[pjmlp]

And this is why the Linux desktop is domed to be a VM inside other OSes, or filled with Electron apps.

Gtk, Qt, XFCE, GNOME and KDE applications will look out of place in the new desktop, and most likely they will never create a Rust based set of frameworks that can match the above ones on features, development tooling, and extensibility points for desktop developers.

[npteljes]

It's not like Windows is not a disjointed experience, UI-wise. The Win 98 days are long gone, when all the apps had a nice uniform native Windows UI - and even then, maybe it's just that my glasses are rosy. Maybe macOS fares better in this regard, I have no experience, but they have got the reputation.

To zoom out - the reasons desktop Linux is not adopted on a wider scale have nothing to do with its technological prowess. It's working as well as any other desktop OS would. The reasons are rather political, and especially business-related. With making schools teach Windows and MS Office, giving governments and public offices deals, having vendors bundle it by default to new computers, not enforcing anti-piracy, is the way Microsoft achieved that their software is the desktop standard, not by making the software superior in specialized contexts like a uniform UI, or a better architecture. Their blend of adequate software, vertical integration, ruthless business, and some support for every type of user is what won them their current status.

[pjmlp]

Too much focus on the UI and very little on OS frameworks.

[tlamponi]

I, and most people I worked with, couldn't care less if the border/title bar looks slightly odd, the same happens on Windows a lot.

The issue ain't different WMs or toolkits, but a lock-in effort from Microsoft with HW and SW vendors, they still had to create WSL to actually improve their dev experience though, could not manage that without.

Most people ain't technical experienced or interested in IT and just don't care enough to actively switch their OS, so they use what's shipped with it, if it was a Linux Distro they would just use that.

[pjmlp]

I am yet to bother with WSL, it hardly brings something I wasn't already having with VMWare and VirtualBox, and in any case "developer != UNIX".

The cleverness of WSL is that Microsoft came to realise, thanks to Apple, thank many folks only care about having a POSIX userland and don't really care about Linux as such.

Given that current generations mix up Linux with UNIX, it made more business sense to add Linux compatibility than revive SUA.

So now those folks mostly jump between Apple and Microsoft platforms instead of supporting Linux OEMs as they should in first place, genius.

[int_19h]

It had to be not just any POSIX userland, but the kind that could run all the popular web dev tooling, starting with Node.js. MacOS can get away with not being like Linux in many ways because of how widespread it is, but a new contender pretty much has to be compatible. And Linux is especially convenient to emulate due to its public and stable syscall interface.

All that said, the kernel emulation layer that WSL1 was built on was originally intended to run Android apps.

[pjmlp]

Nodejs runs on mainframes, web development is the new green phosphor terminals, POSIX userland does it perfectly fine.

Project Astoria is coming back on Windows 11.

[int_19h]

Node.js runs on many things, but packages (which is the actual thing that people want) are another matter. I remember trying to npm install something on FreeBSD; you wouldn't believe how many package scripts straight up assume that /bin/bash is always there.

And yes, Android apps are already there on Win11, so it kinda came full circle. But either way, the point is that emulating Linux kernel was originally a choice made for the sake of Android compatibility. That it ended up providing a much-needed development environment is a fortunate side effect of that decision.

[RealStickman_]

XFCE and Gnome are GTK, while KDE is QT.

As long as they provide matching themes for QT and GTK it should be fine.

[pjmlp]

You are missing the picture that they provide full development experience stack for desktop development, similar to Framework/Kits/Components on major mainstream desktop and mobile OSes.

Like always many of these experiences fail short by focusing on Look and leaving out the other 90% of the development experience.

[smoldesu]

GNOME and Qt both offer full-fledged UI frameworks. It sounds like you haven't given either a try before, but they're both quite capable. Programming for them doesn't feel any different than writing a Cocoa UI or an Android app or a website. It's just... another target.

[pjmlp]

They do, but Pop_OS new Rust based destkop doesn't, that is the point.

Have been around the Linux world long enough, all the way back to Slackware 2.0, and when getting FOSS software meant buying CDs from Walnut Creek.

[guilhas]

The UI in windows is exactly the same. If I run a script to remove title bars/borders/close buttons on windows's windows only half the apps will do it, because of the different UI frameworks

Electron is a plague equally in all OSs

But I think the current trend is moving windows to be a VM/partition for gaming

[pjmlp]

I keep reading about that trend since Windows XP days, and every time a new release of Windows comes out with stuff that supposedly is going to be it and everyone will migrate.

[JustSomeNobody]

Everything is "domed" to be filled with Electron apps because developer have chosen that to be the easiest/laziest* thing to do.

* Some of you will get the reference.