At the Linux Application Summit[1] (LAS) in Barcelona, GNOME[2], KDE[3], and other Linux developers came together to work on making incremental process on the Linux desktop. NextCloud[4] founder and former KDE board member Frank Karlitschek had another, bigger idea: Reclaim the "Year of the Linux desktop" as a real plan rather than a joke.
After all, Karlitschek reminded his audience, in the 90s, when the free software/open-source movement really got traction, no one thought Linux could take over the server. But it did. So, why didn't the Linux desktop, as well? Sure, there were all the business reasons Microsoft dominated the market, but the Linux desktop also suffered from many self-inflicted wounds. And, unfortunately, Karlitschek thinks Linux desktop developers are still indulging in the insanity of doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.
Karlitschek, who noted he was a dinosaur and no longer in the Linux desktop per se, said he still wants it to succeed. He thinks there is still a need for a free desktop, but that desktop must be more welcoming to third-party independent software vendors (ISVs). With that, he said, "We can give normal users stuff like Microsoft Word, Photoshop, games, and enterprise applications like Oracle and SAP." Compared to any other end-user operating system, Linux has only a handful of applications.
So, how can Linux do this? Karlitschek had several practical suggestions.
First, there needs to be a central developer portal. This will be where ISVs can find the documentation, tutorials, software development kits (SDKs) and examples they need to get up to speed and build applications. They don't have the time, Karlitschek said, to search for the answers. Adobe, Apple, and Microsoft all do this well, but