Is 2008 the Year of the Linux Desktop? (Linux Magazine)

Posted Nov 16, 2007 17:21 UTC (Fri) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link]

So, while this deal alone won't get large numbers of people running Linux on the desktop, it helps remove a major barrier to a really good Linux desktop experience: getting to the point where you can buy it, turn it on, and it just works.

Posted Nov 16, 2007 17:53 UTC (Fri) by jdub (subscriber, #27) [Link]

Oh, COME ON. Don't say that! LWN shouldn't even link to stories that mention those words!
DOOMED again. DOOMED. Thank you SO VERY MUCH, on behalf of the entire FLOSS desktop community
and industry, Mr. Joe "screwed us for another year" Brockmeier!










(yes, this is a joke. mostly.)

Posted Nov 16, 2007 17:57 UTC (Fri) by jengelh (subscriber, #33263) [Link]

"2006 is the year of the linux dekstop"
"2007 is the year of the linux dekstop"
"2008 is the year of the linux dekstop"
Meh.

Posted Nov 16, 2007 18:25 UTC (Fri) by beoba (guest, #16942) [Link]

"Our advertisers sure hope so!"

Posted Nov 16, 2007 19:05 UTC (Fri) by jordanb (guest, #45668) [Link]

So you think the Cubs are goin' all the way this year? I think they have a pretty good shot.

:>

Posted Nov 16, 2007 19:11 UTC (Fri) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link]

Posted Nov 16, 2007 22:29 UTC (Fri) by socket (guest, #43) [Link]

Or, someone should make an RSS/Atom aggregator that adds metadata, for sorting source articles by a scoring system based on trainable text classification. I suggest starting with CRM114 as the classifier.

Traditional newswriting is done in "inverted pyramid" style, putting the most important information first, and details later, so that if you're short on time, there's (presumably) less harm done by stopping reading at any given point, that the stuff you've already read is more important than the stuff you haven't yet. We might as well sort our "news" articles, blog postings, comments, and email accordingly. "By date" just doesn't cut it if you read things from a wide variety of sources every day with limited time. And who doesn't?

Text classifiers aren't just for spam filtering. They can identify topics, authors, or any distinction that's repeatably consistent.

I'd do it myself, but I'm trying to not start any new projects, on account of my wrists.

Someone? Please?

Posted Nov 17, 2007 19:14 UTC (Sat) by jospoortvliet (subscriber, #33164) [Link]

Same thing again and again. Maybe the author of 
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?art... 
is right ;-)

Posted Nov 18, 2007 20:26 UTC (Sun) by sbishop (guest, #33061) [Link]

My wife runs XP, and I figure that it will stay this way until Microsoft drops support for XP
or her computer breaks, whichever comes first.  Then we'll decide whether to spend the money
required to run Vista versus Linux, and I think I know what the answer will be.

I figure that there will be businesses, schools, and other homes faced with the same question,
who will come to the same conclusion.  Hardware support is coming together.  How many other
people, like my wife, already run OOo, Firefox, and Thunderbird?  This is all starting to look
like a reasonable proposition to me, at least.

Posted Nov 19, 2007 15:54 UTC (Mon) by heksys (guest, #41569) [Link]

In my opinion I think 2008 it's going to be a BIG, B I G year for the Linux desktop on the
masses. This story on "Linux Magazine" is one of the few a have heard and read in the magazine
world, to go even further I found a similar story on a magazine that is more Windows User
Magazine:
http://www.computerpoweruser.com/editorial/article.asp?ar...
There is some interesting points that the columnist points out that make a lot sense and it's
whats helping the Linux desktop reach the masses, for example: Linux is stable, well
understood, well supported and widely deployed complete with applications, development
environments, and (over)full suites of system and network management tools. Story's like this
are more often found in magazines that the only thing you read is crap about windows. To me is
always the year of the Linux system because every year we work harder and harder, and every
year there is more and more people switching over to Linux.
 

Posted Nov 21, 2007 19:46 UTC (Wed) by hazelsct (guest, #3659) [Link]

Let's not dismiss this too quickly.

Yes, Dell, HP, etc. make it hard to get a Linux desktop.  But the EEE and gPC mentioned in
this article are different.  When major retail giants like WalMart sell out a Linux PC within
days (just checked their website, all WalMarts within 100 miles of Boston are sold out), this
is a big phenomenon.

The world is learning that you don't need multi-GHz beasts to do basic desktop tasks.  And
they're learning it on Linux.  We are well past the price point where the Microsoft tax
becomes a major burden.  This could really take off next year.

Then there's the mobile market.  Linux already runs all over Motorola phones, and thanks to
the new 800-pound google^H^H^H^Hrilla in the ring, it's soon going to run everywhere but
Apple/AT&T, with a common development environment.

I am very much looking forward to an exciting year for Linux end-user mass market penetration.

Posted Nov 30, 2007 14:37 UTC (Fri) by forthy (guest, #1525) [Link]

Remember when the last big transition was, when Microsoft became the power that it is now? PCs didn't replace the computers of that time, they added a new segment of much cheaper computers. Microsoft and Intel won that part, but the trend started before. Replacing "the Desktop", a very particular way of using computers, might happen, but it's not important. I think the mobile phones, the eee PC and similar devices, the fact that video recorders and TVs today often are Linux boxes (or like the PS3 can be made one), that will change the game completely, and this changed game will allow Linux to win without overtaking Windows.

The reason why I'm a bit sceptical is inertia and network effects. Even when Linux is more than ready for the desktop, it takes ages to take effect. Windows is ready for the desktop. Well, not for mine, because I think it has been lagging behind Linux since at least for the last 12 years, but the common desktop PC user thinks it does what it should. There's apparently a whole generation of people who still make purchasing decisions in most company, and they follow Bill. They give a lot in brand names, and they think the price is a way to rate quality. This is the majority, and they can't be convinced with technical arguments. They just follow the herd.

That's why all those Linux gadgets matter. If people have half a dozend Linux gadgets around, and know about them, the brand name is established (often they don't, and when you point out that their Tomtom runs Linux, their Toshiba HD-DVD player and HDTV runs Linux, and their Motorola Rizr runs Linux, they maybe stop telling you that "Linux isn't for me". They already use it daily). It's therefore important to convince device makers that you should put a penguin sticker on your Linux powered box - and not just a GPL copy into the manual.