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OT: will linux succeed on the desktop?


Daddy Dee

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This guy makes a case for it: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202600158

One other thing that got my attention this week is Walmart selling a Linux based desktop for $199.


Linux has its place. I use it for various server funtions and sometimes I use it as a desktop but I prefer osx. I actually setup suse linux 10.3 for my brother and friend who aren't tech savy and they have managed very well. If you like to tinker and can RTFM linux is a very very powerful and versatile tool.

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Every Linux generation is bringing us closer to this. KDE, gnome GUIs are very easy too navigate and not a gazillion services running to suck all your CPU cycles.

It has always been games and device drivers that have killed Linux. Both are non issues now. Almost all new games have a Linux version. 99% of the time, Drivers are a null issue too in modern Linux.

Microsoft is helping with this exodus too. With Vista quickly turning into the biggest flop OS they have ever released. It looking to be a bigger flop than ME was.

JM

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Every Linux generation is bringing us closer to this. KDE, gnome GUIs are very easy too navigate and not a gazillion services running to suck all your CPU cycles.

It has always been games and device drivers that have killed Linux. Both are non issues now. Almost all new games have a Linux version. 99% of the time, Drivers are a null issue too in modern Linux.

Microsoft is helping with this exodus too. With Vista quickly turning into the biggest flop OS they have ever released. It looking to be a bigger flop than ME was.

 

JM 

 


WIN ME LOL...MS Vista is pathetic especially since you can tell how much they tried to emulate OSX but failed. Linux is becoming more and more usable and is very stable. When I use linux I  switch back and forth between KDE and Gnome but I give a slight nod to Gnome. Today I downloaded a live linux CD with the Sun LookingGlass GUI loaded and it was very very cool. It will take some time to mature but is promising.

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It's been succeeding for me for about 8 - 10 years now.

Of course, I still do most of my real work on my old Unix based NeXT.

The old NeXT version of WordPerfect does everything I need it to do - without mimicing the overly complex & completely unintuitive M$ Word style (which I hate). Lotus Improv for spreadsheets & keeping track of accounts & Pencil Me In for calendaring - what more do I need? Oh yeah, internet access - that's where Linux takes over.

I ran Sun's JDS2 Linux for a couple of years. But after numerous broken promises & repeated delays, Sun pulled the plug on their Linux faithful and only released the long overdue "3" update of JDS on Solaris - even though Sun insiders said the Linux version was ready and waiting. Sun demonstrated their lack of commitment to Linux. I doubt that Looking Glass will ever be released on Linux.

James

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It's been succeeding for me for about 8 - 10 years now. 

Of course, I still do most of my real work on my old Unix based NeXT. 

The old WordPerfect program does everything I need it to do - without mimicing the overly complex & completely unintuitive M$ Word style (which I hate).  Lotus Improv for spreadsheets & keeping track of accounts & Pencil Me In for calendaring - what more do I need?  Oh yeah, internet access - that's where Linux takes over.

I ran Sun's JDS2 Linux for several years.  But after numerous broken promises & repeated delays, Sun bailed on their Linux faithful and never released the "3" update.  Sun has demonstrated a lack of commitment to Linux.  I doubt that Looking Glass will ever be released on Linux.   

James 


Wow NeXT you get super uber geek points for that one. When I worked at a local medical university they had 6 NeXT boxes still running some sort of gene programs. Other than that I have had little exposure to NeXT. I did have the first incarnation of NeXT from Apple called Rhapsody which was a dev release at the time. I pretty much tracked osx since then and have been using it as a desktop since osx dp1

Sun is an enourmous disappointment. I have had several Sun Workstations great hardware but I found Solaris took some time to get acustomed to. LookingGlass has promise but I am skeptical that it will evolve if not OpenSourced. The live boot linux looking glass cd was interesting.

My next Linux project will be a home surveilence security system using ZoneMonder/Motion which is a free linux software and nightvision cameras. The software is free I just have to buy hardware and RTFM. The software looks great and FREE.
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I ran Sun's JDS2 Linux for several years. But after numerous broken promises & repeated delays, Sun bailed on their Linux faithful and never released the "3" update. Sun has demonstrated a lack of commitment to Linux. I doubt that Looking Glass will ever be released on Linux.

James

Sun is supporting Looking Glass on Linux. Since it is a Java app, there is no reason it wouldn't work if the drivers are there. Sun has really turned itself around in the last year or so, and it can only help. Much of their software is now free, and their hardware is more reasonable than in the past. Support is superb in most instances.

Bruce

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I was first asked this question for a product called Xenix sometime around 1987.

I didn't think so then and I dont think so now.

Its a question that seems to come up every couple of years.

There is a big difference between Xenix back in 1987 and modern Linux in 2007. Xenix was a closed platform (it was actual Microsoft's attempt at the Unix market), plus you needed a then very expensive 386 based machine with at the time, a pretty decent amount of memory.

As opposed to Linux being completely opened and constantly being improved upon.

It seems today, it already is succeeding on the desktop. Will it overtake say Microsoft, or even Apple anytime soon? I highly doubt it, unless Microsoft continues to shoot itself in the foot with draconian measures in an effort to "combat piracy" with it's ridiculous product activations and so called "Genuine (dis)Advantage" schemes. People may just get pissed off at Microsoft enough they will decide at least give Linux as well as Max OS X a try. At least in the case of Linux, they won't need to buy a whole new computer to try it, but if they do want to buy a computer, they may just decide to get a Mac instead (and believe me, I am definitely leaning that way myself).

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Mac OS X is a further development of NeXTStep/OPENSTEP which Apple acquired in 1996 when they paid $400m for NeXT and Steve Jobs returned to Apple as "interim" CEO.

I'm running OPENSTEP 4.2 on a NeXT Turbo Cube & have just picked up two NeXT Turbo Color Stations which should be delivered Tuesday. Oh boy, new (old) toys! [;)]

James

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I was first asked this question for a product called Xenix sometime around 1987.

I didn't think so then and I dont think so now.

Its a question that seems to come up every couple of years.

There is a big difference between Xenix back in 1987 and modern Linux in 2007. Xenix was a closed platform (it was actual Microsoft's attempt at the Unix market), plus you needed a then very expensive 386 based machine with at the time, a pretty decent amount of memory.

As opposed to Linux being completely opened and constantly being improved upon.

It seems today, it already is succeeding on the desktop. Will it overtake say Microsoft, or even Apple anytime soon? I highly doubt it, unless Microsoft continues to shoot itself in the foot with draconian measures in an effort to "combat piracy" with it's ridiculous product activations and so called "Genuine (dis)Advantage" schemes. People may just get pissed off at Microsoft enough they will decide at least give Linux as well as Max OS X a try. At least in the case of Linux, they won't need to buy a whole new computer to try it, but if they do want to buy a computer, they may just decide to get a Mac instead (and believe me, I am definitely leaning that way myself).

I am not really comparing the products here - just obseerving that "this is the year of ??ix" has been said for as long as I have been in the marketplace. Product quality really has little to do with this. Microsoft controls the desktop - has done for a long time and wont give up its position easily. As soon as I, the purchaser, have to go that extra bit of effort to get an alternative that alternative has a problem.

Case in point. On Saturday I was shopping for my wife's company. She needs a new desktop and 2 new portables for her business. Walked in to the local PC supermarket and was dealt with very efficiently. All 3 machines come as standard with your choice of XP or whatever the new MS operating system is called. That was the only choice I was given. It was followed by a pick and mix session choosing peripherals (screens, keyboards etc.) and then I was out.

No-one mentioned alternative suppliers of operating systems - shareware, freeware or otherwise. In fact buying the PC's sans operating system was somewhat problematic as the computerized matching system wasn't setup to cope with it.

As the salesman explained there are so many people who try to use illegal copies of Microsoft software that they have to make it difficult to buy without the thing ready loaded.

Unless or until your "ix" based software is an easy default choice I do not see any other operating system taking more than about 10% of the market.

Could be wrong of course. But I have been watching for 20 years and it aint changed yet.

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It is the same old story. IMO Linux has made it as it is still around and very usable as a desktop for those seeking out an alternative. It keeps getting better little by little. Balmer kept claiming MS will burry Linux but this hasn't happened probably because MS can't buy it or sue it out of existence. As a server Linux is very powerful and flexible. OS X keeps getting better as well which is NeXT/BSD unix based. Do you see a trend here? What OS hasn't gotten better? What OS is MS poorly trying to emulate? Gadets or widgets LMAO. MS is driving home users to OS X and Linux as sales are showing poor sales of vista. Sure MS is still the "desktop" for business but for how long? How many OS's like Vista and ME can they dump on the consumers and expect them to come back? It is apparent that users are already smart enough not to trust the latest and greatest windows release. My favorite Windows versions are Win 98SE and Windows 2000
which I still run on an older machine. The waters have never been better for *nix based operating systems.

On the other hand if it weren't for windows I wouldn't have a job....Ahh what a symbiotic bear hug this is :(

BTW what OS do all these super computers and clusters use? *nix based operating systems.

** Writting this from Mozilla on a Linux OS with the Gnome desktop : )

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I think the OS is losing importance compared to web platforms like Google, or Yahoo. Back in the day when PCs were mostly used running desktop apps like 123, and Word, the OS and application integration was somewhat important. That is on the wane and Internet computing is on the rise - and only the browser and the security features of the OS are important. I'm guessing that more than 50% of all computer time is through the browser? It seems to me that Microsoft ought to worry more about Google than Linux. Microsoft Office Suite is what - $400? Google Docs are free.

I hope you are correct. The google web services are really cool and I use them as well. My girlfriend and I are planning two room remodels so we share planning documents via google. It is really cool. It seems we are moving back toward the terminal/thin clients in alot of ways. This would make my job alot easier and efficient. I like FREE : )

When I have a bad pc day I get abit ambivalent as I support 150 of the little ms bastards but at least they are xp.

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Another sign of this are appliances like Apple TV, which allow me to even do YouTube with no keyboard. The current Firefox browser is another platform which again has more real user significance than the underlying OS. i.e. the PC is becoming a better TV.


"Resistance is useless"  - Douglas Adams HHGTG
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