After the clickbait-y headline that’s just Canonical sinking into mediocrity once again, there’s this:
Ubuntu is preparing for the AI PC, not just Linux desktops
Seager also described a push toward proper GPU, NPU, and DPU support, hardware partnerships with NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel, and CPU architecture optimization that makes Ubuntu run faster on newer chips without dropping support for older ones.
Ubuntu is also betting on local-first AI, building “inference snaps” that pick the right model and quantization automatically, along with early exploration into agentic workflows at the OS level. Ubuntu 26.04 LTS already ships with native support for both NVIDIA CUDA and AMD ROCm.
I mean, it might. It could very well be a stepping stone to full Linux.
It could be… But if we’re speculating, it could also be the opposite. For example if someone has software they really need Linux for, thanks to WSL they don’t need to switch or dual boot. Additionally, if someone uses WSL and it gives them a lot of trouble, then it might also give them the idea that this is because Linux is bad.
WSL is to Window users kind of what Wine/Proton is for Linux users. It’s not exactly the same because people have more reasons to want to ditch Windows, but I doubt Wine/Proton is a stepping stone to full Windows for Linux users :)
Yeah exactly, we can only speculate, rather than claiming definitively that it’s one or the other.
(I do think that, if Linux was the more popular option, and folks would notice that most of the things they’re running under Wine, that would remove one reason for them not to switch to Windows. But yes, it will also be reason for others to stay on Linux.)
Yes I guess it could, but then the growth should appear equally or greater as independent installs.
Who knows! If it’s a stepping stone, then actual growth would trail it.