Java Desktop System Rivals XP, OSX in Usability

protohiro1 writes "In this glowing review Chris Gulker calls Sun's Java Desktop System 'the most polished and real-world user-ready Linux desktop in existence.' Well, I'm sold. Will this finally sell the PHBs on a linux corporate desktop?" Newsforge and Slashdot are both part of OSDN.

Comments

Re:Sun, eh?

[passthecrackpipe]

That's it. People should really look deeper into the Sun Open Source shenanigans. Besides the SCO crap, and now their "we indemnify you" crap, everything Sun has "given" to the community has come with a whole heap of strings attached, and its only purpose is to serve to the greater good of Sun. Anything that would even so much as hint to being a "competitive edge" is closed source. I have two issues with this particular setup>

First of all, I think that from a corporate perspective, The "desktop appliance" idea sucks. It is a Wintel blowback in terms of technology - i.e. treating the Linux/Unix desktop in the same vein as a windows desktop is simply stupid. The technical underpinning of this particular train of thought is that in Windows, playing with the setup of the machine will most likely fsck up your machine. In linux, the worst that can happen is that your colourscheme turns green and purple.

Secondly, the Desktop Appliance idea is just another form of Vendor Lock-in. No different from Microsoft. When it comes to desktops, there is no such thing as "one size fits all" - every user, every culture, every company, they all have different approaches to performing work. In order to truly serve your user base, you must customise this desktop. An appliance by default will not allow you to do that easily.

Don't for a second confuse this with Open Source. The fact that Sun ripped off large chuncks of work from the Open Sopurce community is not a plus, and will do *nothing* positive to the community. I want to see Sun distributing their own code along with the code they lifted of the community. I want their patches, their settings, their changes. Bet you they won't do it. I have worked with Sun in the Open source community long enought to know that Sun only cares about one thing when it comes to Open Source, and that's free labour.