyx, then IMHO popularity is indeed important but it does show it’s not an OS problem.

utopiah ,

FWIW I did build and run Monado, even presented at FOSSXR on WebXR, so I’m relatively confident I understand the status of XR support. Here the problem is not a lack of capability of the OS is my point, it’s “only” a business decision from one single vendor that yes is popular on low-end hardware.

utopiah ,

I should clarify, the Quest does work on Linux for streaming if you use ALVR, one just has to tinker a bit. Apologies forgot about that solution.

MudMan ,

Wait, if Steam VR works on Linux for Index are Quest HMDs not usable through Steam Link? Or does that still need the Oculus software installed? I'm not actually sure.

utopiah ,

AFAIK it’s Windows only www.meta.com/en-gb/…/requirements-quest-link/ so some things work, e.g adb so you can install APKs or use scrcpy but you can’t rendering on desktop via e.g SteamVR and use the Quest officially.

MudMan ,

Quest Link yes, I was referring to the alternative Steam Link app that is available on Quest. That's maintained by Valve (and honestly works better than the wireless version of Quest Link, IMO). I was wondering if that works as an alternative, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are still dependencies for controller inputs and head tracking that need Oculus software installed to work on the server side.

utopiah ,

Ah yes forgot about that despite actually using it! AFAIK it can support SteamVR because my goal while tinkering with it was testing SteamVR on the Apple Vision Pro via ALVR (Air Light VR). So yes it can be done, I even made ALVR work on the SteamDeck more than a year ago, just to tinker.

Anyway back to Steam Link does work on Linux, sadly streaming VR does not work on Linux, at least today when I tried and despite having SteamVR installed. Maybe some tinkering is required.

domi ,
@domi@lemmy.secnd.me avatar

Any source regarding “VR being usable” on linux?

I use VR with my Index almost every week on Linux. Filled to the brim with minor issues but definitely useable.

Still looking forward to a Deckard announcement, the Index is starting to show its age.

figaro ,

I love how delusional people here are.

Joking lol but serious that it will never happen. Windows has waaay too much of a monopoly for that to never happen.

Like wtf, am I supposed to tell my mom to use the terminal to download ms word? Oh wait sorry you can use libre office! It’s the same but… Well it looks different. And isn’t as functional.

nossaquesapao ,

People around here are delusional a lot of times, but to say that windows has too much of a monopoly to lose market, is too much of an exaggeration. Microsoft has been taking unpopular decisions, newer windows versions have been facing more and more resistance, macos has been growing and taking a share of the market, some governments and smaller businesses have been trying linux as a way to cut expenses, linux usability have been improving a lot, android devices have been taking more steps into taking functionalities from desktop systems and improving usability with keyboard and mouse, a lot of computers that do simple processing have been replaced by sbcs, like raspberry pis, etc.

Windows isn’t too big to fail, and it’s not impossible that we’re close to see it starting to fall. Now, on what os would become the bigger player, that’s another story.

Fun fact: My elderly mother uses linux, and without my help. Also, she never used the terminal.

anon5621 ,

Same thing here my grandparents and some other old age people which i know using linux mint.I installed it to their pc 5 years ago and up to date,it’s works fine for them before on windows it was nighmare while they were catching ads malware while browsing the net.

AusatKeyboardPremi ,

some governments […] have been trying linux as a way to cut expenses

I have been hearing such news for close to two decades but not without news where many such organisations switch back to using proprietary software due to a mixture of reasons ranging from usability to politics.

bufalo1973 ,
@bufalo1973@lemmy.ml avatar

Windows usage is decreasing every year. Slowly but… And it will reach a point where it will have not enough critical mass to be “THE OS” but “another OS”.

DerisionConsulting ,

I agree that it’s not the year of the linux desktop, and that people who think it is are very naive, but you don’t need to tell anyone to use the terminal for anything for many distros.

Abnorc ,

Until you encounter some weird glitch that needs to be fixed using the terminal. It happens maybe once every couple of months for me, but it still happens. Even so, I’m considering switching fully after windows 10 goes EOL.

pipe01 , (edited )

Better than a Windows 10 glitch that requires you to dig through 10 dialogs

Valmond ,

You’re right but I have seen old people getting some Ubuntu/Mint installed and set up and they email & spreadsheet away just fine.

I guess the only who will have to tinker are gamers (or very specific power users?).

Others just doesn’t even know or care about the OS.

Bell ,

I think it’s going to take a Microsoft catastrophe, something that disables machines for at least a few days. I’m thinking maybe a buggy windows update.

onlinepersona ,

Or a forced update to windows 11 on machine that doesn’t support it. That would break the windows install for good. Either they will find a way to install windows again or take it to somebody who installs windows on it again. Maybe maybe they’ll find out about Linux.

Anti Commercial-AI license

possiblylinux127 ,

Meanwhile total recall happening with AI+Copilot

0x0 ,

So what happened with Bing a few hours ago but for end-users…

MudMan ,

You guys know that MS rolls out updates through a system of multi-layered opt-in channels and deploy to the wider channels in chunks over longer periods of time, right?

They may not be the most competent or scrupulous megacorp, but they do hire actual software engineers and stuff.

skullgiver ,
@skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    DmMacniel ,

    ChromeOS though is a category on its own. Just because there is a Linux kernel in it, doesn’t make it a Linux desktop.

    skullgiver ,
    @skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    MudMan ,

    You're arguing about naming conventions, though. If you want to refer to Linux as Linux Kernel that's fine, if a bit pedantic, but then you should be very strict about sticking to a separate name for the ecosystem of OSS Linux distros for desktops and laptops.

    I haven't once thought of Android or ChromeOS as Linux, for the same reasons I have never once thought of Linux as Unix or MS-DOS as a PC DOS version. If we're going to conflate Linux with its proprietary alternatives let's just call it something else. Dinux? There you go.

    Dinux has all those problems you outlined in your first post, I agree.

    skullgiver ,
    @skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    MudMan ,

    You used a bunch of words but you aren't saying much new.

    Again, those differences are meaningful. It makes sense to have a different name for it. You can lump it and MacOS and Android as a singular family of OSs, but they're clearly different products with different branding and different functionality.

    You're also ignoring how much all of those "succesful Linux" non-Linux systems are tied to hadware, which is ultimately the issue. The terminal isn't as much of a dealbreaker as the Linux community makes it out to be (and neither is the UX not being identical to Windows, BTW). The problem is the lack of hardware support and the finicky configurations, terminal or no terminal. Steam OS, all the flavors of Android and Chrome OS are all customized to the hardware they ship with and work well with it. In all cases the hardware is locked and it doesn't need much readjusting, and when it does it's often through a live support update system.

    And yes, I have thought of ChromeOS as Linux, don't be patronizing. I am saying it's not the same as the desktop-focused Linux distros that are trying to support modular PC hardware in the way Windows does. Because it isn't.

    DmMacniel ,

    Yeah okay, now tell that to the guys at Statcounter or whoever determines the desktop market shares that they should fold in the chrome OS stat with Linux.

    skullgiver ,
    @skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    MudMan ,

    It's roughly consistent with Steam survey data, and given the current context, Linux Steam users are heavily incentivized to contribute to the survey. The numbers are what they are.

    Plus the guy's argument is that relevant data sources separate ChromeOS out because it's substantially different, which is a fair point, regardless of the accuracy of the data.

    KingThrillgore ,
    @KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml avatar

    NETCRAFT CONFIRMS IT

    slowbyrne ,
    @slowbyrne@beehaw.org avatar

    My personal definition of “the year of the Linux desktop” is when we hit a market share % that starts to convince companies to take Linux support seriously. I don’t think we’re that far off from that happening and if Microsoft keeps adding in these terrible “features” to windows, more people will move over. Is 2024 the year for that? Probably not but I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens before 2030.

    Cethin ,

    A friend brought up some Ubisoft game (that I’m not that interested in) that is exclusive to their launcher. I was 90% sure this was an indication there was no hope for Linux there. I googled it and they apparently had already promised they would be strongly supporting Linux. A shitty company like Ubisoft is supporting it. I think we’re very close.

    I’d be very curious to see the hours played on games by OS. The last data I saw of probable usage percent had Linux at 4%, but I’d bet a large number of Windows and Mac machines are mostly just web browser machines. I would suspect Linux users are more likely to be gamers as they’ve already shown more interest in technology.

    I don’t know what percent we need to be mainstream, but we’re on a good trgectory. If we can manage to hit 10% I doubt it could be overlooked anymore. Also, every person who swaps over is one more person who’s likely to push others to swap. It’s a slippery slope. We’ll get there.

    governorkeagan ,

    I’d bet a large number of Windows and Mac machines are mostly just web browser machines

    Just getting these devices (libraries come to mind) to switch to some LTS distro would bump Linux market share quite a bit.

    bazmatazable ,

    The actual % numbers are probably not that important. Software developers and hardware manufacturers are looking for a critical mass of users of their product. So if 20% of the world switch from Windows to Linux but they are the 20% that only use a web browser then why would the compatibility landscape change? Adobe are not going to do the hard work to support Linux just because schools and libraries switch to Linux. Even if every government mandates using Linux for government offices would Cricut suddenly support Linux?

    governorkeagan ,

    True. I’m thinking that if we have 20% of the population using Linux at work (like you mentioned), it would still help in converting others who use more specialised software (not just a web browser)

    Plume ,

    We say this every fucking year! Come on, this is getting ridiculous! Stop it! There will never be a year of the Linux desktop and if anything, this post shows why.

    So much of the Linux community is utterly detached from what really matters to most users and focus on things that 80% of people won’t ever understand, care about or even use.

    We focus on this and meanwhile, little quality of life features constantly get ignored when these are the real things that users will encounter and that will piss them off. They get treated as trivial. They get ignored in favor of other things.

    Somebody mentioned it here. I saw it and I didn’t need them to mention it to want to say it. It’s already something that’s pissing me off. On Fedora for my Framework Laptop there is no way to adjust the scrolling speed on my trackpad which is moronically fast.

    We are on the 40th release of Fedora, the 46th release of GNOME, and somehow this still isn’t baked in. I still have to go look around and use the fucking terminal to do something this basic. When some of them try Linux and will eventually push them to go back to Windows. And when users complain about this, what do we get? A bunch of elitists telling them to fuck off to go back to Windows, which I also saw as responses to this complaint about the trackpad.

    Listen, Linux is an amazing project and I love it. I daily drive it. I don’t use Windows anywhere in my life. I haven’t touched OS in like two years at the very least. So many things that we are celebrating as brand new things that are finally working properly are things that already work by default on Windows and have been for years. We’re not going to convince people by mentioning that, “oh, we fixed this thing that’s been working forever on Windows.” It works on Linux now. People need more than this.

    You want to know the sad truth? Here we go. We, collectively here, users of platform like Lemmy, are a vocal minority who are detached from the reality of most users. We care about ads, we care about privacy and so on, but the reality is most that people don’t. Most people won’t even notice that those things are there. For so many people, Windows is just the thing that stands between them and launching Chrome. It already works for them. There’s no reason for them to switch.

    We are all way too invested in what runs on our computers and we forget that we are just us. Most people are not like us. Privacy scandals stop us from using stuff like social media and so on, but it clearly hasn’t stopped most of the world.

    People heard about the shit that Meta was and is doing. Did people stop using Instagram? No, they didn’t. People know what Google is doing, how many of them switched to DuckDuckGo? A clinical moron turning the platform into a far-right haven didn’t stop most users from using Twitter.

    The API bullshit didn’t stop most users from using Reddit. Sure there were protest, but I guarantee you that 99% who took part in the blackout just went back to it after. A lot of us didn’t. We left. We’re here now. But we’re still a tiny minority.

    Ask a Firefox user did telling Chrome users that privacy was important ever worked? I’m sure you will get examples of it working but it’s a minority. Most people don’t give a shit and they use Chrome.

    I don’t have a solution. I’m sorry, I made this long-ass comment but I don’t have much else to say. I don’t have a good solution to this problem.

    magguzu ,

    Lol and we’re forgetting the biggest QOL feature of all: actually coming installed with pre built computers.

    Chrome OS was the only one to ever make a dent.

    Without that this will always be a “power” user OS. People just want it to work.

    bazmatazable ,

    I think this is the only feature that matters. For a user switching away from Windows I would love to hear about the user experience between buying a system76 (or another Linux system seller) vs a Mac laptop. Complaining that Linux doesn’t work with your hardware is like complaining that the hackintosh that you built doesn’t work with your hardware.

    morrowind ,
    @morrowind@lemmy.ml avatar

    Seriously. I think Linux users expend 10x the energy worrying about ads on Windows than actual windows users. If you’re used to seeing hundreds of ads / day on the web, why the hell would you care about an occasional onedrive popup.

    Re touchpads totally agree as well, I installed fedora kde on my mom’s abandoned laptop a couple weeks ago and it was atrocious. Limited gestures, no configurability, no smooth scroll, no scroll momentum except in apps that implement it manually, scrolling speeds totally off. I managed to fix most of these, but regular people can’t be expected to.

    Battery life, for another is unpredictable and quite bad. Most people I’ve talked to seem to assume performant/light = efficient when it comes to Linux. This is not the case. Once again, solutions exist, but they are not accessible to a regular person.

    nexussapphire ,

    There one glaring issue. Most people don’t really even know what an operating system is and some of the people I talk to think Linux is a manufacture.

    I literally bring up Linux to my friend when they are having trouble getting windows to work and they say I think I have a linux. They mean it’s a Lenovo but they seem pretty confused about the idea of installing a different OS on their machine. This isn’t just older people but 20 something year olds (about my age).

    It’s funny to me but I try to be patient and help them with their problems anyway.

    Corgana ,
    @Corgana@startrek.website avatar

    Confusing Linux with Lenovo is pretty funny.

    WeirdGoesPro ,
    @WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    My ex wife turned out to be a Lenovo. She and her new girlfriend seem very happy. /s

    vulgarcynic ,
    @vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Must of been how they used the little red nub.

    GenderNeutralBro ,

    Obligatory xkcd: xkcd.com/243/

    vulgarcynic ,
    @vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works avatar

    There’s always one!

    TechAnon ,

    Bro - sounds like you missed an opportunity to dual boot!

    Tiempo ,

    I have Linux in a Lenovo… What does it mean???

    lord_ryvan ,

    Lenovo’s, especially the older Thinkpad T-series (such as the Thinkpad T440) are excellent Linux laptops, they’re durable, upgradable and offer a smooth ootb experience with Linux systems (down to open source drivers for their fingerprint readers)

    So it means u prolly don gud

    olutukko ,

    wow I have never heard people being this ignorant. that sounds funnt, and a bit sad. too bad I have hp and not linux

    nexussapphire ,

    I can’t blame them. There’s a lot out there that I still remain ignorant of. I’m sure we’re all a bit ill informed here and there.

    8Bitz0 ,

    Is it just me or has using a brand name as a regular noun become really common? For example, Android-based devices are just referred to as “an Android”.

    darkphotonstudio ,

    I’d argue that it really doesn’t matter. Linux has taken over everything else. And the more MS fucks up, the more likely people will look for alternatives. I do believe many will go to Mac, but Linux is clearly picking up some of the slack as well. Microsoft wouldn’t be the first tech company to take a tumble. Never say never.

    iegod ,

    When windows 10 stops working is the better chance. Even then, not convinced it’ll be year of Linux.

    captain_aggravated ,
    @captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

    I once ran a poll on Reddit asking why people switched to Linux. More people responded it was because Microsoft launched a new hated version of Windows than Microsoft discontinued an old beloved version. ie more people switched because Win 8 came out than Win 7 died.

    Zink ,

    I get the sense that both of those two things are somewhat true here. They’re getting rid of 10, and people want to avoid 11.

    8Bitz0 ,

    I’m pretty sure 95% of people don’t even know what Windows is. It’s just part of the computer to them.

    Zink ,

    Definitely. The context just seemed to be people who know what OSs are.

    captain_aggravated ,
    @captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

    In my family, my parents’ generation either worked in IT and spent some of their careers writing macro-assembly on punch cards, or they have no coherent answer to the question “what is an operating system?” For this latter group, I’m going to be their sysadmin either way, and I no longer sysadmin Windows.

    Everyone in my generation are pretty computer literate; I think I program in the most languages but my cousins all know what file systems are, could put together a household budget in Excel, know how to install software etc. A few of my cousins are in that “mostly use Windows for gaming and Ubisoft/EA aren’t great companies” phase where Linux is still a bit inconvenient.

    My niece, the only representative of her generation in my family, has a reasonable child’s grasp on computers. She’s used iOS and ChromeOS and Windows and Linux, so I’m pretty sure she understands the same hardware can run different software. Not sure how deep that understanding goes but she’s a kid she has time to learn.

    toastal ,

    I dual-booted for a while & was on Microsoft Windows 7. I was using it less & less–usually just to play specific game. When MS Windows 10 was announced with an all new set of privacy invasive features on by default & 7 was going to be phased out, & as I got older with less time I wanted to spend with games, I decided to completely pull the plug on Microsoft & saying that there were enough games out there that worked on Linux (Proton infancy) that if Linux support wasn’t out of the box, I would just choose something else. The same will happen with some folks as 10 support is pulled–where if I thought 10 was too privacy-invasive, 11 + Recall is a nightmare.

    captain_aggravated ,
    @captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Yeah, my hypothesis is that most of the folks who will object to Windows 11’s bullshit enough to switch to Linux already have by now. There likely will be another bump in transitions at Win 10’s EoL but not as many as who have switched since the rollout of Win 11 already.

    Trainguyrom ,

    My dad switched for vista, I switched for 10 for a while. Who knows, maybe I’ll switch for 11 too

    nucleative ,

    Anybody seriously believing this has a misunderstanding of how little people care about what OS they use and how much they care that it works the way they expect.

    Pilferjinx ,

    Most people don’t. But if they keep chipping away their customers, Linux might reach a threshold where it’s more convenient to switch.

    ZILtoid1991 ,
    • A non-AI generated image - it communicates to artists that they’re not welcome, while Linux is getting there in support for artists (Krita, LMMS, etc.).
    • A debugger with a GUI - no, I don’t care about writing shell scripts to automate debugging.
    • Server-side decorations on Gnome - just add an option for it FFS!
    • A way to easily recover from a crash during an update - I was lucky that I could do it from the command line, but my Ubuntu still likes to crash the VM host if I open Nautilus.
    • Drivers.
    • Linux devs not throwing a temper tantrum for a driver not being GPL. I know, that would be the ideal, but corporations gonna corporate.

    Also web-native apps are a web 2.0 mistake, and lead to the abandonment of many portable GUI frameworks in favor of the “what if your pops didn’t had to install Word Processor, and instead just had to type wordprocessor.com into his browser” idea of some techbro. Do you know why your ÜBERGAMERMOUSE Ultrautility is 250+MB? Because they’re all Electron apps!

    furycd001 ,
    @furycd001@lemmy.ml avatar

    I honestly don’t care about dethroning windows or anything related to it. All that matters to me is that my Linux system works the way I need it to…

    riskable ,
    @riskable@programming.dev avatar

    You say that because you don’t realize the benefits:

    • Better support for Linux with any new PC hardware on day 1. This includes things like USB devices, monitors, KVMs, UPS, everything.
    • Better support for all commercial software in general. More software will become available and it’ll be higher quality.
    • Vendors will be forced to test all their stuff on Linux which means it’ll all become more reliable and less glitchy.
    • There will be more diversity in software and distros which means widespread attacks (aka hacking, worms, viruses, etc) will have less success and smaller impacts.
    • The more Linux users there are the more Linux developers will result. It’s also much easier to start learning how to code on a Linux desktop than it is in Windows.
    • Better security for the entire world. Linux has a vastly superior security architecture than Windows and a vastly superior track record. The more Linux users there are, the harder it will be for malicious entities to break into their PCs which translates into a more secure world.
    • It’s much easier (for experienced users) to troubleshoot and fix problems in Linux than in Windows. This will lead to support teams everywhere getting frustrated whenever they have to deal with Windows users (this is already the case for many software vendors, haha). Therefore, it makes support people happy and easy going. Who doesn’t want to reach a happy, helpful person for technical support instead of the usual defiant/adversarial support tech? 😁
    • The worst sorts of hardware vendors won’t be able to get away with their usual bullshit. For example, if there were enough Linux users HP wouldn’t be offering extremely invasive 2GB printer “drivers” because their Windows customers would know enough Linux users that they’d be rightfully pissed and not depressively submissive like they are now.
    • When you do have a problem it will be easier to find a solution because the likelihood that someone else already had it and posted a solution will be higher (though admittedly this factor doesn’t seem to do much for Windows currently because of how obtuse and obfuscated everything is in that OS).

    There’s actually a lot more reasons but that’s probably enough for now 😁

    AceFuzzLord ,

    better security for the entire world…

    The moment Linux takes over as a dominant desktop/laptop OS we’ll start seeing a metric ton of the windows hackers follow suit to attack us. We’ll end up in a situation where they’ll probably go after some random kernel bugs that nobody else.has found yet or just don’t think are critical/exploitable. Or they’ll just attack the biggest, most widely used distros, going after people using them and any derivative distro similar enough for their malicious tools to work on it.

    In general though, it would be a good thing for Linux to become a lot more prominent in the desktop/laptop market for general users. Especially since I imagine thanks to Linux being open source, people would be able to stop these malicious actors from doing damage much quicker (even though I imagine the majority of normal people switching over would almost never update because they’re used to forced updates and not having to do it themselves).

    Strepto ,
    @Strepto@sh.itjust.works avatar

    People don’t realize this enough.

    There will be just as many vulnerabilities found with Linux distros as there are with Windows as soon as there’s real interest in finding them.

    Not saying we should stop linux adoption or anything, but there’s a massive illusion that Linux is more secure. It isn’t.

    reddithalation ,

    I mean it might be more secure, it might be less secure, we just can’t read through the source for windows, so we won’t know until linux is attacked as much as windows. It would (will?) definitely be interesting to find out.

    GenderNeutralBro ,

    There will be more diversity in software and distros

    I wish, but I doubt it. If we get to the point where there is a mass migration from Windows to Linux, it will almost certainly be concentrated into one or maybe two big distros. Probably Ubuntu.

    Today, most proprietary software vendors only support Ubuntu and RHEL. Look at AMD. The ROCm installer supports Ubuntu 22.04, RHEL 9, and SLES. That’s it. Not even modern versions of Ubuntu. And it’s extremely ornery about dependencies. Python 3.8 or 3.10 required! No 3.9! No 3.11! Trying to get it to install on any modern Debian-based distro is the ninth circle of Dependency Hell.

    olympicyes ,

    Right now it’s sort of up to Nvidia and Wayland. Desktop sound is in good shape, desktop color (profiles and matching) and fonts are not there yet. Ray tracing and hdr have proven how much of a second class citizen desktop Linux is, so right now the most important factor is the SteamDeck for pushing the envelope to implement new tech. Chinese and German goverments moving to Linux helps but to be honet, I think that the “office and browser” use case is pretty well covered.

    mycodesucks , (edited )
    @mycodesucks@lemmy.world avatar

    Possibly. But it’s also pretty common in many instances of technology adoption that as more users come, the quality gets worse, and while open source doesn’t have to worry about a shareholder-driven profit motive driving it, it’s still easy to wind up with a muddled focus. I wouldn’t expect that Linux and all of the associated software projects that make the functional desktop are going to be an exception overall. If you’re an open source developer working on a project now, basically any user is some form of power user, and it’s easier to find consensus of what to prioritize on a project not only because Linux users tend to be better about understanding how their software works and are actually helpful in further development, they’re also likely to direct development towards features that make software more open, compatible, and useful.

    Now fast forward to a future where Linux is the majority desktop OS, those power users are maybe 5% of the software’s user base, and every major project’s forum is inundated with thousands of users screaming about how hard the software is to use and, when bug reports and feature requests are actually coherent, they mostly boil down to demands for simpler, easier to understand UIs. I can easily imagine the noise alone could lead to an exodus of frustrated developers.

    Some things are better for NOT trying to be the answer for everyone.

    polle ,

    Because here are many people who did a switch to linux. How did you handle using a cad software like solidworks or fusion360 after switching to linux?

    bam13302 ,

    Same thing for any other software, see if you can get it running in wine, and see what the alternatives are and try them out until you find a solution you like. You need to accept there may be change, and may need to experiment and hit up Google to find solutions, but solutions do exist.

    From a quick Google search, i found about 4/5 potential open source options

    FreeCAD would probably be what I try first, but it’s hardly the only option and seen some people complain that it feels archaic (but it’s FOSS). I’ve also seen draftsight recommended a few times, and it has a free trial but is not free.

    Also apparently fusion360 has a web interface that may be usable.

    reddithalation ,

    freecad is horrible, not really worth trying.

    I’ve heard of people getting fusion 360 running great with a snap, but others say it has issues. the github for it is being actively maintained, so thats a good sign at least.

    I tried to get siemens solid edge working through wine, but it was mostly broken and I didn’t dig too deep into troubleshooting, I just dualboot windows for fussy programs and anticheats

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