The future of Linux

I’m not proposing anything here, I’m curious what you all think of the future.

What is your vision for what you want Linux to be?

I often read about wanting a smooth desktop experience like on MacOS, or having all the hardware and applications supported like Windows, or the convenience of Google products (mail, cloud storage, docs), etc.

A few years ago people were talking about convergence of phone/desktop, i.e. you plug your phone into a big screen and keyboard and it’s now your desktop computer. That’s one vision. ChromeOS has its “everything is in the cloud” vision. Stallman has his vision where no matter what it is, the most important part is that it’s free software.

If you could decide the future of personal computing, what would it be?

MigratingtoLemmy,

I just want ubiquitous Libreboot support along with more FOSS drivers

buckykat,

The good future includes the total and final death of Trusted Computing, which means the end of capitalism.

ndsvw,
@ndsvw@feddit.de avatar

The future? Chrome… Chrome everywhere… Forgive me this Spongebob joke

not_amm,

I think that if Linux improves and the economy/companies go the way they’re going right now, FOSS has an opportunity to grow and bring more users, if not to Linux, to the decentralized and libre software communities. But i hope it goes hand to hand, as Linux would require better hardware support as its demand increases. Btw, I also think that accessibility would improve, which is good for everyone.

Aside from Linux, the people will, at some point, understand that a free product will worsen over time, and it’s better to invest some money or time into the services/apps they like so they don’t get enshittified. As FOSS communities grow and alternatives improve (like Godot, Blender and Mastodon), it’ll attract the curiosity of the people.

GustavoM,
@GustavoM@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t think theres anything else that might happen with Linux – it’s already “The free Windows” as is.

Maragato,
@Maragato@eslemmy.es avatar

El futuro de los pcs sera importante para Linux solo si los fabricantes de hardware apuestan por Linux o las leyes oblligan a publicar sus drivers como software libre. Mientras esto no suceda, veo dificil el futuro de Linux, al comprobar como la gente renuncia tan facilmente a su privacidad a cambio de la experiencia de usar windows, google,…

HouseWolf,

I think the future of Linux is brighter than Windows, which is one of the reasons I switched.

I know I’m in a growing niche that still prefer to do my computing at a stationary desktop with a standard keyboard and mouse, A lot of Linux DEs still feel mainly geared towards desktop use while Apple and Microsoft have been mainly focused on the tablet/laptop space for over a decade now.

Then we get into the whole push to “cloud computing”. I don’t think Microsoft will go cloud only with their next OS like some are saying, But I do believe cloud integration will become so embedded within Windows that disabling cloud features or going completely offline will no longer be possible in the foreseeable future. The average person doesn’t give a shit about this move, hell some are welcoming it with open cheeks, But it will be a breaking point for a lot of enthusiast users.

I got a lot of other reasons for moving to Linux but I’m overall happy with the way things in the Linux world are going. And I got a few friends interested in moving to Linux sooner or later for similar reasons.

art,
@art@lemmy.world avatar

I think immutable distributions will be more attractive to hardware vendors. I think hardware vendors feel that current Linux is too much like the wild West. Much like Chrome OS, the immutable OS can be a lockdown for work environment or school environments.

I can see a market for that.

Those of us who know how to unlock it, will have a large selection a very powerful Linux hardware.

onlinepersona,

TLDR: The future are linux hardware vendors, governments deciding to use linux, and RISC-V+ARM.

There are already a few linux hardware vendors out there and my favorites are Tuxedo Computers as well as Starlabs and Slimbook (the guys who make the KDE laptop. Not to be outdone by linux phone vendors like Pine64, Purism, and Volla. We need more of them.
Hopefully they will have the funds to start marketing and ad campaigns to change the image of linux from “just for geeks” or “only if you have spare time” to something like “better for privacy”, “the only option for true freedom”, “cheap but classy”, “subscribe to nothing”, etc.

Linux has no problem providing a fluid experience with RISC-V and ARM, while windows struggles - especially due to the amount of proprietary and legacy software that exists on it. Windows might be able to prepare for it and provide a translation layer or VM for those things, but probably not with a good experience.

Finally, governments. I thank Trump a lot for this: getting China to start accelerate ditching Microsoft. The EU is also wary of Trump winning again to start a tradewar + there is an EU level decision to use opensource. Countries are slow to implement this decree, but I only see it accelerating and countries wising up to international collaboration to create either their own distro (e.g EULinux or something), or paying emergent opensource vendors to write solutions for them.

I don’t believe this will be done before 2030, probably 2035 we might see ~50% of government desktops and laptops on linux, but the future is very difficult to predict.

iHUNTcriminals,

I’d like to see some phone distros to use as a daily driver.

Other than that I like where gnome and KDE are going.

I’ve been using my htpc mostly with a mini keyboard and touch pad. A TV mode would be cool to see. Like what big screen is doing I guess.

wischi,

Linux is way to fragmented and without a great dominating distro it will never. Waymand, Ubuntu, Mint, Gnome, KDE, WTF, Users don’t fucking care about that jargon. Most Window users don’t even know the name of the browser they are using or that “the internet app” is even called “browser”.

A few weeks ago I updated Ubuntu from 22 to 23 on my home media center. First tried the Updates App because why not just press a single fucking button like on windows or mac. No - no major updates there. Open a console, apt update and upgrade the hell out of everything, update the package sources with some shady regex command I copy pasted from some random forum, update upgrade again dist-upgrade WTF. After everything was done the layout of the info area (network, wifi, etc) was fucked up. Read some only shit about gnome shell extensions, themens, nothing made sense, force reinstalled the gome shell - worked again.

And somebody expects that “typical” users to do that don’t even know what Windows Version they are running - sure.

Snoopy,
@Snoopy@jlai.lu avatar

An immutable OS that run all app whatever are their package distribution.

Later a full OS rewritten in Rust with goods tools that share folder’s content accross all devices and mass storage device as syncthing do.

Let’s imagine a button where you click on add devices, then you scan the QR code and chose which folder you want to share. :)

squaresinger,

Network shares aren’t exactly a new thing. They exist now for almost exactly half a century.

Snoopy,
@Snoopy@jlai.lu avatar

Yes and i didn’t reinvent the whell. However, I still remind people to do backup accross those devices. It’s not news but it’s not well applied by lot people, so i would hardcode it into the OS.

  • Do you have a phone ?
  • Please scan qr code
  • Choose folders
  • Do you have a mass storage device ?
  • Connect it
  • Chose folders
  • Warning : you haven’t setup any backup
  • Warning : your last backup was last week. please connect your mass storage device to save your backup.

So, for something new, i would like to improve those utilities/tools and expand their use.

squaresinger,

Android, Windows, and Apple products offer out-of-the-box backup to different cloud services.

They are so deeply integrated, that many people don’t even know that their data is backed up.

And most Linux users object to it for exactly that reason.

Pantherina,
@Pantherina@feddit.de avatar

Syncthing hahaha. Would just need a very simple system tray / settings page UI with just the “show ID” “select folders” and more buttons

Snoopy,
@Snoopy@jlai.lu avatar

Ahah yeah but completely integrated in the OS so we do need to remind people to save their important data in 3 differents supports. I’m pretty sure people don’t do thoses saves. Except techies and people who learned it the hard way.

And a better UI where you can setup the folder space as a disk manager. eg : don’t save video on my phone. Limit the folder to 1gb on phone. And on external mass storage, share everything : 1tb

I think there is lot potential and that Syncthing should be integrated in the GNU/Linux’s core.

Pantherina,
@Pantherina@feddit.de avatar

Very true! Its a great, powerful and very easy to use software.

Fungah,

The sharing thing sounds like a security nightmare. And who the hell am I sharing files with anyway? No thanks.

My vision of the future is having an os that’ll install itself on any device I own whether the manufacturers want me to or not. I want to own the things I own.

That’s it. Everything else is fine.

Snoopy,
@Snoopy@jlai.lu avatar

Well, that depend a lot on how do you setup security.

On nextcloud, i can see which device are connected to it, who, when, where and i get alert mail. When you add a new devices, as it is in the settings you will need your password. You might want to extend this security to usb storage with an isolated environnement. So all you need is a dashboard.

The solution i suggest is also a security in case of hardware faillure. How many people do a backup and copy their important file regulary ? I think i’m just making their life easier by hardcoding it. For me it’s as brushing my tooth, it’s not mandatory, but it’s better to make it mandatory.

My vision of the future is having an os that’ll install itself on any device I own whether the manufacturers want me to or not. I want to own the things I own.

Same but i differ. I don’t want any kind of device to exist to reduce our footprint’s carbon. Eg :

I would limit phones to 3 models and remove all brand. No ads needed, nor announcement. Something low tech. There would be lot benefit on the software side and repairability. It’s easier to maitain and it leaves our hand free to improve the OS

Fungah,

Yeah it does depend on how you set up security but…

I never used to give a shit about being secure until I got I got a virus last year. This wasn’t just any virus. I’m pretty sure there were people on the other end but it lived in my uefi, made it’s way onto 3 android phones, a tablet, my laptop, and I caught one of my phone uploading custom firmware to my Samsung tv. Samsung claimed it was impossible but. It was in progress.

Some glitch allowed me to resize the window that was being used on my phone to see their remote desktop application. And holding a button meant they couldn’t activate that button so I was able to get a peak under the hood so to speak…

Regardless I ended up needing a new motherboard and it took me ages to figure out how to get at the secret partitions on my pcs hard drives. I have to do a full NAND reinstall of the OS on my phones since. Surprise surprise. It lived in the eeprom (eeprom? Where the bootloader is) and factory resets don’t touch that.

I’ve been paranoid ever since. The fucked up part was (I still used windows at the time).that it hooked into the kernel at boot so the vrisu itself was invisible, but I could see changes to the registry it would make in real time, the one drive files it would create, the permissions you’d gradually lose if you did anything that could be interpreted as fucking with it.

I’m not sure how long it was doing it’s thing before I found it plenty of people I talked to didn’t even believe any of this, and it was hard to prove because it was fucking invisible.

So when I hear about security functions like you describe that amount to “don’t worry we’ll show you it’s secure trust is” unless I’m able to really get at EVERYTHIG in real time and have it backed up, locally or another online service, I just can’t feel secure.

Even some of the most secure platforms have the NSA hooked into everything. Like. If it doesn’t show me EVERYTHING I don’t fucking trust it. Full stop.

Snoopy,
@Snoopy@jlai.lu avatar

That’s just crazy…Given my IT knowledge, I would be a Bantha fodder…I’m not sure i would be able to see those registry being written in the system log as my main skill is doing a search several time until i undertand what were the correct words for this case and try few command. Let’s see the first step would be disconnecting the wifi. And maybe use Kali ? Dunno.

Well that’s very scary, i apologize. Thank for sharing your story :)

jsdz,

Well okay, since it’s up to me: Let’s have free software. Fully free Linux on every phone, including all “firmware” which has gotten awfully soft lately. No more proprietary driver blobs for ethernet controllers or cellular modems. No more proprietary DRM modules. No more “smart” consumer goods that come without source code. The free software revolution has gone pretty well in some respects, but we need to finish the job and put an end to all that garbage.

yesdogishere,

linux has to start a new OS from the ground up. Go back to command line and PC-DOC days. Everything must be controllable at a basic level. Shove MS and Apple out the door. Nobody wants their adware and virus bloated shit any longer.

lyth,

How basic are we talking? You can already tear out the desktop environment if that’s important to you

mmstick,
@mmstick@lemmy.world avatar

I hope to see Linux brought to the Web 2.0 era with proper use of Git forges. As it is, most people won’t bother to go through the existing processes unless they’re paid to do it. Raising the barrier to entry in order to discourage low quality submissions is a poor excuse. The existing system makes it difficult to get any changes approved or reviewed with a serious eye, regardless of their quality.

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