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?

  • Synthead@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    in my opinion, Linux has an edge on pretty much everything except for adoption. It’s stable, secure, and updated very often. There are a ton of very great libraries for it that make building and running programs very easy. It’s great on resource management, and the kernel makes great use of the hardware.

    However, most pitfalls in Linux comes from it having less adoption than more popular OSes like Windows or Mac OS. Ultimately, this dampens the “friendliness” of Linux to the masses. If you buy a piece of hardware from the electronics store, there will often be no Linux support. The “mom and dad” folk might enjoy it, but won’t know how to install or update things, simply because it’s different. Vendors will often deliver shoddy binary blobs for common hardware like wireless cards.

    With more adoption comes more pressure for support. We’re seeing this with the Steam Deck already: if a game company wants to sell their games on the Deck, then they need to add Linux support, even if that means ensuring that it runs on Wine. I’d love to see this kind of thing for everyday use, i.e. a scanner including Linux software and instructions (and hopefully isn’t a nasty “install.run” thing).

    If it becomes more common, then friends will help other friends with their computer. “Mom and dad” can look up solutions to problems on the internet, and they’ll be able to fix it themselves. Your aunt will buy an iPod and she’ll be able to run iTunes in a first-party way. With enough adoption, it will even be weird to run operating systems other than Linux because hardly anyone runs Windows or Mac OS anymore.

    I don’t think Linux will ever be in the majority, but I see it climbing a bit in the next ten years. Lots of kinks have been worked out, and with the right software, it’s even easy-to-use and pretty to look at. We need more devices like the Steam Deck to help pave the way for more adoption! Then after a while, people will use it cause that’s what they know.

  • Snoopy@jlai.lu
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    An immutable OS that run all app whatever are their package distribution.

    Later a full OS rewritten in Rust with goods tools that share folder’s content accross all devices and mass storage device as syncthing do.

    Let’s imagine a button where you click on add devices, then you scan the QR code and chose which folder you want to share. :)

  • jsdz@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    Well okay, since it’s up to me: Let’s have free software. Fully free Linux on every phone, including all “firmware” which has gotten awfully soft lately. No more proprietary driver blobs for ethernet controllers or cellular modems. No more proprietary DRM modules. No more “smart” consumer goods that come without source code. The free software revolution has gone pretty well in some respects, but we need to finish the job and put an end to all that garbage.

  • helenslunch@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    I just want a system that doesn’t require a software engineering degree to operate. That’s all I need.

  • SapphironZA@lemmings.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    I wish distro’s would combine efforts much more so we have a better desktop experience. Do we really need 15 window managers when we could have 2 or 3 much better ones.

    Unify to a single package manager, they are all functionally the same.

    Standardize on flatpacks and abandon snaps and appimage

    • tar_xf@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I like the option to pick different package managers but it would behoove the community to actually settle on a package format. Making a deb or rpm are very different processes and while containers are nice for server side stuff I wish there was something easier for desktop

      • SapphironZA@lemmings.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        The fact that the processes are so different, is part of the problem. Developers need to spend the same effort 3 or 4 times.

  • yesdogishere@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    linux has to start a new OS from the ground up. Go back to command line and PC-DOC days. Everything must be controllable at a basic level. Shove MS and Apple out the door. Nobody wants their adware and virus bloated shit any longer.