Asa Dotzler on Why Linux Isn't Ready for the Desktop

An anonymous reader writes "Asa Dotzler of The Mozilla Foundation compares the explosive growth of Firefox to the anything but explosive growth of Linux and what it needs to do to get there for the "regular user" AKA mom, dad and grandma Bootsie."

Comments

Re:the problem is GNOME KDE is ready for the deskt

[Anonymous Coward]

Gnome without firefox is completely useless

dear slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

seriously guys, shut the fuck up about linux not being ready for peoples desktops
no one cares anymore
get over it

Don't Do It!

[timeOday]

Was the "objective" of Linux ever world domination?

I don't want Linux to become the leader.

I have a two-partition laptop. I run my office apps under VMare on the Windows partition. Lately the thing runs like a pig. The problem is, there's so much company-mandated anti-virus software, manditory patches, and software inventory scanning, that the computer just sits there and scans all the files looking for danger or rebooting all the time.

And besides being sluggish, just getting anything to work (like mounting a network drive) is a nightmare because of a locked-down firewall they installed. The thing is almost unusable. I can't even see which ports are blocked because the UI is a simplistic happy-face sort of thing consisting of big round green buttons and fake reports on how many "attacks" it has saved me from.

I've come to firmly believe it's better to stay a step ahead of the masses. If linux became #1 it would become the target for all this crap, and go into the toilet. I just want linux to become popular enough that it has drivers for everything, other than that I'm satisified.

Just look at Mozilla's popup blockers. For the longest time they worked perfectly. Then it got popular, and now it's been circumvented.

Re:Well, here's my take

[superpulpsicle]

I am sure Porsche stick shift is difficult to drive. Does that mean we should get rid of it because the widely available Toyota Camry's can also go 150 mph?

The automotive industry didn't revolve around people who can't drive. Why the hell should the computing industry revolve around moms and pops who can't use a computer in the first place?

Re:Am I the only one

[hdparm]

No, you are not.

YHBT [n/t]

[Anonymous Coward]

[n/t]

Sulli I'm trying to get your attention (off topic)

[jfmiller]

This is compleatly off topic

Sulli,

I read you journals for a while now and thought you whould be interested in this Summery Article in the CS Monitor I whated to post it to a journal, but you've restricted replies to them.

I hope you will add it to you collection of links in your journal.

JFMILLER

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0718/dailyUpdate.htm l