Pry my keyboard from my cold, dead hands

Every year I hear proclamations that it will be the year that Linux gains significant market share and becomes dominant on the desktop. And every year that fails to happen. Am I disappointed? Not at all. I don’t care if the Linux desktop becomes competitive with Windows and Mac. Deep inside, I hope it doesn’t.

The fact that desktop Linux has such a small share of the desktop market is part of what makes Linux appealing to me. I’m not beholden to or at the mercy of a monolithic corporation that wants to control every aspect of my computing experience to the point of claiming ownership of my computer just because I installed their proprietary operating system on it. Linux is about freedom.

In social media and on YouTube I’m constantly bombarded with various reasons why Linux is not dominating the desktop market. I hear complaints that there is too much fragmentation in Linux and not enough standards. There are too many distributions, too many package managers, too many file managers, too many window managers, too many desktops environments. And all this fragmentation keeps people who would like to get off Windows and Mac from trying Linux, let alone adopting it.

The multitude of choices is why I was drawn to Linux in the first place and why I’m still a Linux user. I love having the freedom of choice. For many having so many choices is frightening and I get that. But sometimes you have to be wiling to step out of your comfort zone and be wiling to learn new skills and adopt new paradigms.

Linux may not be for the faint of heart but there are distributions with which you can get your feet wet. If the first one you choose, doesn’t work out for, try another. Learn. I know that’s generally discouraged these days, but it’s still quite beneficial.

Linux is about freedom, something that we seem to have less of every day. I love that in Linux we have various package managers, a bunch of different window and file managers, a plethora of desktop environments, and a multitude of distributions. In Linux, there is always more than one way to do nearly anything. Having the freedom to choose what works for me and, if necessary, take individual components and create what does work for me is one of its best features.

I don’t find the multitude of choices to be a detriment, but a blessing. If Linux was just one package manager, one desktop environment, and one distribution, it wouldn’t be much different than Windows or Macintosh. The only difference would be less proprietary software and probably less innovation.

Let Windows and Mac have all the market share they want. I’ll be a rebel and a nonconformist and keep using Linux. They’ll take away my Linux when they pry my keyboard from my cold, dead hands.

(By the way, this Gutenberg editor on WordPress sucks. You’re not supposed to make simple things complicated. The idea is to make complicated things simple.)

Dominance on the Desktop?

It’s FOSS, Fragmentation is Why Linux Hasn’t Succeeded on Desktop: Linus Torvalds

Perhaps fragmentation and the plethora of choices in distributions and desktop environments has held back Linux on the desktop.

Maybe a standardized desktop going across all distribution would go a long way in popularizing Linux on the desktop but one desktop does not fit all nor should it try.

I’m concerned that when Microsoft comes out with their Linux distribution and desktop, they will do all they can to make it dominant and squash their competion, just as they did with Windows.

The response I posted to the article:

I like the freedom of having so many choices. I can chose a distribution and desktop environment to meet my needs and my workflow. Many people contemplating moving from Windows or Mac have been conditioned to a computing environment without choices. Some don’t want to have to make choices or to learn a new environment. Linux has something for everyone.

Making Linux mainstream on the desktop isn’t that important to me. If it were to become mainstream, our choices would become much more limited and running Linux would become much the same as running Windows or Mac.

Call me a nonconformist but I enjoy my independence and freedom of choice.