The true year of linux is not any specific year or a userbase percentage but when linux is widely preinstalled on consumer hardware without nerds needing to recommend to people to install it themselves

The steamdeck is the first step to that future

The steamdeck is the first step to that future

I’m sure people said the same about android

I get that SteamOS is an actual desktop distro, and that’s closer to a daily driver than any android or bespoke *nix compatible SOC OS, but I doubt we’ll see this spread from steamdeck to daily drivers, unless…

Unless linux can offer some feature windows/mac/ios do not, or at least market itself as doing so the way that Apple does, and get the overwhelming majority of tech consumers—who want nothing more than to keep up with the joneses and see the hardware specs numbers get bigger—to FOMO into it

Unfortunately that would conflict with the most enticing features it does have that no one else does: a code of ethics that are inherently anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian. And honestly, who wants every Linux community, online or off, flooded with consumers who only care about the newest Feature™ and have no care about maintaining software freedom?

Unless linux can offer some feature windows/mac/ios do not,

doesnt spy on you, its a nice feature

True, but Apple has already pivoted to being the “privacy-friendly” OS/devices. Whether or not that’s true–I don’t know for certain (I have a hunch, though)–they have much more visibility and influence and marketing, and therefore will cement themselves in people’s minds that way.

Besides, I like the idea of Linux existing outside the capitalist paradigm; instead of competing with the big names in the market, it’s on the outskirts playing its own game and absolutely crushing it. It has survived decades based almost entirely on word of mouth between computer nerds instead of vying for attention in the mainstream. As a technology it has achieved the platonic ideal: it is so good at what it does that it doesn’t need marketing, it survives solely on reputation and quality and user upkeep.