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How Would You Refocus Linux Development?
buddyglass writes "The majority of Slashdot readers are no doubt appreciative of Linux in the general sense, but I suspect we all have some application or aspect of the platform that we wish were more stable, performant, feature-rich, etc. So my question is: if you were able to devote a 'significant' number of resources (read: high-quality developers) to a particular app or area of the kernel, and were able to set the focus for those resources (stability, performance, new features, etc.), what application or kernel area would you attempt to improve, and what would aspect you focus on improving?"
While it has been said before, I believe 3D is the path. Please, please, provide support on par with Windows for any 3D graphics hardware, whether inside a computer or a console.
That is the path to success on the desktop. Today, I cannot even run OpenGL apps or any 3D apps on the lastest and greatest 3D graphics hardware from AMD (formerly ATI), the Radeon 2900XT. Why? There are no drivers. They have focused entirely on Windows, and consider Linux a niche market not worth the effort. Because of that, my family do not have a Linux only machine, which is also why I dual boot. The Radeon 2900XT support may well come to Linux, "when it is ready".
Please, take 3D support in Linux more seriously, whether you are hardware manufacturer or a software developer.
Granted, this is important to the Linux community, but when I hear Linux development, I think kernel, modules, and organization
Then you didn't read the summary very carefully:
if you were able to devote a 'significant' number of resources (read: high-quality developers) to a particular app or area of the kernel
In other words, something that improves KDE, Gnome, X, etc. is a perfectly fine answer to this question.
Why should we strive to beat MS at some ridiculous game someone else thought of?
Either there's a simple installer (no buttons for advanced mode) and it wipes partitions without asking, or there's a complex one that asks too many questions. This is why there are multiple distros - not every one needs to be installed onto a bare metal machine by a newb without instructions.
Besides, Linux has *far* exceeded every MS windows installer. Boot Knoppix and install Debian or RedHat on a partition, while browsing the web, SSHed into your servers, watching a movie, using the included development tools.
Windows on the other hand, if you don't get it pre-installed on the machine requires you to reboot, answer a bunch of questions without help available, makes your machine unusable until finished, requires you to go find the patches, requires multiple reboots or an admin to make a slipstreamed install CD, etc...
Besides, if your parents need a machine they can drool over, buy a Mac, or at least pre-installed Ubuntu. They've turned off the fancy stuff to keep people from hurting themselves.
Hmm, this is very insightful. I hope somebody figures this out. Oh wait...Linux distros have been doing this for years. How long have you been using Gentoo or LFS? If you had touched a modern Linux distro, you'd find that this is exactly what they do and have done for a number of years.