Comment on Linux Reaches 5% Desktop Market Share In USA
Buffalox@lemmy.world 15 hours agoLinux as an OS is generally meant as desktop Linux, mostly following freedesktop guidelines, which has traditionally helped standards on Linux a lot. So for instance XFCE/Gnome/KDE desktop apps can be run in all the different desktop environments. Also standardizing things like how tray icons work. Freedesktop is part of X.Org Foundation, and Chrome OS does not use X.org standards at all.
So while Chrome OS is based on the Linux kernel, it is NOT a Linux OS in the original sense, a term that became popular decades before Chrome OS or Android became a thing.
If you include Chrome OS you might as well include Android too. As it can run on for instance Raspberry Pi and other mini systems, and could be used as a desktop system.
Chrome OS is a Linux kernel based OS, and not much more than that.
It’s somewhat confusing in some situations that Linux as a desktop OS doesn’t have a unique name, but it wasn’t a problem originally, as what some prefer to call GNU/Linux was made 100% for desktop use originally.
The Linux kernel is way way more widespread and successful than what we usually term Desktop Linux or GNU/Linux.
jabjoe@feddit.uk 12 hours ago
This isn’t entirely right because Chrome OS is using a lot more of normal desktop Linux than Android does, which basically uses none.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChromeOS
Android is this completely different thing (built round OpenBinder) that ended up using the Linux kernel for good hardware support. It’s basically got nothing to do with desktop Linux, bar needed it to actually build Android. You can argue that Google basically tried forking Linux for Binder and control.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Oh so you can install KDE/Gnome/XFCE apps on Chrome OS and they will work?
You know the “desktop” in Desktop Linux means it goes beyond terminal commands right?
jabjoe@feddit.uk 6 hours ago
Yes you can, but they are actually in a LXC container with Wayland/X from outside (I think it is also in a KVM/QEmu). (Interesting project : chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/…/README.md)
If you look at the architecture it looks more normal than Android.
www.chromium.org/…/software-architecture/
Others note this:
aboutchromebooks.com/now-more-than-ever-chromeos-…
It’s made of lots of FOSS, but it is a dystopian version of a Linux desktop.
Buffalox@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
OK maybe you are technically correct which is the best kind of correct.
It just goes against every nerve in my body to categorize Chrome OS as part of Desktop Linux.