IMHO Linux is ready for most desktops. In the coporate world people can be payed to come in a set-up the system and provide surport. This will happen no matter what OS is used. In the home Linux as we know it may be too off putting for many people, but there is an increased tendency towards application specific devices eg TV e-mail and web browsers. I can see these being extended in the future to include, say, web-browser, e-mail, office suite, on-line game support etc. For these types of system Linux is ideal. And all the features that put people of Linux are hidden. Hell they even have reverse enginering appeal to hackers. So everyones happy.
I'm currently taking an operating systems course in my 2nd year at university. The course uses MINIX as its example operating system. This includes using examples of how MINIX implements, say handling concurrent processes, in the leactures and also using MINIX as a base for the practical work in the course, although we don't actually fiddle with the MINIX code itself. I think that whatever OS you use in an OS course it is important to remeber that just studying that OS will not give a rounded a view of how OS's work. Rather the implementation of the OS studyed should be used as a getting off point to also look at the many alternative ways in which OS features can be implemented.
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IMHO Linux is ready for most desktops. In the coporate world people can be payed to come in a set-up the system and provide surport. This will happen no matter what OS is used. In the home Linux as we know it may be too off putting for many people, but there is an increased tendency towards application specific devices eg TV e-mail and web browsers. I can see these being extended in the future to include, say, web-browser, e-mail, office suite, on-line game support etc. For these types of system Linux is ideal. And all the features that put people of Linux are hidden. Hell they even have reverse enginering appeal to hackers. So everyones happy.
I'm currently taking an operating systems course in my 2nd year at university. The course uses MINIX as its example operating system. This includes using examples of how MINIX implements, say handling concurrent processes, in the leactures and also using MINIX as a base for the practical work in the course, although we don't actually fiddle with the MINIX code itself. I think that whatever OS you use in an OS course it is important to remeber that just studying that OS will not give a rounded a view of how OS's work. Rather the implementation of the OS studyed should be used as a getting off point to also look at the many alternative ways in which OS features can be implemented.