10 (probably wrong) Linux Predictions for 2019

With the new year, comes a new set of unrealistic predictions. Here are my 10 predictions for Linux in 2019, probably too late, and totally wrong, but it's still worth a try !

Link to GNOME's new adwaita theme screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/J9sLlky

More AAA games Proton and steamplay improvements, coupled with Vulkan and DXVK support will probably drive a lot more games to our Linux machines. Steam already has greatly expanded its official support list, and new games are made compatible every month. With these advances, I feel we'll see better driver support for Linux, a lot more AAA games available on release day through SteamPlay, and performance that gets closer to native windows.

Big names proprietary software While the gaming industry is generally the first one to blaze trends, they are usually followed by other industries. I think this means that more publishers will try their hand à Linux support. With the likes of Adobe redoing market share analysis for the viability of a Linux version, I think more publishers will also look at porting their software to Linux. Probably still no Adobe Creative Cloud, but I think we'll see some more proprietary software being developed for the platform.

More computers will ship with Linux As games and software become available, I would expect some manufacturers to take notice, and offer Linux computers to buy. Dell already has a strong offering with its XPS line, which is widely acclaimed as one of the best laptops out there, and I would expect more manufacturers to try their hand at Linux computers. Whether they'll sell or not is a different story, since history shows that these companies usually do a terrible job at marketing and promoting these offerings.

Still no phone and mobile market share Apart from Android, that is. I don't think we'll see mobile efforts reach a large audience. While I salute the efforts of the Librem phone, and as much as I would love having a full Linux phone synced with my desktop, I feel that no large phone manufacturer or mobile carrier will embrace Linux as a mobile platform this year. These efforts are still in their infancy, despite being worked on for years now.

More desktop market share With all the improvements above, it would be strange if we didn't see the Linux desktop market share grow. With more games, more publisher support, and more manufacturers shipping Linux desktops and laptops, I feel like more people will try their hand at Linux, and, hopefully, stick with it. Windows 10 being the mess we all know about, and Macs having jumped way over the acceptable budget threshold, Linux computers could be an appealing solution.

Display scaling perfected DIsplay scaling is still a bit of a problem on linux, especially fractional scaling, and I expect 2019 to be the ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoI8yUbrFYg