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Torvalds Hasn't Given Up On Linux Desktop Domination, Will 'Wear Them Down' (cio.com)
Reader itwbennett writes: Linus Torvalds told attendees at the Embedded Linux Conference that although Linux hasn't dominated the desktop like it 'has in many other areas,' he isn't particularly disappointed and also hasn't given up on that goal. "I actually am very happy with the Linux desktop, and I started the project for my own needs, and my needs are very much fulfilled," Torvalds said. "That's why, to me, it's not a failure. I would obviously love for Linux to take over that world too, but it turns out it's a really hard area to enter. I'm still working on it. It's been 25 years. I can do this for another 25. I'll wear them down."
No, YOU have accomplished nothing. Linus has accomplished much. Thanks, Linus! :)
What planet are you living on?
... but better in user friendliness?
I've used Linux a lot at home and work. I see how it has its place on a server, and my phone is Android
Have you ever tried getting 3 monitors to work in Linux? Finagling around with the X.org file? Do you like typing in the command line to mount thumb drives and eject CDs? Do you like it when your wireless card isn't recognized by the OS out of the box?
What it lacks is a team of rabid marketing people ready to cram it down the throats of unsuspecting users who do not yet know that they need it.
I think you fundamentally lack any understanding of why people buy computers, and what mechanisms drive those choices.
People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
"Make the common case easy, make the uncommon case possible."
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
iOS is a bad example, it's the OS for fixed function devices and casual use.
OS X, however, provides a fairly good picture of how a modern unix based operating system could work, that can keep power users and idiots alike happy. It starts however with good hardware utilization and a good compositor. I have sixteen terminals open right now, a browser, text editor and a bunch of other junk required for corporate survival. I can move any window anywhere on each of my cinema displays without tearing, redrawing, graphics glitches, or unexplained behavior. Each window updates continuously while I move it: my organization is decoupled from the application i am mucking with. There is good remote desktop functionality built in, I can resize the windows easily from any point on their frame and my mouse cursor reflects that ability appropriately and quickly. I cannot imagine why any neckbeard does not want this, or why they would clean to some outdated, decrepit system wherein that does not happen. Unless they are working on a server, in which case, not a desktop. I have yet to get this kind of responsiveness on Linux or even Windows for that matter, albeit for different reasons.
Then there's the higher level API stuff: drag and drop, cut and paste, widgets, styles, etc. This is where OS X falls next to Linux: you kind of have to live with their shit. This is also the realm of holy wars and religious crusades, no one is ever going to agree on the right style, and perhaps they should not have to. I don't personally like the OS X UI, Windows always felt better except where windows wastes more space with window frames and unnecessary title bars. In Linux I see neckbeards really caring here: we want to configure it the way WE want, not the way some panzy in skinny jeans and spectator shoes wants it. But, for people who aren't picky or just barely know computers: a good default needs to exist. However there needs to be some set of reasonable and common underlying protocols for things like drag and drop, a cut/paste buffer that make sense and is somewhat consistent from app to app, etc. I long ago gave up tallying the various personality and behavioral differences that various applications and DEs had, there should have been a reasonable default, with options for those that feel passionately to go change. And the defaults should look like Windows, if not that then OS X, as these represent the majority of the market, like it or not.
Unfortunately none of this is the status quo on Linux right now, and it doesn't seem like it will change soon.
Windows is a huge pain in the ass to install. Install the base system, reboot, find the motherboard driver disk, reboot, find the motherboard network driver disk, reboot, find the mouse driver disk, reboot, find the video driver disk, reboot, repeat for almost every piece of hardware in your system. Did you later change your motherboard? Repeat the whole damned process over again.
You clearly haven't installed Windows in a long time, because none of that is true.
Insert Windows 10 USB stick into the USB port, turn the computer on, boot to the USB drive, click install, go do something else for an hour, come back, Windows is done and ready.
No one should be using all those driver CDs anyway, they are almost always horribly out of date, let Windows install its own drivers, it works fine.
And frankly, it has been this way since Windows 7. What you're describing was true back on Windows XP, but it has been a long time since then.