from Hacker News

The Problem with the Linux Desktop

by sysrpl on 3/27/20, 9:20 AM with 15 comments

• by simonblack on 3/27/20, 11:14 PM

  If even I can write a Desktop application for Linux, it can't be all that hard.

  Windows programmers are still wanting Linux/UNIX to be the same as Windows. It isn't and isn't meant to be.

  What I can't understand though, if Windows is so great, why does it need WSL?

• by Multicomp on 3/27/20, 10:31 AM

  This stuff is the double edged sword behind why the year of the Linux desktop will either never arrive, or be WSL, depending on your definition.

  For all the commendable work in the kernel on not breaking user space, Linux does not have a viable unified stable userland api like win32 or cocoa.

  I say the above thinking my statement is rather blunt, but not too controversial, and hoping someone will refute it effectively with some desktop app sdk that will work on 90% of the distributions.

• by afarviral on 3/27/20, 9:29 AM

  While I'm sure all of that is true, it may be that the interoperabiloty and flexibility/customizability of linux would be hampered by such a unified approach/toolset. So much excellent desktop software out there, and it runs great on most distros and set ups... how could that be if basic problems are insurmountable.

• by ncmncm on 3/28/20, 8:28 AM

  You look at source code of a program that does it.

  Source to almost all such programs is readily available, unlike Windows programs.

• by hirako2000 on 3/27/20, 4:48 PM

  System tray, for what?

  To lunch an app, I find a shortcut command the fastest way to get something up.

  Background running processes, that's the only use case for a system tray icon I can think of. Here again a command does the trick.

  To me the reasons kde and gnome are what they are is because users understand how an an OS works and can use the command line.

  I like my OSX desktop experience, but I still feel more productive on Gnome.

• by EricRiese on 3/27/20, 5:28 PM

  Isn't this all the sort of stuff that freedesktop.org is supposed to fix?

• by upofadown on 3/27/20, 12:19 PM

  What Linux Desktop? When was this written?