I wonder how accurate any of these statistics are.

Overall, though, I think the days of people "escaping" Windows are probably over, and many of those who do are quite happen on Chrome OS, which is maybe where they should be. Whatever one thinks of Windows, the current version is not the intravenous pain of Windows, say, circa 2013 or so. Windows might not be great, but the average muggle user is no longer tearing their hair out using Windows on a regular basis. So I believe the Linux desktop future is gunning for the makers, enthusiasts, gamers, and tinkerers who like to explore who have always been fueling Linux. I'm still surprised how many people who fit that description haven't tried Linux yet, and of those I've seen who switch to Linux and keep it long term tend to be from that group. So many people got into Linux once upon a time by trying those free Linux CD's, what's 2020's version of that going to be? BTW, I do think it helps to have preinstalled Linux devices out there in the wild, and the ever increasing trend there is good.

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Quoting: ThreeEightySixMaybe I'm in the minority here, but I'd rather see some seriously more realistic graphics. They're still a little too cartoony in textures, visual effects (like explosions and shadows) for me to enjoy. Just personal preference, I suppose.

No shortage of those games. Cartoony, campy, and over the top is what the SS franchise does... Very old-school.

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Quoting: DamonLinuxPLFor most of time I run "unstable" plasma release in OpenMandriva Cooker...

Huh, OpenMandriva was a new distro name for me. Had to look that up.

I run Manjaro KDE, and I have to say that KDE's progress in the last 2 years or so is nothing short of amazing, and mostly all though small, continuous improvements. It's an absolute smooth, refined, stable joy.

BTW: Which KDE wallpaper is that in the photo. That's pretty sharp!

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Quoting: heidi.wenger

Quoting: pete910

Quoting: PublicNuisanceI love Manjaro but not enough to use Gnome ;)

Gnome :sick:

Why do you attack against Gnome with such passion? So many new Linux users love it, and in my experience it is the best Linux desktop for tablet.

This Gnome-bashing does no service to Linux in all and should just stop :O

I've seen far worse Gnome bashing than that :). That said, while I hugely respect their design process, they've done quite a bit to deserve some of bile aimed at them. As I said above, I think 3.36 is much improved and I think the Gnome GUI switchers that Manjaro and some other devs are using as part of their "Hello" packages have the potential to save Gnome from itself :).

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Quoting: gradyvuckovic3) I think it's great for distro maintainers as it frees up huge sums of their time and allows them to focus on the user experience of their distros rather than trying to maintain vast repositories of applications written by other people.

They can compete on delivering the best user interface they can provide, compete on delivering regular high quality updates and new features to their distros. Compete on performance of their OS, etc. Compete on ease of installation.

So there's still plenty of reason for them to exist and to compete. If it means a couple of unpopular distros become irrelevant because they offer nothing special that isn't available everywhere else, that's not the end of the world either, we probably don't need all 300+ active distributions. But I imagine all the popular distros will find ways to compete on user experience which benefits us all.

Great points!

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Quoting: inlinuxdude

Quoting: iiari

Quoting: gradyvuckovicFlatpak out of the box?

Woohoo!

I'm loving the slow but steady adoption of Flatpak....

Great explanation, thanks. As someone who hated Snaps (and those plus unstable PPA's pushed me out of the Ubuntu ecosystem) I have a few questions for you:

1) How are Flatpaks with speed? Snaps were soooo slooooow to launch.
2) Is native theming reflected in Flatpaks?
3) If Flatpaks conquer all, what kinda is the point of different distros anymore? They really do become only theming and software selection boutiques. In the best case scenario, as with Manjaro, they develop their own unique apps and workflows.

Thanks!

If you're on Manjaro (or apparently a debian-based distro, although I haven't tried it there), you can install 'bauh [External Link]' which is a frontend package manager that will let you install flatpaks (and snaps and appimages). I've installed a few and see no discernible difference in speed (and I don't think one should). Most recently I installed the 'cura' flatpak (3d printing slicer program), as I could not get any of its version in the AUR to successfully work and have data loaded for my printer. Its working great installed as a flatpak, so that has really boosted my appreciation of them.

So, Manjaro is actually going to sunset Bauh and now Flatpaks, the AUR, and Snaps will all go through Pamac. Do your Flatpaks respect system theming?

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Quoting: gradyvuckovicFlatpak out of the box?

Woohoo!

I'm loving the slow but steady adoption of Flatpak....

Great explanation, thanks. As someone who hated Snaps (and those plus unstable PPA's pushed me out of the Ubuntu ecosystem) I have a few questions for you:

1) How are Flatpaks with speed? Snaps were soooo slooooow to launch.
2) Is native theming reflected in Flatpaks?
3) If Flatpaks conquer all, what kinda is the point of different distros anymore? They really do become only theming and software selection boutiques. In the best case scenario, as with Manjaro, they develop their own unique apps and workflows.

Thanks!

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Quoting: inlinuxdude

Quoting: PublicNuisanceI love Manjaro but not enough to use Gnome ;)

I 2nd that... I've been rockin' Manjaro-KDE for several years now. No need to switch over to that yucky Gnome...

I too am mostly on Manjaro KDE and loving it. I'm testing Gnome 3.36 on the unstable branch, though, and as someone who generally doesn't like Gnome I must admit this version is much improved within, of course, Gnome context...

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I recall this title was going to get a new game engine. Did that ever happen?

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Quoting: PatolaLooking forward to try Split Vendetta, I bought the Collector's Edition of X4 with the season pass since I have a lot of trust in Egosoft. And this trust is well-earned, they are doing great with the 3.0 beta updates, game is much smoother, and it is a complete joy to play this game, which starts as an unconventional spaceship game with capability to leave the ship and gradually transforms into an RTS and trading game, then into a sophisticated market exchange and planning simulator with a special point with managing crises.

So, it sounds like it's reaching the potential that Egosoft had for the game, which is great. I've already purchased it to recognize Egosoft's Linux support, but have hesitated to sink in the time until the game goes through its usual Egosoft "maturing" period. Sounds like the time to dive in is near...

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