KS2007: Hardware support and the i386/x86

KS2007: Hardware support and the i386/x86_64 merger

Posted Sep 7, 2007 0:13 UTC (Fri) by amikins (guest, #451)
In reply to: KS2007: Hardware support and the i386/x86_64 merger by ckelso
Parent article: KS2007: Hardware support and the i386/x86_64 merger

>There are two markets for consumers as far as linux is concerned. Embedded devices (DVR, routers, network storage, etc...) and low end walmart PCs. Their is simply no demand outside of that. Consumers have _zero_ influence on vendors, sorry. They just don't care what runs on their systems, they only care that what the OS that came pre-installed works. Anyone that does care about running an after market OS is what you call a hobbyist.

I suspect there's little I can do to sway your opinion based on these statements, but I think it's worth noting that there's an increasing tendency for people to notice the sorts of things they're getting put through on their attempt to keep 'current' on their technology. People who are most definitely consumers -- not hobbyists by any stretch of the imagination -- are noticing that XP isn't coming on new computers anymore; Vista has started being noticed, and some people aren't liking it. This is causing regular people to start looking more and more at other options.

I've had several individuals who historically would have been the 'well, it works, so whatever' type ask me if I know anything about this 'Linux' thing, because they don't like Vista and want to know if they can get their work done on something aside from what Microsoft is pushing. There isn't significant marketshare CURRENTLY occupied by Linux for consumers.. But there's potential of it. The end-user class of software is pretty close to ready.

But there's a risk of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If something gets written off before it has a chance to happen, then that only ensures that it won't happen.

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