Now I get what Gnome is trying to emulate. I have been playing with MacOS the last two weeks, and having never used it before I was struck by just how familiar it is. If you can get on with Gnome, you can get on really well with MacOS.

The problem with emulation though, is that you set yourself up for direct comparison much more easily. Gnome does not have any control over the hardware that users are going to install OS’s that run Gnome as default. Hence results are really going to vary. From minor driver issues to people like me who just have not been able to run Gnome the last few years as it’s just too demanding for the hardware I own.

MacOS run’s exceptionally slick. No real comparison to anything I have experienced with Linux, or even Windows. No surprises though, when you build the OS and the hardware, you get a very well screwed together user experience. Dell’s work with Ubuntu is probably the closest we are ever doing to get to a similar product. Even with that there are several compromises being made. Hardware which is tailored to run Windows, and Ubuntu has its own interpretations of the underlying OS (Debian-testing) and Gnome desktop.

I am no developer, but I can imagine for some, being able to make things in walled gardens must ensure a large degree of stability and reassurance. Maybe the more apt analogy these days in developing in a warehoused hydroponic farm. The Linux community does not even have a default OS to point to, nor does it ever want to be able to say it does. “Fork everything” seems to be the only default action, as for most freedom is the essential requirement.

For my 20 years of Linux use, almost everyday I see those wandering onto Linux forums/Reddit groups for the first time asking which OS to pick… it still feels like I am watching someone jumping into a shark invested sea, smeared in meat, with hands and feet tied. They wander from group to group getting ground down. Me, I just want something where my printer drivers work. I gave up about two years ago. I just send all my print jobs to my printer from my phone. Works first time every time. Wireless cards… seriously. Buy some wifi dongles and just rely on them, because if it’s working today, it might not be working tomorrow after that kernel update.

Linux is something I needed to work. I was committed. Mainly because I was in college, broke, and really could not afford Windows and the mandatory anti-virus software needed back in the early 2000’s. Apple, forget it, not for the budget constrained. Once I cut all my teeth and fingers getting things to work that was me sorted for the best part of 20 years. Linux everywhere for me. I enjoyed trying to get things to work. Researching solutions. Swapping out hardware components. Tinkering. It was fun. But then life comes along and you start having less and less time to make things work. For family, if the answer is not “press this one button, and what you want will happen”, then they really do not want to know. Everything else works like that, why do they need some secret handshake and codeword, which never works first time, but definitely will on the third try. Usually. Call me if it doesn’t. 

Everywhere I touch off these days has Microsoft 365. I have several accounts right now. It is an absolute pain to manage. Browser profiles is the only way to do it efficiently. But it just goes to show you that there are much simpler solutions just crying to be developed. Linux benefits from software like Firefox and Thunderbird which lets you do all this in single software solutions. They are not wedded to Chromium or Microsoft logins. But the kicker is… those pieces of software run on anything. Linux not required, its just when you come from Linux to Windows / MacOS, you realise how difficult so many people’s lives are. They do not need a better OS in most cases, they just need to know about better open software options.

I can see how the immutable file system / desktop is just going to be easier for Linux distros to maintain long-term. More locked down, and then relying on individual snap or flatpak packages to provide everything needed within them to run. Linux is also going to struggle with users with unconventional hardware setups, or just old outdated hardware. My home PC is turning 16! My laptop 10. Both run Xubuntu 23.10 (currently, but will keep getting the latest releases). They get what I need done, but let me stress the “I”. Nobody else in this household has the patience to work with them. At their age, there will not be any passing on to someone else to reuse. But I will keep them going until their motherboards decide to call it a day.

The future of the Linux desktop is probably clearer than it has ever been for the major distros like Ubuntu / Canonical and Fedora / Redhat. They have a clear directions and agenda. Since the vast majority of forks rely on these two universes, then some tough decisions will need to be made in the coming years. Sure, they could just go to the source, such as Debian, but then they miss out on the quality control and work of others. I guess we will see, but the communities are going to have to rally around a bit more. Or just start paying/sponsoring maintainers of your favourite forks.

Reflecting on my years/decades as an end-user, I cannot say it has been easy, but it has been incredibly rewarding. How things evolve over the coming years is going to be extremely interesting, and I look forward to keep updating and keeping pace for as long as I can.