 If you've been a part of the Linux community for literally any amount of time, or even if you're not a part of the Linux community, you've no doubt heard the phrase, year of the Linux desktop. We've used this phrase, used this argument that eventually the Linux desktop is going to compete with Windows and it's going to be relevant. We've talked about it ad nauseam for, well, basically 30 years, basically ever since Linux was a thing. We've talked about how Linux was eventually going to be at least on par with Windows. If you've watched my channel for any amount of time, you'll know that I've argued and basically anyone who has any sense about them has argued that the year of the Linux desktop is just never going to happen. I mean, it's become a cliche for a reason, despite the fact that it is a cliche. We still know that it's basically never going to happen, at least as it was originally argued because the original argument was that Linux would eventually get so good that it would be able to be on par with Windows in terms of not only market share, but mind share. People would know if you just asked random people on the street what Linux was and there was a good chance that they would have at least used it, right? That's the general idea of the year of the Linux desktop. People would know about Linux and really a lot of people would argue that the real thing there is the market share, right? For the last 30 years or however long it's been, Windows has had a significant market share lead over literally everyone else. The reason why we would argue that the year of Linux desktop is never going to happen is simply because that lead is so huge, it's almost insurmountable. It is insurmountable. Windows has like an 89, 90%, maybe even more in terms of market share and Linux is never going to get there. Mac is never going to get there. Windows is the thing and it's just always going to be unfortunately unless something obviously really drastic happens. So as previously argued, we would all basically agree that the year of the Linux desktop is not going to happen, but I would argue that 2022 was actually the year of the Linux desktop and the reason why I would argue this is because of the Steam Deck. Now I haven't covered the Steam Deck on this channel nearly as much as some other Linux YouTubers, but I would still make the argument that the Steam Deck is the most important thing that has happened to Linux since forever. It has had a significant impact on the way people outside of the Linux community think about Linux and we've seen this a lot over the last year. Very large media outlets have talked about Linux whereas they never would have before. So places like the Verge, Linus Tech Tips, MKBHD, Dave 2D, they're all these big YouTubers, all of these big tech websites, Bloomberg, Forbes, a lot of these places that barely ever mentioned Linux before started talking about advice that primarily runs Linux. Now a lot of them didn't focus on the Linux bit, but they still were forced to a little bit because there was the whole compatibility issue and stuff like that. They would have mentioned that somewhere if they were going to talk about the Steam Deck and that would have them talk about Linux. More people now know about Linux than ever before and a lot of that is because of the Steam Deck. It has propelled Linux to a place where the mind share of Linux is greater than it ever has been and that's the reason why I would argue this was the year of Linux desktop. Even though it doesn't meet the original qualifications for being so like it still doesn't compete with Windows, it doesn't even compete with Macintosh, it's just it's never going to. It's still at a 2% market share, whatever it is, you know, a little bit over 1%, whatever happens to be. I don't even know. It's so insignificant. It's basically a rounding error, but still the mind share has never been bigger. And a lot of that is the Steam Deck propelling big media outlets to talking about Linux whereas they never have before and spending time on Linux, spending time understanding the limitations and the advantages of Linux. And finally removing the whole idea, the whole stereotype that Linux is bad at gaming. That stereotype that we've talked about for 30 years is now, I think, completely gone thanks to Valve and Proton and the Steam Deck. And that was always like gaming was almost always the primary hurdle for Linux ever being anything when it comes to consumer products like that was the thing that was holding most people back who actually had heard of Linux from actually using Linux. And now that hurdle is no longer there. Now there are other smaller hurdles, Adobe's like the next biggest one, FU Adobe, nobody likes you. Sorry, a little angry, but the point the point is like, you know, so there are smaller hurdles, but the big one is gone, right? And because we solve the smaller issues or maybe even the bigger issues, you know, years and years ago, for the most part, audio works now, for the most part, the internet works now, your networking works now, you know, these are problems that we've had we had for years and years, hardware support is never better or never has been better, I should say. So the baseline requirements have never been better. Gaming has finally been solved for the most part. Yeah, there's still some things that don't work very well. But you know, we're getting there. And the more popular Linux gets when it comes to gaming specifically on the Steam Deck. And if we see other devices come out with Steam OS support in the future, that would continue to bring more attention to Linux and the more attention it has, the more game support it will get. So the whole year of the Linux desktop thing, I think it was this year. I think that Linux took a major step forward in terms of mind share that it just never has before. Like now, there's a good chance if you talk to anyone who follows just the general tech sphere that they probably know and maybe even have used Linux, whereas probably before that may not have been true. Now, the original argument for the year of the Linux desktop where Linux would compete with Windows, that's still never going to happen. No matter how popular the Steam Deck gets or Steam OS gets, even if it spreads across multiple devices, no matter how many media outlets cover Linux, it doesn't matter. Windows is so entrenched when it comes to the desktop market share, it's just not going to go away unless something really drastic happens like we know we stop using computers completely, in which case Linux probably still won't, you know, go up in terms of market share. So that whole argument, the market share argument is just something we can never compete in. I don't think that Linux is competing at all in terms of market share either really. I mean, everyone knows that Windows is a very small fraction of those people know what Linux is. I also think that you could argue that Linux is the best as it has ever been right now in terms of overall user experience. And I think that that has led to more and more people coming to Linux. I've seen so many new Linux users over the course of the last 12 months come into my comments come into my Discord server, contact me on mass and on our Twitter. People saying just I've just started out on Linux and you know, I'm looking for help or whatever. And you know, I've seen more and more of that. And I think that you can argue that it's because of the Steam Deck. And I poo pooed the Steam Deck at the beginning, like when the Steam Deck was first announced, I made two videos. And one of them was how the Linux, how the Steam Deck was going to help Linux, the other one was how it's going to hurt Linux. And I was much more confident in the negative one. Now, obviously, I'm a negative kind of guy, it's just kind of the, you know, it's my brand. So that's not all surprising. But I was much more convinced that the Steam Deck would actually hurt Linux than it would help it. And my rationale there was simply because I figured that the way Valve would implement Linux would be so not Linux, basically, it would be Android like that it wouldn't actually impact the general Linux sphere at all. Right. I just didn't think that it would have any play outside of the fact that there would be so many compatibility problems with games that the Steam Deck would basically prove everyone right when it came to the idea that Linux couldn't do gaming. That's what I thought. And I was wrong. I was like, I was, that was a very bad prediction. The Steam Deck has proved anyone who thought that the Steam Deck was going to hurt Linux completely wrong. And I'm happy for that. Right. I think that I'm just very happy that the Steam Deck ended up being a success. And it is truly, I think, I think it's inarguable that it has helped Linux overall. So the year of the Linux desktop, it was this year. I hope you paid attention. So that is it for this video. If you have comments on the year of the Linux desktop, you can leave those in the comment section below. I'd love to hear from you. You can follow me on Mastodon or Odyssey. Those links will be in the video description. You can support me on Patreon at patreon.com slash the Linux Cast. Links for Liberapay and YouTube will be in the video description as well if you'd like to support me there. Thanks to everybody who does support me on Patreon and YouTube and various other platforms that truly do appreciate it. You guys are all absolutely amazing. Like, seriously, without you the challenges would not be anyone near where it is right now. So thank you so very, very much for your support. Thanks to everybody for watching. I'll see you next time.