[ShadowAce]

[Dr. Sivana]

Personally, I don’t see the 200+ distros as a problem. Business has already settled on SuSE, Red Hat and maybe Ubuntu. More importantly, a lot of software is running on Linux in the Data Center even if it is being fed to a Windows front end on the users’ laptops.

My biggest problem with Linux for an end-user is application software. Base is awful, and there will never be a desktop version of Claris’ Filemaker Pro (there is a server version, NOT the same thing).

[Reno89519]

I have a friend that was an early adopter and big fan of Linux. Years ago he admitted it was too much to keep up with and other than servers, he switched to Windows.

[libh8er]

There are Mac like desktops available for Linux. My Ubuntu desktop looks just like a Mac - I switch seamlessly between my real Mac and my faux Mac.

[Dalberg-Acton]

My favorite is Linux Mint Cinnamon.
I can do everything I need with the Linux applications found in the Software Manager.
I’m never going back to Windows.

[VeniVidiVici]

I was thinking this very same thing just the other day.

I’m thinking about getting back into IT. While I’ve not run Linux in a production environment, I was a Windows guy, what distros should I concentrate on in preparation? I mean I’ve run numerous ones at home and have 5 or 6 installed in VMs but I’d like to just concentrate on a couple.

All the different package managers alone cause me to just go ugh!

[bobbo666]

Anyone who turns vital data over to a 3rd party is a dunce, a fool. It is bad enough that banking crappola is funneled thru 3rd party payment agents, data transfer, etc. This is hard to dodge.
But, putting vital info on a cloud (i.e., simply a server owned by another party, serviced by another, connected to by another, etc) is like leaving the door of your shop or home unlocked but watched over by some ...... “security” outfit. Yeah, on a $$ perspective it might make sense. But, when the “security” company decides to decrease costs by not bothering to vet their door-watchers, do you feel safe?
Cloud is marketing jazz. Poor performance, poor reliability, the very worst security. And, if M$ is involved, just set fire to your cash.

[Boogieman]

“Windows users will still see what looks like a PC on their desk, but really it will just be a smart terminal hooked into a Windows 365 Cloud PC.”

This is only feasible for business users, and really only for non-resource intensive business applications. Home users that want to be able to play a modern video game, or stream hi def video, or record music, etc, will not upgrade to some “Desktop as a Service” nonsense, since it won’t meet their needs. It will be the Windows 8 upgrade debacle all over again, and once MS realizes that nobody wants the product they are pushing, after stomping their feet for a while, they will compromise and back down, again.

[daniel1212]

"That's not to say that Linux can't be a successful end-user environment. It is. Indeed, you can argue that Linux, not Windows, is the most successful end-user operating system. That's because there are over 3 billion Android phones out there and Android is just a smartphone-specialized Linux distro."

(You have read this before but for others) that is because Linux is the kernel, and Android is a customized version of an OS. Both Windows and any Linux distro need (well, they certainly can use) much customization, certainly including Windows 11! But despite the hype of Linux advocates (many of whom uncritically defend it), thus is simply far easier under Windows. mainly due to to the great expanse of sound freeware for it.

For Windows 11 this includes,

Explorer Patcher restores the Windows 11 taskbar to be exactly like Windows 10

Then, Classic Shell

And then, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker

Plus, Ultimate Windows Tweaker 5 for Windows 11

And, Right-Click Extender 2.0

There is more, but in most Linux distros I cannot even right click on an icon and find to go the location source. And usually such lack even a true extensive equivalent to Windows Device manager.

My Windows 11 desktop:

[who_would_fardels_bear]

I use a proprietary Linux desktop to create Python programs using proprietary libraries optimized to my personal eccentricities.

Only I can run my Python programs, and they can only be run on my machine!

Ha ha!

Says the smug holier-than-thou programmer.

[fuzzylogic]

Interesting reading all the comments.

I’ve tried using various distros over the years, mainly for software development (device drivers, Android OS builds). It’s certainly light years ahead of where it used to be. However, the lack of a governing body for a desktop experience (aka system libraries & middleware) leaves it without a common direction and is, therefore, undesirable for commercial SW companies to develop desktop SW for it.

Unless you have the deep pockets, like Google, where you can define an entire standardized ecosystem for applications AND get it into enough hands to give it critical mass I don’t see Linux ever dominating as a “Linux desktop”. You will only have the Android’s and Chromebooks of the world.

One mans opinion.

[Nateman]

There is an advantage to Linux being a minority on the Desktop. The bad guys write their viruses for the big market and usually leave Linux alone.

[dennisw]

My favorite advantage of Windoze 11 (10 too) is that it has a built in red shift for filtering out blue light at night. Plus you can install flu.x to further adjust your red shift. Linux red shift for Mint is pitiful.

_____________

https://justgetflux.com/
Ever notice how people texting at night have that eerie blue glow?

Or wake up ready to write down the Next Great Idea, and get blinded by your computer screen?

During the day, computer screens look good—they’re designed to look like the sun. But, at 9PM, 10PM, or 3AM, you probably shouldn’t be looking at the sun.

f.lux
f.lux fixes this: it makes the color of your computer’s display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.

It’s even possible that you’re staying up too late because of your computer. You could use f.lux because it makes you sleep better, or you could just use it just because it makes your computer look better.

[ducttape45]

Good article ShadowAce

Sure, Windows users will still see what looks like a PC on their desk, but really it will just be a smart terminal hooked into a Windows 365 Cloud PC.

Not as long as I can help it. Sure, we all browse the Internet, pay our bills online, etc, but my computer will never become a dumb terminal. None of the programs I use run in a cloud based environment. If I can't install it and use it on my local machine, I won't use it.

[martin_fierro]

[dayglored]

Desktop Wars Revisited ... PING!

You can find all the Windows Ping list threads with FR search: just search on keyword "windowspinglist".

Thanks to ShadowAce for the ping!

[dayglored]

Linux has been my work desktop for a decade, mainly because I spend 90% of my time in Bash sessions, either local or remote. Add browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Brave), credential manager (Keeper), RDP clients (rdesktop, Remmina), and a few more, and my work environment is complete except for email, which is Outlook by company mandate, and for that I prefer the Windows native version. So I have a Win10 VM to run Outlook (and occasionally the other Office apps).

The underlying hardware is Apple (MacBook Pro/MacOS) with VMware Fusion to host the Linux desktop as a VM.

At home the hardware is Apple (MacMini/MacOS) with VMware Fusion to host both a Linux Desktop VM and Win7 and Win10 VMs.

I switched from CentOS to Ubuntu around 2015, but still run the classic Gnome "Flashback" package since I hate the default Ubuntu scheme.

I move seamlessly between Linux, MacOS, and Windows desktops constantly all day long, copy/paste between apps on the various desktops, and love it. But I admit it was some initial config work to get it all cooperating.

My personal "ideal desktop" would probably be the Windows 7 "Classic" theme, with Linux as the OS. MacOS is also acceptable (good GUI over BSD Unix).

But overall, my days hacking around with desktops are largely over. I just want to get things done, choosing the best tool for whatever task is at hand. And so having one each of the major OSes, all in front of me all the time, is perfect.

[Gene Eric]

I like linux headless, like my women.

[Bob434]

Anyone know a fairly easy way to get Linux set up the way you like, with all the programs you want, or most anyways, and make an instalation disk out of it? (I’ve got it down to about 3-4 hours getting Linux set back,up after reinstall, but putting back all,the settings and programs takes time. Woild be nice is one installation disk could get everything back with ease.

[Bob434]

I know I can do backups, but I’d like to have everything on a disk because sometimes backups fail