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Comment by grive | Hacker News Reader

I fail to see why snark is warranted here. Linux should not have to conform to Microsoft anti-competitive practices.

UEFI is a mess to deal with because Microsoft wanted to lock users. Yes, this will prevent Linux on the desktop. That doesn't mean it will never happen.

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I don't even understand why this bloody "desktop" paradigm has to be maintained.

I think it can be hard for us (people who get a lot of screen time, spend a lot of time coding in 2D) to imagine that the "desktop" paradigm is already dead. Mobile/voice/AR is killing it. Granted the desktop UI metaphor will probably never die, just like the command line hasn't. But the front-and-center desktop is fading away...

I'm not so sure. If you took a drink every time you read "sorry for the short answer, I'm on mobile, I will edit it when I'm back on a real computer" on HN or reddit, your liver would die faster than Windows Phone. There's still a place for devices with lots of screen space and real input devices, and not just in the IT community (unlike with command line interfaces).

I suppose I'm hoping for a point in the near future where AR/VR type glasses (or something like that) can be used with high enough fidelity and resolution to replace my desktop, physically. Coupled with virtualization and a good keyboard, I think the PC form factor could be fully obviated.

Waiting for Apple or someone to introduce "Retina VR"? The issue is, if you double the pixel density you quadruple the amount of work on the GPU. Few current graphics cards would be able to smoothly render content that high-res, yet.

Even if they were (2D rendering isn't that bad), we'd struggle to transmit it (neither HDMI nor DisplayPort could handle 16K or whatever we need for crisp enough VR rendering).

Command line interfaces are making a comeback. They are called "bots" for some weird reason, and all I've used so far are remote -- but it's still a cli.

I don't think much work is done or will be done on mobile. For consumers perhaps. As soon as you need to do anything serious with a spreadsheet or code, you can forget the mobile. It's not a iOS vs Windows functionality thing. It's a form factor problem.

Mobile yes, but virtually no one uses voice commands once the novelty wears off (same as in the 90's) and AR is still incredibly niche.

It's always not Linux' problem.

Can you clarify this statement?

Well, take any problem from a user regarding Linux - and it will not be Linux problem.

No hardware support? Not a Linux problem. Crappy drivers on Linux? Not a Linux problem. No Photoshop on Linux? Not a Linux problem.

But it isn't. Hardware and software support for a platform is decided exclusively by the hw/sw vendor. That's why I support the ones who do.

Does Linux make drivers harder to write than Windows or macOS? No. In fact there are many, many spaces where development is by far the easiest on Linux. Yet those companies choose that part of the market is irrelevant to them.

You might not care why there's no drivers for your joystick and use Windows, but it is 100% the blame of those companies, there's no debate about it.

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