3 ms·

Plausible reason: required productivity or meeting software. As a director, he may need to regularly interface with people who don't run Linux friendly software

Plausible reason: required productivity or meeting software. As a director, he may need to regularly interface with people who don't run Linux friendly software. At work, I was one of the last Linux hold outs. I still had to have a Windows client to connect to many meetings because that software only worked with Windows or Mac. Eventually I gave in and now use a Mac like everyone else at my work.

simonh 9y ago
But if you absolutely need to be using a Mac or Windows to do stuff like that, and cant function at that level on Linux, how can it be the 'Year Of The Linux Desktop'? I'm all for the right tool for the right job, but giving a presentation on the Linux desktop from a Mac is a bit odd. I can see how it could happen though. Maybe he got a Mac a few years ago when he thought the Linux desktop wasn't ready for prime time, now he thinks it is but his personal device update cycle means he's still using the Mac on momentum.
- dkarl 9y ago
  This is the year of the Linux desktop? I thought that was 2002. With KDE3 and GNOME 2, for the first time you could mail your elderly relatives unsolicited stacks of CD-Rs and they were running Linux in no time! On Reddit, someone else with a longer memory thinks it was 1998. [1] Sadly, I think we're past the peak unless some major new development shakes things up. And, since major new desktop UI developments are more likely to come from Microsoft or Apple than from Linux developers, they are more likely to put desktop Linux further behind rather than breath new life into it. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/3038d4/when_was_the_first_year_of_the_linux_desktop/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/3038d4/when_was_the_...
  - soneil 9y ago
    I don't think anyone here is seriously calling it 'the year of the linux desktop'. They're more calling out the hypocrisy that this is what Jim was actually saying at the time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x1r3Osu1Kg&t=3m26s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x1r3Osu1Kg&t=3m26s
- kirb 9y ago
  Macs are x86(_64) computers with mostly standard hardware. His MacBook, if not the latest (2017/2016), has great support in Linux and should run just fine. Maybe he already does have a dual boot and used macOS for this task for some reason.

simonh 9y ago

But if you absolutely need to be using a Mac or Windows to do stuff like that, and cant function at that level on Linux, how can it be the 'Year Of The Linux Desktop'? I'm all for the right tool for the right job, but giving a presentation on the Linux desktop from a Mac is a bit odd. I can see how it could happen though. Maybe he got a Mac a few years ago when he thought the Linux desktop wasn't ready for prime time, now he thinks it is but his personal device update cycle means he's still using the Mac on momentum.

dkarl 9y ago
This is the year of the Linux desktop? I thought that was 2002. With KDE3 and GNOME 2, for the first time you could mail your elderly relatives unsolicited stacks of CD-Rs and they were running Linux in no time! On Reddit, someone else with a longer memory thinks it was 1998. [1] Sadly, I think we're past the peak unless some major new development shakes things up. And, since major new desktop UI developments are more likely to come from Microsoft or Apple than from Linux developers, they are more likely to put desktop Linux further behind rather than breath new life into it. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/3038d4/when_was_the_first_year_of_the_linux_desktop/ https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/3038d4/when_was_the_...
- soneil 9y ago
  I don't think anyone here is seriously calling it 'the year of the linux desktop'. They're more calling out the hypocrisy that this is what Jim was actually saying at the time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x1r3Osu1Kg&t=3m26s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x1r3Osu1Kg&t=3m26s
kirb 9y ago
Macs are x86(_64) computers with mostly standard hardware. His MacBook, if not the latest (2017/2016), has great support in Linux and should run just fine. Maybe he already does have a dual boot and used macOS for this task for some reason.