Okay, I guess I’ll say it. Year of Linux Desktop!
Every year from now until the end of time.
I will never get tired of Year of Linux Desktopping!
So every year till 2038. XD
Whew, I was getting worried we were one day into 2024 and nobody said this yet.
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This is very good. The higher those numbers go, the more pressure there will be for better official support for both HW and SW.
FOSS is fantastic. But lack of options (FOSS or paid) for a few of my use cases keeps me stapled to Windows and WSL. Unfortunately. I’m hoping the momentum shifts.
If literally any Adobe competitor released a product for Linux they’d dominate that niche.
I tend to agree. And people need to realize that Adobe’s secret sauce is not in their apps, it’s in the multi-device interoperability. I love lightroom, but it’s not the photo editing ability (darkroom has that), rather it’s the fact that I can seamlessly work the same catalogue from any device (even if I don’t use their cloud for anything but smart previews).
I think Adobe would cash in if they supported Linux - for want of a workable alternative, I’d even pay them.
Music device manufacturers need to support Linux too. NI Maschine (and others) is simply a non-starter…
It really depends, but some tools would really do that. DaVinci Resolve, for example, has a pretty bad Linux distribution support and format, all things considered, and it’s still the go-to video editor for Linux users, despite all of the issues.
Kdenlive and shotcut are also great.
They really are, but still leagues behind the features (and online learning material) compared to Resolve. I love both of them, but still, when I need to get to work with video, I still prefer to deal with Resolve’s limitations than to deal with Kdenlive or Shotcut.
Fair enough! My only work with video has been very lightweight stuff and I haven’t needed much else. Shotcut definitely has quirks, though I know it a lot better than kdenlive. Have not played enough with Resolve to comment, though I have it on my list to try when the opportunity presents itself.
gimp noises
I say this as a foss proponent… gimp sucks ass.
Now, Inkscape is Goat, but Gimp is nigh unusable.
When was the last time you used it? The newer versions are better and with Gimp 3 there will be many improvements.
A month ago. Still crap then
I guess that’s fair. It works fine for me when I use it occasionally.
Stable or development branch?
That name though
There are lots of individual applications that do pretty well in and of themselves (darktable, gimp, krita, etc.) they have varying degrees of niceness. But what Adobe can do has no analogue in Linux land (paid or not) - it’s the multi-device interoperability. It makes for unparalleled workflow. I am not an advocate your Adobe - I really wish there was someone else that did it, and I believe it is something worth paying for. Figma maybe? (but it’s all cloud and was nearly knocked out by Adobe…)
(FWIW, I’ve never found gimp to be pleasant to use, but that is only my own subjective experience. Others like it and that’s a good thing.)
FOSS or paid
I hope you know the difference between Free(Libre) and Free(gratis)
I suppose what I mean is that i am happy to select whatever software is best for the task at hand. I have no issue with paying for software if it serves my needs. In a few cases, that limits my options to running windows as commercial versions are unavailable on Linux, and it is my hope that more commercial orgs start making their wares available for Linux, especially in cases where there’s no available alternative.
As for splitting hairs on the difference between gratis and libre, life’s too short (so if I used incorrect terminology, c’est la vie…)
I guess you don’t know its difference.
Free software means freedom and not the price. There are paid free software.
By defenition, free software is software that satisfy 4 essential freedoms
Freedom 0: Freedom to run the program any way you want on any of your devices
Freedom 1: To see and study how the program works and change it according to your needs. Source code of the entire program should be visible for this freedom
Freedom 2: Freedom to share copies of the original program(sharing is caring)
Freedom 3: Freedom to share copies of the modified version which you adapted to your needs such that whole community can benefit from your modifications
So yeah this is Free software, and when you say FOSS, its not about the price, but the freedom and control you get with the software. Why is this important? Because theese non-free softwares are taking away our freedom by even limiting “us” from using our “own” devices(DRM, locked bootloader, etc.), and it will be too late to realise how most proprietary softwares we use, and ones we are forced to use, captures our freedom.
FOSS or paid?
I mean, it’s no secret that the SteamDeck is a huge reason why. Praise Gaben, may we game on every platform equally.
I’ve seriously been writing down the pros and cons thinking about switching over to Linux on my main desktop at home. It covers all the games I play now. I was very surprised.
Without the games to hold me back, I don’t see why I wouldn’t.
Follow Up: I’m on Linux mint! And my two favorite Windows games work just fine with zero configuration with Steam.
Do it. I switched a couple of months ago. I hated it at first, then cought on to what’s different. Long story short; I never want to go back to windows.
The more the number change in that direction, the more game devs will not choose to ignore non-Microsoft Windows options too moving the needle to native support. Imagine a future where a game only works after enabling WSL with command flag workarounds if you want to play on a proprietary OS 😂
My only extreme concern, is, I run a Nvidia system. And even if my current list works, I’d be concerned about future games.
Nvidia will probably be even better supported in the future and opensource drivers are getting close to proprietary feature sets.
Wayland support has also been improving in major ways so we can have fractional scaling, HDR and all those nice things soonish.
Then in general there will be an even bigger push for games to support Linux via DXVK, Wine etc to support Steam Deck.
I would recommend trying out dual boot setup for a while and then deleting Windows when you’re ready.
I know some Linux users trash talk Nvidia on Linux like it just a piece of shit. But it’s simply okay. Don’t get me wrong it’s not great. But it works.
But if you have a simple setup it will probably work. My SO PC has a rtx 2060 and one monitor and it works fine.
You can of course always dual boot. I still have windows for VR gaming and just in case. I do recommend a stable os with Nvidia (especially if you just starting out with Linux). Something like pop os. Don’t go with arch just for the meme.
With dual booting you can try Linux and test if it’s okay for you. If not just give the disk space back to windows. If not great keep using Linux.
I have used nVidia on OpenSUSE since 2017, it has been 100% fine, no issues. it may help that nVidia maintains their own OpenSUSE repo for leap and tumbleweed etc
I’m also running NVIDIA (RTX 4070), and while I did have to try drivers from a few different sources, I eventually got it working pretty quickly.
But my mistake was choosing an OS that doesn’t bundle non-free drivers (Fedora), from what I’ve heard some distros like Ubuntu come with NVIDIA support by default, so I guess that’s also an option.
Nvidia hosts their own RPM packages for OpenSUSE and I believe Fedora. On new installs it is just adding the nvidia repo
True, but iirc there are several alternatives, from different repositories, and i was unlucky enough that j choose the wrong one for the first time.
I’m on an Ubuntu derivative called Mint, and on the first boot it gave me a pop up from the driver tool recommending that I change to the proprietary driver with an option for one click automatic download and install.
You are correct that this is detected and handled.
Yeah its really awesome how many games work without a flaw on Linux now, was my main reason why I still hat a Windows Partition for a long time
Its just sad that some Multiplayer Games wont work on Linux because they want to install Spyware or something that wont work
I literally did this two weeks ago, switched Win11 for Fedora and so far it has been an amazing experience. So far, I only had to dual boot to Win once, and that was because I wanted to play some SteamVR games, which is the only thing I didn’t manage to get working (I know there’s ALVR, but SteamVR refuses to launch for me unfortunately).
Just go for it, get a new SSD drive and dual boot your choice of distro. You can always go back, and unless you use bitlocker you can just access your windows files from the Linux, so there’s not need to move stuff around that much. With dualboot, you have nothing to loose.
I don’t have money for a new SSD right now but my current SSD is mostly empty, 2TB. I turned off BitLocker to facilitate easy copying of files and because I’m pretty sure secure boot would be a pain. I’m running Linux Mint and I hope to go back into the windows install as little as possible. Maybe one day I’ll dump it entirely.
When I was part of the KDE marketing working group, we always talked about 5% being the magic number. If we hit that, then the avalanche of ported and supported third party software starts. It’s a weird chicken and egg thing. Looks like we’re close!
Its happening Troy
3.82% is actually pretty damn good. And if Windows 12 pushes us into a subscription model I can see that gap rising.
Also, if/when DirectX gets native Linux support, or DXVK/VKD3D matches the API in performance, that’ll be it.
Personally I’m thanking Valve for this.
I’m thanking yall for this. And also idk what so different in linux, but I just want apps on here. Like I can find an alternative, but I have to say it, most of the time it’s just worse. Like how do you replace AMD Software or Logitech Ghub or Realtek audio (or whatever is the deafult for win, it’s so seamless).
To add to this, I can install a standalone app for every feature that AMD Software has, but I don’t want to. And Ghub got de-drm-ed for like two mice, but I own a different one. Video recording and Audio settings are basically non-existen. Good luck changing the quality of your audio.
To add even more, I’m more and more used to these alternatives, so idk if I’ll still cry about it in a few years. Re-learning computers is such a pain. I hope I’ll be able to give linux to my kids as a norm (basically to use without terminal mastery).
Wowzer, ok, that’s seriously impressive though, like in 2022 I feel we were stuck at 2-2.5% and in 2023 we passed 3% for the first time and now we’re at almost 4??? That’s like DOUBLING the market share in a year
I was thinking the same thing. We’ve actually surpassed Apple on desktop. I know we’re gonna laughingly say “year of the Linux desktop,” but we have to honestly look how far we’ve come in a relatively short time.
mac has over 16% though, we still aren’t even close
You’re actually 100% right. I don’t know what figure I was thinking of, but you’re just right.
You might have been thinking Steam gaming. Mac was at ~5% and has dropped to ~2%
That is likely it. Okay, thank you.
It only took 40 years :')
My journey to Linux pretty much started with the reddit thing. I moved to Lemmy and started slowly eliminating corporations out of my life.
This but corps
I’m going to steal this okay?
Go for it. It was already an old, long dead meme when I posted it here.
Me too
same
2024 YEAR OF THE LINUX DESKTOP
I’m replacing a couple of really old PCs at work with slightly less old PCs and I know they don’t meet Windows 11 specs without workarounds. I’m thinking about taking the leap but I need printer support to work. Otherwise something like open office and a web browser will do what I need. What distro should I start with? I don’t have time to find a perfect fit.
Open office is a dead project, avoid at all costs. LibreOffice or OnlyOffice are active.
Probably linux mint. Everything tends to work out of the box and function the way you’d expect. If you’re used to windows then cinnamon will have a familiar feel to it. I like xfce myself, but I move things around to make it feel like windows 95.
I’ve found Mint seems to have the best default Workspace config so i use it far more on Cinnamon than I do any other DE
I’m thinking about taking the leap but I need printer support to work.
In my experience printer support in Linux is generally pretty good. Even when it doesn’t “just work” you usually need only a simple profile file from the manufacturers website that you install.
In general drivers on Linux have been way less painful for me than on Windows; most importantly you don’t need an always-running application for every crappy piece of hardware.
But you still might want to check your printer manufacturer’s website and/or make one prototype Linux PC and try everything out.
With that being said be prepared for users complaining about some workflow changes (that will be bigger with a switch to something like LibreOffice from MSO) and blaming every issue of theirs on Linux and you.
Linux mint provides the best overall user experience including drivers support
Please, don’t use Open Office. Dev essentially halted on it years ago when it was forked o LibreOffice. Use LibreOffice instead. The Open Office project seems to still exist to trick people into using old software.
Why that thing is still around is a mystery at this point.
I’d say keep it basic with Ubuntu. It’s not exciting, but it ‘just works’ out of the box and there’s TONs of support if you can’t figure something out.
2nd. Ubuntu is the place to be if you want your best chances for immediate compatibility, and search results will favor your popular configuration if you have issues.
3rd, but I recommend getting the kde variety (used to be called kubuntu). This will give you the most windows like experience. Regular Ubuntu ships with gnome and has a different feel to it.
Also, gnome suxxxxxxxxxxx! There, I said it!
I love KDE, but Kubuntu is a buggy mess, at least it was a year ago when I last tried it.
Honestly, the best implementation I’ve seen is Manjaro’s, with Nobara close behind.
I’ve been on slackware almost exclusively for 2 decades-ish. I’m team kde. I always liked it, but I had shitty hardware from like 2010 - 2020, so I was on xfce because it’s a lot lighter. But I always had kde installed so I could use some of their native apps.
90% of ubuntu support will work with mint
It needs testing to ensure you get what you need, but I found printer support worked better on Linux for my obscure printer. If you setup a CUPS server then distros will automatically find the networked printers. SUSE/OpenSUSE also has a very good GUI printer admin with lots of automatic setup and auto driver downloads…makes it so easy.
I just have a single network printer I need to access from all of our computers. A Sharp mx-4071’if memory serves. I figured it out on Linux Mint in about 10 minutes so I’m pretty happy with that.
Debian is solid and will come ready with office and web apps. You might want to check out if drivers are available for your printers though. You can always try it out on a live USB.
I’m loving KDE’s Neon distro that’s based off Ubuntu. I’ve not had to do much faffing around to get it the way I want it and anyone that has used Windows should be comfortable using it. KDE Plasma feels very polished and streamlined.
Every year is the year of the linux desktop lol
fr this time i swear
It was me checking out all the distros
based autismo
I have spent 3 days trying to install 64bit Linux on a mini PC which has 32bit UEFI. The funny thing is that this device is so slow probably I will not use it, but I still want to make it work.
What brand is it? I’m waiting for my crowdfunded mini PC which will definitely be running Linux, so I’m curious as to other people’s experiences.
It is a ViewSonic, but I don’t know the model. I have it’s PCB and power supply only. CPU is Intel Atom x5-Z8350. Btw I have already installed Linux on it, was a really good feeling, now it is collecting dust on the shelf :D
Say the line, Bart!
*sigh* 2024 will be the year of Linux on the desktop…
I switched my gaming PC to Linux two months ago and I’m loving it. I’ve only had to boot my Windows drive twice.
What did you have to boot Windows for?
If you’re used to Excel or have some specific games that are not covered with Wine it could be a good reason.
VR specifically is kind of a nightmare with older headsets. Kinda hoping Valve will do something there too.
Most of my VR games don’t seem to track my head movement ;(, but Half Life: Alyx somehow works perfectly fine.
There are still VR headsets that are supported on Linux and there is a community page with a list of games and headsets supported.
It’s not great, but it’s getting better.
oh, definitely, it‘s just not quite at the same level of windows. But I’m exited for the near future where it very well may be!
I just installed Linux on a six-year-old budget laptop this morning. My first time using Linux. What was a uselessly slow machine is now just humming along.
I’m doing my part!
Welcome to the linux world! We wish you software freedom and hardware longevity.
Nice. That is what started me into Linux. Wife’s 2011 laptop became useless with W10 upgrade, now it runs linux and she has fast browsing, zoom calls etc, and it is peppy like a new computer.
Welcome!
I am not saying “This is the Year of the Linux Desktop”. That said, things languished below 2% for decades and now it has doubled in just over a year. With the state of Linux Gaming, I could see that happening again.
Also, if ChromeOS continues to converge, you could consider it a Linux distro at some point and it also has about 4% share.
Linux could exceed 10% share this year and be a clear second after Windows.
That leaves me wondering, what percentage do we have to hit before it really is “The Year of the Linux Desktop”. I have never had to wonder that before ( I mean, it obviously was not 3% ). Having to ask is a milestone in itself.
I’ve never been a Linux guy but recently I’ve switched to Pop!OS on my laptop and bought a Steam Deck. Other than a few teething issues with the laptop I’ve had a great experience and I wouldn’t consider myself ridiculously tech savvy. I’d absolutely consider switching my gaming PC over but my worry is loss of performance and being unable to use my game pass games. I’d be super happy if I could switch my PC over in the next couple of years.
year of the linux desktop is based on how many third party apps are there, not how many people use it imo. they correlate and impact one another but arent the same
The equation for YotLD is simple for me:
Adobe looks at Linux market share and thinks, “Hmm, we could make some money from this,” and ports Photoshop, After Effects, and inDesign to Linux
Or:
Adobe looks at ChromeOS and thinks, “Hmm, we could make some money from this,” and ports all their programs to the web except After Effects because that involves massively extending web protocols again to support all the codecs and improving performance.
ChromeOS can run native Linux apps, so realistically if Adobe wanted to support ChromeOS they’d probably go for a Linux port anyway. A lot less work than trying to reimplement every single UI from the ground up as a web interface.
So you’d think, but why else would Adobe bother developing a web version of Photoshop? Good to know, though.
Obviously it defeats piracy, but that argument doesn’t make sense if Adobe is still shipping a native version of Photoshop.
Steam Decks?
Steam Decks.
Yes Steam Deck
I’m pretty sure its steam decks
Of course, the steam decks!
Would that show up in browser stats though?
Steam Deck is neat and all but I’ve never thought of it as anybody’s main browsing device.
I used to say the same thing about mobile phones, now look, LOOK HOW WRONG I WAS
Yes but right now?
At least two dozens of us
