this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
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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I was being sarcastic, tbh. I'm happy to see this (I use Linux everywhere), but I'm realistic. 3% doesn't look super impressive. I'm not sure where the line would be, though. 10%?
I would guess Linux desktop means nothing until it gets close to 15% for software developers to include a Linux version for new software releases, of any kind or type of software.
I do PC gaming and I only use Windows on that one gaming computer, so I can play any and all games, and have the best graphics hardware performance.
All of my other computers are only a mix of BSD and Linux, but for playing games I'm not willing to use anything other than Windows.
It seems to have grown enough that software like Zoom, MS Teams, Webex and Teamviewer all have versions available for the various linux OSs. If the market was so tiny no software developer would want to release these and handle bug reports, and fixes. It would just not viable. So there must be enough of a base that this is needed.
Yes, I know there is a market, as tiny as it is. Imagine how much further along corporate software for Linux would be if there was a single format for installing all software in a default configuration for a fresh Linux install.
I genuinelly don't understand why Linus never develeped a universal installer like .dmg, .msi, .exe, for Linux.
He was focused on the kernel, not the OS part unfortunately. Maybe Snap, Flatpak or AppImage will rise to the top for default install. For now I run OpenSUSE which has 1 click installer for rpms, probably as close to msi or exe there is right now.