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The 'desktop' is an outmoded concept anyhow. More is being done on Mobile to the exclusion of the desktop. Who needs a big machine with a monitor when you can do just about everything on a Chromebook or iPad?

As far as Linux on ________, Let's look at where we're at now.

Supercomputer. Linux runs the entire Top 500.

https://itsfoss.com/linux-runs-top-supercomputers/

Severs/Websites. 75% are Linux or variants.

https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/operating_system

Mobile. 72% is Android alone, which counts for Linux IMNSHO.

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide

ChromeOS now exceeds MacOS market share. Apple had already been making (painful) attempts to move away from the Desktop.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/the-worlds-second-mo...

And, of course, there's the Linux Subsystem for Windows.

Linux won. It's over. Windows might be holding onto a majority if you only count desktops, but given even Microsoft has moved towards supporting Linux directly on their own OS... and moving towards Cloud As a Service and hosting, yep, Linux on Azure... Even Microsoft knows that Windows has found itself facing the once unthinkable: support Linux or find yourself increasingly irrelevant. Windows on ARM failed. Twice. Windows Mobile in all of its variants are dead now. Microsoft released an Android device. So given everything that we use today, something that ISN'T running a *ix type kernel is, in fact, the minority.

Microsoft is grasping harder with Windows 11... and in their shortsightedness, they ended up excluding huge chunks of systems that were still being sold even as recently as 3 years ago. It's quite unthinkable to me because the one and ONLY one major killing feature of Windows in general was that you could install it on decade-old hardware. Win10 ran pretty decently on my Phenom II x4 desktop which had 16GB Ram. Why shouldn't it?

And now Win11 is looking to exclude first gen Ryzen.

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/324157-windows-11-may-...

The tighter the grip, the more that will slip in between their fingers...

At this point, it's becoming easier and easier to support Linux... thanks to Proton on Steam, more native binaries (BlackMagic, for example, with DaVinci Resolve), more apps becoming webapps and only needing a web browser. At this point, I think what we're waiting for is for legacy companies like Adobe to shit the bed and render themselves irrelevant. (And boy have they gotten close.)

Yeah. The year of Linux on the Desktop is a meme... but should it actually happen... the concept of 'desktop' won't matter anymore, IMHO.




Screen space and input matters especially with complex tasks.

Due to heat and therefore power constraints an ipad shaped device will remain sub par compared to a PC shaped device.


External monitors.

Also, laptops.

People have been able to do without full-fledged desktops quite well for a while now.


Just wanted to add I agree with nearly everything you said save desktops.

>Who needs a big machine with a monitor when you can do just about everything on a Chromebook or iPad

You did say we didn't need laptops or monitors.

People having been able to do without full fledged desktops doesn't imply the format is either dead or without merit.

It remains the best tool for the job for many many tasks especially if you have a merely average amount of funds or need above average performance.




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