Why Not Linux? A closer look at why Linux might just be the right choice for your desktop needs.

22 thoughts on “Why Not Linux? A closer look at why Linux might just be the right choice for your desktop needs.”

• Very few people I think understand why Linux has not achieved success on the desktop, but I'll lay it out. It's 100% application availability. Linux has been basically suitable for ordinary desktop use for over 20 years, all the little rough edges that people could point to are easy to fix, and it's not like windows doesn't have rough edges. Much of this would be fixed if there were significant numbers of ordinary users that actually used the platform, many of them are "developery" rough edges, and many of us prefer it that way. Now you might say, "but developers wouldn't target a platform that has no users!", that's only partially true. People use a device because of what it can do, what applications are available on it, and so on. It's fundamentally the responsibility of the distribution to build use cases for people and businesses, and this is what drives adoption. This has happened over and over again, even during the life of linux, and linux vendors mostly keep failing to see the big picture. See every new gaming console, Iphone, android, and so on, the platform and vendor ecosystem comes first not the other way around. Ubuntu seems to be the first vendor to really start taking this seriously with their snap store, and it's the reason why more commercial applications are showing up there instead of say flatpak or appimage.

  However the most directly applicable example to understand is Steam. Linux desktop use has more than doubled in the last couple years, and it's almost entirely thanks to valve's effort in making gaming on linux easy. If you are a gamer, then even if you like linux and know it already, use it for work or whatever, you were using windows before proton. It's not really a matter of choice right? If you want to play game x, then except for specific circumstances, you had to be on windows and that was the end of the story. *The same is true for almost every other industry*. Be it an oral surgeon and their industry specific line of business app, xray machines, cnc machines, cad software, custom internal software, quickbooks, photoshop, professional audio software, etc. Every industry has something that blocks that adoption.

  Apple and Linux both have their own specialist industries of course as well, but far fewer. So efforts to make desktops nicer is always important, but it won't drive adoption. What's REALLY important are linux vendors and solution providers working with application vendors to bring their suites to the linux desktop.

• Linux is GARBAGE when it comes to gaming

• How to create table of content in a pdf in linux?

• "NT kernel which was build on the DOS system at one point", errrrr, nope ! The entire point of (N)ew (T)echnology was that it's code was not built on DOS in any way at all. Its kernel was built by a team poached from DEC who had just written VMS, NT is from the ground up a 32 bit fully pre-emptive multi tasking protected mode operating system, in much the same way as modern Linux . I am not a Windows fan at all, but please try not to misinform as it detracts from an otherwise credible point of view.

• The only reason I am not running Linux on my laptop is the lack of support for the speakers on my ASUS Zenbook and the much lower battery life (about 50%) of my stripped down windows.

• Sadly, I need to run a Windows VM due to vendor software windows exclusivity. I would switch to Linux in a heartbeat if not for a couple of applications.

• Awesome video! Great points. I think the hardest part of leaving Windows is not using familiar programs. Yes, Linux has HUGE benefits, but sometimes it's difficult leaving behind familiar programs. Thanks for the video!👍

• What about a comparison of Linux vs Windows or things that Linux does and can do which Windows cant do?

• I run linux on my server/s and my laptop.

  I havent switched my gaming rig over. And i probly wont. Gaming on linux is like. 90% there. Thanks to proton. Lol

• The issue I found with libre office is if others use some f*ed up formatting or whatnot, and either it looks broken when LO opens it. Or if it is broken when the other guy opens it, I am wrong, or I did something wrong. Believe me, ppl do some bats** crazy formatting. 99% of the time because thay don't know how to actually use office :angryface:. Sort-of works in MS office, drives you crazy in MS office when you want to do some proper editing or cleanup. Sometimes the original of some "corporate" template is older than my first car was, but they still use it 😢
  Basically that lead me to actually buy office for my wife and myself.
  Oh, definitely has some really good features I used: equation editor, when I was creating docs at university. The csv import is way better, if you don't live in a country where csv actually means coma separated for example.
  Funny thing: teams web is better than the electron app in basically every OS I tried so far 😂

• 34:18 : I'm sorry, but there is so much misinformation here. You can turn off all the tracking stuff. You don't have to log into a Microsoft account. You don't have to run that command. I literally walked a customer through the initial setup without the M$ account yesterday. The easiest way to get around it is to NOT connect to the internet on the initial install, it will let you create a local user. 36:44 , What are you talking about? There is Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server, not to mention over 500 active flavors of Linux (per Tecmint). I'm all for promoting Linux, and I love it. But at least be real with your opinion, don't sound like a brainwashed fanboy.

• I wish you were correct. There is still too many "windows only" applications that stop people from switching. Every year or so, I attempt to replace my regular work laptop running Windows 10 to Linux and always have to switch back because the applications just don't work. Even using Wine, Lutris, CodeWeavers's garbage (that I paid for), etc. I'll give it a solid 4 to 8 hours and then give up. I'm a huge Linux advocate and Linux already rules the server space. On the gaming side, it's still extremely lacking. Maybe once Valve releases the Steam Deck OS, it'll get better, but even the computer sitting on the floor next to me (connect to a TV) for "console" style gaming, I spent 3 days trying to get stuff to work under Linux with NVidia's proprietary drives. Gave up, installed Windows 10 and Steam in big picture mode and had a full "console" style gaming experience going in less than 3 hours. And I'm completely comfortable in RH and Debian based distros, so I can only imagine what someone new to Linux would experience.

• The best Linux distro for the normal user is ChromeOS. It just works.

  I've tried to daily drive it just about every year since I installed slackware from a linux book at Barnes and Noble. While an enthusiast like us can do it, normal people shouldn't.

• there is a reason why Munich still struggle switching to desktop linux.

• I dont agree with your view on updates. Linux updates in my opinion more than often breaks something sometime. Just this week an Ubuntu update broke one of my VMs, stuck on bootup and with no amount of googling I could get it fixed.

• Android for the win!

• The thing holding me back was games. As soon as proton started making strides I didn't hesitate to step over. Right on time too considering how shitty 11 is.

• I'm thinking in these days to swap to linux, looking for the right distro. I think nowadays the question is not WHY NOT LINUX, but rather WHICH DISTRIBUTION SHOULD I CHOOSE? Not everyone has the desire/patience to keep changing distros until they find what they want, that's a big block I think. I was looking at Linux MX, it seems very popular, and has an eye for installing NVIDIA drivers, but I discovered by accident that installing certain drivers on linux can lead to "problems". I think a guide on what you need to know would also help you choose the right distro without any nasty surprises.

• For 90% of users, Linux would cover all their use cases.

• 6:30 – 7:32 > windows update

• I have been using linux on and off for years but I work frim home and need MS Office (Outlook, Teams etc) for work. For a while, i tried to make do by having a Windows VM in proxmox and using the VDI Client for spice to connect to it but the whole experience became very exhausting. These days i mostly use Wimdows for desktop as I work around 12 hrs a day but all my homelab is based on Linux (Unraid, Proxmox etc). I wish there was a way I could use MS Office apps natively on Linux.

• It is still not streamlined enough… maybe in 10-15 years, but still not ready. OS for enthusiast with free time, not for the masses, that simple.

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