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PC Magazine claims 2021 Is the Year of Linux on the Desktop

by on20 September 2021


No, really

PC Magazine has dusted off an old and much mocked headline and claimed that 2021 Is the Year of Linux on the Desktop.

In case you had not noticed it, PC Mag explains that there are millions of machines out there which are using Linux including Chromebooks. So, yeah, that counts right?

Chrome OS and Android are both based on the Linux kernel. They don't have the extra GNU software that distributions like Ubuntu have, but they're descended from Linus Torvalds' original work and are the fastest growing segment of the traditional PC market, according to Canalys.

IDC points out that Canalys' estimates of 12 million Chromebooks shipped in Q1 2021 are only a fraction of the 63 million notebooks sold that quarter, but once again, they're where the growth is. Much of that is driven by schools, where Chromebooks dominate now. Schoolkids don't generally need a million apps' worth of generic computing power.

They need inexpensive, rugged ways to log into Google Classroom. Linux came to the rescue, enabling cheap, light, easy-to-manage PCs that don't have the Swiss Army Knife cult of Windows or the Macs unnecessary price tag.

"Android and Chrome water down the Linux philosophy", the article argues, "but they are Linux".

The article then goes on (and on) about how wonderful Linux is, how it is not controlled and can adapt. But other than the dusting off the Chromebook logic, the PC Mag article could have been penned by any open sauce fanboy in the last 30 years. Well other than Linus Torvalds who has made it clear that Linux on the desktop is rubbish.

 

Last modified on 20 September 2021
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