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This article will explain in detail why Linux will be defeated by Windows on the desktop. The content of the article is of high quality, so the editor will share it with you for reference. I hope you will have a certain understanding of the relevant knowledge after reading this article.

I have been a loyal advocate of Linux desktops for more than a decade, and Linux has always been my first priority when it comes to the choice of desktops and servers. Although I love Linux, I have to admit that Linux's performance on the desktop side is not so ideal.

People always have an objective impression of the poor performance of Linux on the desktop, but if you want to specifically say how bad the performance of Linux is, I believe many people do not know. I have collected a lot of reports on the market share of Linux. According to NetMarketShare, a market research company, only 1.84% of all networked PC computers run the Linux operating system, while a variant of the Linux operating system, Chrome OS, accounts for 0.29%. StatCounter, an analysis company, counted the number of browser clicks installed on more than 2 million websites with tracking code, and found that desktop Linux accounted for 1.48% of OS and 1.03%; the federal government's Digital Analysis Program (DAP) analyzed billions of visits to more than 400 US government branch domain names over 90 days, and found that Linux accounted for 0.6%, while Chrome OS accounted for 1.3%.

NetMarketShare statistics

One can't be trusted, but the market share data of Linux on the desktop side given by the three companies are not very ideal, which is worth thinking about. Why is Linux not so flattering on the desktop side? I think there are ten main reasons:

1) Linux is not pre-installed: admittedly, this is one of the reasons why Linux failed on the desktop side. Windows pre-installed on PC has attracted a large number of users. If a user wants to switch their desktop system to Linux, there must be some special reason. So far, I have only encountered one user who has switched from Windows to Linux.

Most users may turn to Linux because they experience frustration in Windows or their own high IT skills. I myself combine these two reasons. I started to dabble in Linux before I completely switched from Windows to Linux, because I was very dissatisfied with Windows depriving users of their rights. If I hadn't encountered setbacks on Windows, then I probably wouldn't have thought of replacing Windows for the rest of my life. And my own technical level is sufficient to support the use of Linux, because I have to admit that the technical threshold is also a stumbling block to the development of Linux.

It is worth noting that even if you assemble your own computer, the operating system installed in the PC sold in the store is limited to Windows, which is a heavy blow to Linux's development on the desktop.

2) Freedom and convenience of Linux: people always expect consistency and convenience of the user experience, but how to define this experience depends on individual users, familiarity or reliability is more important for some people, while for other advanced PC users, consistency and convenience may be preferred by workflow or specific applications.

For the first group of people, even if they already know the existence and advantages of other operating systems, they will most likely stick to the operating system they used before, while for the second kind of people, the operating habits they may have formed in the Windows system are difficult to change for a while, so they will not actively try Linux.

3) Linux lacks traditional software: compared with scalability and convenience, how to attract users who use applications that exist only on monthly Windows is also a major challenge for Linux. We found that even if Linux developed an alternative to Windows software, most Windows users were still resistant to it, more like a natural dislike of Linux than any dissatisfaction with the application.

4) Linux network is not suitable for people who are not good at learning: although the network in Linux is reliable, there are differences between Samba and Windows. In Linux, Samba and NFS file sharing are based on conf files, which is not difficult to learn, but it is not as simple as Windows.

It is very simple for a PC to connect to the network, and now Linux distributions can seamlessly connect to the network either wired or wireless. But the inconvenient thing is that either way or distribution, you need to go to a command prompt to create a Samba password or edit an NFS-shared conf file.

5) Linux's graphics card support is tricky: if only from a basic point of view, Linux's support for graphics cards is good, but when Wayland and X meet, things get tricky. These two display servers have their own advantages and disadvantages, but some Linux distributions use Wayland by default, which means that X-dependent applications will not work.

Second, in laptops with shared graphics, NVIDIA / Intel graphics cards can become a challenge for some Linux distributions. Graphics switching has developed well over the years, but it still depends on the release, and it is sometimes found that version upgrades can lead to new problems.

Finally, there is the choice of driver type. In some distributions, FoSS is the default, while in others, proprietary options are used by default, which is not a big problem, but users can easily get confused when using it.

6) Linux PulseAudio sound server chaos: Linux audio is actually very good, but PulseAudio at the top of the audio architecture often loses contact or is out of sync. When using PulseAudio to adjust the volume, it is often found that the sound device is still muted. Why? This is because we have to deal with it at the alsamixer level, and if you want to layer the sound server on ALSA, make sure that the sound server is synchronized with the architecture.

To make matters worse, most mainstream desktop environments do not take full advantage of the features provided by PulseAudio, and there are no recording and playback tabs at all in the volume control settings. If you want to route the audio to a different playback device when initiating a group chat session or playing music, most Linux distributions also need to use padevchooser.

7) Linux lacks 3A-level games: first of all, thanks to Valve, GoG.com and other companies, Linux games have made great progress in recent years, but it is undeniable that Linux games still have a lot of room for growth, because we see that many Linux users have to launch Linux and Windows dual operating systems in order to play games, which proves the strong demand of Linux users for games on the one hand, but also shows that Linux has a lot of deficiencies in games.

8) Linux desktop environment: although I like the Linux desktop environment, I can also understand that some people are confused and overwhelmed by the Linux desktop environment. Choosing a distribution based on a desktop environment is challenging, a process that is new and interesting, but difficult for users who use the limited world of Windows or OS X all the year round.

9) the quality of Linux distributions varies: there are a large number of Linux distributions, good and bad, and the most popular distributions perform well, while some are terrible. How to tell which distributions are excellent? Popularity alone is far from enough. My experience is that it depends on whether there is a strong community or enterprise to support it.

10) the development of ChromeOS: judging from the market share of ChromeOS above, ChromeOS can almost be on a par with Linux. ChromeOS is becoming more and more popular with users because of its low cost and ease of use and deep integration with notebooks and Google services. however, printing and scanning are still the pain points of ChromeOS.

According to the statistics provided by NetMarketShare, the Windows system is still the first choice for desktop users in 2017. Although the market share has declined during the year, the market share in December 2017 is still 88.51%. If you have any thoughts on the weakness of Linux on the desktop side, please share the interaction in the comments section below.

On why Linux will be defeated by Windows on the desktop side to share here, I hope that the above content can be of some help to you, can learn more knowledge. If you think the article is good, you can share it for more people to see.

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