Linux will go mainstream when it decides to gear itself to the average user. Right now I look at Linux and to install and set up the thing takes hours. When I first started, I was looking around forever to figure out what needed to be done. I shouldn't have to see the command line to compile and install a program.
This is what linux needs before I will use it more than a toy:
Easy install for everything(the system and apps). That means that I don't want to see the command line.
Configuration point and click. I don't want to look around for config files to get things how I want. Not at anypoint. I don't even want to know what a Window Manager is.
I expect certain things with a base install. I want to double click an application and type something and print it from the get go.
Developed for the average user. If you ask me the whole things makes sense for the developer and the developers like it. It needs to be developed for the stupid average user.
When my mom can install Linux without me there is the day that Linux can give any operating system a run for their money. Is it there. Not at all. Does Linux have great potential? Definitely.
The whole thing need to be evaluated from the vantige point of "could my mom do this?" Until the bread and butter appilcations can all answer yes to this then I don't think Linux will be any serious threat to any operating system.
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This is what linux needs before I will use it more than a toy:
Easy install for everything(the system and apps). That means that I don't want to see the command line.
Configuration point and click. I don't want to look around for config files to get things how I want. Not at anypoint. I don't even want to know what a Window Manager is.
I expect certain things with a base install. I want to double click an application and type something and print it from the get go.
Developed for the average user. If you ask me the whole things makes sense for the developer and the developers like it. It needs to be developed for the stupid average user.
When my mom can install Linux without me there is the day that Linux can give any operating system a run for their money. Is it there. Not at all. Does Linux have great potential? Definitely.
The whole thing need to be evaluated from the vantige point of "could my mom do this?" Until the bread and butter appilcations can all answer yes to this then I don't think Linux will be any serious threat to any operating system.