The rise of Linux desktop is inevitable — it’s time music software developers got on board

[j_e_g]

predicting it is silly.

I wouldn't be so sure of that if I were you.

We here at Microsoft are currently testing Windows 12 (code-named LongShot because when consumers find out what it does, it will be miracle if we sell any copies).

Remember "Clippy"? Well, we're bringing him back, but this time he's connected to an AI engine. We call your new AI assistant "Sloppy".

You see, Windows 12 isn't just an agentic OS. It's a predictive OS. Sloppy's AI is able to predict your future needs (even before you know them), and proactively address them. No more annoying confirmation popups! Sloppy knows what you're going to need, and makes all decisions for you. You don't ever have to know even what's happening to you. You'll simply thank Sloppy when you eventually find out what he has done.

In the past week's tests, Sloppy has predicted the following, and taken these actions:

Sloppy predicts that this friday at 7:16 PM, BONES will perish driving off a cliff while following erroneous Google Maps directions. Sloppy has scheduled the wake for the following tuesday at the "Metro Tiles" funeral home. Sloppy also predicts that no one using linux will attend.

Sloppy predicts that it will rain, and audiophile will get wet. Sloppy deems no further action is needed, since audiophile always wears a raincoat (and absolutely nothing underneath) out in public.

Sloppy predicts that Donald Trump will declare war upon Canada. Sloppy has annexed Canada to the USA in order to appease the president.

[lunardigs]

predicting it is silly.

I wouldn't be so sure of that if I were you.

We here at Microsoft are currently testing Windows 12 (code-named LongShot because when consumers find out what it does, it will be miracle if we sell any copies).

Remember "Clippy"? Well, we're bringing him back, but this time he's connected to an AI engine. We call your new AI assistant "Sloppy".

You see, Windows 12 isn't just an agentic OS. It's a predictive OS. Sloppy's AI is able to predict your future needs (even before you know them), and proactively address them. No more annoying confirmation popups! Sloppy knows what you're going to need, and makes all decisions for you. You don't ever have to know even what's happening to you. You'll simply thank Sloppy when you eventually find out what he has done.

In the past week's tests, Sloppy has predicted the following, and taken these actions:

Sloppy predicts that this friday at 7:16 PM, BONES will perish driving off a cliff while following erroneous Google Maps directions. Sloppy has scheduled the wake for the following tuesday at the "Metro Tiles" funeral home. Sloppy also predicts that no one using linux will attend.

Sloppy predicts that it will rain, and audiophile will get wet. Sloppy deems no further action is needed, since audiophile always wears a raincoat (and absolutely nothing underneath) out in public.

Sloppy predicts that Donald Trump will declare war upon Canada. Sloppy has annexed Canada to the USA in order to appease the president.

The AI slop is about to get so sloppy

[camsr]

You don't need to edit config files as root. Nor do you need to edit config files to set up, there's a nice application called Cable.

A link would be nice.

https://github.com/magillos/Cable/releases/

Thanks. Looks much nicer than QPWGraph, and even has the same kinda config screen, and much more.

[lunardigs]

... BLARG BLARG BLARG!

Shh shh shhhhhh ... It's okay, we're all gonna be okay

[ghettosynth]

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/steammachine

I expect that this will have some minor impact, albeit slowly, on more mainstream use of Linux. That is, modulo the problems of RAM pricing.

I'm not a good datapoint because I have had linux installed on something for decades and I used it daily for work for years some time back. However, I just switched back to Linux as my primary desktop. Reaper works fine. Frankly, that's always been one of the appeals for Reaper to me, it runs on all my machines and feels the same on all of them.

[havran]

You don't need to edit config files as root.

Um, what does that even mean?

[havran]

... BLARG BLARG BLARG!

Shh shh shhhhhh ... It's okay, we're all gonna be okay

No, it's really just Australia and NZ who will be left to carry on (such as they are), after the rest of the world goes to hell. At least in Oz one can cast a vote in Speedos -- so that's something, I guess.

[machinesworking]

This part is provably false.
https://commandlinux.com/statistics/lin ... ly-trends/

Umm, that's an email I received about Windows 11 development a couple of weeks ago, what does it prove? The reality is that the current share of desktop OS for Linux is 4.7%, which is double what it was a few years ago. But "double" in this scenario is only another 2%, which is nothing but statistical noise. If Microsoft are worried about anyone coming to eat their lunch its Apple and Google, not Linux.

You have to realise it won't be decided by consumers. MS maintains very strong relationships with vendors and it will do whatever it takes to ensure that their OS is the one big vendors like Adobe support. Corel tried to get out from under the MS umbrella but were brought quickly back into the fold. When Microsoft wanted Avid to switch development to Windows, they gave them a software company they had bought for something like $60 million to entice them over. Linux will never be able to compete with that, it will always be the awkward little brother, the last one standing when the music stops. Microsoft have too much to lose and Linux has nothing at all to gain, in that if you're giving shit away, how many people you're giving it to is immaterial. That's just how it is, how the world works.

Developers won't want to support it either, for reasons explained by someone a few pages back. Fragmentation means testing and supporting a dozen or more distros and several different ways of doing everything. It's a significant drain on resources for minimal return. It just ain't gonna happen.

Mac OS was at around 5% in 2000.
Year macOS Market Share (%) Windows Market Share (%)
1999 < 5% ~95%
2009 ~10% ~90%
2019 ~20% ~80%
2026 29.62% ~57.37%

These are USA numbers. If Windows continues to bloatware it's OS and have you dance through hoops to turn everything off etc. and Mac OS continues to release versions that break developers software, then we could easily see Linux rise at the levels that Mac OS has, while Apple and Microsoft make bad decisions that tank their respective OS's. <- I don't see that changing honestly.

In other words, you can't count on your feelings for this, plenty of people over the years told me Mac OS would die soon. In fact I was working for one of the regional heads of Real Player in 2008 and asked him about the upcoming rumored iPhone release and whether it would be a good idea to buy Apple stock, he said don't count on it. I'm glad I didn't take his advice that $1500 became the $7000 I used as a down payment on my house. I'm still ahead because of how cheap a house was during the mortgage crisis, but that $1,500 would be worth about $130,000 last time I checked.

[lunardigs]

... BLARG BLARG BLARG!

Shh shh shhhhhh ... It's okay, we're all gonna be okay

No, it's really just Australia and NZ who will be left to carry on (such as they are), after the rest of the world goes to hell. At least in Oz one can cast a vote in Speedos -- so that's something, I guess.

Well, we'll see what happens.
Meanwhile we need to stay alert and sober.
As for me, I'll keep up the good work as usual, fighting evil wherever possible. But in my free time, I'm going to continue writing my cute fan-fiction in the forms of songs, with Linux.

[BONES]

Mac OS was at around 5% in 2000.

Yeah and how many billions of dollars do you think it has cost Apple in marketing to make those gains? Who is going to pay for Linux's marketing?

Year macOS Market Share (%) Windows Market Share (%)
1999 < 5% ~95%
2009 ~10% ~90%
2019 ~20% ~80%
2026 29.62% ~57.37%

These are USA numbers.

And these are real numbers for the whole world, where most of us live -

Untitled-1.png

If Windows continues to bloatware it's OS

Every version of Windows uses less and less system resources. I've not seen the figures lately but between XP and Windows 8 they had reduced it's footprint by one-third. The whole "bloatware" thing is complete bullshit.

Moreover, when I installed Windows 98 onto my PC in 1999, it came on one CD-ROM. When I first installed SuSE Linux on the same PC a couple of years later, it came on 6 x CD-ROMs, so tell me, which of those two OSes do you think is more bloated?

have you dance through hoops to turn everything off etc.

Yeah, don't you hate it when companies give you option.

... while Apple and Microsoft make bad decisions that tank their respective OS's.

That's just your opinion. I think Windows gets better with every release because, unlike Apple, Microsoft listen to their customers.

In other words, you can't count on your feelings for this

So why do you do it? I am being purely pragmatic.

[ghettosynth]

Moreover, when I installed Windows 98 onto my PC in 1999, it came on one CD-ROM. When I first installed SuSE Linux on the same PC a couple of years later, it came on 6 x CD-ROMs, so tell me, which of those two OSes do you think is more bloated?

I don't care about the projection, but, the comparison here is incorrect. Windows98 came with Windows 98. The Suse CD packages from that era came with all of the application install packages as well as the operating system. I still have some of those CD-Rom packs from those days. The world was still on dialup so this avoided downloading packages.

From the contents "More than 1300 Applications"

[BONES]

Did you look at any of those 1300 applications? They were mostly useless bloat or things that come preinstalled on Windows, too, like a calculator, notepad, basic paint application, internet browser, etc. The bloat may not have all ended up on your HDD but you had to wade through it nonetheless.

[Tiles]

This makes me nostalgic. Modem sound, i miss you !

[lunardigs]

So who here might agree that perhaps the real reason Windows is still relevant and dominates the desktop is simple because it comes preinstalled on just about every new computer?

And furthermore, have you ever wondered what it must take to incentivize OEMs to do that?

[BertKoor]

Windows98 came with Windows 98.

Actually it came with at least Notepad, Wordpad, Solitaire, Minesweeper and MS-Paint.