The biggest push may indeed come from the Steam Deck. A PC in a handheld form factor, that allows you to hook it up to a monitor for a full KDE Plasma desktop experience. Very exciting. If we see a lot of people enjoy it and the Steam Deck is a success, you can be almost guaranteed that more devices will come along and slap SteamOS 3 on it and then also have a KDE Plasma desktop available.
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Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word “Linux” in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Apparently - unless things have changed - Windows 11 needs an internet connection and a Microsoft account to set it up…
I’m just wondering at what point people ask themselves if they’re willing to share all they’re doing on their device with Microsoft. (And an even more relevant question for governments and businesses, I would’ve thought.)
Surely the age of the Linux desktop is getting closer… not just for people who haven’t got 24/7 internet or those who care about privacy.
Yeah the whole flash media and configure bios step is what gets people. If it comes preinstalled and the distro is stable you can just play with it. I think the decks gonna be real big for this experience.
In the mobile space, Linux is already pre-installed on what I believe to be the majority of devices. Those users are for the large part unaware they are even using Linux, and Linux fans often don’t consider it to be a “real form of Linux.” I’m talking about Android, of course.
I think SteamOS could be the equivalent to Android for desktops, in that sense. It won’t be branded as Linux and it won’t be marketed towards Linux nerds, but it will be Linux (and far closer to Libre community GNU/Linux OS’s than Android is, thankfully) and any improvements made for it could also benefit the Libre software community.
I’m not terribly excited for SteamOS itself or “Linux gaming” and I’m not really a “year of the Linux desktop” person, but I think this can benefit the Libre software ecosystem directly or indirectly.
(ed: ChromeOS is also a thing, but I think considering it a desktop is sort of a stretch)
Fully agree with the title.
We need more sponsorship and partners to make it more intro to the mass market, which then would also force more Corpos to release their tools and drivers as FOSS to comply with the Linux Foundation standards.
Remember that Chrome and Chromium OS are a thing.
Linux needs a time machine to go mainstream. It would have had to have happened by about 2006 or so… after that point, personal computing pretty much died. Sure, you have a desktop or laptop system in front of you, and so do I, but I contend that we are the exceptions, that we’re no longer typical.
There are people who do not use the internet with a personal computer as their primary means of using it. These people are many. These people are young, and will retain that habit their entire lives.
If it’s any consolation, personal computing is dead for all the operating systems, and no one really won.
I disagree.
Sure there are more mobile devices in the world than “desktops”, but I don’t think that desktops are by any means an exception. I haven’t bothered to try to find any data, but I’d be surprised if the number of desktops in use today is less than it was in 2006.
Desktop usage is only kept afloat by their use in business. When you sit down in front of a desk at work, there’s a computer on it.
That also doesn’t bode well for linux, even if people could become familiar with it and comfortable with it, it’s doubtful that anyone in charge of computers in the office would be comfortable having those be linux desktops.
The age of the desktop really is over. Linux didn’t become mainstream, and now it’s completely moot. Even if you want to disagree with me emotionally, surely you see the writing on the wall? Everything I’ve said only becomes more true 5 years from now, 20 years from now. Not less.
That’s like saying accounting software is only “kept afloat” by its use in business. Sure, there’s more business use than personal use, but it’s business use will continue to grow.
Do you seriously think there were more desktop users in 2006 than there are now ?
You seem to think I’m pining for some kind of linux-desktop utopia, which isn’t the case at all. I’m not saying I want linux to conquer the desktop, just that the desktop isn’t dead.
Personally I think the last 20 years in computing has demonstrated that opensource is the best model for server software, while proprietary is the best model for desktop software. If linux desktops were a better product (in ways that matter to most users) then it would have gotten more traction.
If you’ll let me do plus-or-minus on the year 2006 and the “now”, then that’s almost certainly (going to be) true.
I think rather, that you think this is a winnable race when the Earth just opened up and swallowed all of the race cars and yours is about to fall into the abyss.
It’s just over. I’ve seen too much from random yahoos about how their primary computing experience is a phone. And it’s not as if those people are going to work and sitting down at an office computer, they work at Arby’s or whatever. The other explanation is that there’s an orchestrated conspiracy to mislead me into believing the desktop is dead by a team of millions of propagandists writing subtly about how to do common computing actions on Android, or that the desktop has just came and gone, like dumb terminals before them. Like teletypes.
Probably, but that didn’t stop Microsoft and dotnet from conquering some large fraction of that market. God knows why.
I don’t think Linux by design has a security model conducive to desktop computing.
Can you elaborate please?
Sure. Linux’s lack of application sandboxing, verified boot, and permissions model makes it so, and I’m happy to answer any questions.
All those flaws apply to both Windows and macOS, do they not? Sandboxing is not standardized in any of those, verified boot is a thing from Android and permissions on other OSes are also weak, as far as I’m aware.
They are certainly things that could be improved, but seeing as the only other two systems with a proper presence on pre-installed machines also don’t implement any of that, I don’t see a reason to not ship Linux by default.
If I remember correctly, Windows and macOS have had verified boot for a while now, and all of Apple’s OS’s permissions models are some of the best.
I can’t seem to find anything on verified boot from Windows or macOS. There’s secure boot, but that’s something a lot of Linux distros also have.
Regarding permissions in Apple systems, yeah they are better than Windows and Linux, but they are still way below the level Android provides, which seemed to be the root comment OP’s intent.