Linux has over 6% of the desktop market

[Mæstro]

Is there an easy to install theme available to get this appearance?

B00merang’s theme, of course. Some slight editing of the CSS for the Windows 7 start menu, itself installed through Cinnamon’s applets, is needed to prevent it popping up and down by a few pixels.

[Night Wing]

@ andyprough

I am familiar with "dolphin_oracle's" videos. I like his videos because he explains things in "plain english" instead of "computer speak" which is beyond me in comprehension.

He made a very nice video on: "MX 16 - Make A Snapshot Of An Installed System". I think you might have seen it, but even if you have, this video might be interesting to others who are using a different linux distro and maybe to some "lurkers" on here who might be interested in MX.

An old video, but the information in it still works.

The video is about 16 minutes long, but I found it interesting coming from a "newly advanced user", me and not a power user.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExVkxXcVDAw

[andyprough]

He made a very nice video on: "MX 16 - Make A Snapshot Of An Installed System". I think you might have seen it, but even if you have, this video might be interesting to others who are using a different linux distro and maybe to some "lurkers" on here who might be interested in MX.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExVkxXcVDAw

Another good one, and a great reason to always keep an MX Live USB handy, is about the MX Live Boot Rescue feature: https://invidious.perennialte.ch/watch?v=KQxHFeXlnwI
With MX Live Boot Rescue, I've been able to rescue lots of distros when they fail to boot for some reason, with just a couple of mouse clicks.

Tools like these can make you look like a power user even when you aren't really.

[Night Wing]

Another good one, and a great reason to always keep an MX Live USB handy, is about the MX Live Boot Rescue feature: https://invidious.perennialte.ch/watch?v=KQxHFeXlnwI
With MX Live Boot Rescue, I've been able to rescue lots of distros when they fail to boot for some reason, with just a couple of mouse clicks.

Tools like these can make you look like a power user even when you aren't really.

I clicked on your Invidious link, but unfortunately I got the prompt; "The requested service could not be found". But when I transform into a "blood hound on a blood hunt", this makes me "persistent". So I went to YouTube and I found this video below which deals with the "MX Live Boot Rescue".

And I do believe this one is the exact same video which "was" on Invidious, but now no more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQxHFeXlnwI

[andyprough]

And I do believe this one is the exact same video which "was" on Invidious, but now no more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQxHFeXlnwI

Yes, you can tell, the "watch?v=KQxHFeXlnwI" at the end tells you the video identifier. Invidious uses the same video identifiers for the same videos as youtube.

[athenian200]

So, does that actually mean more people out of the same sized pool are using Linux, or is it just that people who used to use Windows are having their old computers die, dropping off the statistics, and using Android or iOS exclusively? So that the type of people who use Linux now make up a disproportionate share of desktop users.

I mean, I always feared this narrative would come about when the total number of people using desktop PCs dropped low enough, and the old "Linux PC desktop revolution" thing might be used as an excuse to kill off Windows in favor of Linux, much as the statistics for Chrome over IE were likely initially being pushed more by increasing numbers of Android phones rather than Chrome being more popular on Windows, and then used as a justification to optimize websites for Chrome.

All I can say is... maybe it would have been a good thing if Linux had been more polished in the 2000s and people had adopted it back then, maybe it could have done some actual good. But modern Linux is an awful, Rust-based disaster with all kinds of nonsense like systemd and Wayland wrecking everything. I'm not exactly excited to see it succeed, with the legacy of killing backwards compatibility and succeeding mostly by default because there's probably not enough money in Windows for Microsoft to bother maintaining it as a consumer OS anymore.

Not to say there aren't a few Windows 7 diehards who finally switched to Linux, or even disillusioned Windows 11 users who went Linux. But I think those angry "rebels" joining an old revolt against Windows sucking from the 1990s and 2000s may well have less to do with it than simply older PCs dying or becoming unusable, and people not replacing them because their smartphone, smart TV, smartwatch, and tablet do everything they need.

Best case scenario with this, Linux becomes the default OS the way Chrome is the default browser, mainstream Linux distros become targets of viruses and start to look more like Windows 11 for a variety of reasons, people will say "it's open source" if you don't like the direction, and stuff like BSD or illumos becomes where all the people unhappy with mainstream computing wind up.

[Night Wing]

@ athenian200

Most of my comments are going to be directed to me using Linux on a desktop tower computer. Now to the heart of the matter.

I love desktop tower computers. Why? They come with at least a two or three hard drive bay. A person can dual boot Windows and Mint or Mint and MX Linux if Windows is "not to their liking". But a business mid tower desktop is a lot smaller than a gaming mid tower desktop.

What I did was take the motherboard out of my old HP mid tower desktop and put it in a larger gaming Montech Air 903 Max mid tower desktop "case". Attached to the old motherboard was a Intel 12th generation i7 processor with a speed of (3.60). Ditto for the heat sink with fan. Ditto for the two laptop sized 2.5 SSD's. Ditto for the power supply.

The Montech case came with a fan hub and four, 140 mm fans for air control. Cost for this case was ($89.00). I added to the old motherboard another 32 GB of memory giving me a total of 64 GB of memory. Cost for more memory was around ($90.00). The motherboard has two more empty memory slots since this motherboard can access up to 128 GB of memory. But having that much memory is "overkill" for me.

The next thing I added was a refurbished AMD graphics card which cost ($129.00). So for $308 I have a new/old desktop tower computer. And the specifications for this computer are below. In Sensors, do notice the temperature of the computer processor and the amdgpu fan speed. This is one very quiet computer (noise wise) and it runs cool temperature wise.

Code: Select all

[CODE]System:
  Kernel: 6.12.63+deb13-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.0 clocksource: tsc
    avail: hpet,acpi_pm parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.12.63+deb13-amd64 root=UUID=<filter>
    ro quiet splash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.48 wm: xfwm4 v: 4.20.0 with: xfce4-panel tools:
    avail: xfce4-screensaver vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-25_Xfce_x64 Infinity Nov 9 2025
    base: Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: MAG B660M MORTAR WIFI DDR4 (MS-7D42) v: 1.0
    serial: <superuser required> uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: 1.M0
    date: 04/17/2025
CPU:
  Info: model: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700K bits: 64 type: MST AMCP arch: Alder Lake gen: core 12
    level: v3 note: check built: 2021+ process: Intel 7 (10nm ESF) family: 6 model-id: 0x97 (151)
    stepping: 2 microcode: 0x3D
  Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 9 cores: 12 threads: 20 mt: 8 tpc: 2 st: 4 smt: enabled
    cache: L1: 1024 KiB desc: d-4x32 KiB, 8x48 KiB; i-8x32 KiB, 4x64 KiB L2: 12 MiB
    desc: 8x1.2 MiB, 1x2 MiB L3: 25 MiB desc: 1x25 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/4900:5000:3800 scaling: driver: intel_pstate
    governor: powersave cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 9: 800 10: 800
    11: 800 12: 800 13: 800 14: 800 15: 800 16: 800 17: 800 18: 800 19: 800 20: 800
    bogomips: 144383
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: indirect_target_selection status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling mitigation: Clear Register File
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced / Automatic IBRS; IBPB: conditional; PBRSB-eIBRS: SW
    sequence; BHI: BHI_DIS_S
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsa status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
  Type: vmscape mitigation: IBPB before exit to userspace
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel AlderLake-S GT1 vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: i915 v: kernel alternate: xe
    arch: Xe process: Intel 10nm built: 2020-21 ports: active: none empty: DP-1, DP-2, HDMI-A-1,
    HDMI-A-2, HDMI-A-3, HDMI-A-4 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:4680 class-ID: 0380
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Vega 10 XL/XT [Radeon RX 56/64]
    vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-5 code: Vega process: GF 14nm
    built: 2017-20 pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: HDMI-A-5
    empty: DP-3,DP-4,DP-5 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:687f class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.16 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.20.0 driver: X:
    loaded: amdgpu,modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0.0
    screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 509x286mm (20.04x11.26") s-diag: 584mm (22.99")
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-5 mapped: HDMI-A-4 model: ViewSonic VX3276-FHD serial: <filter> built: 2022
    res: mode: 1920x1080 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 70 gamma: 1.2 size: 698x393mm (27.48x15.47")
    diag: 801mm (31.5") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel iris drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi
    device: 1 drv: iris device: 2 drv: swrast gbm: drv: kms_swrast surfaceless: drv: radeonsi x11:
    drv: radeonsi inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.0.7-2 glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes
    renderer: AMD Radeon RX Vega (radeonsi vega10 ACO DRM 3.61 6.12.63+deb13-amd64)
    device-ID: 1002:687f memory: 7.81 GiB unified: no
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.309 layers: 3 device: 0 type: discrete-gpu name: AMD Radeon RX Vega (RADV
    VEGA10) driver: mesa radv v: 25.0.7-2 device-ID: 1002:687f surfaces: xcb,xlib device: 1
    type: integrated-gpu name: Intel UHD Graphics 770 (ADL-S GT1) driver: mesa intel v: 25.0.7-2
    device-ID: 8086:4680 surfaces: xcb,xlib device: 2 type: cpu name: llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7 256
    bits) driver: mesa llvmpipe v: 25.0.7-2 (LLVM 19.1.7) device-ID: 10005:0000 surfaces: xcb,xlib
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo de: xfce4-display-settings x11: xdriinfo,
    xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-S HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    alternate: snd_soc_avs,snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:7ad0 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Vega 10 HDMI Audio [Radeon 56/64]
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 03:00.1
    chip-ID: 1002:aaf8 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.12.63+deb13-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.5 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-S PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel modules: wl bus-ID: 00:14.3
    chip-ID: 8086:7af0 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 2
    speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 4000 bus-ID: 05:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8125 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Info: services: NetworkManager, nfsd, systemd-networkd, wpa_supplicant
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX201 Bluetooth driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1
    mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-14:7 chip-ID: 8087:0026 class-ID: e001
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 5.2 lmp-v: 11
    sub-v: 37c8 hci-v: 11 rev: 37c8 class-ID: 6c0104
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:4 sco-mtu: 96:6 link-policy: rswitch sniff link-mode: peripheral accept
    service-classes: rendering, capturing, audio, telephony
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 912.89 GiB used: 19.31 GiB (2.1%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: SanDisk model: SSD PLUS 480GB size: 447.13 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 04RL
    scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 870 EVO 500GB size: 465.76 GiB
    block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s tech: SSD serial: <filter>
    fw-rev: 2B6Q scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 446.88 GiB size: 438.79 GiB (98.19%) used: 19.3 GiB (4.4%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 8.7 MiB (3.5%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: no
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 28.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 38.0 C mem: 42.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 698
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2450 libs: 1309 tools: apt, apt-get, aptitude, nala, synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie main  contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ trixie-security main  contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    3: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie-updates  main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.sources
    1: deb https://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ trixie main non-free
Info:
  Memory: total: 64 GiB available: 62.53 GiB used: 2.03 GiB (3.2%)
  Processes: 425 Power: uptime: 5h 21m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep avail: s2idle
    wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot, suspend, test_resume image: 24.96 GiB
    services: upowerd,xfce4-power-manager Init: systemd v: 257 default: graphical tool: systemctl
  Compilers: gcc: 14.2.0 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.37-release inxi: 3.3.38
Boot Mode: UEFI

This Montech tower is connected to a 32" external monitor. I would never use a smartphone to do anything computer wise since a smartphone screen, I consider it "tiny" in size compared to my external montior. Ditto for a tablet. My three laptops are 14" in size, but these three laptops are used for "traveling" away from home.

If you want to see a Montech desktop computer case and get an indepth "detailed" review of one (empty of course), the video is below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTUa0lhoJLQ

And if you want to see an actual build using a Montech Base, not a Max, that video is below. The Base and Max case are the same size.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGmr4GrpKtY

If you are using Windows 10 or 11, you've activated Windows Defender or a different third party anti-virus program. In the 13 years I have been running linux distros, I have "never" installed any linux anti-virus programs.

Windows is proprietary, but many Linux distros are open source which means a power user in linux who is a coder sees "everything". But one idiot tried it and he got caught real fast.

This guy was one of the volunteer maintainers for the Debian distro. He went rogue and decided to place some malware code in Debian (12.6). Like I said, he got caught by some power user (coders) maintainers. This was the main reason why Debian 12.6 was delayed for two months from being released on time.

Every piece of software (code) this rogue person worked on for Debian 12.6 was reviewed by other maintainers in the know. The good maintainers took out every piece of code the rogue had worked on and put in Debian (12.6).

And this guy was banned from the entire linux community. Last I heard, the rumor was this guy went to the Dark Web to make a living by "theft of people's information and money" and he was targeting users who are running the Windows operating system.

[andyprough]

But modern Linux is an awful, Rust-based disaster with all kinds of nonsense like systemd and Wayland wrecking everything.

Pale Moon's own Steve Pusser makes a wonderful distro called MX that allows you to comfortably avoid these things you claim to despise. Not that you actually care. But if you did care and weren't just grumpy Illumos guy shaking your fist at the clouds, then yes, you would have a very nice option.

[Moonchild]

But modern Linux is an awful, Rust-based disaster with all kinds of nonsense like systemd and Wayland wrecking everything.

Pale Moon's own Steve Pusser makes a wonderful distro called MX that allows you to comfortably avoid these things you claim to despise. Not that you actually care. But if you did care and weren't just grumpy Illumos guy shaking your fist at the clouds, then yes, you would have a very nice option.

I think the point he was trying to make was in the context of this thread, which means baseline/mainstream adoption of Linux as a desktop operating system. And mainstream distros are just barrelling ahead with not always the most sane decisions. If that makes one a grumpy guy shaking his fist at clouds, then so be it. I'm just thinking those "clouds" are not as wispy and there's something to be said about the whole situation. Just because alternative distros exist that allow someone to avoid what mainstream does, doesn't make the points any less valid.

[Mæstro]

As far as Athenian’s suspicion about smartphones displacing desktops is concerned, the latest US figures suggest this has levelled off in the last few years.

Pale Moon's own Steve Pusser makes a wonderful distro called MX that allows you to comfortably avoid these things…

You perked my interest in MX. Looking into it revealed it is based on AntiX, itself based on Debian and accepting of Debian software! Somehow, I had the wrong idea hitherto that AntiX was an independent distro like Void. Hence, I can disregard Devuan and, when considering future OS installations, take my choice between Debian proper and AntiX.

[mr tribute]

athenian200 is probably well-meaning, but with Linux you can choose whatever init (several inits are currently maintained by less well-known distros) you want and whatever display server/protocol (X.org, Xlibre, Wayland) you want.

Based on GitHub it seems illumos doesn't have much software support, but with Linux you get pretty much everything that is mainstream except software from Adobe and Microsoft Office. You can use WinBoat or WinApps to integrate Windows-only software on you Linux desktop.

systemd might be necessary for certain apps, but for 95 % of apps it isn't an issue. At least Linux users can avoid Windows as a daily driver (if they want to). All the (FOSS) innovation is happening in Linux-land. Show me anything that can match MX live-USBs or Chrom(ium)OS or Android.

They all chose the Linux kernel so they can create whatever they want. Are some of the innovations bad? Yes, maybe, but it's better than using 20 - 30 year old tech forever. A lot of new tech has actually manifested in these years. Compare Windows 2000 and Windows 11. The latter is usable with today’s hardware and form factors, the former isn’t. Linux is also evolving with the times, but nobody is forcing you to use systemd or Wayland.

At the end of the day people just want a FOSS alternative to Windows and something Linux-based is currently the only realistic answer.

[Mæstro]

Are some of the innovations bad? Yes, maybe, but it's better than using 20 - 30 year old tech forever. A lot of new tech has actually manifested in these years. Compare Windows 2000 and Windows 11. The latter is usable with today’s hardware and form factors, the former isn’t. Linux is also evolving with the times…

I should cordially disagree. I appreciated that ReactOS’s goal has traditionally been to target Windows Server 2003, and when I look at Windows 2000 and XP, I think to myself that the end of the Ⅱ^nd millennium, or the dawn of the Ⅲ^rd, should have been the ideal time to fix technical standards intended for permanence. My habits, as I have said before, are such that I could revert to these systems in principle if only my security were guaranteed. Only recently could I learn from official sources that Windows’ mainstream and extended phases of support refer to those times when feature updates are included, and those when only security updates occur. The latter are all that ever interested me; the former are often unwanted changes forced upon me from without. Appropriately, my favourite living things tend to be those which have remained unchanged for scores of millions of years or longer. My favourite tree is the maidenhair.

[Lucio Chiappetti]

But modern Linux is an awful, Rust-based disaster with all kinds of nonsense like systemd and Wayland w

Not sure about what is modern, the determined pre-modern user (like me coming from Unix) can customize most things to be as he used it (and quite CPU-light). I do not use and do not intend to use Wayland, as X11 with some plain window manager is a nice and light way to customize one's own windowing environment (much lighter than the Desktop Environments most users confuse with a given Linux flavour) ... and I believe Wayland would not allow the remote desktop usages I need.

A normal user has little to interact with systemd. It is just "another way to start services at boot" instead of the init.d former way. Reminds me when Unix vendors were divided between BSD-like and Sys V-like (SunOs 4 to Solaris for instance did the change).

[UCyborg]

Computer related things are hardly static. It used to be worse in some ways, was it not? Parody song It's All About The Pentiums comes to mind.

My new computer's got the clocks, it rocks
But it was obsolete before I opened the box

How much of the changes are just because people have to have jobs, I wonder.

[Moonchild]

How much of the changes are just because people have to have jobs, I wonder.

Entire industries are built on "change for the sake of change"... Something I never agreed with and will never agree with.

[Night Wing]

You perked my interest in MX. Looking into it revealed it is based on AntiX, itself based on Debian and accepting of Debian software! Somehow, I had the wrong idea hitherto that AntiX was an independent distro like Void. Hence, I can disregard Devuan and, when considering future OS installations, take my choice between Debian proper and AntiX.

If you decide to take MX for a test drive via in Live mode, just remember MX's flagship desktop environment is Xfce.

https://mxlinux.org/download-links/

Also, with 64 bit, there will two downloads for the two isos' you should be aware of. The download iso below comes with "systemd" just in case you do NOT want systemd so avoid it.

Code: Select all

MX-25_Xfce_x64

The other download is "not" systemd, but sysvinit and the download code for this one is below.

Code: Select all

MX-25_Xfce_sysvinit_x64

The Fluxbox DE is also available with or without systemd.

[athenian200]

Pale Moon's own Steve Pusser makes a wonderful distro called MX that allows you to comfortably avoid these things you claim to despise. Not that you actually care. But if you did care and weren't just grumpy Illumos guy shaking your fist at the clouds, then yes, you would have a very nice option.

Sorry if that's how I came across, and I'm not intending to disparage Linux distributions like MX. There are those doing the best they can with what they have, and I'm sure that work will benefit some people. I just feel like people are missing the forest for the trees a bit when focusing on all the choice that seems to be there on Linux at the moment. It would be like if in 2015, you were focusing on how much choice there is with Firefox at the moment and how healthy the extension ecosystem seems to be.

A lot of what I don't like about modern Linux is in fact decisions made by the kernel developers and other core libraries and utilities. So when I criticize Linux, I really do mean the actual kernel project to some degree, and not as much the cool distro maintainers. A lot of the issues I complain about will be avoidable for years by sticking with older versions of various things, or long-term maintenance versions. Maybe I'm borrowing trouble and by the time this becomes a real problem, someone will have created a hard fork of the kernel and all the small distros like MX will use that, who knows?

As far as Athenian’s suspicion about smartphones displacing desktops is concerned, the latest US figures suggest this has levelled off in the last few years.

Well, if it's not that, then I would presume it's mostly SteamOS bringing gamers over to Linux? Possibly via the Steam deck. I guess I'd have to do more research to know, but in any case I guess the wiser thing to use my time and energy for is preparing for more people to use the Linux version of various things and expect support accordingly.

I will also add that I wouldn't advise anyone to base their entire opinion of Linux on my attitude towards it. I've been burned by it as both a user and developer more than a few times, and I'm a bit negative towards it. I don't claim to be unbiased by any means, and can agree reluctantly that power users interested in moving away from Windows should at least take a look at it, preferably on an older secondary computer that can't run Windows 11 or inside a VM before committing to it as a daily driver on your newest computer.

[moonbat]

How much of the changes are just because people have to have jobs, I wonder.

Entire industries are built on "change for the sake of change"... Something I never agreed with and will never agree with.

Google Chrome has been singlehandedly providing employment to web developers since it arrived, with its insane pace of adding breaking changes and turning the standards into a suggestion.

[Mæstro]

I would presume it's mostly SteamOS bringing gamers over to Linux? Possibly via the Steam deck.

This is possible, if only we knew how much Steam Deck users browse the net to be sniffed by Statcounter and friends. I wonder how we could separate Steam OS from other distros, short of its agent declaring itself like Chrome OS. My artist friend had bought a Steam Deck some weeks ago and is content with it, but he sees it as a console. (His professional work requires certain software which is only available in Windows or Mac, and which breaks in Wine.) Despite using a Steam Deck, he is no more a Linux user than any Android holder.

Comparing Linux to consoles led to another curious discovery. Linux with Proton supports about twice as many games as the Switch 1 and 2, the current Xbox and PlayStation 4 and 5 combined, and more games have been verified with Proton than any single console. As long as the Proton verifiers have not been stuffing their tally with cheap asset flips, this means that Linux really can offer the breadth that players expect from the popular consoles, which only bodes well for other applications’ support.

Google Chrome has been singlehandedly providing employment to web developers since it arrived, with its insane pace of adding breaking changes and turning the standards into a suggestion.

It happens quite often that I look to whole industries and think to myself that all of us would be better off if anyone employed in that field were instead paid to stay home and do nothing. This is one regular example.

[mr tribute]

One could say that all the sub-systems in Windows are a little more polished than the sub-systems in Linux. I’m referring to audio, video, service management, driver installation etc.

One could say the NT kernel is better than the Linux kernel.

Please don’t quote my statements above, because reality is more nuanced than that.

But still, when Windows users complain about Linux subsystems it rubs me the wrong way, because I think they have completely missed the point.

The point of desktop Linux isn’t world domination and world-class workstations. The point is to offer an alternative to proprietary software.

Windows users complain about systemd. Fair enough. Systemd isn’t without faults. But the complaints lack substance compared to service management in Windows.

In Windows you have all these svchost.exe processes. What are they? Should I kill one of them or maybe all when I encounter a problem?

With systemd there is no such thing. It’s easy to identify services and what they do. It’s easy to kill, disable or mask services. Systemd is transparent and FOSS.

Systemd itself doesn’t make any external network connections. I checked with opensnitch in Debian 13.

Systemd isn’t my preferred init, but it is more transparent than service management in Windows or in Android.


So on to Rust. There have been experiments with Rust in the Linux kernel. They were deemed successful. These are small-scale experiments. Nothing like what is happening in Windows:

“Microsoft is taking an impressive step in modernizing its biggest codebases and will eliminate all C/C++ code by the end of the decade, replacing it with Rust.”

“My goal is to eliminate every line of C and C++ from Microsoft by 2030,” Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Galen Hunt writes in a post on LinkedIn. “Our strategy is to combine AI and Algorithms to rewrite Microsoft’s largest codebases. Our North Star is ‘1 engineer, 1 month, 1 million lines of code.’ To accomplish this previously unimaginable task, we’ve built a powerful code processing infrastructure. Our algorithmic infrastructure creates a scalable graph over source code at scale. Our AI processing infrastructure then enables us to apply AI agents, guided by algorithms, to make code modifications at scale. The core of this infrastructure is already operating at scale on problems such as code understanding.”

https://www.thurrott.com/dev/330980/mic ... st-by-2030

It’s easy to sit in front of a Windows computer and throw stones at Linux, because Windows is a pretty polished operating system.

But then you have forgotten the FOSS aspect that will ensure that you have more transparency and privacy in front of a Linux-based system. With Linux you are in control (if you want to).

Maybe I should mention Wayland. It might be garbage, I don’t really know. It will always be optional. Xlibre is where X11 development happens these days.