But the OS was also full of holes (pre-XP: 95, 98, ME), programs would take down the whole system, updates required tons of restarts, and several other issues (BSOD, etc). People use to make memes against Windows, without even being Linux users: regular Windows users were frustrated.
Linux desktop efforts never managed to get a coherent vision, as every 3-4 years somebody had the idea to remake everything and screw compatibility (Gnome 1 to 2, 2 to 3, KDE 1 to 2 to 3 to 4, etc, lots of critical desktop apps changing for no reason, others abandoned, etc. And don't get me started on the audio drivers situation back then, or how it took until 2019 and we still don't have a solid X replacement thats adopted by everybody).
> Linux desktop efforts never managed to get a coherent vision, as every 3-4 years somebody had the idea to remake everything and screw compatibility
That's not why Linux Desktop never got traction.
Linux on Server got traction because thousands of companies all around the world managed to profit from it. A whole ecosystem was created.
When Linux on Desktop was born, Microsoft's platform was already an ecosystem all around the world. Hundreds of thousands of companies had developed applications for MS-DOS and were invested in Microsoft's ecosystem and users had already learnt the paradigms.
Clients were already locked-in on Windows.
Also, the situation regarding compatibility on Linux is not that different on Windows.
KDE changed API 4 times in 25 years. Windows also changed a lot.
Visual Basic, WinForms, SilverLight, etc. Actually windows abandoned more API's than KDE and Gnome did.
And you can still build a KDE 1 and statically build and ship it (just like apps in Windows) and it will still run fine. [0]
KDE and Gnome have always been largely volunteered projects. Of course ~500 volunteered developers who develop something on their free time cannot compete with a worldwide ecosystem.
>That's not why Linux Desktop never got traction. When Linux on Desktop was born, Microsoft's platform was already an ecosystem all around the world. Hundreds of thousands of companies had developed applications for MS-DOS and were invested in Microsoft's ecosystem and users had already learnt the paradigms. Clients were already locked-in on Windows.
That didn't prevent OS X, from a near bankrupt company in 1998-99 with ~2% of PCs in the US, to get to ~10-15% in the same timespan. And that while still introducing a whole new OS in 2000, and changing CPU architecture in 2005.
Plus, what I described has been described as the reason Linux didn't get traction by both Linus and Eric Raymond, for what's worth.
>Also, the situation regarding compatibility on Linux is not that different on Windows. KDE changed API 4 times in 25 years. Windows also changed a lot. Visual Basic, WinForms, SilverLight, etc. Actually windows abandoned more API's than KDE and Gnome did.
It's not even close. MS still supports running even Win95 apps to this day, whatever they used an "abandoned API", so that's a moot point though. Old VB apps still run fine, etc.
KDE and Gnome on the other hand had large incompatible changes that frustrated devs, community, and general public. Lots of devs in disfavor of the old design/techs just left the community, and those are harder to replace without a salary.
> That didn't prevent OS X, from a near bankrupt company in 1998-99 with ~2% of PCs in the US, to get to ~10-15% in the same timespan. And that while still introducing a whole new OS in 2000, and changing CPU architecture in 2005.
Oh my friend you're under-selling Apple.
Apple, the most profitable company in the world, didn't get more than 10-15% of the market share. They didn't break any API's either. And they created their own hardware.
> It's not even close. MS still supports running even Win95 apps to this day, whatever they used an "abandoned API", so that's a moot point though. Old VB apps still run fine, etc.
Linux supports that too. You can still have a KDE1 app running on your Desktop.
Nobody has the incentive to do that. But it's pretty doable technically. Just like it's possible to run a Visual Basic app on Windows.
> Linux supports that too. You can still have a KDE1 app running on your Desktop.
It is not the same, under Windows 10 you can run a Win95 app as-is since the OS comes with the necessary APIs and these APIs still get updates.
Under Linux not only nobody has the KDE1 libraries installed, but also not any distribution provides them, they rely on other libraries that are incompatible, are a pain to build and unlike Win32 and similar APIs, KDE1 libraries have never seen any new improvements over the years. As an example for the latter, Win32 applications written for Windows 95 can use the extra text editor control functionality introduced after XP despite this functionality not even existing when they were made.
To provide something equivalent, the Linux desktop needs GUI API that will remain backwards compatible in the future (as nothing can be done about the past anyway) while at the same time getting improvements that apply to both new and existing programs.
I’m sorry but I disagree, Cinnamon on Fedora is as good a desktop GUI in its day as win2k was in its and imo considerably better than win10 and I started on DOS3.22 so I’ve used them all even ME.
It’s fast, stable, well laid out and very easy to configure.
It also plays well with both gtk and qt apps.
It took a long time but Linux did catch up it’s just by the time it did desktops are less relevant to average people.
>It’s fast, stable, well laid out and very easy to configure.
Only if your chance on a "good" compatible laptop. Else all bets are off. The BT/wifi might not work, the video drivers might be problematic, the laptop might not sleep when you close the lid, the fans might blare all the time, and so on.
And even at that, it changes from release to release, whatever the fancy of e.g. Gnome devs strikes them for a non-compatible change, critical functionality is implemented in a ho-hum way, and so on.
And you also need to delve into the minutiae, to know that you should go for "Cinnamon on Fedora" over, e.g. Mint, or Ubuntu (and perhaps the proponents of the latter would say Fedora is shit, and so on).
Problems are always solved by "chose other hardware" and "get another distro".
>Only if your chance on a "good" compatible laptop.
So there's no need of "Windows Certified"? I had a fair deal of the problems you described on Windows laptops (private and company provided, all certified for Windows, no less).
Linux desktop has its fair share of problems, but Windows runs far from flawless either. I liked Windows when it didn't spy on users but after switching to Linux I was positively surprised. And some stuff I really care for such as incremental remote backups with a decent user interface runs way better on Linux.
We where discussing purely the GUI not the ancillary stuff.
While I'm sure people have the problems you describe I haven't had them on laptops in the last decade at least, everything has pretty much worked out the box (except Nvidia which works but requires a kicking sadly).
That's the official MS idea of it. They still support it, and it's still extremely used. Millions of apps don't disappear or get rewritten just because something fancier came out...
Considering it was last updated in the 1990s and only supports 256 colors and fullscreen, and conflicts in very annoying ways with post Vista+ desktop composition, I think its safe to declare it dead for anything except some old games.
SDL is perfectly comparable, except vastly less of a clunky ancient pain in the ass. That is why almost every 2d indie game uses it and not DirectDraw, so to say linux has nothing comparable to DirectDraw is stupid.
SDL doesn't need driver support, it handles rendering back ends transparently, which is why its so widely used. (drawing is translated into OpenGL, Direct3d, or pretty much anything else)
Freetype and Cairo are the direct equivalent of Direct2d and DirectWrite (which is what i suspect you mean by DirectText) which virtually everything on linux uses.
Yeah the Cairo that bashed by ISO C++ game group as being based on legacy drawing concepts and the FreeType that still doesn't handle properly text display on HD monitors.
Linux had been my primary OS for over two decades and modern Linux is at least as pretty as win10 and I prefer its font rendering (there will be a degree of familiarity favouring that I'm sure).
You keep bringing up these arguments as though they are show stoppers and yet people using Linux as a desktop never mention them.
My mum's been on Linux since 12.04 and has never once said "You know what I need DirectText" users don't care how text gets on the screen only that text gets on the screen.
Edit: should mention she doesn't just use it as a glorified browser container she uses libre office, gimp and a few other programs, organises her music and all the stuff an average user her age would do on windows.
To her it is entirely a functional windows replacement, enough that when I upgrade her machine her request was "can I have that minty thing?"
I guess that depends on what you mean by "at that time". My current Linux desktop (Xfce) is way better than Win95 or Win2k. I stopped using Windows around then, so I can't comment on WinXP or newer.
I think arguably a current Linux distro/desktop designed for non-technical users is better for them than Win95 or Win2k was.
I (a laymen) buy a random tablet pen, and it works immediately on windows. To get it to work on linux, may be there's already a driver, may be it's not supported. Either way, it's a gamble if it works on linux.
Tell me that windows isn't still better for the laymen?
The sheer number of times I've had issues with Windows drivers is anecdotal, but consider carefully. I've had impossible to boot systems because the network driver isn't included in the core installation media. I've had video cards not work out of the box and require me to install massively bloated control centers to use. And the number of complaints from unexpected reboots? And that's in a pretty standardized computer lab, trying to make my Grandma's computer use the correct resolution on her monitor was literally impossible.
I guess it depends on how you define laymen? I think Ubuntu worked out of the box with everything I've thrown at it in years.
Not at all. I very much prefer vanilla Ubuntu front end of my personal laptop to MS Windows. I am still on Win 7 on my work laptop so it is tolerable but I'm definitely going Mac instead of Win 10 abomination next upgrade.
I am quite confortable paying for stuff, do it all the time.
What I don't do is to pay premium for the previlege to use keyboards that break down with a single dust particle and screens that get scratched with the laptop's own keyboard, that might not be replaced without the additional Apple Care package.
The GUI of their OS at that time is still superior to what linux desktop provides us with today.