Why Isn't The Linux Desktop More Popular?

Today we discuss Linux on desktops and why it's not as popular as it is in the server space.

[bjorn]

Free and open source software is made by nerds for themselves and for other nerds. The threshold of how big a nerd you need to be has been immensly lowered, but I think it will never completely vanish.

[LivingLinux]

Let's see how many people will keep Linux on their Steam Deck. The good part is, that Valve has the resources to support Linux on the Steam Deck. Once people see that the things you want to do (in this case gaming) is not limited by Linux, and a company takes care of the support (instead of you having to dig in forums for solutions), they will stay on Linux. And that is also why things like cloud computing and more focus on standards, instead of the software (remember IE6 versus W3C compliance?) will give Linux the opportunity to grow.
Remember how MS went nuclear against Netscape? Netscape had a vision to let the browser become the platform to run your software, making the OS less relevant. It's too bad they were ahead of their time, but things like ChromeOS and progressive web apps have become the result of that vision.
But one of the things that is holding Linux down is the lack of focus on the UI of a lot of applications. Things like Libre Office still look from 20 years ago. Sure it gets the thing done and perhaps technically it is better than MS Office, but the UI design will turn the average people away.

[WeiHuan]

I think Linus Tech Tips might've mentioned this, but I think making the choice of distros not so overwhelming would help.
Not in the sense of combining or removing distros so there's less options but in making online guides less confusing, and more targeted towards the "for everyone" distros.
A lot of them don't really explain the distros very well, and put too many. Some include Solus as a good beginner distro (Which it is if you're a specific kind of person) but for a general audience they're most likely going to be turned off by the lower amount of packages and compatibility compared to other distros and especially Windows.

I think guides for beginners should choose at max 3 distros to recommend (For me, I would put Mint, Zorin and Elementary) and cut out a lot of the histories of the OS, stuff like "It's based on Debian." or "It's based on Arch so you'll be able to access the AUR." because the new user, unless already informed by a lot of researched or a friend, won't really know what that means, and could potentially scare them off.
Not saying credit shouldn't be given where credit's due, but it's something the new user can learn after installing the distro.

Think of it this way; The average Windows user doesn't really care that under the hood of Windows 11 are still parts of 95, XP, etc, they just care that it works. Mentioning that Pop!_OS is Ubuntu based to someone new probably doesn't mean much to them.

I don't think the fragmentation of projects is the problem, and like you've mentioned it's a strength in some ways, I think it's more the fragmentation of marketing.
Due to the nature of Linux it can't be advertised like Windows or Mac can, you're not going to see an ad on TV or a YouTube video trying to sell you the new features of Ubuntu, all of Linux's marketing is word of mouth and the occasional time it's preinstalled. (Like what System76 is doing.)
Because of that I think it's more our job to make sure it's marketed well to new people who may want to switch over, making sure that not too much jargon is used and finding points that a new user would legitimately find enticing.

In a way the marketing is "Open-source" too, haha!

[NOPerative]

More folks use Linux on the desktop than metrics can assert due to inability to track users due to privacy being a first class citizen in the ecosystem. I've been dual booting Windows and Linux for over 20 years (22 years in June). Windows is actually the minority in my family now as most use iDevices or Android outside of the XBox. I don't use Linux to spit at Windows I use Linux because it fascinated me and crazy enough the honeymoon has yet to end and I'm not rushing it.

[Juniper]

As someone who tried to switch to Linux, many times:
- Nothing "just works", when you've got a problem you are mostly on your own and can't expect the people making the software to help you. Their market on Windows is substantially bigger to a degree, helping anyone on Linux is just a waste of time and money.
- People want a proper UI. You can't expect the mainstream to use the terminal at all or even search for config files to do the most basic stuff. For example, in the beginning I've had a horrible time changing the audio output's sample rate and bit depth. On Windows, you get a nice dropdown with every possible combination supported by the device.
- Linux feels and looks sluggish. The "feel" part might as well be caused by my GPU, I've always had an NVIDIA card and will probably never change to AMD. I know proprietary software is a big topic on Linux, but this is one of the first things that should work perfectly on a new operating system. The "look" part is because all distros I've tried, look old and bulky coming from Windows. Windows 10 and 11 made this problem even worse for me. I know you can customize Linux to your liking as much as you want, but mainstream people don't want to do that. They want something which looks nice out of the box (mac) or acceptable enough (windows <11).
Edit:
- You've got a million ways to install a program. These programs often vary in version number or content. I fell like the ""proper"" way established in the mainstream is: Go to website > click download the latest version > click file > done.

In comparison, I don't think there will ever be a competitor to Linux in the server space (for personal use).

Edit 2023: I daily drive Linux nowadays because of my development environment and development pipe, still absolutely millions of miles away to be used by most people

[rimseg]

very good points, as long as there is so much choice to make for the base (fedora, debian, arch) and de (plasma, gnome...) we will just scare the majority away. If you want to use Windows the only real question you ask yourself if you want the new Windows 11 or 10 and for Apple it's just what device do I want. If you go for Linux you basically can spend hours of informing yourself before you can make an guess of what distro with de you might prefer.

[Juice-Chan]

Linux has their audience. It is the nerds, the scientists and engineers... Personally I tried a few times to work with Linux but eventually went back to Windows since there were always several programs and games that kept me tight to Microsoft.

[BrianHartman]

I think there are two reasons Linux hasn't hit it big on the desktop:

1) Windows has deals with manufacturers, so that they don't have a lot of incentive to sell pre-built Linux boxes.

2) Linux has a learning curve. If you've got someone who gets confused going from Internet Explorer to Chrome (and yes, I've seen this), you're not going to be able to get that person to make heads or tails of Linux.

[Mateus]

Mainstream users want a GUI. The thought of opening a terminal scares them off. I tried to convince about 15 people to switch. No one wanted it because of that damn thing.
I know it has more to do with support from developers but still.

My first experience with GNU/Linux (I know, I know) was when Ubuntu version 06 rolled out. We had a CD. My dad installed it on our home computer and I remember that I often chose Ubuntu because all flash player games ran WAY smoother than on Windows XP. I was still a kid but I could at least copy and paste commands people posted on brazilian forums. Last year I decided I would give Linux another chance. I was already using Ubuntu on VMware on Windows 11 since January for everything but gaming. When 22.04 was released, I installed it directly on my machine and replaced Windows. I gotta say, it has quite a learning curve.
If only everything switched to flatpak...

[logicalfundy]

I think PC gaming was a smart place to start. PC gamers often like to build their own systems and mod games and such, so they're maybe a bit more used to customization than most other users. That said, to truly grow Linux, it'll eventually need to filter to other areas and become available at retail. Perhaps more advertising wouldn't hurt; I really don't think I've ever seen an ad for Linux or Linux PCs in any form.

[richterman]

I think part of it, is gnome. Is the default on all distros, we need to be using plasma. It's familiar

[Practical-IT]

I agree with the vast majority of what you said here. I'll be hitting 25 years as a Linux user in August of this year. Much of that time I've spent with at least one Linux desktop. Since 2008, I've had at least one Mac at my disposal.

1. It's not as bad as the Windows fanboys would have you believe
2. The Mac and Windows users continually shift the goalposts. It will always be behind on some feature a proprietary desktop has
3. Linux desktop still lags behind in gaming, although there are starting to be some advantages to gaming on Linux, at least casually.

I'm in a unique position. I have to support all three systems. I do freelance support outside of my day job, and do have clients on all three platforms. It is therefore important I keep up on all three.

There's no silver bullet answer to the problem.

I happen to like where the desktop is at currently. We really can only go up from here.

[deultima]

I think the real issue is, there is no OS market. People don't go out and buy an OS unless they are building a new computer typically. The only way we are going to push Linux to the masses is through hardware like the Steam Deck. Chrome OS is a perfect example of that. Google pushed their Chromebook devices, not the OS its self.

[rauljosegarcia]

The issue with highlighting a "customized" operating system is that the average member of "the masses" doesn't even know why they would want to customize it or what that means (or how to do it). Linux reminds me a lot of #Esperanto. It's there, it's available, it works... but not many care for that functionality or feature set so it remains adopted by a small set of users. That doesn't make it any worse (though in the case of a language the network effect makes it less useful, not so much the case with Linux). I'm enjoying Linux for what it is today and learning more and more what that actually means.

[_zetrax]

For anyone mentioning SteamDeck, 1. PlayStation's OS is also based on FreeBSD 2. SteamOS existed for years no one was talking about it then what will really change now?

[PlasticinaVerde]

also when you fresh install 22.04, you need to install basic sutf like double click to minimise the apps, why???

[RobertHalvarsson]

Bigger implementation is basically one factor away, it shipping with laptops in normal outlets where people buy hardware. Normal people don't change their OS, whether it be good or bad. I'm not a normie, but implementation not related to anything most Linux people focus on.

[fuseteam]

fully agree that preinstalled linux hardware will improve linux adoption, but also having more mainstream software vendors support linux~

you want to have people buy linux hardware but also stick with the default os xd

[FurriousFox]

choosing between windows and Linux was really hard, the only reason I installed Windows is because WSL, else I would've installed linux

[Powerincarnate.]

To deconstruct why Linux desktop fails, you really have to be honest with the situation. Don't be a fanboy, don't be partial, just be honest with the situation and deconstruct it. I can give you my examples.

I tried switching to linux several years ago, but ran into several problem.

1. fractional scaling still sucks. I have a 5k x2K monitor and 200% is too big, 100% is too tiny, 150% is perfect... On MacOS no issue, on Windows no issue. On linux...lots of issues. Some distos like Elemetary OS, Danielle Fiore is against it. Gnome doesn't have have it by default. Ubuntu somewhat has it, but for many distros it's terrible. Then you try to fix it by making it 200% and then decrease the font sizes, but then not all programs respect. If you go 100% and increase font sizes, same thing. And even when you think it works somewhat passable, some programs like citrix webserver completely ignores it and that is crucial to my work. So again, Fractional scaling have been working fine on Windows and MACOS for literally like 10 years now. WHY is linux 10 years behind?? Again, these are why fragmentation sucks, at someone 1 big conglomerate of a company would have already fixed it; but fragmented, small distro maintainers...well 2022 and problem persist.

2. as I alluded, I need Citrix Webserver to log into my work's systems in order to work from home at times. Well it was a poor implementation, at times fonts too tiny. It was unusable.

3. If you work for any major company where you may have to present, share papers, continue work at home; you need to have Microsoft Office (Google's office suite can sometimes help), but you need Office. Well, I tried Libre Office, I had a paper with tables and graphics, uploaded it to myself and at work downloaded it as I was going to present it....well when i opened it up in the work's microsoft office, there were multiple broken things about the presentation including the tables I made were not aligned and wonky. Now I had to then scramble to fix it, before I presented, but if I was pressed for time and didn't have a chance to open it up first, then I would be presenting a very unprofessional paper that would look like I was high school amateur. Now I heard some of the other office suites have better compatibility, but again everyone uses office. they have shared documents, once that can be changed by any team members on either microsoft office or google. Unless these other office suites really put in the work to ensure compatibility and also have an online presence, it simply can't be counted on. Again, this isn't an issue with MACOS or Windows, but it is an issue with linux.

4. Games. This is getting better with proton, but lets be honest here, everytime a new game comes out, you are hoping there is no anticheat and you are hoping compatibility is good. 2nd problem, NVIDIA generally had the better graphic cards the past 5-10 years. but nvidia driver situation on linux sucks. Some games have screen tearing, some are slide shows, some have audio issues, some don't even open. One of the reason people choose console gaming is that it just works. Do not underestimate the "it just works" portion of this problem as for linux, it doesn't just work.

5. Some distros are inherently unstable. Like if this was Windows, it would be headline new. You can't have a situation where if you choose say Arch linux, and you didn't update your drives for a bit of time, you risk your computer being broken. Even Jeremy had this issue recently. This is NOT acceptable. Then you go fishing to distro after distro, hoping the problem goes away (in his case it was nvidia driver issues). Or in Linux, it was some issue with PopOS, or whatever.

6. Fragmentation: should you go arch, what about arco, xerolinux, endevour, garuda, manjaro?? and that's just arch base distros. What about Ubuntu base distros?? Oh, and should you go Gnome, XFCE, KDE, LXQT, Cinnamon, Pantheon, Deepin??? Should you got windows manager route?? Good luck with the general public having to decide these things.

7. Linux Lack the All inclusive, Carefully curated, Extremely connected and refined system that Apple provides. Just think about all of apples product and the excitement of the new M1/M2 chips. While it also lacks the availability of Windows in all the stores, only stores etc. Lastly, it also lacks the broad driver support of windows. What I mean by this is, I buy a product, I can for the most part know it will work with windows, whatever that product is. For linux... not so much. An example of this is some audio products.

8. Linux folks sometimes overly preoccupy their mindset towards the OS. I see a million linux videos talking about one disto vs another, or comparing one point release very another (ubuntu 21.10 vs 22.04), or one minor change to the desktop environment vs another etc... Meanwhile what real people want is, hey, I need to do work, can I do my work on linux. can i use final cut, or photoshop, or microsoft office, or some proprietary software at a scientific institution or whatever. If there is love, it's to hardware and what it allows us to do, like can I run this game at 240 frame rate with variable rate/Geforce G-sync. While MACOS is beatiful and all, but people don't flock there because of it's beauty, it's because of how connected it is with so many key devices while also being able to use it for just about all use cases (except gaming).

There are more, but I've said enough. Point is, everyone on these linux videos keep talking about why windows suck and why linux is great..but you better also mention what are the things that windows (or MAC) does a whole lot better than linux or else, you'll never understand why linux marketshare is locked in at 1-2% for 20+ years with Zero signs it will change.