• Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I’m really hoping that Valve will end up being a better stewart of the PC ecosystem than Microsoft in the long run.

    Outside companies can’t really contribute to Windows development and have no say, so it’s 100% up to Microsoft to look after the Windows ecosystem.

    On Linux however, Steam can contribute to the kernel and both audio and graphics systems. All this apart from delivering their Steam service. The same will be the case for GOG, although they probably can’t afford much, and the same will be true for Epic if they want.

    Linux has mainly been held up by server development on the professional side, and desktops have been mostly been an afterthought among the ones with the money. Even Linus Torvalds does not use Linux as his personal computer. So most of the Linux desktop was developed by personal private interests with help from Red Hat.
    But despite that Linux desktop is pretty damned awesome today with strong alternatives to Gnome. 😀

    It can never be the responsibility of Valve alone to keep the Linux desktop alive and thriving, they are merely part of it, and they have been a great boon for Linux, like Red Hat used to be who developed most of the GTK graphics back end, Gnome desktop, Pulse Audio and systemd.

    Linux desktop is a very very different ecosystem than Windows, in the way it works, kind of like how Eric Raymond tried to describe in his book The Cathedral and the Bazaar. Unfortunately he failed, and the book and ended out as mostly nonsense, but the book is famous anyway, because it does try to describe the gist of it.

    Sometimes, It does really feel like the PC ecosystem can wither and die

    The traditional PC is dying, no doubt about it. PC used to be a universal tool for everybody, it isn’t anymore, many people have scrapped their PC, and now just use their phones and sometimes also tablets. The PC is a special interest tool today, and as such it will survive, but at a smaller scale than it used to be on. But as a special tool, it will also keep developing for those special “needs” like gaming, and the PC remains way ahead of any other form of game system in almost every way.

    Edit:
    Linus Torvalds does indeed use Linux desktop today, he Apparently uses Fedora.
    But for many years he didn’t.

    • ricdeh@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Could you please correct the misinformation regarding Linus Torvalds in the body properly and not just in an appended edit notice? Thank you.

    • NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      Linus Torvalds does not use Linux as his personal computer.

      Yes he does. I would imagine the same one he built on camera in 2025 for his desktop. He has been seen with mac laptops, but they had ashahi linux on them.

      Edit: I should add around 2011-2015 he did daily drive a mac, so a long time ago.

    • innkalling@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      I thought Linus used Fedora and that systemd was made by Poettering as a personal project unrelated to his work at Red Hat.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I’m pretty sure Red Hat financed it, although it was a pet project of his.
        Last I heard Linus was using a MAC.

        Edit:
        Apparently Linus does use Fedora now.

        • Mountaineer@aussie.zone
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          22 hours ago

          His most recently stated preference is definitely Fedora: Linus Torvalds on Linus Tech Tips

          He specifically likes it (over say Ubuntu) because it’s easy for him to build/replace the kernel whilst at the same time, it’s a “just installs - just works” distro with no tweaking required.

          Edit: I see no evidence that Linus has EVER used MacOS as his daily driver, despite using Mac hardware several times.
          This is all way off topic, but “Even Linus I INVENTED LINUX Torvalds doesn’t even use it” is wrong.

          • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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            13 hours ago

            Yes I was not aware he had done that, I have LTT blocked on Youtube because he’s an asshole, so didn’t see it.

            When I started using Linux in 2005 Linus was definitely using MAC, and I heard that a few times within the first decade. Linus also expressed that Linux desktop is not suitable as a daily driver.

            https://linux.slashdot.org/story/05/03/09/1314250/torvalds-switches-to-a-mac

            Torvalds Switches to a Mac

            I’m surprised it was a bit hard to find, and I had thought I’d find better sources on it, but apparently it’s hidden behind things that have happened since.

            • Mountaineer@aussie.zone
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              13 hours ago

              And yes, he is running Linux on it ;)

              It’s literally right there.

              Edit: The article needs to be dug out of the waybackmachine: https://web.archive.org/web/20050309174306/http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/0,39023165,39183867,00.htm

              Torvald’s response came quickly and succinctly. “My main machine these days is a dual 2GHz G5 (aka PowerPC 970) - it’s physically a regular Apple Mac, although it obviously only runs Linux, so I don’t think you can call it a Mac any more ;)” he said.

              • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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                12 hours ago

                OK then I’ve been mistaken for 20 years. 🙁
                But the context that he was running Mac and he criticized the Linux desktop for not being suitable for a daily driver, lead me to this obvious conclusion.

                For some reason I have never seen an article before that he uses Mac but with Linux on it??