this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2025
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What the Linux desktop really needs to challenge Windows (www.theregister.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by throws_lemy@reddthat.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
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As Torvalds pointed out in 2019, is that while some major hardware vendors do sell Linux PCs – Dell, for example, with Ubuntu – none of them make it easy. There are also great specialist Linux PC vendors, such as System76, Germany's TUXEDO Computers, and the UK-based Star Labs, but they tend to market to people who are already into Linux, not disgruntled Windows users. No, one big reason why Linux hasn't taken off is that there are no major PC OEMs strongly backing it. To Torvalds, Chromebooks "are the path toward the desktop."

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[–] SOULFLY98@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

It would be better to attract people who actually want to use an OS that is different to Windows, rather than ones that just want a Windows that works. Linux is not a version of Windows.

Absolute agreement.

Around the turn of the century, we used to say something like, "Linux is for people who hate Microsoft, BSD is for people who love UNIX."

Not much has changed in the larger discussion about Desktop Linux. General discussion is driven by how "safe" and "comfortable" Windows users feel installing and using it for the first time. It's a bullshit discussion.

It's a weird relationship, like a new girlfriend who is always comparing you to the last boyfriend who beat her. She may even go back to him because he is familiar, without ever recognizing that you are better in every way.

Linux as a desktop is perfectly fine and usable on it's own, without comparison to Windows. I've used it for over a quarter century and had a normal life, from middle school through postgrad and a decade-long career. My kids use it for everything including school and gaming and have no problems making friends and turning in assignments. People need to get out of the poverty mindset that Windows is the standard for a desktop. It's fucking terrible. Linux has been usable for the desktop for 25 fucking years for those who want it. Windows itself copied many things from the Linux desktop, going all the way back to the first themes on Windows XP, and now there's an entire Linux subsystem for Windows, all because Linux has been been better at package management and dependency resolution since the Clinton administration. Windows is fucking awful as a desktop.