this post was submitted on 27 May 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I think there are two major hurdles keeping Linux adoption back (besides the obvious installation bit). The first is that our backwards compatibility is terrible. It is easier to get old versions of Windows software to run in Wine than it is to get some old Linux software to run natively.
If something like Photoshop did finally release a Linux version, even if they only did one release to make 2% of people happy, it likely wouldn't be able to run natively after 5 years.
The second is a good graphical toolkit. Yes, GTK and Qt exist, but neither are as simple as WinForms or SwiftUI/Aqua.
I've got plenty of old software here under Linux that still runs fine to this day across a number of PC's and even a Raspberry Pi that I use as a backup desktop. I honestly can't see backwards compatibility being any more of an issue than it is under Windows - There's a number of accounting packages released under Windows 7 that won't run under Windows 10, the latest version of most popular browsers won't run under Windows 7. Likewise, the latest version of MS Office 365 won't run under Windows 8.