Does Linux on the Desktop Have a Future? October 30, 2018 https://www.itprotoday.com/linux/does-linux-desktop-have-future
I don't care. I just use Gnu/Linux (Debian) as my main operating system on my personal laptop. I am able to do programming tasks, surf www pages, listen to music and podcasts, watch streams and video files, browse photos, create personal documents (LibreOffice), read pdfs and ebooks, instant messaging, email. Fortunately I am not gamer-type, but sometimes I play something on Steam.
Well, there is not much happening in the Windows world either. Pretty much any "new" feature that there is has been implemented long time ago. Virtual Desktop? Had those looooong time. Disk encryption support ? Ditto. Seamless remote filesystem support? Yup (with the help of FUSE ). And so on....
I could not be much happier with how great my linux Desktops work. One nice thing is with Linux Desktop having so few users the malware idiots won't waste much time attacking us. Servers sure, but not us lowly Desktop users. My workspace is all in VM's anyway, but I haven't seen a "cootie" on my systems in many years!!!
If "have a future" means widespread adoption, of course not. But Linux and *BSD dominate servers, and that alone will keep them going. So those of us who know enough to prefer Linux and *BSD on desktops and notebooks will be fine.
I'm mainly a Windows user, but I'll complain if the desktop history of Linux will have a stop. It's a question of freedom to have many and different OS.
Why not? It does everything for me what I need. Certainly not for me. I don't want a Google-controlled OS on my computer.
I also think that it does. But I suppose the bigger question is does Windows have any future on the Server.
How great for you. BSD also has a future if the definition of future is "Less than 3% of all users use it". The question here is, will it go mainstream one day? I doubt it.
I also doubt that Gnu/Linux will go mainstream one day. I also don't care about that. It is important that Gnu/Linux fulfills its role perfectly for me.
I already said this many times, I like Linux systems very much, BUT without Office (Microsoft Office) it is simply unusable for most of my work documents - and would be very hard to convert all them. Windows 10 has one or two things that I like, but a system rock solid as is many Linux distros is something awesome.
Yes And it has been for about 15 years. Everybody has to decide if an OS fits one`s needs. In my case Linux does. Will it become mainstream? Well, perhaps not. However, if more and more Windows 10 users understand that they are primarily guinea pigs and data suppliers, chances are that Linux might become more wide-spread.
Linux on the desktop works for me. If I need to use Windows, I get in touch with friends. But that's extremely rare.
The power of marketing money will always keep Microsoft where it is for the same reason folks buy iPhones because Apple tells them it’s a ‘premium’ product. This suits me down to the ground. I have a Galaxy J5 that has endured much more than it was ever designed for and my business and home computers all run on Linux. The only time I get frustrated with Windows now is when someone asks me to set up a new W10 install and I’m reminded of what I had to endure myself a few years ago before I changed platforms. I have never encountered such an ‘in your face’ system that treats paying customers like imbeciles whilst invading their privacy and using every means to extract yet more money for a product that can’t even survive an ‘upgrade’ process without destroying user data. OK so maybe the removal of Dolphin root privileges in Plasma5 and the introduction of paid ‘app cafes’ in some distros follows a similar pattern but at nowhere near the same level employed by Windows. And talking about trends, what happened to tablets? Remember how these were going to make everything else obsolete and now mostly just gather dust on a shelf somewhere. https://techcentral.co.za/tablet-sales-plunge-while-pcs-show-healthy-growth/81645/ All in all, with technology as it stands now there are things you just cannot do with a smartphone. This will keep laptops in business for some years yet and enough savvy users to employ Linux on them.
Yea, I noticed the same thing here. I can't even remember when saw tablet ad here last time. I think tablets are/were a little like a niche product. Falling between smartphones and laptops. Just like those netbooks from 2008. Too small and underpowered for real laptop work but too big and clumsy when compared to phones. Also...the biggest smartphone screen size is now 6.5" If this keeps growing (and maybe it will, because manufacturers have long run out of any new ideas...) then soon there is no need for actual tablet. Everyone will just pick their 6+ inch monster "phone" when calling/texting ...
If I can't find a decent Linux compatible laptop when I eventually need to replace my Lenovo G500 (pre-installed with Ubuntu) I'll probably get a more powerful ChromeBook and run Linux applications on that. When it's out of beta, of course. lol
ChromeBook = Google. You'd save all your data and settings in the Google cloud. It's the end of any privacy. Definitely not for me.
Yeah, there's that. Between the Scylla and Charybdis that is Google and MS; I'd prefer Google. It's too late for me anyway, Google know where I live.
Are "decent Linux compatible laptop(s)" really that hard to find these days? I mean, isn't just about any non-Apple laptop going to be compatible with Linux?
