Criticism of Linux

While the Linux-based Android operating system dominates the smartphone market in many countries,[1][2] and Linux is used on the New York Stock Exchange and most supercomputers,[3] it is used in few desktop and laptop computers.

There are so many parts of the system that are just these cheap little hacks, and it happens to run.” As for Linus Torvalds, who created Linux and oversees development, De Raadt says, “I don’t know what [Linus's] focus is at all anymore, but it isn’t quality.”[15]Critics of Linux on the desktop have frequently argued that a lack of top-selling video games on the platform holds adoption back.

[16][17][18] As of October 2021, Proton, a Steam-backed development effort descended from Wine provides compatibility with a large number of Windows-only games, and potentially better performance over Linux-native ports in some cases.

Alexander Wolfe wrote in InformationWeek: Remember the 1980s worries about how the "forking" of Unix could hurt that operating system's chances for adoption?

That was nothing compared to the mess we've got today with Linux, where upwards of 300 distributions vie for the attention of computer users seeking an alternative to Windows.

[26]In recent decades (since the established dominance of Microsoft Windows) hardware developers have often been reluctant to provide full technical documentation for their products, to allow drivers to be written.

This has meant that a Linux user had to carefully hand pick the hardware that made up the system to ensure functionality and compatibility.

[27]At one time, Linux systems required removable media, such as floppy discs and CD-ROMs, to be manually mounted before they could be accessed.

[28] The traditional directory structure, which is a heritage from Linux's Unix roots in the 1970s, has been criticized as inappropriate for desktop end users.

[29][30] Some Linux distributions like GoboLinux[31] and moonOS have proposed alternative hierarchies that were argued to be easier for end users, though they achieved little acceptance.

"[39] In addition, the corporation published various studies in an attempt to prove this – the factuality of which has been heavily disputed[40][41][42][43] by different authors who claim that Microsoft's comparisons are flawed.

Particularly documents from 1998 and 1999 ceded that "Linux ... is trusted in mission critical applications, and – due to its open source code – has a long term credibility which exceeds many other competitive OSs", "An advanced Win32 GUI user would have a short learning cycle to become productive [under Linux]", "Long term, my simple experiments do indicate that Linux has a chance at the desktop market ...",[47] and "Overall respondents felt the most compelling reason to support OSS was that it 'Offers a low total cost of ownership (TCO)'.

"[49] In a 2015 interview, Linus Torvalds also mentioned the tendency of Linux desktop environment projects to blame their users instead of themselves in case of criticism.