Comment by sofixa
2 years ago
> I don’t see how it can happen, on the same way we’ve been stuck
In-between Chromebooks and generic Linux distros (say what you will about the year of Linux on the desktop, use is only growing; slow paced or not, doesn't matter), specialised Linux distros (SteamOS - you might think it doesn't matter, it's only for a handheld console, the Steam Deck, but it will force many games to have Linux compatibility. And one of the main things keeping many tech savvy users on Windows is gaming) i think a duopoly is a bit of a strong word, and it's getting disrupted.
Oh sure, I was mainly addressing the current mobile OS landscape with the desktop as a historical case in point, but you're right. There have always been alternative options, especially for niche use cases. I think there are several things happening there right now. One is the erosion of the desktop as a native application platform, if you mainly only care about web apps then the desktop OS isn't an issue because the web is already a powerful platform.
The other is the advanced state of Windows emulation for games, you can bypass the platform effect if you can piggy back on an established platform's APIs. That's tricky though, plenty of mobile OSes tried to get traction with Android APK compatibility, but the problem with that is, why bother developing native apps for them? With games consoles it's a different situation, maybe emulation in the long term is just fine.