Linux desktop will never die.

it will never die, on mobile device/tablets, but to the average PC user it will die eventually.

It will never die on desktops. Just very low numbers of users like right now.

just as you and i will die eventually
lol
except windows will probably be long dead by then :)

tell me what gonna kill it, the rise of Linux from 1 % market share to outmatch windows, well dont count on that

I guess you're an old person .

read my other post , (i told him that because windows won't last forever)
Not making fun of geezers , i love old people , they made wonderful things .
hes a troll by the way ?

am an old person?! tell me more about it lol maybe i can reply u after i finish gaming on my PC ;)

whatevs , don't really care .
the truth is there , only some people can't see it for some reason .

Only when the PC dies, which will take much longer than people now estimate.

This article is pointless. The linux desktop wont be dead until it stops being developed, in the same respect it wont be dominant until i can go to my local hardware store and buy a laptop or desktop PC running Linux.

soon it wont be developed as functional tools when users have no reason to use it over windows, but few will develop it as a hobby to kill time, n make few ppl who are stuck in the past happy.

there really is no reason to use windows though, at least in most people's cases .

maybe the day OEM will per-install Linux in PC and Laptops & developers start to care to make good apps on linux, it will be the day windows doesn't matter, i use office apps, which are standard and cant be rendered correctly using other apps provided for Linux, plus i am a gamer, my PC is very powerful there no reason for me to downgrade its potential using Linux, only mac n windows matter for now, anything else doesn't count

Do you even read the comment you reply to? Don't answer that its incredibly obvious you're too ignorant and jaded to actually listen to someone's opinion

i shared my opinion, who is ignorant, its obvious that u r an angry Linux fanboy and that u r trolling me, coz i agree with the article, go oh n hate, i dont care

I shared my opinion , I also read the other comments , you're all over the place with your "opinion" and I'm honestly unclear on what that is. Its obvious we're both fanboys , my question was poorly written so I will restate it .how can you be so quick to condem something you know so little about and have obviously only spent 30 seconds with ?

Not that it matters but you just don't know how to do those things .....
to be honest you can run anything in linux
lol , but you are misinformed .

Wow, you're all over the place proclaiming how you love Windows. That is dedication. Paul Thurrott must be very happy. He needs all the help he can get.

he need ll the help, or Linux need all the fan to shift it from 1 % market share, thats like a joke lol

The advantages of Linux will always be there for those willing to take advantage of them. No matter how great Windows 10 may be, it will still be a gigantic PITA to install things without getting your browser hijacked or worse, and you'll need to constantly be vigilant for malware and viruses.

The benefits of Linux go even further though. No more scouring websites of varying degrees of scamminess for software to do even simple things. One stop shopping for updates to ALL your stuff, with no worries about the source of said updates. It may be harder initially, but in the long run it's far far easier and more efficient for even the average user to use Linux. Whether that ever happens to a large degree remains open to debate...

We shall see. It looks like Microsoft will make desktop apps available through the Store-and who knows, they may lock down the OS Android-style, so that users must actively change a toggle before they install apps from outside the store. In fact, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they did.

Slow and steady wins the race. The race that Windows has been running against itself since Vista no wait windows 8 or 8.1 no wait im sorry windows 7 that windows 8 is now going to be, that its moving to 10 because 9 wasn't good enough. So yeah Windows 10 will look like windows 7 with some features of 8 and no windows 9. So yeah take that LINUX.

So all you Linux lovers who don't think that its good to have that pop up for a free virus check that you can't uninstall, or that awesome add bar in your internet explorer for free deals and search engines, isn't good enough, Your missing out!

How about those long great Defrags and driver upgrades. Those linux guys think they have it so great nothing beats out those restarts only to find out that you have 4 out of 46 upgrades please don't shutdown or unplug your computer warnings.

Linux knows nothing of the great wonders of serial number hassles. It's absolutely awesome to call tech support only to dial in the big serial number. Only to repeat them to the tech you barely understand.

I love paying for upgrades only to find out that my main software has to be upgraded.

Linux, ubuntu and all of you distros and different desktop looks. thats nothing new to us we have xp, vista, 7, 8, 8.1, and now 10.

Yeah we got all the games on our machines that we have on our xboxes. yeah we will pay for a desktop and two game consoles to show you that we have it better than you!

So go on and have your pathetic, free software, free upgrades, choice of desktops, no virus, no spyware no, defrag, no slow updates, no crashes and most of all no Windows Explorer life and leave the computers to the big boys! because we like virus warnings, blue screens and dll hell!

Well said. Some just can't perceive real computing freedom. I do miss the challenge of trying to remove all the spider webs from A Norton install.

I use Mac, Windows 8.1, ChromeOS and Ubuntu. Windows is about as stable as the rest. Its come a long way in terms of performance, load times and reliability. Compared to Ubuntu, plug and play devices like video, audio, mouse work well, Office is still the king of the hill, OneDrive is doing way better than Ubuntu One did and I can actually pay for ad free Outlook mail! I never have to question whether a website will work because all of the major plugins are supported (java, flash, silver light, widevine).

Restoring the desktop and browser have become almost automatic. With SSD defrag is not an issue.

Stop the FUD and just like what you like. The market has spoken and Linux desktops aren't taking off.

Doesn't have to take off. The Linux desktop is alive and well and doing fine for me and other users.

To each his own. No one's telling you not to use Windows. You have every right to use and love Windows.

We love Linux and we use it.

why so serious!? #joke voice

too bad windows 10 is a free upgrade ;)

but I have to purchase Windows 7 / Windows 8 for the 'free upgrade', right?
too bad, Windows 7 and Windows 8 aren't free :(

Free as in only for one year........nada

Did no one pay attention that it's free for the first year only? It's not free...

It's free to upgrade in the first year. If you upgrade in year one, you don't get charged in year two. It's not a subscription. The free upgrade offer just is not forever, it's just first year.

After a little bit of digging, I admit that I completly misunderstood the offer (it IS free if you claim your upgrade during the 1st year of the launch). Thanks for the insight :)

This article is a joke..........isn't it?

I pretty well ditched MS years ago. Once I realized how pure and simple Linux is, I'll never go back to MS. I keep my old MS OS's running, but I won't be running for the newest. Why?

I don't miss antivirus programs that keep trying to sell me upgrades.
I'm an average computer user--you know, surfing, e-mail, skype, documents, photos and videos etc. That's what over 90% of computer users are--they don't need the elaborate programs that only run in Windoze. I don't use the cloud storage, don't care about calling programs "Apps", or staying on top of the latest technology. My Linux box just doesn't let me down unless it's a hardware failure, and Windoze can't prevent that, either. Linux life is so simple and straight forward. I love it! Mint is so rock solid.

So what can Windoze offer me that I don't already have, and at no cost beyond the hardware? I don't miss all those headaches. And as long as the majority of people keep using MS stuff, there's not much incentive for hackers to develop Linux viruses. There's no money in it.

MS has been telling me for years, ever since XP, what I want. Now, going on 15 years later, they still haven't got it right, and they want me to buy it again? In those same 15 years, Linux has made great strides, and now MS is starting to copy and incorporate Linux features into Windoze.

So, am I missing something, or is MS still trying to pull the wool over my eyes--for a fee? Oh, that's right. They have shareholders to satisfy.

Now back to cleaning crapware off my neightbour's two computers--yes, both Windoze. Bit Defender (Linux based) will find those pesky trojans etc. and I'll probably use Linux again to save their data files.

"Windows 10 is the final nail in the coffin for the Linux desktop"? Tell that to those who don't know any better.

The last time I tried to setup a webcam for linux was a nightmare.

If it was an MS webcam, yes, but Logitech seems to work fine for me, and the built in cams in laptops seem to work on any machines I've worked with.

thats odd , my microsoft webcam is working excellently on linux , i just plug it in.

Ok, I just learned something! Thanks. It may depend on who made the webcam for MS.

Huh? All the webcams in my notebooks and netbooks run out of the box with Linux.

tell me, since when did windows copy linux, windows made virtual desktops since window xp, but as a paid feature to avoid confusing the average user, but now believe that windows 10 copied it from linux when its the other way round, on top of that some Linux distros copied windows start menu, just to make it more familiar for users to convert from windows to Linux, so tell me now who copies who?

I think what he is saying is "Only the hope of it gaining any meaningful market share". While your points may be valid and work for you, the market has proven otherwise. AD integration and Office keep enterprises hooked. The consumer market is still dominated by Windows but OSX has made a dent thanks to iOS devices.

Look at the bright side, Linux dominates the Server and Mobile markets!

This article is the last nail in the coffin for objective jurnalism.

Windows is like fast-food. Easy to get, easy to consummate but on the long run unhealthy. I personally couldn't care less about Windows. I made the switch from Windows to Linux 5 years ago and that was the best thing I ever did in my 35 years IT life. The rise of Linux can't get stopped. It is not the quality of the product, it is the production method. Apple and Microsoft are fat sauropods which will be increasingly beleaguered by open source predators. It is the software production method which will count on the long-run. The freedom of software will earlier or later prevail over the unhealthy convenience of using proprietary "fast-food" with spying back-doors.

"The rise of Linux can't get stopped." ZOMFG!!! Someone call John Connor!

YET another Fine FUD campaign by an obvious M$ Fan Boy. Move along nothing exciting to see here except some wasted electricity and cycles.

As a GNU/Linux Mint user (which is based on Ubuntu/debian), who used to use windows full time, I think this article is a desperate attempt put out by microsoft (or paid trolls?) to promote their product (Windows 10 aka 6.4, check the wikipedia article if you don't believe me) that's subscription based. It used to be a one time cost, now it'll really be more.

What drove me away from microsoft's software, is the fact that it uses deception, to tell people their software is not legitimate if installed on more than one machine (or via multiple clean installs), malware (most will just click to download/install anything without thinking twice, mainly due to social engineering), it's designed to break down depending on the usage pattern of each individual, and if they don't understand how to fix it, most will be deceived into buying a new machine or throwing theirs out (this is a bad trend!), or paying someone at the shop to repair or clean install the operating system. I decided that I would relieve myself of microsoft's software when I got used to trying out free open source software.

Somebody told me about Ubuntu a number of years back, and I have not looked back since that time. I have since after 12.04, transitioned to Linux Mint, and it has been one of the best experiences ever. I have everything I need (they're listed below) that comes with it in the existing repositories, I could easily add more if I preferred to (I chose to add a few, since the audio/sound recorder is missing) and I don't need to depend on a friggin "product key" either, or to purchase it, much less buying new hardware each time a new release is issued (unlike windows, if it's missing a feature in the hardware such as XD support, it WILL NOT run.) I just upgrade it, simple. The other thing is, I have no such 'hacking, coding or programming' skills what-so-ever. The common stereotype is 'only hackers use linux', not true at all.

Great uses include: Video editing (lightworks, kdenlive), video capture
(cheese and kdenlive via firewire), skype (OH YES! it works fine too),
web surfing (so many options!), FTP, SSH (never used it lol), IRC,
e-mail clients, office suites (libre/office, kofflce, etc.), a slew of
window managers (Xfce (easy to use), gnome/shell, unity, cinnamon
(easiest to use for beginners), MATE/gnone 2, GTK, openbox, etc.), audio
recording (audacity comes to mind) and lots of games (WINE in
particular, allows you to run some windows games that are compatible).
There's a steam client too (I don't play steam though). Did I not mention it has VLC player and a
CD/DVD/Bluray burning suite?

To each their own in my opinion, GNU/Linux is FAR FAR AWAY from dying or being nailed to the road.

I've been using Linux since 1997, and I have yet to see any windows variant since then, that I would even want in my computer system. Windows is a virus. It has infected the minds, and computers of millions of people/companies for years now.

With their proprietary software such as DirectX, Microsoft has cornered the gaming industry and have lead people to believe that it is superior to OpenGL and other technologies. People have come to expect Windows to fail and aren't really that mad when it does so. How do I know this? Because they keep going back for more.

It has been said, that Linux users are an elitist group. If that is true, I'll gladly take that label. If I'm elitist because I demand quality over quantity, so be it. If I'm elitist because I demand that a system be secure, and stable, then stamp it to my forehead. If I am elitist because I don't care what others put in their computer, I'll shout it in the streets. I'm an Elitist!!! I am a Linux User!!!!!

I find the author's insight to be that of someone who doesn't really get what Linux is about. Its not about being free. Its about the freedom to chose what goes in your computer system and the freedom to change it if it isn't what you want.

Linux works as it was designed to work. It reaches those who have figured out its core reason for existing, and NO, it is not for everyone.

And yet another crappy clickbait article by Windoze fanboy Brian Fagioli. "Windows 10 is the BEST Windows ever!!!!!" I'm running the tech preview and basically what you get is the return of the start button, and Modern apps stuck onto the right side of the start menu. Now, there might be a lot of earthshakingly different stuff under the hood but for the desktop user, that's the biggest differences between 8 and 10 they're going to see. Fagioli, most Linux users don't give a hoot about any desktop war - they use Linux because it suits their needs, It's my choice for most things and that's all that concerns me. Looking forward to your "Windows Eleven is the BEST Windows ever!!!!" article when it comes out in a few years...