Mastodawn

Ivo Limmen 1d ago

> Linux didn't win the way anyone expected. There was no dramatic moment where Ubuntu overtook Windows on the desktop. No press conference. No champagne. Linux won the way open source always wins — gradually, relentlessly, by being better at the things that matter most to the people building the future.

**Linux Won, and Nobody Noticed**

https://www.junauza.com/2026/03/linux-won-and-nobody-noticed.html

#Linux #OS #MSFT #OpenSource

Linux Won, and Nobody Noticed

The tech industry has failed to properly acknowledge this for years: Linux won. Not "Linux is doing fine." Not "Linux is making progress." N...

Tech Source

I hear you.

I haven't touched a Windows computer in the last 20 years, but now that I work for a BigCorp, I'm basically trapped in MS hell. Feel my pain. So in my world, it's "MS against everything else" - Linux at large.

I'd love to shove this article down the CIS's throat so much...

(I use Arch BTW).

Conny Nasch 1d ago

@9x0rg Thank you for this great news! I have always thought that about OpenOffice and company, yet never had it as my pc's have always been pre-installed with windows... Now it seems that I am too lazy to learn, but will get help from a friend 😁

Maxi 12x 💉1d ago

@connynasch BTW, OpenOffice was forked 16 years ago into LibreOffice. OpenOffice development died long ago, nobody should use this rotten code. So if you want to try an alternative to Microsoft software, install LibreOffice.

GunChleoc 9h ago

@frumble @connynasch I recommend starting with the software first - LibreOffice will run both on Windows and Linux. So will Firefox & Thunderbird, Inkscape, you name it.

Make a list of the software you need and slowly get used to it. Once you are ready to ditch all the old software, you're ready to swap out the operating system too.

Dr. Sobek 1d ago

@9x0rg Hmm, this is an interesting article, however, the part about smartphone really conflates the Linux kernel with Linux distros (that ship a GNU based user land, mostly compatible with the UNIX spec, and the free-software stack we all know).

Android is starting to turn into a massively lock downed ecosystem.

This doesn't tell us :
"What is a linux victory" and "why is it good".

The linux kernel itself is GPLv2, and embedded devices often are tivoized in that regard.

Maxi 12x 💉1d ago

@Sobex @9x0rg This article makes severe category errors.
I don‘t get anything from Linux running proprietary AI models in the cloud, and proprietary drivers, frameworks, userlands and apps on Android on mere appliance devices with locked bootloader and no root.
It was always about the FLOSS stack winning against big tech’s proprietary vision with you gaining more freedom, access and cooperative development models in the open. Now, big tech simply has incorporated Linux.

Dr. Sobek 1d ago

@frumble @9x0rg Nice way of framing it, @frumble

@9x0rg Yes, interesting. It also puts the computing identification law in California in a different light.

Kierkethumbs up convincingly 1d ago

@9x0rg
-How did linux win?
-rtfm

Drew 🇵🇭 ♾️1d ago

@9x0rg Android is not Linux. Not in any way that matters.

@9x0rg is it a win when Ubuntu shoves the snap ecosystem down my throat? Is it beating Windows or becoming Windows?

Carl Myrland 1d ago

@Qbitzerre unless somebody pays you to use Ubuntu, you are very much free to find another distro that doesn't use snap. Canonical/Ubuntu have their reasons for going with snap, but they are by no means shoving it down your throat. You are still free to choose something else if you don't like it. @9x0rg

@cmyrland @9x0rg I have actually removed snap from my Ubuntu boxes in the past. But this misses the point. The use of computers is not shoved down my throat either.

I'm free to compile the kernel too. I usually don't, do you? The subject at hand was the dominance of Linux. When a dominant distribution starts incorporating a default repository that is proprietary and exclusive while coercing its use, this significantly changes the landscape. I'll characterize it as throat-shoving. You do you.

David. Beware of imitators.1d ago

@9x0rg Is this a good thing, not from my pov. When corporate hawks spot an up and comer it means commercialization. They'll create a linux based gui desktop but make the bells and whistles proprietary to lock in users. Then turn around and use their lawyers to restrict opensource gui from competition. Look what they did to the internet.

@waitingforthesign @9x0rg AFAIK, whenever attempts to subvert Linux freedoms have been decided in a courtroom, the GPL has prevailed.

May the future remain as sane. 🤞

David. Beware of imitators.1d ago

@FourthWorld @9x0rg
For now. There are no saints in linux.

https://en.linuxadictos.com/manjaro-is-no-longer-just-a-linux-distribution-and-becomes-a-whole-company.html

Manjaro is no longer just a Linux distribution and becomes a whole company

Manjaro, one of the most popular distributions, will become a company with ambitious plans for the future. We will tell you.

Linux Adictos

@waitingforthesign @9x0rg all humans are flawed; the concept of "saint" is aspirational.

From a quick skim of that news it looks like Manjaro is making a service play so they can put full-timers on updates. That would seem useful to the ecosystem as a whole, no?

David. Beware of imitators.19h ago

@FourthWorld Think of it this way both Apple and Win operate on an internet system developed on unix and structured on linux because it is opensource, magic word 'free'. To access the code public users need Win or Apple. If more LinuxOS's start commercializing like you indicated If it will start small, like services. It starts small but competition will drive the need for a better product to attract users to pay the coders, and on and on till you have a proprietary company.

Mastodon Migration 1d ago

☝️ And therein lies the hope and promise of public social media.

Keep fighting friends.

Wulfy—Speaker to the machines 1d ago

I was in a meeting last year, and the only 3 folks with laptops were running #linux

@9x0rg "Linux runs the financial system. Stock exchanges, banking systems, payment processors — the financial infrastructure that moves trillions of dollars every day runs predominantly on Linux. The New York Stock Exchange switched to Linux years ago."

Great. Well done. Keep up the good work.

Trektor 17h ago

@9x0rg Do cruise missiles run on linux? To what extend does the surveillance state?

Is there any MORAL limit on open source usage? Has anynerd "building the future" ever thought about these implications?

God I wish I had time to explore this issue.