this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 3 days ago (5 children)

The numbers suggest that 2025 could be a turning point for Linux on desktop computers

Ah yes, the year of the Linux desktop

(in all seriousness, this is looking really good, my main hope from all this is that hardware manufacturers step up their FOSS drivers game)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

When Linux hits 10%, you will see hardware ship with Linux drivers day one.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Most consumer hardware on earth does already (Android phones). The problem is those drivers are usually proprietary bullshit that's very difficult to integrate with anything but OEMs kernel fork & Android version. Unfortunately I don't really foresee that changing in the near future, hopefully if Linux becomes more mainstream, Linux phones become too and then we get some progress.

And for laptops/desktops, I think the situation is pretty good already as well. Many mainstream OEMs have an option with Linux pre-installed now, and the drivers there are mostly FOSS. I'm hoping that the problematic part vendors e.g. NVidia and Broadcom step up and provide sources for their drivers - otherwise they will continue to be a buggy mess that most people hate.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Nvidia recently started NVK for Turing and newer and even more recently it was made conformant going back to Maxwell, but that still doesn't give me a lot of hope for everything between Maxwell 1 (so basically just the GTX 750/750Ti for desktop Maxwell 1 cards) and Turing after driver version 580.

Also, Nouveau works for Maxwell 1 and earlier but ymmv with that stack, and it's still not like Mesa RADV and AMDGPU for Radeon cards going back to GCN1.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago
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