Linux Turns 25 Years Old

[eydee]

As for the PC desktop, there simply isn't anyone who cares about it.

Linux isn't constant, it can change to be more appealing and interesting.
People aren't constant. Their interests and taste can change.

[dcrdev]

the thing that we used to call "the desktop" those years is now dead.

Linux rules the server side and has a great share on the mobile, and that's all that matters nowadays. (well, almost!)

I don't think the desktop is dead, a large demographic of people who "just use" computers are now able to carry out most of their daily tasks from within a browser window, which translates to almost any operating system on any device. However there is still an equally large demographic of people who use computers to a greater extent such as developers, power users and office workers; to that end the traditional desktop absolutely matters.

What really matters is Pokemon Go, and it does run on Linux.

a) That's about the furthest thing away from what truly matters in this topic.
b) It runs on Android so technically it does run on Linux :P

For me I first experimented with Linux back in the early 2000s and I believe the first distribution I used was Redhat with KDE, back then the desktop was an eye sore and there was very little to convince me to use it. I revisited Linux about 5 years later but in the form of a server operating system, something that Linux really excels at and I've been using it for about 10 years.

With the release of Windows 10 I've been really conflicted about using it as my primary desktop OS because of all of the telemetry data that Microsoft collects and the way that you are forced into the Microsoft ecosystem i.e. all the universal apps that only work with Bing, Hotmail etc... I use none of those services and it's a real chore these days to tailor a new install to something that is efficient for me to use.

I've been playing more and more recently with Linux as a desktop operating system and boy has it come a long way in 15 years, using GNOME it really is quite pleasant to look at, there's a good deal of desktop applications available these days and best of all under the hood it's Linux which I'm very fond of. Trouble is I can't make the switch because there are still some applications that are critical to me and to which there simply aren't any Linux alternatives. Primarily MS Excel and iTunes, iTunes because I have a lot of iDevices and MS Excel because I use it daily for my job as a BI Analyst - LibreOffice does a commendable job but sadly it's nowhere near as powerful as Excel; key features such as What-If-Analysis, Independent Sorting, Data Deduplication are not available with LibreOffice Calc. I hope one day the situation changes and there are either calls for Microsoft/Apple to bring their applications to Linux and/or better alternatives come out of the open source community.

Happy Birthday Linux, you are a wonderful piece of software!

[dungeon]

There is no what to see there, that is outside of linux too That is now more correctly called Radeon Software at least for Windows side, earlier it was called Catalyst Suite as that is not just a driver but software collection of everything.

nvidia, catalyst, amdgpu-pro... are drivers for linux.

nouveau, amdgpu, radeon... are linux drivers.

[dungeon]

4@debianxfce of course

Catalyst Suite was that a suite, but fglrx was a driver for linux While radeon is a linux driver.

There is quite a bit difference in wording, but if proper... you immidiately know what is part of it and what is baked outside

[dungeon]

Too bad that Nvidia, amd and Wiki are against you:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Linux_drivers

AMD Radeon Software Crimson

Depends who wrote a wiki you see, and probably only marketing might be usually against me i agree

Linux drivers or linux's drivers are part of the linux package, while outside you might have some drivers for that same linux i agree on that too

[Mystro256]

My favourite moment was Torvalds' middle finger... Good times.

[dungeon]

Linux package is package you download from:

https://www.kernel.org/

Do you see current realease of 4.7.2 , just click on it and you should get that package

Now open it up and find me a nvidia linux driver

[cynic]

I don't think the desktop is dead, a large demographic of people who "just use" computers are now able to carry out most of their daily tasks from within a browser window, which translates to almost any operating system on any device. However there is still an equally large demographic of people who use computers to a greater extent such as developers, power users and office workers; to that end the traditional desktop absolutely matters.

I'm not quite sure about the "equally large demographic". I don't have any number to support me, so I might well be wrong, but just by observation I would say that the percentage of those who NEED a proper computer is far smaller nowadays.

[Jumbotron]

This was supposed to be the year of Linux desktop, oh well.
2025 isn't that bad either, just 9 years more.

In the year 2525 ; )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izQB2-Kmiic

[alpha_one_x86]

I have progress, but still huge lack, scheduler is not optimal, BTRFS is not stable, wayland is not widelly used (part of desktop usage problem), no OpenGL 4.5 for most driver, No Open source solution for OpenCL for AMD/Nvidia, lack of open source ARM driver (Odroid C2, ARM graphic part), lack of performance for some open source part where proprietary do better, grsec should be mainlined. More collaboration between coding team.
But is usable on desktop, correct on server.