"history of Linux on the desktop" [LWN.net]

"history of Linux on the desktop"

Posted Nov 28, 2012 0:58 UTC (Wed) by louie (guest, #3285)
Parent article: Ubuntu on the Nexus 7

Linux on the tablet may repeat the history of Linux on the desktop.

To clarify, "Linux on the tablet, as provided by traditional Linux desktop vendors, may repeat the history of Linux on the desktop." Linux on the tablet, as provided by Android/Google, appears to be doing just fine.

It would be worth unpacking "the history of Linux on the desktop" in this context. Does this mean market failure? Failure to address "regular" user needs? Duplication of effort? Failure to build healthy, self-sustaining hacker communities? Failure to advance some aspect of the Freedom agenda? Simply never having a "year of the Linux desktop"? Something else? I suppose it is a truism, but you have to understand the history before you can avoid repeating it.

(My suspicion is that once the problem is well understand, the solution in many cases might be "build a real development community around open Android code" rather than "try to shoehorn KDE/GNOME/Unity/$FLAVOR_OF_WEEK onto devices." But I could be wrong about that.)

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"history of Linux on the desktop"

Posted Nov 28, 2012 11:32 UTC (Wed) by lab (guest, #51153) [Link]

> (My suspicion is that once the problem is well understand, the solution in many cases might be "build a real development community around open Android code" rather than "try to shoehorn KDE/GNOME/Unity/$FLAVOR_OF_WEEK onto devices." But I could be wrong about that.)

And my suspicion is that you are right in your understanding.

I have another suspicion though, and that is that current Android devices are getting powerful enough, to satisfy the computing needs of a great deal of users. Which means that given the plugability to suitable input/output devices (screen, keyboard, mice,...), the Android device is all you'll need, a lot/most of the time. And this could be a full Linux desktop distro running on it. I think the Motorola Atrix showed the way in this respect, and I hope it will be furthered.

"history of Linux on the desktop"

Posted Nov 28, 2012 11:32 UTC (Wed) by simosx (guest, #24338) [Link] (7 responses)

There is a touch of Microsoft having a special relationship with manufacturers, so that no competing operating system could ever have a chance.

When the first netbook from Acer appeared with a Linux distribution, Microsoft came in and cut the deals.
I think the way it works is that if a manufacturer supports only Windows, then they get special discounts from Microsoft for their OEM Windows. Since most manufacturers still depend on their Windows sales, they cave in and exclude Linux.
These deals are obviously kept secret, and I wonder whether a competition authority should look into them.

"history of Linux on the desktop"

Posted Nov 30, 2012 12:27 UTC (Fri) by jwakely (guest, #60262) [Link] (4 responses)

> When the first netbook from Acer appeared with a Linux distribution, Microsoft came in and cut the deals.

s/Acer/Asus/ unless memory and STFW fail me.

I still use my Asus eeepc 701 daily (but its disk seems to be too small to upgrade beyond Fedora 15 so I'll have to replace it soon, with something ARMish I hope)

"history of Linux on the desktop"

Posted Dec 3, 2012 11:28 UTC (Mon) by njwhite (guest, #51848) [Link] (3 responses)

You can upgrade the disk, though it's not a particularly common form factor. I have a 128GB SSD in my EeePC 901, and hope to not have to retire it for a long time yet.

"history of Linux on the desktop"

Posted Dec 3, 2012 14:47 UTC (Mon) by jwakely (guest, #60262) [Link] (2 responses)

I did look into doing that, but the instructions I found were a bit vague (I want quite detailed step-by-step instructions, I only reluctantly mod/circuit-bend my hardware!)

"history of Linux on the desktop"

Posted Dec 3, 2012 15:23 UTC (Mon) by jwakely (guest, #60262) [Link] (1 responses)

IIRC the instructions I looked at were for adding a second drive, so I wouldn't need to remove the existing one ... just swapping out the existing one is probably pretty easy, maybe I should just do that.

"history of Linux on the desktop"

Posted Dec 3, 2012 15:31 UTC (Mon) by njwhite (guest, #51848) [Link]

Hardware wise it was no more complicated than upgrading the RAM on the machine; no major disassembly required. Then so long as you're comfortable enough with booting from USB, copying stuff over, and redoing grub, it will all just work. Note that there are 2 SSDs in the EEE, a 4GB one and a bigger one, its the bigger one that's easy to change - the 4GB one *is* a major operation to replace, by all accounts. Oh, and this all applies to the 901 EEE, I can't be sure that it's the same for the 701 (but probably is). Feel free to email me 527864@njw.me.uk if you have any questions; I'm happy to help.

"history of Linux on the desktop"

Posted Dec 1, 2012 0:55 UTC (Sat) by rahvin (guest, #16953) [Link]

The deals are structured to avoid this. They are generally structured as marketing assistance instead of competition or discounts. So rather than charging less MS gives them a big pile of money back under the terms that they use it for marketing or they don't give the money back but by advertising for the company on their own dime.

Under most of the worlds laws the only way to prove this as anti-competative would be real documentation of what it's really for like explicit emails indicating it's only for not making Linux laptops. Knowing that, the companies explicitly avoid putting that in writing. The result is everyone knows it's intent, but there wouldn't be a way to prosecute it without someone messing up royally and putting it in writing.

The only situation I've ever seen it prosecuted is where AMD spent the time and money to pursue the civil case where preponderance of the evidence rules instead of beyond a reasonable doubt. The government then used the civil trial evidence to basically force Intel to tack another couple items onto the civil settlement and give the agreement legal force.

"history of Linux on the desktop"

Posted Dec 3, 2012 10:58 UTC (Mon) by Lennie (subscriber, #49641) [Link]

I don't know, this is partly about marketshare as well.

And Android is supposedly gonna have a larger marketshare in number of units sold in 2014 in comparison to all Windows devices combined: tablet, phone and desktop:

"...in early 2014, less than two years from now, Android installed base will exceed total Windows installed base, PCs and smartphones and tablets, all counted together."

http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2012/08/smar...

Obviously, this does not make the Windows market a small market.