nixCraft 🐧Poll: Will 2024 finally be when #Linux 🐧 conquers the desktop market? Is 2024 the year of the Linux Desktop?
yes 🐧
no
Poll ended at .
system128 
@nixCraft
I like to think so, but I think 2025 has a better chance than 2024 does!!
BigLinter@nixCraft dont care, its my constant desktop os since 2001
CupcakeRob 
Raul@nixCraft Windows 10 goes EOL in 2025, so I keep thinking maybe 2025 more likely than 2024, but only time will tell
Random Tux User@nixCraft
I don't know if it will be "The year of the linux desktop", but I imagine a lot more people will consider switching 2025 once Windows 10 goes EOL. If for no other reason than because at least a few will try to keep a hold of their old computers.
I don't know if it will be "The year of the linux desktop", but I imagine a lot more people will consider switching 2025 once Windows 10 goes EOL. If for no other reason than because at least a few will try to keep a hold of their old computers.
@nixCraft It will never happen. In order to be the top desktop you have to protect the users who need it(most users) from themselves. Linux doesn't and shouldn't do that.
Andreas M. Heitmann 
Joseph Dickson@nixCraft 2024 won't even be the year of any desktop. You're probably reading this on a phone right now.
drbill28@nixCraft Linux is finally picking standards and making things better in terms of ease of use, gaming, etc. But still a ways to go, but for the first time it's looking hopeful that being accessible to everyone is actually being taken more seriously than letting the people that want to keep it insular win.
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.@nixCraft Does "the desktop" even matter anymore?
Van Ganz@BoydStephenSmithJr @nixCraft Only if you want to get serious work done, I guess.
@nixCraft For me the year of the Linux desktop (in my personal computers) was back in 2016.
cameronbosch 
@nixCraft I think "the year of the Linux desktop" doesn't exist. Imo, 2025 & 2026 will be the pivotal years because that's when Windows 10 goes EoL.
If another serious issue happens after that (like EternalBlue, which led to the WannaCry and NotPetya malware attacks) and Microsoft won't fix it on Windows 10, then I could see some businesses moving away from Windows if they have a lot of machines that cannot upgrade.
Of course, more OEMs with Linux pre-installed would really go a long way.
Tadeo D'Oria@nixCraft conquer? Nah. Continue to gain market and relevancy, yes
MegatronicThronBanks@nixCraft
There's SO much work to be done. But ppl surprise me by having DONE the work in the background.
Brave browser seems to solve the modern web.
I use MX linux which has shed itself of systemd.
NoMachine is so far the best RD I've seen.
Pipewire is doing its best to finally realise the dream of ALSA and mlan etc, without that vile P thing.
But. It will take somebody taking a distro under their wing. It might be MX, it might be YET ANOTHER DAMN DISTRO.
Hey, what name? DESK LINUX? :)
Joana de Castro Arnaud@nixCraft No, and it won't matter in a few more years: more people use mobile phones instead of desktop/laptop computers. These tradicional computers will find their niche at offices, and almost nowhere else.
I know several people who are computer illiterate, but use regularly their mobile for everything. Give them a PC, and they won't find the on/off button, or alternate window focus.
And I know several people that are *mobile* illiterate: writing or talking to Google to ask things, and barely able to use WhatsApp, Instagram, or any other social media. When I talk to them about browsers or files, they go "Huh?".
Torsten 
@nixCraft
it never will be "conqering" it will end up as a painfully slow and nearly impossible to recognize process that actually already has started, maybe like the rise of the sea level, but there will be noticable side effects
it never will be "conqering" it will end up as a painfully slow and nearly impossible to recognize process that actually already has started, maybe like the rise of the sea level, but there will be noticable side effects
Elvish Bhaii@nixCraft As much as I'd love to think so, it won't be. Average Joes will never turn their heads to Linux unless they have a reason, let alone just for the experience. The corporate cascades still depend on Microsoft.
And it should stay the same otherwise the major distros will try to do things more user-friendly and destroy the whole purpose of using them.
Except for Gaming perhaps, we surely need games.
phecda@nixCraft 2024 is the year when I might finally get rid of Windows entirely. Only thing that held me back so far was gaming on Linux but that improved massively the past few years!
Jay 🚩 
@nixCraft 2024 will be the Year of the BSD desktop ;)
rexum@nixCraft the year of the linux desktop is every year
Majid Iqbal@nixCraft I am not convinced that it will ever happen tbh. From my experience you need to be somewhat tech literate to use Linux Desktop, even with some of the more beginner friendly distros like Ubuntu. However the majority of users just aren't tech literate because with major dumbed-down OSes like Windows and Android there is hardly any reason to.
Alvaro@akinzekeel @nixCraft I would say it is the opposite, Linux is the dumbed down os, since it requires a lot of leverage and learning from the user
Melroy van den Berg@nixCraft steam deck does help... But is also don't care, I'm using Linux solely across all my devices, servers and pc's. Since 2008.
Islamic Audiobooks Central
Dave@islamicaudiobooks @nixCraft Agree with this 100%.
I think the expectation for average non-technically inclined people to seek out and install a different OS is unreasonable.
Average consumers don't care what OS is preinstalled, they only care that they are getting a good deal and if it does what they need it to do.
I think If every Windows PC also offered a cheaper sku with the same hardware but with Linux installed instead, i guarantee there would be a significant uptake in Linux users.
@islamicaudiobooks @nixCraft and when i say "Average users" this does not include Gamers, Power users, tinkerers etc (you know, people like us).
I'm talking about people that just surf the web, read emails, use streaming services - these make up the majority of consumers and Linux would be absolutely fine for them but they would never go out of their way to install Linux because as far as they are concerned the Windows that came preinstalled on their computer does the job already.
@islamicaudiobooks @nixCraft Bingo. As somebody who first installed Linux via a DVD in 2010 (Ubuntu 10.04), I can tell you that burning an ISO onto a USB is something most people would not be happy doing. Heck, even I hated doing it until I did it so many times because computers don't have disc drives anymore!
Yasha S.@nixCraft isn't every year the year of the linux desktop?
NumbersCanBeFun@yashasolutions @nixCraft every day can be the day of Linux if you install your favorite distro. I also keep a usb of Linux mint in my backpack in case any one wants to test drive it. I’ve only ever had one taker but he did end up installing it alongside windows 11.
@numberz @nixCraft nice one. I have been trying to put my kids on linux... they used it for a few year but moved to windows when they had an opportunity, because gaming. Actually gaming and design are two heavy usage category that capture most of the users into either windows (gaming) or mac (design) Not that we cannot do both these things with linux but the experience is either limited or just harder
Stuart Longland (VK4MSL)@nixCraft Linux stands a chance if Microsoft seriously, and I mean, seriously and fatally, shoots themself in the foot.
With Microsoft collapsed and no longer in the picture, hardware vendors will most likely look to Linux distributions like Ubuntu since Apple won't license their OS to third-party hardware anymore, and while BSD is an excellent choice as an OS, the marketing folk barely know what Linux is.
Sergio@nixCraft I have always had the feeling that this question tend to distract the attention of all other achievements (phones, cars, tv, servers, space, 6 ~ 8% of desktop users quota, science, etc)