Given many new handhelds coming on the scene and general disinterest of Microsoft to support the market, do you think SteamOS will take place of default OS the same way Android did on phones some time ago?
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For the future of PC gaming I sure as hell hope so. People stick to and defend Windows as their go-to 'till the bitter end, likely not realizing Linux could be everything their Windows machine is and there is a real industry player with a lot of money making this reality right now. If we just let it.
If we would just give Linux the critical mass, we could free the last locked aspect of PC gaming, the OS itself. That way we would no longer be at the whims of Microsoft's decisions because let's face it, even Windows users hate the shit they do.
Linux, currently, cannot handle everything Windows can unfortunately. Windows also has a massive software support advantage. Valve are in the best place to try and give Linux to the masses, but that's a lot of work and it won't have much return for them. Windows getting worse is the way Linux will get more market share, but most people are not power users and will probably just use Windows anyway as it 'just works'.
Windows, currently, cannot handle everything Linux can. Linux also has a massive software support advantage, running on vastly more hardware and architectures than Windows does.
Linux has already been given to the masses. People use it every day in super user friendly ways; they just don't realize they're using Linux.
The only reason people use Windows is because they don't choose it. Imagine if every PC sold had a Linux option and a Windows option that cost an extra $100. What do you think people would buy?
The same hardware running Linux will easily outperform Windows (especially at the most common end user tasks like web browsing) by a long shot. In a few days NTFS turns 30 years old FFS (LOL).
Any given hardware accessory will "just work" when plugged in to a Linux PC but Windows will require a special driver that you have to go out and find on your own at the vendor's website that will be bloated AF. It'll also reinstall it if you change the USB port LOL.
I get it you like Linux, so do I. And I just have yet to have a smooth experience with it as a desktop and for games. We talking about the average gaming market here, nothing more, Linux is obviously very powerful and is the most used OS outside of desktops.
Most users have Nvidia cards that still do not play nicely with a lot of Linux setups, although that seems to be coming around now. Linux is a very customisable platform and it can be a lot better than Windows if you spend the time tweaking every aspect of it, but you are kidding yourself if you think Linux is better OOTB than Windows for most users. It's fine for us to stick our heads into wikis and play around in the terminal, but most people don't want to bother with all that.
I hope Linux does get more adoption so that support is further improved and I hope it reaches that tipping point where most people can pick up for their everyday machines.
I think they would buy windows, because the software they need to do their job only runs on windows.
because every pc runs windows, if more and more pcs default to linux even more apps gonna support it
Most people that by a console or a laptop in a store don't even know what an operating system is. If you would just put linux on all consumer machines, no one would question it and if they do, the seller would say "It is a new version"
And then when they get home and none of their very specific programs that only work on windows run on linux (like photoshop, or microsoft office, or something similar), they'll come back to you and ask what is wrong with their computer.
95% of people do not need spific software. They need a webbrowser and a software for writige emails and letters. That is why every store ist trying to sell them chromebooks. For the 5% that come back and say that their conputer is not working just say sorry and give them a windows machine and a giftcard for the inconvenience. Overall the store should still make money dooing so. After all, that is what they are dooing with chromebooks at the moment
If they need specific software to do their job you'd think that their employer would be the one supplying their computer. So I don't think this would be as common as thing as you're suggesting.
I'm not ruling it out as a possibility but at the same time... Have you seen people shopping for computers at Walmart? I have and a recent question I overheard was, "How fast is the Internet?" which after some back and forth with the salesperson revealed that they wanted a new laptop for Facebook/Instagram and play browser-based games. When I left the salesperson was directing them to a Chromebook which was probably going to be a vastly superior option for that customer than a Windows laptop (opens right to the browser, less maintenance, no worries about malware, etc).
As highly technical PC people it's easy for us to forget that for the vast majority of computer users the only app they ever open is a web browser. In fact, for a ton of young people growing up right now a computer is a device that runs a web browser and they don't even really understand what a web browser is!
When your average user buys a new Windows PC it'll be loaded with all sorts of bloatware that they will never remove. They will close the popups asking them to renew subscriptions, update things, etc as a matter of course. It becomes second nature to them! They don't even read what the messages are... They just click OK or the X. Windows trains them to do this! Because it has so fucking many intrusive popups! I mean, come on: Everyone knows that's a terrible user experience and drives us (the PC power users) fucking nuts when we sit down at a "normie" PC and see all that shit. It's practically a twitch reflex for most of us to open up Apps/Programs and Features and get to work uninstalling things and if you're used to using a Linux desktop this particular experience will feel like driving nails into your head because Linux desktops are much more user friendly! They don't have that problem!
Because they have assimilated the name. If the name didn't catch on, tbe situation would be very different.
Uh, no. I tried Linux (Mint). I hated it. It doesn't even have a damn colorblind mode... The best you can hope for is a goofy workaround with some app that's meant for devs testing colorblind modes, and that may or may not even work. Colorblind mode is a rock bottom basic accessibility feature, especially in 2023, and the most highly recommended distro for people coming from Windows doesn't even have that.
And it rather shows that average or non-Linux-nerd users, and what they need from their OS, are not a priority at all, which means the system will never be friendly or appealing to them until and unless that changes.
I also personally hated the way it wanted me to install everything from a launcher, vs downloading exe's from their owners websites that have a lot more info than the generic Linux launcher does.
I hated all the crashes, the requirement for tinkering at random times when I really just needed my PC to work reliably, and the way so many people in the Linux community look down on and/or insult everyone who asks for help with anything or has any gripe about Linux (thus assuring helpful feedback from average users won't be reporter or heard, their problems won't be fixed, and confusing UI will remain confusing and bogged down in jargon).
Linus Tech did a good youtube series on what Linux is like to encounter as a newbie. He had problems. When even one of the most popular tech/PC youtubers has problems right out the gate, how can you expect it to work for everyone else?
I want it to get better and become a real conpetitor to Windows, but it just flat out isn't yet except for specific applications like servers, and pretending it is only insures it won't ever be. The culture around it is holding it back.
Tl;dr: there are actually quite a lot of people like me who are aware of Linux and choose Windows or Mac instead.
Tell that to all the PC gamers that build their own PC and then buy Windows for it.