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I wonder if Linux is on the cusp of becoming the most popular OS in the world...

Lysrin

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question, it seems that Linux distro's that emulate Windows look and feel are now a pay for thing. what do you need to setup something similar without buying a license? my understanding is that Linux is open source so essentially 'free' but the companies creating their variants can charge for different levels of support. is it more nuanced than that? Windowsfx sells a Pro license for their desktop / skin / GUI, so does that mean it is their IP and they don't have to share or do they have to provide a way for users to access the stuff but set it up by themselves manually?
IIRC, if you look into the available free linux desktops, you can find several that are very close to Windows look and feel. I'd say you could get close enough by picking a distro with a desktop that gets you close enough to emulating Windows without paying anything, if that's the goal.

Regarding your question about what are they selling, it really depends on the open-source license the item is released under by the developers. That's a HUGE discussion (I deal with it all the time at work), but it ranges from you can do whatever you want with the software, change it, sell it, make it commercial, sell support, etc. to the other end where it's still free, but you have to attach our licensing to whatever you do with it and any changes you make have to be also available for free and released under the same license. Bear in mind that is an oversimplification of both ends of the spectrum, but you get the idea.

Open-source software is great, we use a lot for a variety of things, but for a business or government it's a little like walking in a minefield when it comes to open-source licensing. You have to be very careful.
 

Marzipan

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@Lysrin if I understand you correctly, let's take Windowsfx as the example. If they have to make their Windows desktop available at no charge, how would I find and deploy it to avoid paying?

I'm going to guess the licensing fee is the charge for the service of pre-loading their chosen distro of Linux with the Windows-esque desktop so you don't have to do the work of switching it from Gnome or one of the others they usually come with.
 

Lysrin

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@Lysrin if I understand you correctly, let's take Windowsfx as the example. If they have to make their Windows desktop available at no charge, how would I find and deploy it to avoid paying?
They don't have to make it available at no charge. It totally depends on the licensing. If an original developer creates software under an open source license that's completely open (not copyleft or similar for example), then when another party takes that source code, they can roll that into their own product and sell it as proprietary or closed. It just depends on what the original license stipulates regarding derivative works. Again, I'm simplifying for brevity! No one pounce on me! :)

I know nothing about Windowsfx. However if I check their site under Releases/News -> Software Licenses, and scroll to the bottom, you'll see this statement about the WxDesktop (Windows 10 Desktop):

"Control Panel, OneDrive, Helloa Assistant, Login, Logout, Active Directory, System, Device Manager and other tools cloned from Microsoft Windows 10 are software developed by Linuxfx Software and Rafael Rachid. These tools are proprietary and their source code is not available. The developer makes these tools available for free for 30 days, however, the system can work normally without them."

So that is a clear statement that the WxDesktop component is not open source, nor free, nor does it have to be.
 

Marzipan

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They don't have to make it available at no charge. It totally depends on the licensing. If an original developer creates software under an open source license that's completely open (not copyleft or similar for example), then when another party takes that source code, they can roll that into their own product and sell it as proprietary or closed. It just depends on what the original license stipulates regarding derivative works. Again, I'm simplifying for brevity! No one pounce on me! :)

I know nothing about Windowsfx. However if I check their site under Releases/News -> Software Licenses, and scroll to the bottom, you'll see this statement about the WxDesktop (Windows 10 Desktop):

"Control Panel, OneDrive, Helloa Assistant, Login, Logout, Active Directory, System, Device Manager and other tools cloned from Microsoft Windows 10 are software developed by Linuxfx Software and Rafael Rachid. These tools are proprietary and their source code is not available. The developer makes these tools available for free for 30 days, however, the system can work normally without them."

So that is a clear statement that the WxDesktop component is not open source, nor free, nor does it have to be.
I see the minefield you spoke about. it seems wrong to create something proprietary that requires something opensource to work on. :p
 

Shadowmeph

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thew open source thing I think that its only been maybe the past couple of years where gov and many business at least in canada start to accept openopffice which I alway had issues when sending an email with say my resume using open offiuce they wouldnt accept the file type so I would have to change the type butthen it woudl; messup my resume which was another reason why IO stopped using Linux and open source software, Now I use many open source things but am still using windows and again its more becasue of my gaming system, and not having to mess around between windows and linux especially sending files back and forth can be tricky for myself.
 

Izerous

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Gaming wise can really thank the popularity that the steam deck is seeing I think to help push forward linux adoption. Or atleast things built on linux kernals. Each excuse to not use linux is slowly being torn down 1 by 1.
 

Shadowmeph

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Gaming wise can really thank the popularity that the steam deck is seeing I think to help push forward linux adoption. Or atleast things built on linux kernals. Each excuse to not use linux is slowly being torn down 1 by 1.
I think that is still years away. aalso why would I want to have to buy a steam deck to play games? simpler and less hassle and cheaper to just run windows
years back I used WIne and it worked great for simple games.
When I first started to use Linux was back in the days when Return to Castle wolfienstien Enemy territory was pretty big, that game ran excellent in linux, it ran better then in windows . but now games are allot heavier plus using the DX stuff.
 

Izerous

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I think that is still years away. aalso why would I want to have to buy a steam deck to play games? simpler and less hassle and cheaper to just run windows
years back I used WIne and it worked great for simple games.
When I first started to use Linux was back in the days when Return to Castle wolfienstien Enemy territory was pretty big, that game ran excellent in linux, it ran better then in windows . but now games are allot heavier plus using the DX stuff.
Don't need a steam deck... there is Proton and a few other linux alternatives that take advantage of the work steam has done. Doesn't have to be a steam deck itself. Just that hardware and the effort steam put behind it seems to have made a dent in linux game compatibility.

Are we at the point where my main desktop would be linux not yet. But with all the devices in my home only 2 are actualyl windows based.
 

Shadowmeph

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Don't need a steam deck... there is Proton and a few other linux alternatives that take advantage of the work steam has done. Doesn't have to be a steam deck itself. Just that hardware and the effort steam put behind it seems to have made a dent in linux game compatibility.

Are we at the point where my main desktop would be linux not yet. But with all the devices in my home only 2 are actualyl windows based.
I watched a few videos of people using proton it isnt ready yet but like you mentioned at least its going in the right direction .
one of my laptops is linux I play around with it I always liked linux its just the gaming p[lus I always have isuues moving fles between linux and windows which when gaming I have more then a few backup files plus sometimes remove games then later reinstall them which becasue of my issued sof file sharing between the two I dont bother
 

bojangles

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I've been using Pop!_OS as my main driving OS for over a year. Just installed Fedora 38 and they've been working great for 95% of the things I do.

That being said though, I can't trust WINE to translate tax software. Those numbers MUST be exact, otherwise there's risk of being audited for no reason. Tax software is currently designed around Windows/MacOS. So, unfortunately, I need to have an extra partition, boot drive or virtual machine with Windows on it. I use a partition-based dual boot, that way I can play some games that aren't Linux compatible (yet...).

Office is also another problem. LibreOffice/OnlyOffice are great for making most documents, but the moment certain Microsoft exclusive features (i.e. Visual Basic macros or functions) are introduced, they get brought down to their knees. Microsoft has corporations in a stranglehold. Unfortunately the OpenDocument format, while universal, isn't universal when it comes to collaborating in a business environment.
 

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