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Which Desktop Distro Will Die First?

Over at NewsForge, Roblimo asks the musical question of which of the several recently released "desktop oriented" Linux distributions won't survive the coming year. It's nice to see user-centric distributions at all, but it really is a niche market for now. Apropos that, psykocrime writes "The fine folks at UnitedLinux have issued a Press Release announcing UnitedLinux 1.0. Should be interesting to see whether this sinks or swims, considering the general ambivalence (at best) or even outright hostility (at worst) that most of the talk about United Linux has met, from the Linux community. Questions about GPL compliance, per-set licensing terms, etc... is this the future or Linux or just another albatross?" And J. J. Ramsey writes "BeyondUnreal reviews not only Xandros Desktop's installation, but also shows what this distro's $99 price tag actually gets you. Read more here. LinuxPlanet also has an in-depth review of its own."

20 of 512 comments (clear)

  1. HI MOM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    o|t-s- - -s-t- - s.o
    |f Suckle my ||
    t |t nuttz until I t|
    ss| cum platelets |s
    || _ _ _ _ o _ _ ||
    t ' - o -s. t -t- -s'
    t s| | o _|/
    o s s | |s t" ".
    oo f | f /(o)-(o)\
    t s /_)fo f /s |
    f o s |s)|s '- o
    t \_o|\ '.o_s.' / |\/ft
    o f | |f\ \_/ / _|so'/
    o t f|_|\ f.t__s/ \f) /
    f t t \ \_/\_o/\__ o|s=|
    fft \ f /\ s\ `\ | |
    o s f \ \\o/ s \| |
    s st `\ /\ | o/ |
    ; || f |\____/
    t s o |fs|| |

    1. Re:HI MOM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      But you are reading Slashdot, now that is lame.

  2. Fuck! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I was reading Slashdot in class at -1 and started laughing so hard I SHIT MY PANTS! Then, i flipped over the table and threw up on some chick! Then i realized that I may have been a little irrational. So, I started posting again. Everyone die now please.

  3. Q sez... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    SUse will Die Another Day

  4. All of them! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    All of them because THEY ALL SUCK

    Linux SUCKS ASS

  5. This Will Never Die by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    o guo a oui e u * g oea t s e a * g e a t s e i *
    g ia u a u g
    oaoo \o i \ e e ai \a o
    e| a a i a u \ i eo aua | u a
    t|o o `a a e | ue e : u t
    s`u u i o ii a\| |e a s
    e \ | a i / e\\\ ue-u__ \uu i e : e
    x \ ia\/ oae-o~~ i ~--__| \ au x
    * i \_o~ ua i eu u ~-_\u a | u *
    g au_ o \o u uiua------a u_____o|ai |o g
    i e a e \_iu___//e_e___euoo_(__;o \ |o o
    a o o eu u__) ______ (_i____; | i ua a
    t ao /\ | C a_ai)a \ (____u; |aaa u t
    s uoo\|uo C__a___)20721 i (oa_; o ai s
    e |o ( _C_____)a___ee_i //i_ao/aaui \ o
    x e | u |__ \\__e_oi_ie// (__/ | x
    * u \ \____) `e--- i-u | a*
    a e | \_ e o ___\i /_ ii ei o _/o| g
    o u o e u / e uu | \ i o |oo
    aee | o |u / au e\ \ oa eu a
    ui | e e / /ao |oa e | \ ie iat
    s |o / o o \__e\___/ | a i |s
    e | a a / / o u | a| | uiuaue |e
    x | | u | o |u ox
    *ugue u t o a xi* geo a i suo x * g oaa t s e x *

  6. dont bother by exspecto · · Score: 0, Troll

    do you really think it matters if us end-users dislike people like United Linux? dont you realize that they only have to sell it to the corporate execs? so if its flasy enough, and at the right price, it doesnt matter what we think. raise your hand if your business' software was chosen by accounting or some other department that knows nothing about the actual need you have...

    thought so

    1. Re:dont bother by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      How the fuck is that a troll! Can't handle the truth.

  7. in Soviet Russia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    distro desktops you

  8. Re:easy.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Good heavens, you are very stupid.

  9. Re:Dumb... by powerlinekid · · Score: 0, Troll

    this isn't insightful either... :p

    And if thats the case, you'll still have debian. You'll still have your precious apt. Me, I prefere Mandrake. Difference of opinion, no big deal. I would like to know an example of shit to put up with Mandrake and RedHat though. What the dependancie hell that debian users tend to throw out? I cry bullshit. I update from mandrake's cooker ftp, one rpm at at time. Mandrake's urpmi tool kicks ass. Resolves dependancies, tells you what you need and will fetch it for you. All it requires is a urpmi *. Is it a matter of free software? Mandrake is LSB certified now and tries to remain as free as friggin possible. Damn near everything is open source, and if it isn't there will be another package that does a similiar thing and is. Along with this they try to give you commericial software if you want it. RealPlayer, Blender (pre-gpl days), Star Office, Nvidia's drivers all came with the 8.2 ProSuite set and would be installed for you if you agreed that it was alright to install non-free software on your system.
    As for UL... well you're right they're not gonna gain much ground. But it really isn't like they're banding together to crush Red Hat. Ransom Love sees how well Red Hat is doing and decides "Oh no, Red Hat will become the Microsoft of Linux... I want some of that money too" and concocts this scheme. What I'm saying and explained in another post is that Xandros, Lycoris and Lindows if they all have the same goals and ideals should become one distro. Not a series of distros based off of some new standard, but one distro. One distro aimed at the desktop. By pulling their collective resources and talent I'd say they have a better chance of taking on Microsoft (not fighting for contracts from Walmart amoungst themselves). And if they merge? You don't have to fucking use it. Christ you're like the people that bitch that they're putting MacDonald's in the sims or someone is carrying a violent game. Don't fucking use it.
    As for one distro gaining too much power, theres this little thing called the GPL. So I'd say it would be damn hard for anyone to have too much power when someone else can have the complete source code for their product.

    --

    can't sleep slashdot will eat me
  10. Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by killmenow · · Score: 0, Troll

    What...Goatse Linucx?

  11. I don't know by autopr0n · · Score: 1, Troll

    But I bet OSDN won't be around to see it :P

    --
    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
  12. Re:Dumb... by powerlinekid · · Score: 1, Troll

    its not a troll actually... when i say merge, I don't mean debian, gentoo, mandrake and assholenux. I mean lycoris, lindows and xandros. The distros who all do the same thing and have the same goal: desktop share. Jesus christ, you throw out one word and all of a sudden everyone is screaming "troll, troll". Debian and gentoo aren't exactly going to merge with mandrake or redhat. Why would i even suggest that? I like gentoo. I like mandrake. I've been known to occasionally like red hat. Debian i'm not too keen on, but to each their own. They all have their own unique little niche. Lindows, Xandros and Lyrcoris? They have the same fucking niche.

    --

    can't sleep slashdot will eat me
  13. Re:It's like weenier-dogs by noshellswill · · Score: -1, Troll

    The more Lusr-friendly *nix distros bi*chslap them dweeb honkers, the less we need listen to their whining, drooling cry-baby Debolian & Gentiismic sobs. Help those po' dweezles along --- STOMPSTOMPSPLAT a mess just as stinky as a CLI vidcard config. Deal with it, d00b5r3. It's coming fast ... byebye weenierville, forget them shellscripts & hello ... TUXISTRY !!!

  14. hmm...which version is going to die first? by Savatte · · Score: -1, Troll

    well accoring to many posts I have seen here bsd is much closer to death than linux. maybe we should focus our efforts on revitalizing bsd. afterall, if netcraft confirms it, its serious. and no, I'm not kreskin.

  15. Hopefully, they will all fail! by Ogerman · · Score: 1, Troll

    The sooner we get rid of all these stupid special-purpose and commercial distributions, the sooner people will realize that ALL the legitimate money in Open Source software is found in consulting and services. We only need ONE popular Linux distribution: Debian. And before anyone goes flaming me for being a "debian elitist" or starts criticizing how Debian's installer sucks and is unsuitable for home users, consider this: Debian is the only distribution that is fully community-driven. It is the only distribution with a formalized policy and social contract. It is one of the oldest distributions and has a solid track record in security and timeliness. The size and popularity of the project is growing rapidly--Debian now packages far more software than ANY other distribution.

    And yes, now that Debian has begun to move far beyond its "techie-core" roots, there is a large interest in developing newbie-friendly installers and system maintenance utilities. Interested? Get coding! (:

    1. Re:Hopefully, they will all fail! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Posted by timothy on Tuesday November 19, @08:16PM
      from the draw-straws-folks dept.
      Over at NewsForge, Roblimo asks the musical question of which of the several recently released "desktop oriented" Linux distributions won't survive the coming year. It's nice to see user-centric distributions at all, but it really is a niche market for now. Apropos that, psykocrime writes "The fine folks at UnitedLinux have issued a Press Release announcing UnitedLinux 1.0. Should be interesting to see whether this sinks or swims, considering the general ambivalence (at best) or even outright hostility (at worst) that most of the talk about United Linux has met, from the Linux community. Questions about GPL compliance, per-set licensing terms, etc... is this the future or Linux or just another albatross?" And J. J. Ramsey writes "BeyondUnreal reviews not only Xandros Desktop's installation, but also shows what this distro's $99 price tag actually gets you. Read more here. LinuxPlanet also has an in-depth review of its own."

      robsmama (416178)
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      Also by timothy

      Which Desktop Distro Will Die First? | Preferences | Top by | 215 comments (Spill at 50!) | Index Only | Search Discussion
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      The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
      HI MOM by Anonymous Coward (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @08:17PM
      Re:HI MOM by Anonymous Coward (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @08:30PM
      Re:HI MOM by Anonymous Coward (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @08:45PM
      Re:HI MOM by redshift-systems (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:19PM
      Re:HI MOM by robsmama (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @10:21PM
      easy.... by saskboy (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @08:18PM
      Re:easy.... by Anonymous Coward (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @08:38PM
      Fuck! by Anonymous Coward (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @08:18PM Easy answer (Score:5, Insightful)
      by Adam9 (adam[AT]darkfire[DOT]net) on Tuesday November 19, @08:20PM (#4711900)
      (User #93947 Info | http://www.darkfire.net | Last Journal: Tuesday September 24, @02:32AM)
      Lindows [lindows.com]. If they have any success in 2003, Micro$oft will just sue them into oblivion. If they fail during 2003, Micro$oft will just laugh at them and label them as the Open Source failure. If they break even.. they'll probably just sue anyways to get it over with.

      [ Reply to This | Parent ]

      Re:Easy answer by Anonymous Coward (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @08:27PM
      Re:Easy answer by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @08:34PM
      Re:Easy answer by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @08:35PM
      Re:Easy answer by Shaklee3 (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @09:09PM
      Re:Easy answer by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:29PM
      Re:Easy answer by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @08:39PM
      Re:Easy answer by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:20PM
      Re:Easy answer (Score:5, Informative)
      by bstadil on Tuesday November 19, @08:37PM (#4711992)
      (User #7110 Info | http://www.orbeon.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday September 08, @02:28PM)
      Micro$oft will just sue them into oblivion
      They already did and lost [com.com]so far, what more as a result the name Windows as a trademark for MS' OS might not be protected [internetnews.com]. Lindows might be doing us all a favor.

      RD's Rimmer "If you had two people coming for a job, and one of them was dead, which one would you pick?"

      [ Reply to This | Parent ]

      Re:Easy answer by e_n_d_o (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @10:01PM
      Status ?? by bstadil (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @10:16PM
      Been there by mbrubeck (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:37PM
      Re:Easy answer by Anonymous Coward (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @09:08PM
      Re:Easy answer by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:25PM
      Re:Easy answer by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:45PM
      Re:Easy answer by GravySkin Tuesday November 19, @09:28PM
      Re:Easy answer by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:44PM
      It's like porn sites.... there are enough already by krog (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @08:21PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by handsomepete (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:25PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:39PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by volsung (Score:3) Tuesday November 19, @08:26PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by xenode (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:36PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea (Score:4, Funny)
      by Rick the Red on Tuesday November 19, @08:27PM (#4711940)
      (User #307103 Info | Last Journal: Friday August 23, @12:36PM)
      For a pretty Linux desktop experience there's Debian... for the Linux newbies there's... Gentoo.
      Two people think this is "Insightful"? "Interesting" maybe, but "Insightful"?

      If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.

      [ Reply to This | Parent ]

      Re:It's like weenier-dogs by noshellswill Tuesday November 19, @09:19PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by Iguanaphobic (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:22PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @10:08PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by Anonymous Coward (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @09:30PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @08:27PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by Wiseazz (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:27PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by i.r.id10t (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:37PM
      This can't be I good idea by Zeebs (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:49PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by CableModemSniper (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:50PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by killmenow (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:02PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by NeuroChrist Tuesday November 19, @09:11PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by GweeDo (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:32PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @10:03PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by oneeyedman (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:33PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by checkyoulater (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:37PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by dr.badass (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:57PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by redshift-systems (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:03PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:53PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by tunah (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:21PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by EvilAlien (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:54PM
      Re:It's like porn sites.... there are enough alrea by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:25PM
      *applause* by Tokerat (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:30PM
      The one that gets the fewest votes... by telstar (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:22PM What kills Linux distros (Score:5, Informative)
      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19, @08:22PM (#4711909)
      1. Bad marketing plans redolent of dot-bombs.

      2. Onerous licensing not in keeping with Linux's mission.

      3. Just plain bad distros.

      4. Unprofessional behavior.

      The latter will kill a company that deals in Linux very quickly, I've found, since the Linux community is very aware of a company's behavior, far more so than most other communities. If company X with distro Y is seen as "in bed with the enemy," they're going to get shunned faster than a sweet potato that's been up Rush Limbaugh's butt for safekeeping during the winter.

      Maybe this is why small companies like Slackware are still around: they cater to a specific need, they do it well, and they don't try to shoot themselves in the foot with pretentious We Need To Grow Our Business jargon/corporate newspeak.

      [ Reply to This | Parent ]

      Re:What kills Linux distros by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:32PM
      Re:What kills Linux distros by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @08:39PM
      Re:What kills Linux distros by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:51PM
      Re:What kills Linux distros by nelsonal (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:50PM
      Re:What kills Linux distros by mla_anderson (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:58PM
      Re:What kills Linux distros by iomud (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:05PM
      Re:What kills Linux distros by noshellswill Tuesday November 19, @09:28PM
      Re:What kills Linux distros by jsse (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:29PM
      Q sez... by Anonymous Coward (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @08:22PM
      Milli Vanilli's Rob Malda dies by Anonymous Coward (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @08:23PM
      All of them! by Anonymous Coward (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @08:23PM
      A dozen new Corel's by altoidsman Tuesday November 19, @08:23PM
      Re:A dozen new Corel's by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @08:26PM
      This Will Never Die by Anonymous Coward (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @08:24PM
      Some People Just Dont Get it by halo8 (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:24PM
      Re:Some People Just Dont Get it by xenode (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:46PM
      Switching just to switch is the wrong reason. by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:29PM
      Re:Switching just to switch is the wrong reason. by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:33PM
      See, you don't understand. by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @10:11PM
      I predict that Debian will die first by Anonymous Coward (Score:3) Tuesday November 19, @08:25PM
      Re:I predict that Debian will die first by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @08:46PM
      Re:I predict that Debian will die first by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @08:57PM
      Re:I predict that Debian will die first by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @08:58PM
      Re:I predict that Debian will die first by MyHair (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:57PM
      ReiserFS by kungfuBreaks (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:25PM
      Re:ReiserFS by xenode (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:44PM
      Re:ReiserFS by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:41PM
      Re:ReiserFS by numark (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:52PM
      Re:ReiserFS by numark (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:56PM
      Re:ReiserFS by BrookHarty (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @10:12PM
      dont bother by exspecto Tuesday November 19, @08:26PM
      Re:dont bother by Anonymous Coward (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @08:46PM
      Dumb... by powerlinekid (Score:3) Tuesday November 19, @08:26PM
      Re:Dumb... by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:30PM
      Re:Dumb... by powerlinekid (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:47PM
      Re:Dumb... (Score:4, Informative)
      by JoeBuck on Tuesday November 19, @08:36PM (#4711988)
      (User #7947 Info | http://www.welsh-buck.org/jbuck/)
      Completely free distros do not disappear, but those that require pay-per-seat because they have proprietary components are at much greater risk of disappearing. If the company loses interest, the distro goes away, as distributing it without their permission is not legal.

      This is one of the things that puts Lindows at risk.

      [ Reply to This | Parent ]

      Re:Dumb... by powerlinekid (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:05PM
      Re:Dumb... (Score:5, Interesting)
      by garcia on Tuesday November 19, @08:37PM (#4711993)
      (User #6573 Info | http://supplication.lazylightning.org/)
      this is not Insightful.

      I don't believe that they should merge. If they did I would have to put up w/the tons of shit from Mandrake and RedHat while all I want is Debian.

      What's wrong w/Mandrake? What isn't? That's my opinion and that's yours... That's why I don't want Linux distributions to merge.

      Why is UL crap? b/c they are trying to band against what they believe is an attempt by one distribution to gain too much power.

      I don't think that UL will gain much ground but that doesn't mean it's crap.

      Bill

      [ Reply to This | Parent ]

      Re:Dumb... by powerlinekid Tuesday November 19, @09:00PM
      Re:Dumb... by garcia (Score:3) Tuesday November 19, @09:13PM
      Re:Dumb... by powerlinekid (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:24PM
      Merging Pop culture references by HeXetic (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:43PM
      Re:Merging Pop culture references by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:21PM
      Re:Dumb... by nmg Tuesday November 19, @08:56PM
      Re:Dumb... by Dark Lord Seth (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:05PM
      Re:Dumb... by MyHair (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:06PM
      Re:Dumb... by powerlinekid (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:16PM
      Re:Dumb... by n2dasun (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:10PM
      Of course Slackware's development has slowed. by Glytch (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:23PM
      Re:Dumb... by salimma (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:34PM
      Darwinism and Desktop distros by GuruJ (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:36PM
      Distros come and go all the time... by npietraniec (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:27PM
      Re:Distros come and go all the time... by mikey13 Tuesday November 19, @08:50PM
      Re:Distros come and go all the time... by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @08:53PM
      DEBIAN by mr_gerbik (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:28PM
      Never Die by Chicks_Hate_Me (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:28PM
      Re:Never Die by PerryMason (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @10:05PM
      The small will die by spinlocked (Score:3) Tuesday November 19, @08:29PM
      Red Hat is "de facto" standard Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
      by MtViewGuy on Tuesday November 19, @08:42PM (#4712023)
      (User #197597 Info)
      I think Red Hat will succeed because it has essentially become pretty much the de facto standard for Linux.

      I mean think about it: here in the USA when people know about Linux they definitely know about Red Hat Software. And Red Hat Linux is the commercial distro that is by far the most used in the corporate world. Even IBM's well-funded Linux research uses a variant of Red Hat Linux.

      Slackware may be better for the highly-experienced user, and Mandrake may be great for newbies, but for the corporate crowd Red Hat Linux is pretty much it.

      [ Reply to This | Parent ]

      Re:Red Hat is "de facto" standard Linux by lazzaro (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:58PM
      Re:Red Hat is "de facto" standard Linux by frozencesium (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:22PM
      Re:Red Hat is "de facto" standard Linux by Zenithal (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:52PM
      Who will succeed: Lindows (Score:5, Interesting)
      by HoserHead on Tuesday November 19, @08:31PM (#4711959)
      (User #599 Info | http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Sunday November 11, @05:51PM)
      I've seen Michael Robertson, CEO of Lindows.com, speak (at Debconf 2) - and I can tell you that I am certain that Lindows.com will not be yet another dropout of the Desktop Linux business.

      How am I sure?

      Michael's a salesman, pure and simple. He speaks with passion and he makes you love him and his company - and I've heard that he succeeded in convincing a lot of people who attended Debconf. You should be aware this is coming from a group of people who are probably a lot less friendly to corporate (particularly proprietary corporate) involvement in the free software world.

      Michael's ability to make the connections, to sell his company and his vision - that's what's going to make the difference. I've interviewed for a job at Xandros, and I'm sure they've got good people technically (I'm saying this sight unseen), but there's one thing Lycoris, Xandros and all the rest don't have - Michael Robertson. He will make Lindows.com succeed, I guarantee you.

      (Of course, this is discounting the huge war chest of money he got from the sale of mp3.com. I'll bet he could fund Lindows.com for a lot of years even if he never sold a single product.)

      [ Reply to This | Parent ]

      Re:Who will succeed: Lindows by MyHair (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:17PM Have you used it? (Score:5, Informative)
      by Mustang Matt on Tuesday November 19, @09:19PM (#4712234)
      (User #133426 Info | http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Wednesday October 16, @02:02PM)
      One of my friends bought a Wal-mart PC with Lindos pre-installed and it was awful.

      From both the perspective of a linux user and a windows user. It failed at everything. It was tough to use, the menus were cluttered with software you didn't have but you could pay for. It was slow, it couldn't run windows programs the way it advertised.

      I can't believe wal-mart would have agreed to let them ship it on their systems.

      [ Reply to This | Parent ]

      Re:Have you used it? by Waffle Iron (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @10:19PM
      Re:Who will succeed: Lindows by numark (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @10:04PM
      OT - What will arrive the coming year... by teamhasnoi (Score:3) Tuesday November 19, @08:32PM
      Re:OT - What will arrive the coming year... by Kiwi (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:55PM
      Re:OT - What will arrive the coming year... by iggymanz (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @10:10PM
      Re:OT - What will arrive the coming year... by Glytch (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:45PM
      Re:OT - What will arrive the coming year... by delta407 (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @10:18PM
      Wont Survive vs Wont Thrive by Vengie (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:32PM
      Probably Most of Them.. by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @08:33PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. (Score:5, Insightful)
      by cookiepus on Tuesday November 19, @08:45PM (#4712035)
      (User #154655 Info | http://snow.prohosting.com/cookiepu/?slash)
      face it.. the general population is not ready for linux desktops. hell, the genereal population isn't even ready for windows XP or OSX.

      True that. But the thing is, XP and OSX are ready for the general population. Linux is not.

      Give me an AIM client that doesn't look nasty, a browser that doesn't crawl and swap on a machine that runs MSIE effortlessly, and an Office suite that doesn't look clumsy.

      I am a comp sci major with pretty good Linux/Unix experience behind my belt, and still I would be neither happy nor productive if I didn't have windows on my system.

      The simple test is this: I never have a moment like "I am in Windows, and I have the need to boot to Linux to do something." But I often have the "Ah shit I am in Linux, now I need to reboot to windows before I can do this" moment.

      The general public doesn't care about open source, community effort, MS monopoly, none of that shit. They want features and smooth interfaces. And Linux isn't ready to give them that. Will it ever? May be. Probably. Remarkable strides have been made by RH, for example, to make Linux more usable by "regular people" during the last 3-4 years that I've been paying attention to it. They seem pretty adamant about continuing in the same path.

      Oh yeah, another thing Linux needs is the ability to work on all the hardware windows can work on. Whatever's in my computer, windows handles it. If the best linux can do for me is a fuzzing sound card, a modem that drivers don't exist for, and a TV tuner I can't use, then I am not switching. I don't care if this is due to companies keeping their data proprietary. To the end user, it's the same shit: it doesn't work.

      And Linux's fabled reliability isn't worth shit if it doesn't support your hardware and you can't do what you need to do.

      [ Reply to This | Parent ]

      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @08:52PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @08:59PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by cookiepus (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:04PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:13PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:33PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by cookiepus (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:38PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by frozencesium (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:35PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by cookiepus (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:54PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by jameslore (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @10:02PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by jameslore (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:59PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by m1a1 (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @10:17PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by quantaman (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:40PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by Compuser (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:49PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by cookiepus (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:58PM
      Things To Do In Linux, Not In Windows by krmt (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:58PM
      Re:Things To Do In Linux, Not In Windows by cookiepus (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @10:15PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @10:01PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by Random Feature (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @10:15PM
      Re:Probably Most of Them.. by PerryMason (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @10:19PM
      in Soviet Russia... by Anonymous Coward (Score:-1) Tuesday November 19, @08:34PM
      Got an opinion? by SexyKellyOsbourne (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:34PM
      Re:Got an opinion? by Anonymous Coward (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:47PM
      Re:Got an opinion? by program21 (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:50PM
      Re:Got an opinion? by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @10:00PM
      Re:Got an opinion? by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:04PM
      SuSe? by T-Kir (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:41PM
      Re:Got an opinion? by jpetts (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @10:05PM
      Okay.... (Score:5, Interesting)
      by cookiepus on Tuesday November 19, @08:35PM (#4711980)
      (User #154655 Info | http://snow.prohosting.com/cookiepu/?slash)
      I'll take the plunge and post for the first time in my life.

      No one will pay for desktop linux. Why? Because people who pay for OSs are generally businesses, and businesses want productivity. There's just not enough of that in Linux desktop apps. If you're going to pay, you may as well pay for what's going to give you the most bang for your buck. And that's Windows.

      I am not anti-Linux, at all. I cringe at Windows-based servers, and I fully realize Unix-based server power and flexibility, and encourage my clients to consider it. One of my clients moved to Red Hat and they pay RH some nominal fee for every RH server they ship out. Not even for that RH Network thing. They just pay some ammount to ensure that RH continues its development.

      And yet, these guys use Windows on the desktops in the office. They are all Unix professionals. But for shit they need to do on the workstation, Windows can't be beat.

      [ Reply to This | Parent ]

      Re:Okay.... by Phroggy (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:07PM
      Re:Okay.... by reflective recursion (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:48PM
      Re:Okay.... by iggymanz (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @10:00PM
      Re:Okay.... by weeble (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @10:05PM
      Re:Okay.... by frozencesium (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:10PM
      Re:Okay.... by cookiepus (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:24PM
      Re:Okay.... by frozencesium (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:45PM
      Re:Okay.... by rizzo420 (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @10:04PM
      Re:Okay.... by Erore (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:48PM
      Re:Okay.... by tstock (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:56PM
      Re:Okay.... by cookiepus (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @10:09PM
      Whichever one dies first... by E-Rock-23 (Score:3) Tuesday November 19, @08:36PM
      UnitedLinux by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:40PM
      Tin Foil Hat Linux by teamhasnoi (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:41PM
      What constitutes a desktop distro? by rob-fu (Score:3) Tuesday November 19, @08:41PM
      Re:What constitutes a desktop distro? by frozencesium (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:15PM
      The first to die? by qwijibrumm (Score:3) Tuesday November 19, @08:43PM WTF? NONE of them will ever die!! (Score:4, Insightful)
      by EvilStein on Tuesday November 19, @08:44PM (#4712029)
      (User #414640 Info | http://www.pbp.net/)
      We've still got people on the internet using Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and OS/2 Warp!!! Oh, and we can't forget Mac OS 7.x either.. still quite a few people on the planet using 7.1.2. :P

      And how will we know if a distro is "dead" anyway? Is there a way to verify that not one single person on the planet is running a machine with that distro? I think not.

      [ Reply to This | Parent ]

      Lindows Distro by redshift-systems (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @08:47PM
      Re:Lindows Distro by TummyX (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:01PM
      Re:Lindows Distro by redshift-systems (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:15PM
      Re: iDVD by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @08:48PM
      Re: iDVD by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:02PM
      On /. you don't have to think about the answer (Score:4, Funny)
      by garoush on Tuesday November 19, @08:48PM (#4712057)
      (User #111257 Info | http://slashdot.org/)
      Windows

      Karma stuck at 50? Add 2-5 inches.. err.. 2-5x Karmas Count to your pen1es.. err.. Karma all naturally and privately
      [ Reply to This | Parent ]

      mine by outriding9800 (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:49PM
      My guess. by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @08:49PM
      Which Desktop will die first? by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @08:53PM
      Niche Market? by lspd (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @08:56PM
      Re:Niche Market? by Psx29 (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:18PM
      Which Desktop Distro Will Die First? by killmenow (Score:3) Tuesday November 19, @08:59PM
      Die off? by f00zbll (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:02PM
      I think unfortunately none will survive. by maudite615 (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:05PM
      Linux has less chance for competing in desktop by pranalukas (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:05PM
      Re:Linux has less chance for competing in desktop by Rascalson (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:31PM
      Re:Linux has less chance for competing in desktop by tuffy (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:48PM
      Re:Linux has less chance for competing in desktop by JohnFluxx (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:51PM
      Re:Linux has less chance for competing in desktop by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @10:01PM
      Which desktop-based distribution won't survive? by Trogre (Score:3) Tuesday November 19, @09:05PM
      I don't know by autopr0n (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:14PM
      Slackware by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:14PM
      The Linux distro that survives... by Alethes (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:16PM
      Why was that modded as a troll? by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @10:08PM
      i will keep track by circletimessquare (Score:3) Tuesday November 19, @09:23PM
      usable OS's by sstory (Score:3) Tuesday November 19, @09:24PM
      Lycoris Build 60 by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:24PM
      Good job guys by narftrek (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:26PM
      Re:Good job guys by Glytch (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @10:01PM
      Hopefully not OEOne... by nickos (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:26PM
      Re:Hopefully not OEOne... by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @10:06PM
      my wish by chump daddy Tuesday November 19, @09:33PM
      It depends on which one gets a clue by Anonymous Coward Tuesday November 19, @09:37PM
      Xandros doesn't look too bad.. by the unbeliever (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @09:39PM
      hmm...which version is going to die first? by Savatte (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:42PM
      Depends on what 'dead' is. by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:49PM
      RedHat Will Die First by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Tuesday November 19, @09:56PM
      lindows by asv108 (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @10:04PM
      Hopefully, they will all fail! by Ogerman (Score:2) Tuesday November 19, @10:16PM

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  16. Re:I predict that Debian will die first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    wtf are you talking about...Debian will last for sure...

    1-the swirl is cool...(think that a red cap is better?)

    2-the name Debian is cool...

    maybe your too dumb ass to make the distro work properly...what do you except a hand that comes out of the PC to help you upgrade...
    a Drakconf to do it all for you while you have no idea what is hapening behind your flashy purple screen?

    gimme a break...

  17. Re:I predict that Debian will die first by madpuppy · · Score: 0, Troll

    he's being funny, stupid......