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Ask Slashdot: How Would You Fix the Linux Desktop?

Posted by Soulskill on from the solid-color-rectangles dept.

itwbennett writes "Slashdot readers are familiar with the Torvalds/de Icaza slugfest over 'the lack of development in Linux desktop initiatives.' The problem with the Linux desktop boils down to this: We need more applications, and that means making it easier for developers to build them, says Brian Proffitt. 'It's easy to point at solutions like the Linux Standard Base, but that dog won't hunt, possibly because it's not in the commercial vendors' interests to create true cross-distro compatibility. United Linux or a similar consortium probably won't work, for the same reasons,' says Proffitt. So, we put it to the Slashdot community: How would you fix the Linux desktop?"

4 of 1,154 comments (clear)

  1. Add Support for Visual Studio by Price+of+Goodnes · · Score: 0, Troll

    Seriously, you need to work to either 1) get Visual Studio working and fully supported in Linux or 2) develop as good IDE as Visual Studio. For that matter the whole Linux API needs work. It's simple and elegant under Windows and Mac OS X, but not under Linux.

    Btw, if you need a great programming IDE, then download Visual Studio 2012. It's just released now and it's free! MAKE SOMETHING SIMILAR!

    1. Re:Add Support for Visual Studio by unkwntech · · Score: 0, Troll

      Look, you may not like Microsoft or Visual Studio but what they've built with the .Net Framework and VisualStudio is a pleasure to work in. I spend most of my day (all 7 of them in the week) writing software in both C# and PHP. I started writing code in PHP on my RedHat 7.3 (Valhalla) system in kedit (?), and later in Eclipse. I worked that way for a while and after distro-hopping for about 4 years I settled on just working in Windows with the old Zend Studio (before it was Eclipse based). After Zend went to hell, I went back to using a Linux (Debian, IIRC) desktop again this was good and well, until I needed to write a windows service. Thats when I discovered C#, Visual Studio and the .Net. Prior to this I was a die-hard anti-Microsoft guy, if it was from "big evil" then it had to be bad. I immediatly fell in love with Visual Studio and C#, it took me a bit longer to come to like the .Net. Visual Studio doesn't get in my way when I'm writing code, it doesn't slow my system down and it gives me the features I want in a fairly clean interface.

      As a developer I see Operating Systems, IDEs, Toolkits and Frameworks for what they are TOOL! No more no less. I would rather developer in OS X or in Linux (and I'll never run a server that isn't Debian), but the tools there outright suck by comparison. I don't want to have to convince my IDE to give me code completion, I don't want to be bogged down because Eclipse is starting. I just want to get the code written so I can be paid.

      If you still think I'm just a shill, see my profile. You'll find a link to my website which includes more Linux based stuff than Windows.

  2. For the average user? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Remove the terminal and bash from the distros and make it hard to install them. :)
    Would force the developers to make stuff more GUI-friendly which the average user wants to use.

  3. Re:It's not broken. by greg1104 · · Score: 1, Troll

    We're there right now. This is the time.

    Let me get this right: this is the Year of the Linux Desktop? Finally, it's said for the first time, and the wait is over. Victory is assured