Is this the year on Linux (the Death of XP, birth of SteamOS)


Will 2014/2015 be the year of Linux?  

44 members have voted

  1. 1. Will 2014/2015 be the year of Linux?

    • 2014 will be the year of Linux
      3
    • 2015 will be the year of Linux
      6
    • 2014 will not be the year of Linux
      22
    • 2015 will not be the year of Linux
      13


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Actually.. This may be the year of Linux for me.. I am in the process of creating a Proof of Concept for my company.. We rely very heavily on iPads at the moment. Most of our machines are P4s and run Windows XP.. I have to upgrade all of those machines.. However, it might be possible for SOME users to keep their machines and run Linux on it.. Their apps that they will use, will be pushed out with Citrix.. So they can work on their desktop and pick up right where they left off on their iPad or or another computer.. It won't be for all users, but some that don't require a lot, it could be an option.. 

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Its been the year of Linux for me since I made the switch 11 years ago, so whatever.

 

 

Actually.. This may be the year of Linux for me.. I am in the process of creating a Proof of Concept for my company.. We rely very heavily on iPads at the moment. Most of our machines are P4s and run Windows XP.. I have to upgrade all of those machines.. However, it might be possible for SOME users to keep their machines and run Linux on it.. Their apps that they will use, will be pushed out with Citrix.. So they can work on their desktop and pick up right where they left off on their iPad or or another computer.. It won't be for all users, but some that don't require a lot, it could be an option.. 

 

That. It is not the year of Linux for EVERYONE. Some people like it, some people hate it. Why can't we just say "year of Linux for those who are compatible with it"?

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Funny thing is I could have someone up and running with Linux Mint and comfortable before Windows finishes installing and going through all of its' hotfixes.

If we're going to rate an OS solely on how fast it is to install from scratch then it'll be the year of MS-DOS.

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I'm not following what you mean by 'year of linux'

 

The year of people choosing linux? No.

The year linux surpasses windows installs? No.

The year linux becomes user-friendly? No.

 

 

Linux already has taken over. Apple use linux in everything, Android is linux, the PS4 is majority linux/FreeBSD, the server that runs this site is linux... Its everywhere. More appropriately, its the year of the death of Windows!

What exactly does Apple use Linux for?

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Depends what you mean by the year of Linux.  On the enterprise end things have been shifting towards *nix for a long time now.  Every place I have worked for the past 8-9 years has had a server estate that was at a minimum 50% *nix servers and the majority had at least 75%. 

 

Desktop is a whole different matter but on the enterprise end huge licensing costs and ever shifting licensing terms have been shifting the tide for a long time.  

 

I do believe though Linux gaming will gain some major traction in 2014.  With the PS4 being x86 Linux games are already being developed for it, so I can see more games getting released for it because it should be already done for the most part.  Also, Steam have hit with the steambox at exactly the right time due to Linux games already being developed so should be fairly easy for them to have simultaneous releases with PC/Consoles on SteamOS.


What exactly does Apple use Linux for?

 

I think what is being referred to is Mac OS X and iOS are both Unix.

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Op, what world are you living on?

SteamOS is incapable of running most games.

XP, to this present day, is capable or running most games out there.

An OS from 2001, 13 years later, is more valuable than Steam OS / Steam Box.

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why do people keep on asking this stupid question? how is the death of xp and steamOS linked to linux becoming the desktop of choice? Bad logic at best.

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Every year IS an opportunity for Linux to conquer the Desktop market. But it can't as it is too difficult to use for everyday computer users. Hunting for drivers, special commands to install programs and then hunting for codecs...LOL...please. NO ONE wants to do that. AND I run Fedora Rawhide on one of my machines...but I do it cause I enjoy all that. But recommend a linux desktop system to a business...that's laughable. That is why Ubuntu is trying so hard NOT to be a Linux Desktop OS...and in doing so Ubuntu is nothing but BUGGY BUGGY BUGGY!

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I don't think it will, and as a Linux user I honestly couldn't care less. Call me selfish, but I don't see how I would benefit from more people using the same OS as I do when said OS is doing perfectly fine as it is.

 

The only single thing I'm missing on Linux is a Pod X3 driver, and a marketshare increase or whatever that "year of linux" would mean doesn't necesarily imply that I would get that anyway.

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I think what is being referred to is Mac OS X and iOS are both Unix.

I know.  Linux is not UNIX though.  There is no Linux in OS X or iOS, although you will find some GNU utilities.

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The only significant gain Linux may make on desktops is as a Thin OS to initiate an RDP session to a Windows Virtual Desktop.

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It will never be the year of Linux, as far as consumer use goes  

Wrong. The year of Linux on the desktop is n+1, where n is the current year. Thus 2015 will most definitely be the year of Linux.

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As with every thread on this topic, there's a bit of irrational disdain of Linux  :laugh:. It seems like in these threads it is either that or irrational love for Linux. It's always either overselling Linux as the worst possible desktop experience ever or overselling Linux as the best desktop and OS ever.

 

Come on, let's be fair folk. You aren't generally dropping to command line on Ubuntu or Linux Mint or doing weird things to install software. Where Linux fails is more on out-of-box hardware compatibility. Sometimes it is kernel related (for example, the well known power regression bugs), sometimes it is in the driver space (For example, GPU drivers). In the last decade, the pervasiveness of desktop distributions have certainly brought Linux a long way in both terms of hardware support and ease of use. We are far from where we were a decade ago.

 

I'm glad that some folk are clarifying the portions that Android and GNU/Linux share though.

 

 

I don't think it will, and as a Linux user I honestly couldn't care less. Call me selfish, but I don't see how I would benefit from more people using the same OS as I do when said OS is doing perfectly fine as it is.

 

The only single thing I'm missing on Linux is a Pod X3 driver, and a marketshare increase or whatever that "year of linux" would mean doesn't necesarily imply that I would get that anyway.

 

You do get the benefit of software support though from an increase in market share. And you probably would see a Pod X3 driver if Linux had significant market share on desktop. As it stands, desktop SW developers have a good reason to not cater to Linux though. Thankfully, there are developers and an ecosystem regardless though

 

 

why do people keep on asking this stupid question? how is the death of xp and steamOS linked to linux becoming the desktop of choice? Bad logic at best.

 

The SteamOS bit isn't bad logic. If Valve were able capture significant marketshare there is an incentive for out-of-box driver and software support on the desktop Linux front. Distributions could then bake in SteamOS support and suddenly gamers have an alternative OS to jump ship to completely.

 

Do I think this will happen? Not particularly, but SteamOS does stand a chance of changing the Linux landscape in terms of driver and software support.

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Do I think this will happen? Not particularly, but SteamOS does stand a chance of changing the Linux landscape in terms of driver and software support.

I'd like to see that, too, but they're going about it the wrong way. I believe they should be contributing upstream rather than forking. There are a bazillion distros based on Debian, so why fork it? They should have just removed the requirements for Jockey and the specific glibc requirements. Removing BIOS support in favor of UEFI in the initial release just seemed weird.

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Of course they would. The bright minds of the underdogs continuously oppressed by the evil empire... that absolutely can't, with all their ingenuity, get their own s* together, and yet look to conquer the world. Google did all the hard work of building myriad of things, a whole another world, atop of free stuff (as they unscrupulously do all too often), and yet the achievement is all theirs?

 

Linux is not kernel. Linux is a cult of kernel.

 

Uh, no. Linux isn't a cult, not even remotely. Horrifically unfair to tar everyone with the same brush here.

 

However if you want to talk about the FSF or RMS, then absolutely yes - they are very much a cult, with the GPL as their bible.

 

Thankfully their paranoia and xenophobia is causing their sponsored projected to rot while newer permissively-licensed software continues to grow and mature.

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I'd like to see that, too, but they're going about it the wrong way. I believe they should be contributing upstream rather than forking. There are a bazillion distros based on Debian, so why fork it? They should have just removed the requirements for Jockey and the specific glibc requirements. Removing BIOS support in favor of UEFI in the initial release just seemed weird.

It's true enough, but at the same time I think this was partially to avoid politics. This way they could throw out whatever they didn't want or need. Similar to how Google forked Webkit. Whether that is the right decision, I don't know. I just hope that the improvements land in other distros, the kernel, etc. I hope this also speeds the process of the move away from X11, but I digress...  :D

 

EDIT: Oh yeah, the UEFI thing made little practical sense...

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As a linux/win user. I could care less if if this year or any year is year of linux. if linux and win switched places, you'd hear folks say "it's the year of win". Nice try though.

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It's been the Year Of Linux ever since it was released. It's everywhere, from routers, to servers, to Android, Tizen, Jolla, Firefox OS, Ouya, SteamOS, Ubuntu, and Chromebooks. I can't think of a place where a FOSS stack running Linux doesn't exist. So based on that criteria, it's been the YOL (Year Of Linux) since 17 September 1991 and every year since then.

 

2014 for me is just another year where GNU/Linux and FOSS will grow. And that's all that matters ;) and that's why I won't vote in the poll.

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EDIT: Oh yeah, the UEFI thing made little practical sense...

 

The UEFI thing was due to SteamOS's initial release being little more than an image of the install that accompanied the hardware prototypes.

 

I believe BIOS support came alongside a installer that was created by the community and pulled in by Valve.

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The UEFI thing was due to SteamOS's initial release being little more than an image of the install that accompanied the hardware prototypes.

 

I believe BIOS support came alongside a installer that was created by the community and pulled in by Valve.

Sounds like an understandable reason to me. As long as they've fixed the issue, I'm cool with it

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