this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2024
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I'm not reading all that- anyway
I switched to full-time Linux this year. One of my programmer friends, whom I never expected to embrace Linux, switched to full-time Linux and is not going back. Our libraries have switched to Linux on all user-facing computers. 2 of my e-friends have approached me about Linux. Another friend is, despite not being a computer nerd, going to switch because Windows is forcing him to- and that's my point. It's not that Linux doesn't have deep flaws inherent to its development model, it's that those flaws are now less significant than those of Windows. Nobody likes Windows 11 and it's pushing people off.
Nobody even thinks about Windows 11, they just use it if it comes preinstalled. And from the data we have, the people that don't like Windows 11 are more likely to be on Windows 10 (or Mac OS).
There is no mass exodus to Linux. No data point we have shows that. The biggest Linux uptick we've seen recently is related to Steam Deck, which is as much Linux as Android or ChromeOS are.
Desktop Linux is better than it was, and it will be closer to its competitors if people ever agree that one consolidated system to support features that have been standard for years is the way to go... but it's not a mainstream option. Yes, even against Windows 11.
I didn't imply a mass exodus, I'm just telling you that 'linux has issues' isn't a good argument when both W10 and W11 also have issues of the same grade and that it is, in some nerd circles, pushing people into Linux because they'd rather deal with Linux problems than Windows problems.
But I want a mass exodus.
I want to be on the OS with all the support and the software and the compatibility and the patches and the drivers. I don't want to be in the nerd corner manually troubleshooting every piece of hardware I want to use. More to the point, I have things to do and can't afford that anyway.
And I would love if that OS happened to be free, open source and not trying to sell me crap.
Hey, if you're happy with the nerd corner, then that's great for you, but man, does it not line up with the headline of "I don't see a reason to switch to Windows anymore", which is what we're discussing here.
Then why are you investing so much energy telling everyone why there shouldn't be one?
I never said there shouldn't be one, I said there are good reasons for most people to not migrate that need to be resolved before they will be one.
I don't think it's annoying to have a million distros that each have their own quirks and problems with my system because I don't want people to move out of Windows, I think it's annoying because it IS, and it's one of several reasons preventing me and many others from moving out of the corporate walled gardens.
You sure fooled me. Your whole attitude in this thread is anger at the simple truth: the vast majority of computing done by end users is done in a web browser, and therefore many people could switch oses and barely notice any negative impact. How much irreplaceable desktop software are you running that shapes this perspective?
I'm a power user by all measures and i still typically have no more than 2-3 apps running outside my browser. And even most of those are cross platform apps. It seems like you're time traveling from 2005 with this take.
Steam OS is just a Linux desktop with the Steam client in fullscreen. With two clicks you are on an ordinary KDE desktop. It's not at all like Android or ChromeOS. If it were, Android would be a much bigger market for Steam to want to put their games. Everyone outside the US having their Steam library in their pocket would far outweigh however many thousand Decks they've sold.
Your ignorance on this tracks with the less obvious clues that you don't know what you're talking about, like your talk of "Linux games on Steam". Linux games on Steam vs playing Steam games on Linux are two different things.
🙄 but my Linux works so well on this embedded device, totally the same thing as a desktop!
Again, it's just a computer. You can open it and replace parts. You can plug in a USB hub and a monitor and do spreadsheets with keyboard and mouse.
My favourite bit of weirdness from it being just a computer is that the screen is actually a vertical screen by default, so when you boot to the desktop, for half a second the cursor is rotated the wrong way.
Thankfully Valve has done a ton of work to minimize that divide, although even the two checkboxes you have to tick on most desktop Linux installs to automatically fire off Windows games under Proton instead to filtering out only native Linux games are completely unnecessary and kind of annoying.
As for SteamOS, people need to get their story straight. Either it's just Big Picture running by default over Linux, and then it's just like having Steam Big Picture autolaunch on boot on a Windows handheld, or it's a fantastic consolized UI that is the killer app that makes the Deck so much better than any other handheld.
Honestly, I lean towards the latter. SteamOS is great, compatibility aside. But if you do want to use it as a full Linux install then you have the same limitations you have on any Windows handheld, which kind of defeats the point.