Pardon my ignorance but what is the criteria for a linux desktop being a thing? Is it a certain minimum market share?

There's plenty of linux desktops out there. There is certainly a ways to go, I'm not trying to deny that, I'm just wondering what constitutes a successful linux desktop. User-friendliness? Where are the goalposts exactly?

I think "year of Linux on the desktop" is mostly an old Slashdot meme. There are no specific goalposts, it's just used to make fun of Linux adoption.

As with many fine things, not everything in life is about how many people are ... , but who is.

To bend Obama's words a bit: If you’ve got a computer business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.

I'd take you up on that bet. The Librem 5 will ship this year.

That was 2016. With wsl ;). Oh wait, the year of gnu on desktop I meant. And the year when Linux could drop any hope of being used on desktop.

If you lose you should Sonate the money to them

If they ship a final product by 2019-12-31, I'll donate 500CAD to any charity they pick

How about you commit to buying their device if they do ship it this year. I'd read those blog posts about your experience - along with any doses of humble pie you ~may~ have to eat.

I'll commit to buying one.

Please do this.

To quantify this now. Are you counting a final product as them going GA, allowing anyone to buy and get one? Or are you counting a final product one that you do not consider beta. The latter is very open to interpretation.

Going GA and shipping to customers.