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Comment by AnIdiotOnTheNet | Hacker News Reader

I agree. Linux Desktop still has all the same basic usability problems it did in the 90s. In some ways it is even worse since it has massively overcomplicated a lot of its subsystems.

Still, I foresee a future where the pain of Linux Desktop for me will be outweighed by the pain of continuing to use Windows. Which is sad. Linux Desktop will have won not on its merits, but because Microsoft just decided it didn't want to make a Desktop OS anymore.

If I get extremely lucky, it's possible Haiku will take off in the meantime and implement some of the things I'm still waiting on for it to be a decent desktop for my uses, but I'm not holding my breath.

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I would imagine surely there’s a distro that is just as functional as what you’re imagining Haiku will be one day right? The main issue I find with Linux is app support but that would be worse again with Haiku. What sort of usability issues would you expect to run into with something like Mint? Btw not saying Haiku isn’t cool, it absolutely is. But I see it being a long way behind even the Linux desktop.

> I would imagine surely there’s a distro that is just as functional as what you’re imagining Haiku will be one day right?

You can imagine it all you want, like most things that are pure fantasy.

> The main issue I find with Linux is app support but that would be worse again with Haiku.

There are other issues that I consider important. Things like how application management works, coherency of the platform, stability of ABIs, simplicity of the platform, non-bloatedness, lack of fashion-oriented design, etc.

This is a pretty uncharitable interpretation of my comment. I currently don’t even use Linux on desktop (though I have in the past). Like I said, Haiku is very cool, and I love the idea behind it and Serenity, but in terms of what is closer to a useable desktop, I think it is still a while off, and will always suffer from app support (if that isn’t as important to you as it is to me that’s fine).

I do agree though that all of the Linux distros that are aimed at being minimalist aren’t simple (e.g Arch).

Though there are some like Puppy Linux which I think have quite cool ideas around it.

Please refrain from projecting whatever ideas you have around “Linux desktop people” onto me.

Yes, Haiku would be awesome! The UI is great, it's highly functional. We'll have the same problems re hardware :(

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