this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2025
298 points (94.9% liked)

Technology

78003 readers
3396 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
L4s@hackingne.ws
298
What the Linux desktop really needs to challenge Windows (www.theregister.com)
submitted 2 days ago by throws_lemy@reddthat.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
172 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Fedditor385@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)
  1. Game studios support - most games don't support Linux natively (and no, I don't want compatibility layer upon layer).
  2. "Default" Linux distribution for average consumers. Average consumers don't want 2000 distro choices as they will rather stick to one Windows that having to think between many Linux distros and pick one.
  3. The "default" Linux needs to have the consumer-marketing name of simply "Linux OS".
[–] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

Who would make this "default" Linux? Who would be in charge of it? What power would they have over directing development of the kernel? What happens when this centralization that's so important to soothing the confusion of people who aren't even using the OS yet inevitably causes it to enshitify and brings us right back to the Windows problem?

No, I'm sorry - there may be some things that would make Linux more palatable to non-techies, but this just recreates the Windows problem again. The same dichotomy that's been at play for the past 30 years is still at play - you can have it easy or you can have freedom and control, but you can't have both.

[–] MouldyCat@feddit.uk 5 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

compatibility layer upon layer

I can understand the sentiment, but don't ignore the real advantages to the proton/wine way of doing things.

For instance, some old games won't run on modern Windows but will run on Linux under proton/wine.

It's also just a lot easier for game companies to target a single platform i.e. Windows. When Valve first released their Steam machines, a few AA games were released natively. For several of those, the native builds no longer work and you now need to run the Windows version under proton/wine.

[–] Fedditor385@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

It's not the use case I am referring to - I am speaking about modern day games. As long as Linux is ignored by the gaming companies making AAA titles, it will never be a real option for the entire gaming community. An average gamer doesn't know nor want to spend time setting up everything and hoping nothing breaks when the OS/layer/game gets the next update. It should be "Install" and then play without ever really thinking about any underlying tech.

[–] MalMen@masto.pt 2 points 1 hour ago

@Fedditor385 @MouldyCat its like that for the majority of games on #steamos