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Linux on the Desktop
webmaven writes "Mitch Kapor's Open Source Application Foundation just released a 34 page report on the Desktop Linux market, written by Bart Decrem, who has discussed desktop Linux previously. The OSAF is working on Chandler, which the press have generally described as an 'Outlook Killer', but it's really intended to be in a completely new application category, more similar to Lotus Agenda in some ways than what currently consider a PIM (email + contacts + appointments). The report goes into some detail about the current state of desktop Linux, trends, and various limiting factors, and concludes that while a revolution is not immediately in the wings, a trend can definitely already be discerned, and they expect adoption of desktop Linux to increase over the next few years, and identifies leverage points to accelerate the process."
Windows as a desktop. I like linux too. I don't see what's so bad about having windows as my primary OS. Cost? Yeah, right... like I've ever paid for any verion of windows I've ever had. Just as free as linux to me. Performance/Stability?... I never have problems with win 2k or XP. Never had problems with linux either.
Whatever happened to Ximian, or Evolution, or whatever it was called? I thought *it* was going to be the Outlook killer. How many Limux apps does it take to kill MS Outlook?
"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog!" - a dog
I dislike Linux and Windows Desktop machines equally, when compared to my OS X
Ok so I started on linux back in 1996 with some old version of Red Hat, can't remember what release it was. I remember the 2 months it took me to initially figure everything out. Back then I was constantly on IRC and got a lot of help from OctobrX who was also sorta new at the time. I was 19 then and had nothing but time on my hands to sit and learn this stuff. Windows was just coming into Win95 and the nightmare blue screen of death was a twice hourly occurrence.
Fast forward to 2003. WinXP is plenty stable, much more so than any windows OS thusfar. MacOSX offers all of the benefits a UNIX systems can plsu a stable non-beta interface with standards and a lot of really great off the shelf software. I don't see the appeal of Linux on the desktop and I don't think most others do either who aren't visiting this site.
Linux is ok in servers, i use FreeBSD personally but to each their own. Linux makes a semi adequate desktop if you look past the old, antiquated install processes, weak package management, lack of uninstall options, the nightmare library system that's almost impossible to keep under control without spending more time on it than you do actual work. The GUI's are sorry to say, horribly old and overly complex. There is no standard GUI for developers to code too without pissing off one side or the other (KDE or GNOME). Commercial developers are treated like dirt when they actually want to charge for software and/or wont release their hard work to everyone open source.
For the geeks Linux is ok. It's even fun to tinker with. Consider however most people could care less, and when I say most I mean MOST, I don't see any gains being made. My mom has enough trouble with MacOSX I can't imagine giving her Red Hat 9 and telling her how to use GNOME. "Here mom just compile this program with 'make install &' and then run it at the terminal". This is far far far from user friendly and as far as I can tell NO ONE is working to change this at all.
Linux is doomed to niche status until people in the OSS community start caring about ALL users and not just people who know what man pages are. This is the same with Apple and their closed hardware and stupid advertising. I don't know a single person that understands apples commercials enough to research them and figure out what they hell they are trying to sell.
Ok, so ending this rant I will say that Linux on the desktop is fine for some, even preferable. But don't even think that Linux in it's current state will be making any major headway into the desktop market. Servers and some business and scientific apps sure, but never the consumer desktop market.
Your story reminds me of all these windows systems that I have to keep reinstalling (for people who keep on explaining to me how simple Windows is). If you purchase a Dell (or any system with windows pre installed) and never add anything to it, including software updates, you are probably safe. When you start moving away from the original install, then you have LOADS of trouble with windows. One example that I remember is an Intel NIC that was just a BITCH to install
DRM? No thanks, I'll just get it somewhere else...