this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2023
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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I'm not proposing anything here, I'm curious what you all think of the future.

What is your vision for what you want Linux to be?

I often read about wanting a smooth desktop experience like on MacOS, or having all the hardware and applications supported like Windows, or the convenience of Google products (mail, cloud storage, docs), etc.

A few years ago people were talking about convergence of phone/desktop, i.e. you plug your phone into a big screen and keyboard and it's now your desktop computer. That's one vision. ChromeOS has its "everything is in the cloud" vision. Stallman has his vision where no matter what it is, the most important part is that it's free software.

If you could decide the future of personal computing, what would it be?

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I think it's already a great system, its philosophical foundation of being built around user freedom is fantastic. It just has a few things that are definitely still problems for desktop users. Namely,

  • Sensible defaults
  • Proprietary driver management
  • Distros needing to distribute software in their repos instead of authors doing it themselves
  • Too many competing application formats, each with glaring issues
  • Inconsistent theming with GTK vs QT (mostly app developers' faults tho)
  • Both popular display servers have huge issues
  • Lack of manufacturer support for hardware (this will come with time if Linux continues to become more popular)
  • Incompatibility with existing standards, especially Microsoft products
  • Lacking proper professional applications for things like video editing that actually work consistently
  • Gaming anti-cheat compatibility
  • Generally being easy to break the whole system on accident
  • Power consumption on mobile devices

I guess that's a lot, but it's still a great system ha.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That is like a double upvote!