This isn't the year of the Linux Desktop...but is it coming? | The Coffeehouse

jsampsonPC
SampsonBlog.com SampsonVideos.com

I typically laugh at the religious-styled "It's coming, it's coming! Linux will become the new champion in desktop!" remarks, but I'm starting to think about this a little more.

Android is getting some hype. It's going to be a linux-based app for Mobile Phones in 2008. That will surely be a popular thing amongst developers. The ability to develop what you want on your mobile phone, no more crap to put up with.

I'm hearing of more and more commercial uses of Linux too, such as in Airplanes for media-centers, etc.

If you ask me, Linux is horrible for a desktop if you're coming from a windows-background. I recently used Ubuntu 7.10 for a whole 2 days before deleting it from my virtual-pc.

But I'm wondering....what if it really is coming...I mean, usage is becoming more and more widespread - what if...

Chadk
excuse me - do you has a flavor?

The year of linux will never happen.
Its *WAY* more likely that the year of apple is to arrive soon. In fact, i think 2012 will be the year(Yeah i know its a joke, but i think it might just come).

(Those who dont get the 2012 reference, 2012 is predicted to be the apocalypse)

Dodo
I'm your creativity creator™ :)

Siyavash wrote:
no

What a great response. Big Smile

k2t0f12d
The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society

Dodo wrote:

Siyavash wrote:no
What a great response.

Well Microsoft was smart enough to make an operating system that took away his admin priviledges.

jsampsonPC
SampsonBlog.com SampsonVideos.com

Simply saying "no" seems to be a bit naive, doesn't it? Perhaps you can tell me WHY you think it will never be there?

Seems that if their (the OS community) efforts were more organized, they'd have a chance.

odujosh
Need Microsoft SUX now!

Linux...hire marketers and operate less as a hippie colonie.
Mac...Alternate click available by default please.

Double No.

ScanIAm
On a scale of 1 to 10, people are stupid.

creditcard wrote:
What does year of the desktop really mean? If it means some sort of Linux distro that will be dumbed down into an "idiot box", then no thank you please. Linux currently serves my desktop computing needs better then Windows, and I am not really interested in another Windows/OSX clone.

Then, for you, the year of the *nix desktop has arrived.

The reason we make fun of it is this: It seems that some *nix fan bois have decided that the holy grail of OS acceptance is when the OS is on lots and lots and lots of desktops. In fact, the goal is to have it installed on more desktops than have Windows running.

It's a wonderful goal, but a bit naive. Novell had its chance to own the network/OS, and they stuck with the most agregious piece o' crap ever; Netware. SUN felt that the world needed $10k workstations, so they never did catch on. Apple, arguably, has a healthy chunk of the desktop market, and so now: Who cares if any other *nix based OS gains a share?

Find a niche, and make *nix the most useful product for that niche. The desktop market is crowded, already, and the current players have more money than they know what to do with. You can't compete.

jamie
say what!?

they will need way better marketing than they have now for that to happen i think.

Now if youll excuse me im going to load fiesty fawn - or heady hedgehog.. or hammy hampster or whatever it is Wink

andy_hanger18

The Linux desktop thing is never gonna happen.

Lets face it, Windows has what, 95% of the desktop share? Companies have invested hundreds of millions in training and software for the Windows platform. They're not going to give this up for Linux, even though it is free.

Windows is here to stay and will be the front runner for years to come. End of story.

k2t0f12d
The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society

jsampsonPC wrote:
I typically laugh at the religious-styled "It's coming, it's coming! Linux will become the new champion in desktop!" remarks, but I'm starting to think about this a little more.

Android is getting some hype. It's going to be a linux-based app for Mobile Phones in 2008. That will surely be a popular thing amongst developers. The ability to develop what you want on your mobile phone, no more crap to put up with.

I'm hearing of more and more commercial uses of Linux too, such as in Airplanes for media-centers, etc.

If you ask me, Linux is horrible for a desktop if you're coming from a windows-background. I recently used Ubuntu 7.10 for a whole 2 days before deleting it from my virtual-pc.

But I'm wondering....what if it really is coming...I mean, usage is becoming more and more widespread - what if...

You aren't going to get any more serious answer then this, since you asked, and every other 9er is busy spouting the exact same old platitudes, with or without any real reasons behind them.

You also asked "what if?", rather then "will it?", which a little bit different, and which every other commentor has totally ignored.

If Linux took over as the predominant desktop operating system, computing interoperability would peek, any important applications would get ported or replaced, everything else would have some emulation layer attached to it like WINE, or games from the late eighties through early ninties and "dosbox", and everything else will go on exactly the same. Except the retarded infighting we enjoy here will turn into some other kind of retarded infighting, that'll be just as pointless, and allow more raving d1cks to spout more foolish opinions.

DoomBringer
Doom!

k2t0f12d wrote:
You aren't going to get any more serious answer then this, since you asked, and every other 9er is busy spouting the exact same old platitudes, with or without any real reasons behind them.

You also asked "what if?", rather then "will it?", which a little bit different, and which every other commentor has totally ignored.

If Linux took over as the predominant desktop operating system, computing interoperability would peek, any important applications would get ported or replaced, everything else would have some emulation layer attached to it like WINE, or games from the late eighties through early ninties and "dosbox", and everything else will go on exactly the same. Except the retarded infighting we enjoy here will turn into some other kind of retarded infighting, that'll be just as pointless, and allow more raving d1cks to spout more foolish opinions.

That's a pretty naive opinion there. You're making a huge leap here. Linux and interop is not necessarily true -- I've seen different distros do completely different things on fairly basic matters. Considering that Linux barely does backwards compat at all, assuming that we could emulate away everything is equally foolhardy. Porting applications isn't so trivial either -- a 15 million LOC MFC/Win32 application just isn't going to make it.

Your last sentence, though, takes the cake. Project much? Sounds like you've got kettle on speed dial there, bucko.

Soviut

no

odujosh
Need Microsoft SUX now!

k2t0f12d wrote:

jsampsonPC wrote: I typically laugh at the religious-styled "It's coming, it's coming! Linux will become the new champion in desktop!" remarks, but I'm starting to think about this a little more.

Android is getting some hype. It's going to be a linux-based app for Mobile Phones in 2008. That will surely be a popular thing amongst developers. The ability to develop what you want on your mobile phone, no more crap to put up with.

I'm hearing of more and more commercial uses of Linux too, such as in Airplanes for media-centers, etc.

If you ask me, Linux is horrible for a desktop if you're coming from a windows-background. I recently used Ubuntu 7.10 for a whole 2 days before deleting it from my virtual-pc.

But I'm wondering....what if it really is coming...I mean, usage is becoming more and more widespread - what if...

You aren't going to get any more serious answer then this, since you asked, and every other 9er is busy spouting the exact same old platitudes, with or without any real reasons behind them.

You also asked "what if?", rather then "will it?", which a little bit different, and which every other commentor has totally ignored.

If Linux took over as the predominant desktop operating system, computing interoperability would peek, any important applications would get ported or replaced, everything else would have some emulation layer attached to it like WINE, or games from the late eighties through early ninties and "dosbox", and everything else will go on exactly the same. Except the retarded infighting we enjoy here will turn into some other kind of retarded infighting, that'll be just as pointless, and allow more raving d1cks to spout more foolish opinions.

Thats like starting your point with if Pewee Herman ran for president and won then_____. Its impossible so just no Smiley

Welcome back to reality go to a Linux board.

jsampsonPC
SampsonBlog.com SampsonVideos.com

It seems as though some of you are just sticking your heads in the sand and trying to avoid the fact that Linux is being used more today than ever before. In cellphones, computers, automobiles, entertainment centers, and more.

Sure, it hasn't taken over the desktop world, but it will more-than-likely take over the mobile-phone world within the next 3 years. It may even take a large percentage of the media-center world in the next few years.

I believe it to have little chance to beat out Apple or Microsoft for the desktop market, but it's atleast getting some in-time with technology today.

Keeping in mind that I'm NOT a linux user, and can't even stand the friggin' OS. But that doesn't change the fact that I see it being talked about more and more, and considered for more and more projects and technologies due to its cost and customizability.

andokai

jsampsonPC wrote:
It seems as though some of you are just sticking your heads in the sand and trying to avoid the fact that Linux is being used more today than ever before. In cellphones, computers, automobiles, entertainment centers, and more.

I assume you have more than anecdotal evidence?

jsampsonPC wrote:
Sure, it hasn't taken over the desktop world, but it will more-than-likely take over the mobile-phone world within the next 3 years.

Why because Google formed a committee?

jsampsonPC wrote:
It may even take a large percentage of the media-center world in the next few years.

I imagine that its Media Centre market share is even smaller than its workstation share. However I've no evidence to back that up.

I believe it to have little chance to beat out Apple or Microsoft for the desktop market, but it's atleast getting some in-time with technology today.

jsampsonPC wrote:
...I see it being talked about more and more, and considered for more and more projects and technologies due to its cost and customizability.

Talked about by who? I've actually seen the opposite but I wouldn't class my experiences as market trends.

At the end of the day if it happens, everyone will just have to learn to code in GTK or QT instead of WinForms and MFC. We've gone through pardigm shifts on the same platform so it's nothing new.

In any case the OS you use is becoming less and less relevant as everything switches to the web.

TimP

andokai wrote:

jsampsonPC wrote: It may even take a large percentage of the media-center world in the next few years.

I imagine that its Media Centre market share is even smaller than its workstation share. However I've no evidence to back that up.

Every TiVO box is a Linux box.

TimP

Xaero_Vincent wrote:

People who have problems with Linux are the ones who tend not to check their hardware against known HCLs and google before installing the distro. Doing this will save so much frustration later. If one learns their hardware is not supported, they can request drivers and wait until it is.

Let me add one to that list: Windows "power users" who expect Linux to be a free clone of Windows and try to apply a Windows mindset to using it. This is especially visible when it comes to dealing with software installation and maintenance.

Xaero_Vincent
Sexy me

jsampsonPC wrote:
It seems as though some of you are just sticking your heads in the sand and trying to avoid the fact that Linux is being used more today than ever before. In cellphones, computers, automobiles, entertainment centers, and more.

Sure, it hasn't taken over the desktop world, but it will more-than-likely take over the mobile-phone world within the next 3 years. It may even take a large percentage of the media-center world in the next few years.

I believe it to have little chance to beat out Apple or Microsoft for the desktop market, but it's atleast getting some in-time with technology today.

Keeping in mind that I'm NOT a linux user, and can't even stand the friggin' OS. But that doesn't change the fact that I see it being talked about more and more, and considered for more and more projects and technologies due to its cost and customizability.

Frankly, I'm not getting that impression.

Each month I see Apache losing marketshare against IIS and read about how Linux marketshare is getting even smaller than it is now. Linux desktop marketshare is at around 0.80%, even though it's nearly as old as the first usuable Windows (3.x).

That said, does it really matter? When you look at Linux today, it's a perfectly capable desktop for those with fully supported hardware and can live with open source alternatives and/or Wine/VMs; linux's hardware support on x86 is only beaten by Windows.

For an OS with such pitiful marketshare the experience is much better than expected. The same thing can be said about desktop-oriented FreeBSD distros as well, which have even less marketshare.

People who have problems with Linux are the ones who tend not to check their hardware against known HCLs and google before installing the distro. Doing this will save so much frustration later. If one learns their hardware is not supported, they can request drivers and wait until it is.

ScanIAm
On a scale of 1 to 10, people are stupid.

jsampsonPC wrote:
It seems as though some of you are just sticking your heads in the sand and trying to avoid the fact that Linux is being used more today than ever before. In cellphones, computers, automobiles, entertainment centers, and more.

Sure, it hasn't taken over the desktop world, but it will more-than-likely take over the mobile-phone world within the next 3 years. It may even take a large percentage of the media-center world in the next few years.

I'm not sure where you get that idea. As someone pointed out, TiVo is a linux app and so are those generic TiVo boxes that cable companies give out. Vista does Media center tasks out of the box, and given MSFT's market savvy (sometimes referred to as monopolistic practices), I find it much more likely that MSFT will get into the 'compete with TiVo' market. For now, though, *nix is the winner.

(US) Cellphones that might require a real OS, though, aren't even close to having a majority running *nix. The market there is all over the place. Blackberry, Palm (==*nix???), Windows Mobile, and whatever is running on the cheaper phones.

AndyC

TimP wrote:

Every TiVO box is a Linux box.

Unless Richard Stallman gets his way.

ScanIAm
On a scale of 1 to 10, people are stupid.

creditcard wrote:
Yes Channel9 is like Apple & Linux Webforums. Digg too. Digg has maybe one Windows-related news story a week, usually something a long the lines of "LOL VISTA IS SUCKS". Of course the Linux and Apple sections of the site are most active of all. Slashdot has a lot of anti-Microsoft stuff and pro-Linux stuff obviousally. Even traditionally heavy Windows sites like Ars are pumping out Linux article after Linux article.

I'll tell you why, Linux has a lot more to write about. Go on freshmeat
and you see like twenty new OSS releases a day. Yeah properitary software too if you add it all together releases a lot but it's hard to get your readers to participate (i.e. download) something that is encumbered by properitary licence making it a less interesting article.
Ubuntu releases come out every six months, Windows comes out on some unknown schedule but usually involves years. We know almost nothing of new Windows and new IE and it's been almost a year. What is there to write about? What is there to talk about? Even when Microsoft does something geniunely cool it gets like 2 replies and forgotton because there is no easy way to comment about something we can't use. The transparency is awesome in OSS.. something I don't think you can do any other way.

But that is not all, if you dig far enough you can find things that rival the narrow concept of what a computer can do.That is the great thing about Linux and it is the stuff that idiots hate, you give someone a UI without a taskbar or some kind of start menu thing and they instant think it's stupid, it not, THEY are the stupid ones.

I will never use a Linux distro that builds an idiot box around my PC to cater to stupid people who can't live without their stupid Windows/OSX usability mess. If Linux gets too mainstream it will be turned to (I need to watch my language) like everything else mainstream usually does. When you are catering to the mainstream you cater to the least common denomitor which is basically something between a piece of cheese and a retarded monkey.

I congratulate you on your desire to only appeal to the 'smart people' of the world. It is only the people who 'get it' that really deserve a computer.

In fact, I can't wait until we're able to accurately gauge the potential of a child to learn *nix. Once we test them, the stupid kids can be socialized to become doctors, lawyers, politicians, and a whole host of other, demeaning occupations. The 'geniuses' who know and love *nix can spend their lives leisurely looking down on the rest of the defective population.

Seriously, genius, the retarded monkeys of the world request that you read the parable "The Fox and the Grapes".

k2t0f12d
The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society

creditcard wrote:
I will never use a Linux distro that builds an idiot box around my PC to cater to stupid people who can't live without their stupid Windows/OSX usability mess. If Linux gets too mainstream it will be turned to (I need to watch my language) like everything else mainstream usually does. When you are catering to the mainstream you cater to the least common denomitor which is basically something between a piece of cheese and a retarded monkey.

Quite frankly, I don't see how you can't have your cake and eat it, too. I really think they are [at least trying] doing exactly what you are railing against with Ubuntu. Who cares? The thing about free software that's great is that you can easily have it both ways. I use straight Debian over Ubuntu precisely for the reason you describe (that and Ubuntu seems to come down with a case of the gremlins from time to time), but that doesn't mean that their goals are bad, or they should be stopped from distributing, or their involvement is not also, in fact, pushing forward innovation that would not necessarily have been taken had it not been in development.

Dharma Punk

This line of thinking:

creditcard wrote:
When you are catering to the mainstream you cater to the least common denomitor which is basically something between a piece of cheese and a retarded monkey.

...plus this line of thinking....

wrote:
If Linux took over as the predominant desktop operating system, computing interoperability would peek, any important applications would get ported or replaced, everything else would have some emulation layer attached to it like WINE, or games from the late eighties through early ninties and "dosbox", and everything else will go on exactly the same.

...equals no for me. I've seen the first bit of reasoning before. We, in the heavy metal underground, used to complain on one hand about how MTV ignores all of our favorite bands and on the other proclaiming there's no way the masses would 'get it.'

Well, it turns out the masses not only get it, but needed to get it so that MTV would start running heavy metal videos and bring back Headbanger's Ball. As a result, more and more people are buying those CD's, going to the shows and paying for the band's merchandise. A Good Thing(TM).

The second bit of reasoning leads to a catch 22: in order for Linux to take over as the predominant operating system, important applications would have to be ported first.

I think Linux's place is on the server, in some specialty devices (like TiVos) and as a basis for an industry to build their own systems upon (like LucasArts did). But if all the computing one ever does is cranking out spreadsheets and typing up TPS reports, is there really a need to switch to a different OS when Windows works just fine?

P.S. If you're going to slag on people for being idiots, you might want to run your screed through a spell checker first. I know, it's not sporting to point out grammatical errors in an argument. But that attention to detail goes a long way. HTH.

k2t0f12d
The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society

Siyavash wrote:
Don't spread FUD please. It was my own ignorance. I wasn't educated enough in the matter so I THOUGHT that I lost admin rights. I'm just new to Vista.

I really don't think anyone would think that I, in seriousness, meant there was something defective with Vista because you deleted your admin account.

k2t0f12d
The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society

Dharma Punk wrote:

k2t0f12d wrote:If Linux took over as the predominant desktop operating system, computing interoperability would peek, any important applications would get ported or replaced, everything else would have some emulation layer attached to it like WINE, or games from the late eighties through early nineties and "dosbox", and everything else will go on exactly the same.
...in order for Linux to take over as the predominant operating system, important applications would have to be ported first.

Yes, I agree, or said operating system must become binary compatible with them natively. The "what if" which I put out there is that if it were to have that level of importance in computing the subsequent events would follow, not that it is likely to happen in that order, which the usual critics also totally ignored in difference to flinging platitudes like water balloons.