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Why are Free-Desktop Developers Wedded to Linux?

Posted by Cliff on from the it's-not-the-OS-it's-the-tool-chain dept.

An anonymous reader wonders: "We have been hearing promising predictions like 'This year will be the year of Linux on the desktop' for the last decade. However, the Linux of today seems to be as far away as ever from realizing the expectations of mass adoption we once had for it, without significant growth in home usage since the late 90s. Clearly, if Linux is unable to reproduce a third of Firefox's end user uptake over a much longer time-frame, there are deficiencies with the direction the GNU/Linux/X/Gnome/KDE system has taken. Of course, almost all free software and desktop efforts and development remain unquestioningly oriented around Linux. Other free-desktop operating system projects which take different and innovative approaches like ReactOS, AROS, Mona and Syllable remain comparatively starved of developers and interest. An often cited reason for using a non-Microsoft OS is to avoid a monoculture, but free-desktop efforts have created a total monoculture around developing and promoting Linux, despite a decade of failure in supplanting Microsoft's proprietorial OSes with it. Why are free-desktop developers neglecting to consider an alternative to the penguin?"

4 of 528 comments (clear)

  1. Is this a serious question? by heinousjay · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    When has anyone ever known a zealot to change their mind? I can't believe this is even being asked.

    --
    Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
  2. I not anymore a Linux User by denisbergeron · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Once upon a time, I was a Linux user and zelote, and Unix admin.
    Since 2000, with all the problem with RedHat not available anymore free, with two Mandrake version with full of problem. I now a Windows User.
    Come on guy, you can have Firefox, OpenOffice, Gimp on Windows, but, you can't have Photoshop on Linux.
    And you don't have any application like Photoshop on Linux (raw support, 32bit support, etc.)

    --
    Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
  3. Toy OSes... by kosmosik · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    That is because these projects are not finished and stable operating systems. Linux is quite mainstream now the others you mention are just toys with no real future really. Maybe that is why people tend to prefer running Linux than not running some Toy OS which does not work.

  4. Re:Yes, they do follow linux only. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Try using a BSD or solaris and see just how standards compliant most open source software is.

    Gee, last I checked both FreeBSD and NetBSD come with PLENTY of GNU stuff built in that works JUST FINE! So I have no idea what rock you have been hiding under but I think it's about time you crawled out from under it...

    As for Solaris, I'm not going to comment because I honestly don't know for sure.