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tl;dr - No At this point, I don't think there's any technical reason that Linux on the desktop/laptop/netbook/smartbook wouldn't fly. End users never see a co

tl;dr - No At this point, I don't think there's any technical reason that Linux on the desktop/laptop/netbook/smartbook wouldn't fly. End users never see a command line in mainstream Linux distributions, anymore than they do with Windows 7 or Mac OS X (though power user still use them). Applications are available from a nice point and click GUI, very similar to the apps marketplace on smartphones, making software installs a snap. Linux now has the best hardware support of any OS; hardware that doesn't "just work" is kind of rare these days. There's no driver installs, making the end user process even easier. Since smartbooks will be the next big push, Linux will have an early advantage, as it did with netbooks. All that said, unless more vendors start offering and promoting pre-installs, Linux on the desktop will not be mainstream. No one (expect we few) installs an OS. If viruses take over a machine, they take it to Geek Squad and pay $150 for e re-install. That's just the reality, just as most people don't do their own car maintenance anymore. The single largest failure of Linux (which I use exclusively) is that it has no serious marketing. 99 out of 100 people I encounter have never even heard of it, after all these years. They know Android and Tivo and Google and Sharp and all the other brands that run Linux under the covers, but they have no idea what it is or that it's something they can use on a computer. I understand that the free distribution model doesn't lend itself to paying for marketing, but there isn't even a way to contribute towards advertising. The only thing Linux has is word of mouth.

epochwolf 17y ago
Linux now has the best hardware support of any OS; hardware that doesn't "just work" is kind of rare these days. There's no driver installs, making the end user process even easier. Let's see, I've got 3 computers using linux that needed drivers installed via apt-get. 1. Wireless card (well known card) was detected as an Enternet card and assigned eth0. It obiviously didn't work. 2. Wireless card (Broadcom) didn't have open source drivers so the drivers weren't installed. Had to enable the nonfree repository through synaptic to get the driver I was looking for. 3. Video card is forced into a mode it doesn't support because it wasn't detected properly. (GeForce 2 NVidia, worked just fine with Debian Sarge) Had to modify X11 config files manually. I think I'll stick with my Mac for any serious work. I love linux on my servers. Keep it off my desktop. (Anyone ever noticed reading anything on a linux gui causes eyestrain like it's 1995 if you don't change the defaults?)
- macemoneta 17y ago
  And a data point of one user is a trend? I have seven different computers (x86_64, i686, ppc) and I don't have to install any drivers. What does that tell us? Just as much nothing. The fact is that Linux supports more hardware (as of about 2007) than any other OS. Feel free to Google it yourself. And when you say Linux, what distribution? I use Fedora 12 at the moment (the on-screen text is beautiful); there are over 300 active distributions. Keep in mind that a Windows or Mac is pre-installed, with the drivers for the specific hardware. If Linux were pre-installed, why would you expect otherwise? Have you ever seen an end-user try to install a retail copy of Windows (missing drivers)? There's a reason people pay Geek Squad $150 for a Windows re-install.

epochwolf 17y ago

Linux now has the best hardware support of any OS; hardware that doesn't "just work" is kind of rare these days. There's no driver installs, making the end user process even easier. Let's see, I've got 3 computers using linux that needed drivers installed via apt-get. 1. Wireless card (well known card) was detected as an Enternet card and assigned eth0. It obiviously didn't work. 2. Wireless card (Broadcom) didn't have open source drivers so the drivers weren't installed. Had to enable the nonfree repository through synaptic to get the driver I was looking for. 3. Video card is forced into a mode it doesn't support because it wasn't detected properly. (GeForce 2 NVidia, worked just fine with Debian Sarge) Had to modify X11 config files manually. I think I'll stick with my Mac for any serious work. I love linux on my servers. Keep it off my desktop. (Anyone ever noticed reading anything on a linux gui causes eyestrain like it's 1995 if you don't change the defaults?)

macemoneta 17y ago
And a data point of one user is a trend? I have seven different computers (x86_64, i686, ppc) and I don't have to install any drivers. What does that tell us? Just as much nothing. The fact is that Linux supports more hardware (as of about 2007) than any other OS. Feel free to Google it yourself. And when you say Linux, what distribution? I use Fedora 12 at the moment (the on-screen text is beautiful); there are over 300 active distributions. Keep in mind that a Windows or Mac is pre-installed, with the drivers for the specific hardware. If Linux were pre-installed, why would you expect otherwise? Have you ever seen an end-user try to install a retail copy of Windows (missing drivers)? There's a reason people pay Geek Squad $150 for a Windows re-install.