Torvalds On Desktop Linux's Slow Uptake

javipas notes a Wired piece summarizing a two-part interview with Linus Torvalds that's up at linux-foundation.org (part 1, part 2). In the second part the creator of the Linux kernel gives his view on the limited success of Linux on the desktop. "I have never, ever cared about really anything but the Linux desktop... The desktop is also the thing where people get really upset if something changes, so it's really hard to enter the desktop market because people are used to whatever they used before, mostly Windows... better is worse if it's different."

Comments

Wayback machine....

[El Lobo]

Go to the wayback machine. The VERY first cached slashdot page (from 1998) there has this interesting article conviniently titled Linux Affecting MS Sales? " ( http://web.archive.org/web/19980113193017/slashdot.org/slashdot.cgi?mode=article&artnum=419 [archive.org] ): From the article: "Could 98 really be the year Linux breaks into the main stream corporate world in a big way?". Really, it's not funny anymore.

Re:I disagrrree

[YaroMan86]

I agree. Linux on the desktop over the past 2 years has taken spectacular leaps forward, and the next couple of years are going to be just as bold as Linux starts maturing.

Very true. Though "Linux maturing" can and has been relative. It may not have been ready for desktop, but it has been right on the money for such things as server side applications. And, as far as I have seen, I've seen Linux as the most commonly embedded system over anything else that tried to do the same things. The open source model is what brought it that far, one can easily customize it completely for their needs, which is why for some more "hardcore" Linux users, things like Linux from scratch are a wonderful thing. Its also the only operating system family I can think off that you can install on a thumb drive if you wanted to. However, I must agree, it is 'not yet there' though it has been shown to be easily used by non-technical users in the case of such Linux distros as Ubuntu or Mint.

* The rise of FireFox and, to a lesser extent, Safari means that the web doesn't require, nor mean, Internet Explorer.

An interesting point. Though, to be nitpicky: Use of the web never required Internet Explorer. However, for most users, and I'm talking Average Joe Shmuck here, it did "mean" Internet Explorer. This was more about Microsoft's highly unethical and illegal practice of dominating markets. Proof of this was when FireFox started seeing higher adoption, we finally got Internet Explorer 7 after a long, long time. I still agree, though that we're finally seeing some other browsers out there getting decent market share after the Netscape fiasco.

* The rise of Ubuntu as a 'standard' has helped solve the confusion of multiple competing desktops to new users and driven increased users. It's also improved support - UbuntuForums is a fantastic resource - and increasingly made GNOME as the "de facto" desktop environment.

Ubuntu is, in my opinion, the most important step toward Linux becoming an operating system Average Joe Shmuck would actually use or even care about. I remember a day where Linux was considered nothing but a "geeky hobbyists tool." Usually by those who never realized that Linux had been rather widesperead in many other markets aside from the desktop. Ubuntu has been helping Linux out a great deal with adoption, especially within the past couple years. I theorize it has been with the veritable flop that is Vista.

* Improved driver support, which is going to keep improving. It's still far from perfect, sadly, but it is most definitely getting there - when Intel and ATI are both releasing open source specifications to get proper open source drivers written, it's a good sign.

I've had firsthand experience with this. After getting fed up with Vista, which was, sadly, pre-installed on my beloved PC, I installed Ubuntu on my machine. Everything worked, no configuration whatsoever. Downgrading my Windows down to XP was a fiasco, however, with almost all of my hardware not working or in "standard mode." (By standard mode I mean the very default settings Windows foists on my hardware so that it will work, but at a bare minimum.) Took me the better part of two days to research my hardware to get XP working. Finally, only about a week ago, I reformatted my entire HDD and made Ubuntu my *only* solution and in the extremely rare instance I need Windows for anything, launch it in a virtual machine. Drivers, on my computer, were just available and worked readily on Ubuntu. Am I saying it will always work. No, I have a good friend who couldn't get a certain tablet to work correctly, another with limited webcam support, and of course, there's always the dreaded wifi network driver/widescreen display driver availability that Linux had lacked. From what I read in the 2.6.24 changelog, this had been addressed and improved on, but, not using the 2.6.24 kernel, I really can't say.

* Eye-can