The Year of the Linux Desktop | An Opinion Piece

As Linux users, we’ve all heard this line hundreds, if not thousands of times. “This is the year!” “No, this is REALLY it now!” “Okay, but NOW” The internet spouts, trying over and over to convince us that it is finally the time that the evil evil microsoft is dethroned and we’re finally allowed to experience true open-source freedom via our lord and savior, Linus Torvalds. Okay, so it didn’t work out up until now, but maybe, just maybe, it’s finally time?

Let’s look at some things that have changed over the years, which might just push us from being second-class citizens into the limelight we totally deserve!

The PewDiePie Effect

Some of you might already be sick of it by this point, but it would be disingenuous to speak of the totally real Year of the Linux Desktop 2025 without mentioning one of the biggest newbie injection events of recent history. This video, uploaded by the once most popular YouTuber PewDiePie revealed that, not only had he given up on Microsoft’s ad-filled excuse of an Operative System whose only discerning quality was running League of Legends, and switched over to the light side of the force— Linux.

Many, myself included, thought this might be another LTT situation, and clicked on the video in fear of what we might see, but the last thing we could have ever thought of happened instead. Not only was Felix using Linux to its full potential, he had even installed Arch Linux on his personal laptop, a Linux distribution meme’d to hell and back for its supposed difficulty. My own install broke months ago due to messing up my Linus approved Arch-Linux-Breathing-Rythm by half a breath, and I had been banished to Ubuntu since (shudder, I know.).

Not only was he using Arch, he was ricing it successfully and proceeded to show off his sick setup for the rest of the video. Seeing all these cool things their favorite YouTuber managed to do on this strange Linux thing, many fans flooded Reddit in search of that dastardly download link for CoolLinuxOS.exe, as many older Linux users might have done at one point in their life as well. Some of those gave up once they learned more, however, many others didn’t.

The Holy Grail — Gaming

Gaming, gaming, gaming. One of the biggest roadblocks in turning Linux mainstream in the eyes of many online users. “Can I play games on Linux?” As with many questions asked about the OS we both love and hate, the answer is very often “It depends…”

The more popular Linux is becoming, the easier it is to play all manner of games without many issues. Linux Jesus’ Steam has been fighting this battle for a while now, as Proton makes playing most Steam games as easy as pressing a single button! No, like, literally, just check the box, and you’re in! No fuss, no nothing, well, unless there is some fuss.

The AntiChrist, uhm, Anticheat

Did you, at some point in your life, fall down into the rabbit hole of a live-service game such as League of Legends? I did, and many others did as well. Surely, many of those would love to continue playing those video games on their shiny new bloat-free Linux system. No. What do I mean no? Just no, you can’t, thanks to the growth of kernel-level anticheat it has become impossible to play such games on Linux systems, even when jumping through hoop after hoop to try to get it to work, hell, even LeagueOfLinux gave up on it, and they know how to jump through hoops!

These games have millions of users, and basically all of those who want to continue playing those games are locked out of Linux as a viable option. Even if not being able to play them could be viewed as a feature by some.

The Creatives

Everyone knows Adobe is evil, right? Now that we got that out of the way, we need to admit that many creatives in their respective industries still rely on their services to get their jobs done at a professional level. Yes, we love to recommend GIMP over and over whenever people bring up Photoshop, but deep down we need to admit that it just can’t fully replace it, at least currently. And that is just one aspect, AfterEffects, Premiere, and other Adobe products simply lack a viable alternative that doesn’t crash due to a wrong breathing pattern like my attempt at an Arch install, causing most “I tried Linux” Youtube experiments to come to a swift end.

But there is hope even for this aspect, namely, that Adobe seems very content with repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot at every corner. Questionable business practices, such as charging people to cancel their subscription or pushing AI-slop to their paying users is opening the eyes of creatives all over the world. People looking for alternatives are rampant on social media, opening up a space for open-source to fill their needs in the near future. Who knows, maybe we’ll be accusing internet celebrities of GIMPing their images instead of Photoshopping them before long. Or even better, they finally change their name to something less offensive.

Final Thoughts

Okay, so 2025 might not be the year of the Linux desktop just yet, but it signifies a year of major steps towards a viable Windows alternative. The continued success of the SteamDeck, an influx of new users through YouTubers such as PewDiePie or DankPods, and the continued failures of companies such as Adobe are giving us ground. The ball is in our court now, and we have a good chance at closing the lead.

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