Given the advances in Steam/Proton along with PopOS and Linux UI support in general and that most people have moved on from being tethered to most applications outside the browser... It seems like it could be a good time for many to make such a switch.
Simple things still don't work, at least the last time I tried about 6 months ago. For example, display scaling is terrible compared to Windows and the remote desktop solutions haven't improved in 2 decades.
It's not even possible to install VNC on a stock Ubuntu 22.04 install without a bunch of screwing around because it doesn't work with Wayland. In Windows it takes 5s to enable RDP. In Linux it's frustrating to set up and, no matter what solution you choose, the experience is sub par vs Windows.
In Windows I can use WebAuthN over RDP. In Linux I can barely get a passable RDP solution.
The problem with Linux is that everything gets to 80% or 90% usable and then someone decides there needs to be a new improved version and the development results in years of broken crap. It happens over and over and over and the OS never gets to the point I would consider stable enough to rely on.
To be clear, I don't mean stable in terms of not crashing. I mean stable in terms of logging in and being able to do a day of work without the potential of having to screw around with something that's broken or not working.
And that kind of speaks to my complaint. I've used Linux for 2 decades and I can't even get remote desktop set up to allow me to switch between users / profiles. I can technically, and I've done it for Hyper-V enhanced session support, but it's a huge pain.
There's a neat script on GitHub to help with it for Hyper-V, but Google's tracking seems to be broken in a way that won't let me follow links from search, so I guess I'm just going to say screw it for the day and hope all the broken trash works better tomorrow. Lmao.
and you are still not sure "that runs in the current user session, so it doesn't work for headless systems or systems that haven't been logged on" - very weak point of Linux (in wide terms) ecosystem - YOU ARE NOT SURE.
Windows (in wide terms) gives you simple way - buy more RAM and be ASSURED. Simple action people can do and apply in their planning.
YEAH. And SmartCards forwaring. And...I was shocked couple of weeks ago when I was able to use my fingerpint scanner over RDP to login with 2FA. Just that thing is light years away on what other solutions can provide.
Given the advances, how possible is it to use Linux without ever touching the Terminal? Until the answer is "100% possible", it will never be the year of Desktop Linux.
It's also worth noting that desktop computers are dropping in popularity for home users. Gamers will use them for years to come, but the average non-technical home user that just wants a web browser and social media are more likely to opt for a tablet these days. If they REALLY want a keyboard and a larger screen, they'll probably get a laptop.
When things go well, you sometimes need a terminal to avoid jankiness.
I guess a person who uses a pc in a very limited way might not notice, but then they could also use any os and achieve the same.
Most folks are using a PC for games, surfing, and gmail. Linux works surprisingly well for those use cases and I really did not need to use a terminal for any of the normal setup. Ironically, cleaning up the crapware on my Windows 10 start menu... required powershell.
It is quickly hitting that good enough stage.
Every time a new release came out, it was going to be the one that finally would trigger the exodus towards Linux.
Yet the best Valve can do is "emulate" Windows, because not even the studios that target Android with NDK bother with GNU/Linux.
Your typical non-technical user, if they decide they're fed up with the latest version of Windows adding more spyware/adware, is more likely to switch to a Mac than to Linux.
Everyone is already happy with the devices they own and aren't in a rush to replace them.
How many million European users does that 2% Desktop Linux map to?
The core issue is that Linux wasn't designed around regular consumers but rather around pros/techies
This is why Android or even ChromeOS were able to penetrate consumer markets far more while being based on the same Linux kernel
Google prioritized easy, intuitive UI that any person can pick up easily without any prior knowledge
no terminal commands, no need to understand file-systems, no config-changes, no debugging errors
Apple has proved this is as crucial as the quality of the kernel/OS itself
What actions are you doing that require a terminal?
making two displays work properly with correct aspect ratio and refresh rate
buggy UI components that needed restart from terminal
Many features aren't fully accessible from the UI AFAIK
I actually tend to interact with Linux machine mostly via terminal because UI is so unreliable from my experience
If there's one thing that Linux does very poorly IMO, it is GUI (technically desktop environments but you get the point)
> making two displays work properly with correct aspect ratio and refresh rate
What was missing from the Gnome display settings? I have all those options.
Do you mean the appearance fonts when doing fractional scaling on a 4k. I don't see much difference between my Mac and Gnome on my 4k screens.
Perhaps a distro solely focusing on Wine could clean up?
Tried a few things, but ended up reinstalling and having the Windows.old folder
IIRC, there have been distros with a better WINE integration, though they haven't been particularly interesting to me. Given the popularity of MINT for starting users, that would probably be a good place to start from. But I don't know where their core team stands as far as the distro's direction.