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Comment by the_af | Hacker News Reader

> I cherish Microsoft for its work in Windows, it is the only mainstream OS that can save us from UNIX monoculture.

Note that the Microsoft way tends to lead to another monoculture and to vendor lock-in. I'd say "of course, the same applies to the products of every other corporation", except that in my experience, everyone is using Windows on the PC.

Probably because I'm not a hacker from the 70s, when I discovered Linux (note a BSD variant would also have worked, had I known about them) it was a breath of fresh air in the ubiquitous monoculture that was Windows.

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Like you, I discovered Linux in 1998 and have personally used it exclusively since. I get as many people off the MS and Apple treadmill and onto Libre/OSS as I can, especially in SOHO settings. I've yet to not be able to do something I needed done in Linux, even if it did take a bit more time or effort initially.

It's funny, I have an easier time getting friends/family on to a usable Linux OS than myself. I tend to use windows on the desktop (more about cost/value) and OSX for my laptops... I run Linux for my HTPC, and on servers.

I run multiple monitors and multiple drives in my desktop, and generally one of those two things will lead me to pain when it comes to installation, or an upgrade cycle with the OS. I really don't like playing with my desktop for a half a day to get it running again when I'm trying to get work done.

Given, it's a lot better today than in years past, I just haven't had it in me to go to Linux for a month, only to have an update break something that will take hours to fix. That just doesn't happen as much in OSX or Windows.

I kind of wish one desktop platform would come to true prominence in Linux, and I care less about which one, as any one... then that one can get a lot better. I don't even mind gnome 3 or unity so much. I just want something that will keep working right through a few upgrade cycles... opposed to where I really consider not running updates on my desktop.

My last attempt at Linux for a primary OS was about a year and a half ago. I tend to get the bug to try it out every couple years. Eventually, I hit a wall a week or few weeks in that I just don't have time/patience to deal with.

PC-BSD was also a really nice option, but the limited VM options and support for current hardware really killed that for me. I think BSD fits my mindset better, but Linux has become more ubiquitous.

Either way, I would love to see a truly great desktop Linux platform for me. A power user and programmer who likes to tinker with stuff, but wants something that has an ok ui, that gets regular updates without issue. Most of the time, when I did update, it was more for something I wanted to play with other than the main OS.

I don't know when you last looked at FreeBSD/PC-BSD but there's been improvement in graphics performance, and driver coverage in general, though admittedly not as much as Linux, Windows, etc.

Also PC-BSD is working on a BSD-specific desktop called Lumina. It's at an early stage of development so not yet clear how well it will compete with established DEs.

It will be interesting to see how far Linux goes with Wayland, said to be a replacement for X. If X becomes deprecated on Linux, probably BSDs won't travel that path and stick with X, which means X development will be more or less up to the BSD projects. Just my speculation about these things.

What I'm waiting for most is completion of FreeBSD UEFI support, including Secure Boot. Once that's available it should make dual-booting FreeBSD+Windows much easier--a great option to have.

Yeah, it's been a while since I've looked... I really need to have a good multi-platfrom VM host in whatever environment I use... usually VMWare, because I do a lot of work that brings me into windows, mac and linux which was the biggest drawback last I looked.

It will be cool to see what happens in the next couple years though.

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