In the past I have been a desktop Linux naysayer, but I think most of my objections regarding using Linux on the desktop have been fully addressed or at least greatly mitigated. There are versions of desktop Linux that are all over the map in every category. The two that seem to be the overall most consistent, compatible, and reliable are Manjaro and Ubuntu. Those are the two that I am referring to when I say "desktop linux". Not the ones that refuse to boot ever again after I change my desktop resolution, take over a minute to boot on modern hardware, or crash when I open Google Chrome.
-Current versions of desktop Linux are as fast as and at certain tasks better than Windows.
-Driver support for core components is close to flawless although there are often huge hiccups like spotty printer support.
-For certain tasks there are open source programs that are indistinguishable from their Windows versions. Kodi and Chromium spring to mind.
While this is all great, there is still a huge problem with Linux on the desktop that will likely never be solved.
Let me give you an example.
I had my Manjaro system set up and I was able to watch videos, download videos, and browse the internet. That is mostly all I do on my living room computer, so yay. I don't need Windows on this computer.
My 10 year old son comes over for a visit. He wants to play Elf Bowling 7. No problem. I'll just install Wine and play Elf Bowling 7, right? No dice. The game runs, but very poorly and only displays about a 1 inch screen in upper left hand corner of my 50" TV. Snap! Fought with the Wine settings for over an hour and never got anything better than a 5 inch window in the middle of my screen which ran even worse.
No problem. Search the Linux software library for a bowling came. The closest thing I found was Stella running the Atari 2600 version of "Bowling". Ouch!
Any other games that a 10 year old would be interested in playing that will work in Linux? Not really.
I brought up my weekly shopping list in OpenOffice. Looks like crap! All kinds of formatting errors. Certainly Office 97 would look better than this.
So yeah. The no matter how good Linux gets. The brick wall is and will continue to be the fact that there is no good software for Linux. Wine can run certain things, but many of those certain things are either super out of date, super buggy, or both.
-Current versions of desktop Linux are as fast as and at certain tasks better than Windows.
-Driver support for core components is close to flawless although there are often huge hiccups like spotty printer support.
-For certain tasks there are open source programs that are indistinguishable from their Windows versions. Kodi and Chromium spring to mind.
While this is all great, there is still a huge problem with Linux on the desktop that will likely never be solved.
Let me give you an example.
I had my Manjaro system set up and I was able to watch videos, download videos, and browse the internet. That is mostly all I do on my living room computer, so yay. I don't need Windows on this computer.
My 10 year old son comes over for a visit. He wants to play Elf Bowling 7. No problem. I'll just install Wine and play Elf Bowling 7, right? No dice. The game runs, but very poorly and only displays about a 1 inch screen in upper left hand corner of my 50" TV. Snap! Fought with the Wine settings for over an hour and never got anything better than a 5 inch window in the middle of my screen which ran even worse.
No problem. Search the Linux software library for a bowling came. The closest thing I found was Stella running the Atari 2600 version of "Bowling". Ouch!
Any other games that a 10 year old would be interested in playing that will work in Linux? Not really.
I brought up my weekly shopping list in OpenOffice. Looks like crap! All kinds of formatting errors. Certainly Office 97 would look better than this.
So yeah. The no matter how good Linux gets. The brick wall is and will continue to be the fact that there is no good software for Linux. Wine can run certain things, but many of those certain things are either super out of date, super buggy, or both.
