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Comment by artistonn | Hacker News Reader

Linux also can't openly admit that it's no match for macOS/Windows on the desktop, which is why we have this hybrid situation - macOS/Windows desktops running Linux VMs

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Unfortunately there are more and more users on Linux and as a result windowsization/macosization of Linux is in progress (systemd, wayland, some scary stuff Poettering is doing with boot, snap/flatpack).

How is that a problem? Both systemd and Wayland helped tremendously in unifying Linux for desktop use, which together with Flatpak enable more 3rd party software to get official support. Yes it adds complexity but it's all still developed in an open fashion and you get very good insight into how things work. With Windows and macOS you have no clue what's happening in the background, or very little.

It is done in the open, but it adds complexity and it removes that made Unix/Linux great - composability, variety and replaces it with corporate introduced "stuff". And any distro is forced to support those additions because corps owning Fedora, Redhat, Ubuntu just rule the Linux world, and event Debian gives up.

As long as there are just few "normies" using Linux, it is safe from corporations adding their "security", "safety" etc.

You can still run devuan. I highly recommend it, though FreeBSD got really good over the last few years, and is even more insulated than devuan is.

I currently have one systemd infected machine, two devuan machines and two freebsd. Next step is paving the systemd one (it randomly craps out) and probably putting FreeBSD on it, but I’m on the fence. It’s a family member’s machine, and devuan is less change.

Guix is also an option.

The point is you NEED those things if you want wide adoption of Linux, which, in turn, is a necessary condition for commercial software to get ported over to Linux. You just can't have both. We need a middle ground I believe 2026 desktop Linux is exactly that: a good compromise.

This is a tired cliché. Today, a modern Linux desktop like KDE Plasma just works and more importantly, gets out of your way unlike obnoxious MacOS and Windows. Aside of that you get the most advanced OS in the world where the thing being discussed here is a decade old.

The issue with Linux isn’t the software, it’s the hardware. Apple Silicon Macs are still the nicest laptop hardware by a huge margin. All the Linux-native options are, at best, “okay”.

Agreed, the Linux laptop story is pretty dire compared to Apple hardware. My travel laptop is an M1 with Asahi.

Same here but after 4 months with Asahi on M1 I wouldn't trust it fully. Had 3 freezes/reboots so far and WiFi often hangs on resume to the point I need to rmmod/modprobe.

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