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PrintThe year of the Linux desktop... *sigh*
News Type: Opinion — Thu Aug 28, 2008 8:54 AM EDT
A Linux desktop?
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The year of the Linux desktop has finally come! Really, this time. At least, that's what Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, says.
Give me a break.
Read the article. Not one of the arguments is bound to this year. No concrete dates, no concrete events.
What Zemlin's arguments have in common is that they're all transitions, and we're in the middle of them. We are seeing driver support arriving, netbooks are breaking through, the desktop is becoming less relevant, etc.
My first encounter with open source was using Firefox. It was great, it was amazing - how could something like Firefox, contributed to by many volunteers, be so much better than a browser backed my behemoth Microsoft? And what injustice that it still owned just so little market share and thus had problems displaying some websites!
Fast forward a few years, and Firefox has gained a significant amount of market share. Yet, can we point to "the year of the Firefox browser"? I can't. At some point last year, I suddenly realized that Firefox had become popular, and had been popular for a while. It had all been very gradually and hardly noticeable.
After Firefox, I moved on, further into the realms of open source. To Ubuntu, then Xubuntu. Desktop Linux. It's making some progress. Perhaps it will move out of obscurity, slowly, like Apple's OS X did. Perhaps this is already happening! And perhaps it never will. perhaps it will always stay that obscure little operating system with a negligible market share.
What is certain, however, is that it won't come in a year, so stop whining about that year of the Linux Desktop.
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{"commentId":2619008,"authorDomain":"GulliverSwift"}
With Microsoft hinting that they are planning the death of Windows, people who want to use their computers to run recording studio software etc. may have no alternative than Desktop Linux some day.
Unless of course Microsoft is just blowing some smoke to hype a new generation of features they plan in their next buggy release.
{"commentId":2619008,"threadId":"342049","contentId":"1795956","authorDomain":"GulliverSwift"}
- 1 vote
#1 - Thu Aug 28, 2008 9:52 AM EDT{"commentId":2619103,"authorDomain":"vinnl"}
{"commentId":2619326,"authorDomain":"GulliverSwift"}
I'm too lazy to look up the sources, but a recent press release discussed their new top secret codenamed project which will "replace" windows.
I get the feeling it will be something for running web based applications and applications on PDAs and maybe "cloud computing", whatever that is.
Does it mean that they will no longer produce an operating system that will run your legacy windows apps like Office 97, or Pro Tools? To me there is an ethical issue here if they are planning to obsolete substantial investments in software that consumers have already made in the faith that Microsoft would maintain compatibility with their subsequent OS releases.
They stopped producing Windows XP, so you have no choice but to buy Vista now. Vista being buggy is one thing, but suppose it had no Windows compatibility at all? Yikes!
{"commentId":2619326,"threadId":"342049","contentId":"1795956","authorDomain":"GulliverSwift"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":2624263,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
Yeah, it was Midori. I doubt it'll happen, though. At least, no time soon.
{"commentId":2624263,"threadId":"342049","contentId":"1795956","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":2624365,"authorDomain":"vinnl"}
{"commentId":2624850,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
Funny, I think of something completely different when I think of Midori :)
Haha... wonder if the creators would sue Microsoft if they used that name? It's probably just a codename, though.
If Microsoft would move all user's data in their own cloud, though, that'd give them a terrifying amount of control, not just over your computer, but also over you and your data, your life. Then again, Google currently holds a similar status.
Google holds a close status, but it doesn't have access to tax info (unless you use AdSense) or private documents (unless you're stupid enough to email them using webmail).
Anyway, my gut feeling is that Microsoft will revive the great idea of Microsoft Bob, which will then become an instant hit ;-)
LOL. I wish. I don't think the world ever got over an animated Merlin doing their finances.
{"commentId":2624850,"threadId":"342049","contentId":"1795956","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":2625674,"authorDomain":"mipadi"}
You're probably talking about either Singularity or Midori. Both are still in the research stage and aren't likely to replace Windows anytime soon.
{"commentId":2625674,"threadId":"342049","contentId":"1795956","authorDomain":"mipadi"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":2619766,"authorDomain":"joegrind"}
Is it that time again?
{"commentId":2619766,"threadId":"342049","contentId":"1795956","authorDomain":"joegrind"}
#2 - Thu Aug 28, 2008 11:03 AM EDT{"commentId":2620029,"authorDomain":"GulliverSwift"}
Yeah, I usually adopt the an OS just when MS wants to retire it.
{"commentId":2620029,"threadId":"342049","contentId":"1795956","authorDomain":"GulliverSwift"}
{"commentId":2621845,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
Definitely agree. Every year, it's "the year of Linux on the desktop". Every year, great gains are made (Dell, Netbooks, etc). But there's no one year where Linux suddenly bursts into view, sweeps over Windows and OS X, and claims the throne. It's a gradual takeover.
{"commentId":2621845,"threadId":"342049","contentId":"1795956","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
- 3 votes
#3 - Thu Aug 28, 2008 1:52 PM EDT{"commentId":2624118,"authorDomain":"amjrmd"}
Ubuntu is great, I have it on my laptop, I wish it was compatible with everything like Windows, because I would dump vista in a heartbeat on my PC
{"commentId":2624118,"threadId":"342049","contentId":"1795956","authorDomain":"amjrmd"}
- 1 vote
#4 - Thu Aug 28, 2008 4:47 PM EDT{"commentId":2624251,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
I really like that Wine is making leaps and bounds towards 100% compatibility. Heck, I don't even boot into XP anymore. I just use Ubuntu's native alternatives and Wine.
{"commentId":2624251,"threadId":"342049","contentId":"1795956","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":2624309,"authorDomain":"vinnl"}
{"commentId":2633865,"authorDomain":"joegrind"}
I last tried wine maybe 4 months ago, and had some trouble getting Photoshop etc. to work. Has it improved that much since then?
{"commentId":2633865,"threadId":"342049","contentId":"1795956","authorDomain":"joegrind"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":2634549,"authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
I heard Wine now runs CS2 flawlessly, thanks to the Google guys.
{"commentId":2634549,"threadId":"342049","contentId":"1795956","authorDomain":"onlineapps"}
- 2 votes
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