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ZDNet reports that from supercomputers to stock markets to smartphones, Linux dominates most computing markets, but Linus Torvalds still wants Linux to rule on one place it doesn't: The desktop. "The challenge on the desktop is not a kernel problem. It's a whole infrastructure problem. I think we'll get there one day," said Torvalds at the LinuxCon Convention in Chicago. "Year of the Linux desktop?" asked Kroah-Hartman. "I'm not going there," replied Torvalds with a smile.
Torvalds also discussed the issue of kernel code bloat as Linux is now being run in small-form-factor embedded devices. "We've been bloating the kernel over the last 20 years, but hardware has grown faster," Torvalds said. Torvalds wants to push the envelope for the embedded market despite some challenges. He noted that some of the small-form-factor device vendors have their own operating system technologies in place already, and those vendors don't always make hardware readily available to Linux kernel developers.
The issue of Linux code maintainers was another hot-button topic addressed by Torvalds, who noted that some Linux kernel code has only a single maintainer and that can mean trouble when that maintainer wants to take time off. Torvalds said that a good setup that is now used by the x86 maintainers is to have multiple people maintaining the code. It's an approach that ARM Linux developers have recently embraced, as well. "When I used to do ARM merges, I wanted to shoot myself and take a few ARM developers with me," Torvalds said. "It's now much less painful and ARM developers are picking up the multiple maintainer approach."
(Score: 3, Informative) by mechanicjay on Friday August 22 2014, @01:57PM
Indeed, I've been primarily Linux on the desktop at home and work for about 8 years now and haven't looked back.
I keep Windows on a VM at work for testing purposes and the random stupid crap "Fill-able Word Forms" that HR sends out, that don't even work right in Office.
At home, I keep one box dual booting to Windows for gaming. 99% of what I do with my computer is done in a web-browser, e-mail client, text editor, or remote on another Linux box
My VMS box beat up your Windows box.
(Score: 1) by modest on Friday August 22 2014, @08:50PM
Practically the same timeline and situation except since building a new PC a few months ago I no longer duel-boot at home.
Games are becoming more prevalent on Linux and I'd like to vote with my wallet to incentivize developers/publishers to develop with Linux in mind. I refuse to spend for a Windows license since XP is dead (and DirectX is crippled in it anyway). I hate missing game time with some friends, but I've been putting that time to better uses as a result.
(Score: 2) by cykros on Sunday August 24 2014, @07:28PM
I've been personally quite impressed with the state of modern Wine. Skyrim ran without any extra configuring (well, once I got multi-arch working right on my box, which is another story...), and Deus Ex: Human Revolution took a simple documented registry edit to get going smoothly as well. Worth noting though is that not all distros are particularly good about shipping with the latest version of wine, so it may be worth compiling yourself to make sure you're absolutely up to date with it.
Heck, some games even play BETTER with Wine than in their native Windows, but I think we're all familiar with the WoW example there by now. Biggest hassle seems to be that if you're using a pulseaudio-is-the-default distro (ie, MOST of them in wide use on desktops these days), there can sometimes be issues that aren't always the clearest to solve (basically, it boils down to making sure you have the pulseaudio libraries compiled alongside the 64 bit libraries...the process for this varies distro to distro). Wine doesn't have any native support for pulseaudio, so making sure your alsa plugins and libraries are in place so that the pulseaudio alsa compatibility works as it should. Alternatively, killing pulseaudio and using ALSA directly of course still works, but on some distros I've used, actually KILLING pulseaudio such that it stays dead is sometimes easier said than done. pasuspender SHOULD do the job, but again, that doesn't always go as well as one might hope.
Biggest issue wine has at this point is its reputation, as more and more people these days have used it in an earlier form, and ran into enough hassles that they don't even bother trying anymore. I was in that camp for awhile, and having given it another shot, was very pleasantly surprised by the progress made in the last few years.