The Linux Desktop and ISVs/OEMs

olau writes "Michael Meeks, who's worked on GNOME and LibreOffice integration for many years, now for SuSE, has some really interesting thoughts on the recent Linux desktop debate and suggestions for possible strategies. He points out that regarding independent software vendors (ISVs), the real issue isn't actually the quality of the tools but the size and attractiveness of the market, and perhaps that a solution could be lower barriers for paying or donating. Regarding OEMs selling hardware with software preinstalled, he points out that while a free OS + software sounds good for consumers, it's actually a problem for OEMs on razor-thin margins, since they lose the cut they get from the preinstallations. A possible countermove could be nailing robustness and hardware diagnostics for good, lowering OEM support costs."

Comments

Each platform has it's drawbacks

[sl4shd0rk]

Face it, if you don't run windows, you'll never, never, never ever have 100% office compatibility. Never. Microsoft wins here as well as being the De-Facto gaming platform. Yeah, yeah I know, Steam is coming to Linux... and Metro is brainded.. we'll see.

Apple has it's own gated-community take on everything from music to desktop. You drink one cup of kool-aid and do everything Apple's way, or leave. You don't need Windows. You don't need office. You don't even need to think for yourself. If you have a problem pay, pay, pay. The Apple store loves you.

Linux sounds great when you first hear about it. You hear about rock solid stability, No Internet Explorer. All the people who you think know more than you are running it. So, you go to buy it, but can't find it. You find out you have to download it. You go to download it and there are 1700+ different options. You ask a question on IRC "which distro should I download" and someone replies "Here!" and you find out about goatse and spend the rest of the weekend trying to wash your eyes out.

Dekstop or ISV, the real issue here is that there isn't a perfect solution. They all have their share of problems.

Re:Fall in line

[hairyfeet]

You want an example? Would over 200 examples of broken guts, nearly all of which can be tied directly or indirectly to devs futzing with the internals be good enough? Would you like to compare it to the page from 3 years ago so you can see how much of it hasn't been fixed in three God damned years?

But of course you won't respond to this, nor the fact that the ONLY way Dell, one of the largest OEMs on the God damned planet BTW, can get Linux to fucking run even when dealing with a severely limited subselection of their offerings is to hire a team to run their own damned repo because otherwise the devs constantly shitting on internals leaves you with a device with NON WORKING DRIVERS...gee, where did I hear that? Why I believe it was me, pointing out that very same thing!

And frankly I have every right to be pissed, the community lies its fucking ass off and when caught in those lies what do we get? An apology maybe, or even some pressure brought to bare on the devs constantly breaking shit? Nope we get the standard "Works for me!" followed by a "U must be teh M$ Shill! U no suck teh koolaid!" horseshit. Quick what does MSI, Asus, Walmart, Best Buy, and me ALL have in common? Every one has offered your OS only to find its a broken mess with shit constantly breaking and now won't put your OS on shit for all the money in the world. Gee, wonder why that is? Could it be the after sales support thanks to devs crapping on the internals constantly makes it a money sucking pit? Nope, must be that invisible money truck Ballmer backs up to our door. yep, that's the ticket...dumbasses.