John Knight

@Techjunkie_Aman @waydroid I'm a full time Linux user. So, nope. ;-) But maybe some Office or Photoshop stuff could be seen as viable - even if the Android version is bound to be terrible - which should help in the perception of viability for the Linux desktop.

@johnknightlinux @waydroid That's what. App is also based on Linux and if it goes another way around to full gaps. It would be amazing. Do you think of any android apps which may fill gaps in your case?

This feels illegal. You can run Android apps on Linux… like native apps. Waydroid: A full Android system inside a Linux container. How it works: • Containers, not emulators or VMs • Direct access to CPU, GPU, hardware • Runs alongside your Linux system What you get: • No emulator lag • Near-native performance • Smooth, responsive apps • Supports ARM, x86, x64 Latest (v1.6.x): • Vulkan support → better graphics • Android notifications on desktop • Improved multi-window mode • Better GPU + multi-GPU handling • ADB with secure connection • Stability + bug fixes Why it’s different: • No heavy overhead • Faster than traditional emulators • Apps feel native on desktop Use cases: • Run Android apps on Linux • Use mobile apps on desktop • Test apps without a phone • Replace slow emulators Linux + Android in one system. Wild.

@pcgamer No one is suggesting it has. You were the first I've seen. People are just excited about its growth, development, and potential. A "big switch" certainly hasn't happened.

Historical Steam survey data suggests the Big Switch from Windows to Linux has yet to happen pcgamer.com/software/opera…

@Techjunkie_Aman @waydroid It would also make the Linux desktop much more tantalising. Android might fill in the gaps of some killer-app software requirements, and Windows and MacOS will look less appealing when they're stuck in their own ecosystem.

@johnknightlinux @waydroid Yeah if Valve pulls that off, it’ll be a game changer since they already nailed Proton. Mixing Linux, Windows, and Android layers cleanly would make Waydroid setups look primitive.

@BowTiedTails @ibuildthecloud And yet it's faster than Windows. That's how bad things are on Linux. It's so awful living in such an exciting time when we've got a zillion games and more people using Linux than ever, and switching to Linux is a regular theme. I hate life!

@ibuildthecloud Wayland sucks and is simultaneously better than X11. That's how bad things are on Linux.

you know what really sucks. Is that all the interesting stuff in linux desktop is happening on wayland, and wayland still sucks. I honestly think wayland has about 5 years until it's reaches X11 level of usefulness. Another million lines of rust and we will officially have created the new codebase that no one will want to maintain in 10 years, just in time for the new protocol to replace wayland that will be designed as the spiritual successor of X11, we will call it X2038.

@winaero And Windows 2000 was arguably the best version of Windows they ever released!

Windows 11 performance reminds me of Windows 2000 on a 233 MHz Pentium II processor with 64 MB of RAM. That's not impressive at all.

@Itsfoss Why not use a GUI-based Arch derivative? (that's probably what an Arch dev would tell you too)

Why? Why can Arch Linux not use a GUI-based installer? I don't really see any reason, other than tradition, for Arch not to switch to a graphical installation.

@gremlincoder @Itsfoss That sounds like Linux in 1994.

@johnknightlinux @Itsfoss I didn't need to compile anything, or anything that complicated, just installed the xorg packages through their pkg manager, icewm package, copy over my dot files, maybe some tweaking, some theming. Stuff I love to do anyway. The freebsd experience was probably most like linux.

How difficult or different it is to use BSD on your desktop (instead of Linux)?

@WindowsCentral It's "Autumn 2026" in Europe.

"We must become less reliant on American tools and regain control of our digital destiny." France's government is ditching Windows and adopting Linux-based distros to reduce its reliance on U.S. tech giants like Microsoft. The timeline for its transition isn't fixed, but the country generally targets Fall 2026 for completion: "Digital sovereignty is not optional." windowscentral.com/microsoft/wind…

@gremlincoder @Itsfoss So you had to build a desktop?

@Itsfoss I'm on openbsd now. I tried freebsd too. Neither was too difficult to install. After install, freebsd has "pkg install" which felt a lot like apt, and openbsd has pkg_add. Both had all the packages I needed to build a decent x11 desktop with icewm. On freebsd I used xlibre.

@Mark72Pohlmann @piyush784066 More people than GNOME.

@piyush784066 Who wants KDE??

Why is kubuntu rarely recognised and recommended as a good distro?

@thealokverse @NtTestAlertX F that, just switch to Mint. It's becoming the new standard recommendation for a good reason, and people instinctively know how to use it already, instead of GNOME which is weird.

@NtTestAlertX just switch to ubuntu.

Now, what's stopping you from using Linux?

@arzakkhan @kaiblaschke @tomshardware Kinda like switching to electric cars. Yes, people have tried and failed in the past, but the tech has come so far along, makes more sense now, and world events are forcing people's hands.

Totally agree now the variables flipped. 1- Tech is geopolitical 2- Dependencies are audited not assumed anymore. 3- forced obsolescence (hello Windows 11 requirements) turned upgrade into replace half your fleet or rethink everything. What used to look like stubborn idealism now looks like basic risk management.

French government say it's ditching Windows for Linux — country accelerates plans to ditch US-based software in digital sovereignty push tomshardware.com/software/windo…

@kaiblaschke @arzakkhan @tomshardware Ten years ago: 1. America was still cool. 2. The US and EU were close allies. 3. Most people were still using Windows 7. Very different world. Very different variables.

@arzakkhan @johnknightlinux @tomshardware The Linux migration went fine, users were actually happy about it (after some time getting used to the new software stack). The 180° turn wasn't an experiment but simply Lobbyism. And the price was paid by the taxpayers.

@dranok4ever @tomshardware Ten years ago was a very different world. Politically and technically.

@johnknightlinux @tomshardware Will be a usual story…. run a pilot, write news and then quietly go back. Just like Munich switch 10 years ago or so.

@dranok4ever @tomshardware America is making it happen. ;-)

@tomshardware 0 chance of this happening in reality.

@tomshardware Between this and Office EU I'm pretty excited. Obviously there will be some negative ramifications too (governments usually find ways to spoil things), but if we're standardising on open source at scale, we may soon standardise on open source en masse.

@kaiblaschke @tomshardware But that was pre Windows 11, and pre American aggression towards Europe. It was also pre millions of perfectly good machines becoming arbitrarily obsolete and not being allowed to continue.

@tomshardware In Germany, we've done this in the past (see "LiMuX"), but these communities since have returned to Windows after Microsoft Lobbyists were tirelessly pushing politicians to revert back (and build a new MS office building near Munich).

Framework founder says that ‘personal computing as we know it is dead’ — vows to keep building ‘computers that you can own at the deepest level’ tomshardware.com/tech-industry/…