What Does Open Source Need for Mainstream Desktop?

HesAnIndieRocker asks: "So what will it take to make open source technology a mainstream alternative on the PC desktop? It feels like we've been on the cusp for many years now and the applications available for most common tasks are certainly competitive, but we still hover around a 5% market share by most accounts. I've recently written an article in my weblog about some possibilities, but I'd love to hear what others think."

Comments

Re:Games

[Nutria]

I know over a dozen people who would switch if it just had mainstream games.

• An Exchange-killer.
  
• "kids apps". Kid Pix 3, and the dozen other games that my kids like to play when they go to my father's house.
  
• A definitely legal method of playing encrypted DVDs.
  
• For 3rd-party companies (Intuit, Adobe, Autodesk, etc etc ad nauseum) to release either Linux or Wine-friendly versions of their apps.
  
• For companies like Cisco to make it easy to run the VPN Client.
  
• A perfect VT220 emulator. There are many in the Windows world.
  
• Better wireless support, both thru more drivers from "industry", and better "management" front-ends.
  
• Better looking fonts. Sure, fonts are 100x better looking than they were in 1999, but they are still better looking in Windows.