1. Preface
Every time Microsoft announces a new operating system, voices calling for a migration to the Linux Desktop are raised anew.
In 1999, when Microsoft Windows 2000 was announced as a unified successor to the Windows 9X and Windows NT lineages, uneasy Windows users began looking elsewhere. GNOME 1.0 had just been released, and, with its initial Windows-like interface, momentum was building for a migration to the Linux Desktop. When it became known in 2000 that the development environment for the Sony PlayStation 2 was Linux-based, the community grew even more enthusiastic. Unfortunately, Linux was still premature for general users, the momentum soon dissipated, and users were left waiting for the next Microsoft operating system. This was the first Year of the Linux Desktop.
Fortunately, Microsoft obliged in 2006 with Windows Vista. The Longhorn cry rang out loudly. Canonical had been founded the previous year, and momentum for a migration from Windows Vista to the Linux Desktop rose once again. Unfortunately, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, released around the same time, rapidly expanded its share in the scientific and software-development fields together with the first iPhone, and the Linux Desktop was once more defeated, this time by a "fake Linux[fakelinux]Mac OS X is sometimes mistaken for a type of Linux because it offers similar commands and tools. In reality, Mac OS X is a certified UNIX, and calling it a fake is unfair. However, people who are not familiar with either Mac or Linux may confuse the two and refer to Mac as "fake Linux."."
In the same vein, the Microsoft Windows 8 announcement inspired calls to switch to the Linux Desktop, as did complaints about the poor keyboards on Apple MacBook Pros. Over the past quarter century, the opening of the Year of the Linux Desktop has been proclaimed again and again. Yet the curtain has never actually risen, and each attempt has been rebuffed.
Recently, when Microsoft announced that Windows 10 would reach end of support in October 2025, the traditional rite of switching to the Linux Desktop was duly revived. Google Pixel also incorporated Linux Terminal as a standard feature. The outcome, of course, is already known. The year 2026 will be yet another opening of the Year of the Linux Desktop.
Even so, the author has decided to begin using the Linux Desktop. After twenty years of Mac use, two factors prompted this decision: the fact that a highly portable MacBook is unlikely to be released in the foreseeable future, and the repeated claim by Linux users that their environment is more comfortable than a Mac. The enthusiasm of Windows users over the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2), treated almost as though it granted the benefits of some miracle purchase, was also a factor. Moreover, even an Apple thriving under the reigns of its first two kings, Steven Paul Jobs and Timothy Donald Cook, offers no guarantee that its successor will rule wisely. History shows that a tyrannical third generation[apple3rd]While this article was being written, it was announced that Tim Cook would retire at the end of August 2026 and that John Patrick Ternus would become the next CEO. often brings a kingdom to ruin. The author wishes to be prepared for the possibility of no longer being able to continue using a Mac.
This article records the impressions the author has formed while using Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 through 25.10, one of the leading candidates for the Linux Desktop.
Mac OS X is sometimes mistaken for a type of Linux because it offers similar commands and tools. In reality, Mac OS X is a certified UNIX, and calling it a fake is unfair. However, people who are not familiar with either Mac or Linux may confuse the two and refer to Mac as "fake Linux." ↩︎
While this article was being written, it was announced that Tim Cook would retire at the end of August 2026 and that John Patrick Ternus would become the next CEO. ↩︎