Vista Launch Good for Desktop Linux?

Sensible Clod writes "XYZ Computing has an article hypothesizing that the arrival of Windows Vista may be a big opportunity for Linux to make headway on the desktop. Massive feature cutbacks for Vista as well as huge hardware requirements are cited as major factors. From the article: 'As the time gets closer and closer to the public debut of Vista the operating system seems to be constantly losing the luster which was associated with Longhorn...Whether it's the lack of a new file system or the Monad scripting shell, the absence of innovation in this operating system is giving it a black eye'. The article then shows the need for action to be taken to get Linux onto the computers in stores (display models!), and pinpoints a few important improvements Linux distros in general need to make. Very interesting read, and timely."

Comments

Vista is the deathknell for Linux and Mac.

[Anonymous Coward]

Really. Vista is the deathknell for Linux and Mac desktops. Read it again if it hasn't sunk in as yet.

Which OS would provide a combination of an XML language for UI, mapped tightly to an extensive and powerful API like WinFX ? Windows Vista (with XAML, Avalon, Indigo). And almost all these are already being back ported to Windows XP. So, hundreds of millions of users will have a 'Vista lite' type of a thing. That is a pretty big user base to develop for. Put simply, Vista applications would look stunning, be more powerful (strong support for web services on the desktop) and at the same time will be relatively easier to build.

Add to the above - 999 out of every 1000 new desktop computers will ship with Vista pre-installed when it is released. The deals have been in place for a long time. This is even before Microsoft spends $1 on Vista marketing.

Don't fool yourself - developers will abandon Linux and Mac (unless these platforms provide a similar development approach). Developers abandoning means users would abandon. People don't buy a computer because of the OS, they buy it because of what they can DO with it (applications)

As a developer, I can feel where the market is headed and that this is Microsoft's attempt to kill off Linux, Mac, PDF, Flash, Java, .NET (yeah !!), Sun, the HTML World Wide Web (replaced with XAML World Wide Web), Firefox, etc. This is their nuclear bomb !

So, there is only one response for this: build a cross-platform, open, 'thing' (a XUL-Java combination maybe).

People wake up !!!

Re:Just Change Terms a Bit?

[NDPTAL85]

See the only problem with your terms is when most people think of "Freedom" they think of you know, freedom from slavery or oppression like the Civil Rights Movement or Sufferage Movement...etc and not some hard to use operating system hardware mainly used by geeks who have a hard time socially communicating their ideas to normal people.