Desktop Linux market share continues to grow, and I suspect the recent feelings towards Microsoft are going to continue to drive that growth.

For anyone who’s been thinking about doing this, it’s a golden age of Linux Desktop computing. I had kept a Windows box around for ages mostly because I have a large Steam catalog, but Proton is so good these days that I’m able to play everything I want, and I went back to 100% Linux about 6 months back and I have no intention of looking back.

And I have the peace of mind that the next update won’t involve Microsoft finding the nth way to gobble up more of my data.

I want to second this regarding desktop Linux.

Each major PC build I've had I've tried to go Linux desktop and ultimately failed because I just got tired of switching to windows for gaming along with periodic cases of essential devices/apps just not working right.

I tried a final time a few years back. I even made sure I had a separate drive just for the Windows partition I felt was inevitable... turns out it never happened.

Gaming on desktop linux is phenomenal now, and I haven't run into any issues with some device or essential app not working. There is no personal task that I ever have to use an old macbook for and it never made sense to add that Windows partition. Occasionally I have to get more fiddly with driver settings to get things to work just right, but not enough for it to be a major annoyance.

Overall if you're tired of your personal OS spying on you increasingly more often and slowly turning into an advertising machine, the linux desktop is ready and quite enjoyable!

> Occasionally I have to get more fiddly with driver settings to get things to work just right, but not enough for it to be a major annoyance.

And honestly, until I recently erased Windows from my personal computer, I was battling Win10 settings frequently enough that usability of Mint, for example, is on par.

Ok, steam is not the main driver anymore and I'm very happy to see Proton envolved into such a great help to play on Linux. Yet we're all developers and some still need visual studio from Microsoft. Did anyone managed to get that thing running on linux? I would switch to linux immediately if I could have that thing working without performance issues.

I've been using the forked VSCodium on Linux without any issues, and I'm pretty sure regular VSCode is available from package managers. Or you mean the separate Visual Studio software? (I don't even know what that software is...)

Sure, VSCode is awesome for almost everything to code and I use it every day, yet dotnet development, especially for winforms (no support at all), debugging, testing and decompile nuget DLLs (just not possible atm) is horrible. Beside that, for many things you have to tackle problems different because vscode start apps of various kinds (azure functions, maui, ...) not as visual studio. Visual Studio with Resharper could be "replaced" with Jetbrains Rider but they are sometimes behind Microsofts development cycle and also have the windows dependency for certain features (maui, winforms, ..).

I guess it would be ok to have a windows VM with visual studio to code eg. Winforms and run everything else with vscode/rider? I use visual studio since 22 years and I really like it. Maybe I could ger used to use vscode/rider and live with workarounds?

If you’re doing winforms work, you’re probably going to want/need Windows if for no other reason to run whatever it is you’re building.

I’d personally use a VM in that scenario.

Sorry, I basically don't understand anything in your first paragraph, so I'll take your word for it.

If I absolutely needed a non-Linux OS for some work, now that Proton has freed gaming, I'd probably get a MacBook before a Windows machine these days. But if I had to support Windows, a Windows VM could also be an option. I'd need a lot on the line for me to considering installing a Windows partition ever again.

I use VScode every day on linux and have never had an issue with it.

The problem with the Linux DE is that unlike Linux itself (which is great of course) it’s volunteer-ware. That can produce great software when the problem is man-sized (99% of open source is lead by an individual—-usually first author) but for something as massive as a DE you need a team of people, money, and most importantly: one leader responsible for the overall design + UX. With volunteer-ware DEs that’s basically impossible. So what you get is a weird mish mash when it works (it often doesn’t) and really dumb details forgotten about or glossed over as not important to someone who shouldn’t have sway on the committee.

I’ll never waste my time again thinking that this can magically come about from volunteers. If a startup puts out a DE with funding I’ll propably be beta tester—-that’s how badly I want a good desktop on Linux.

But this isn't any better on Windows, is it? Even though it's far from volunteer-ware and probably has great UX people working on it, it still has issues with inconsistencies and bad UX. I think there are still at least 3 generations of the control panel buried in current Windows versions...

Right... Windows development incentives are not aligned with "serving the user effectively" anymore, and haven't been for a long time, making Windows also quite painful at times.

You can at least make win 10 into something really nice and useable with a few scripts to remove the garbage (you’re still sending MS a firehose of data I bet).

I wouldn't argue that Linux on the desktop is the pinnacle of user experience, but it's pretty good these days. I personally run Xfce as I have since the 00's, and over the years it's become rock solid. It's also simple, does the core things I need a DE to do, and that's all I want.

I think the current relatively decent state of DE environments speaks to what volunteers can accomplish. Are there better UIs in the market? I'd argue that Apple is doing a better job than anyone here. But the Linux options these days are firmly in the "good enough" category, especially when the alternative is the increasingly user-hostile Windows UI.

> With volunteer-ware DEs that’s basically impossible. So what you get is a weird mish mash when it works (it often doesn’t) and really dumb details forgotten about or glossed over as not important to someone who shouldn’t have sway on the committee.

It would be helpful to give some examples. I use my desktop environment to run my apps. I'm not sure what doesn't work or what really dumb details are forgotten.

Does anyone multiplex monitors between PCs for work/personal use? I suspect most people consider real estate to be too much of a premium to have two desktops fully set up but sharing monitors would be a decent way to make it work.

I just use a single monitor/mouse/keyboard/mic/camera and then have a usb switch they all plug into so I can easily swap between work and personal. It make switching between workstations just a few seconds and with a bit of wire management can be quite clean.

What USB switch do you use? I've been considering getting this exact setup.

I do, though its kinda janky (by design, I cbf forking out for a KVM).

34" UW + 32" both DP into my linux desktop, then I use Type C DP and HDMI when i put my laptop on the desk for work purposes.

Woks just fine for me.

This is what I did for using the same monitors between work and personal PC. I also had the idea of having a 3-way switch for personal windows, personal linux, and work laptop.

Tough part is deciding which Linux distribution to use. There are so many options and each option has a user base that swears by it.

Steam is an issue, but honestly, its xbox games pass that's keeping me on my PC

I was on Game Pass for awhile, and at some point realized I was playing a small subset of the games, and that keeping an eye on Steam sales and buying them outright was usually cheaper in the long run.

But obviously this will depend on how you use Game Pass. For me, buying the top games I was playing on Game Pass on Steam was worthwhile in the long run. YMMV.

How is "Windows Activity History" different than browsing history, search history, location history, recently used apps, and recent files? I can't find much after a bit of searching. Does it store screenshots or full file contents or something?

On the one hand, you have Windows Recall storing screenshots and data about everything you do. That's potentially very bad because it can capture all kinds of new and unanticipated private information and secrets.

On the other hand, I don't think people commonly turn off their browser history and shell history. It's not necessarily bad to have local history for certain things.

The google one is also pretty shocking.

Since I have phillips hue it also includes all the times I've turned on and off various lights, every noticiation on my phone, all the apps I've used on my phone and TV, every ad watched etc.

Just when you thought that OS couldn't get worse.