3 ms·

Linux on the desktop was a viable thing circa 1998, with the publishing of Ximian Desktop. Office even worked great with Crossover. There was a lot of momentum.

Linux on the desktop was a viable thing circa 1998, with the publishing of Ximian Desktop. Office even worked great with Crossover. There was a lot of momentum. You could have taken any beige box, put RedHat, Ximian, and Crossover on it, and everything would "just work." Then Microsoft threw some of their loose change at Nat and Miguel, Ximian lost steam, and the Linux world wandered the wastes until Ubuntu sort of picked up where they left off. Off all the underhanded things Microsoft did: paying the trade press to slag off on Linux, underwriting the SCO trial, rewriting large chunks of Office just to screw up Wine, and funding huge "supercomputer" projects to make it seem like Windows could compete as anything other than a file server, seducing Nat and Miguel was the hardest blow to widespread adoption of Linux on the desktop. It's not a function of when the year of Linux on the desktop will happen. It happened in 1998, and Microsoft killed it, not RedHat. Don't get me wrong; I have nothing but love for Nat and Miguel. Everyone has a price, and I'm glad they got to do what interested them. But, yeah, I miss those days.

olau 3y ago
This is not what happened. A quick reference is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ximian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ximian
- TheRealDunkirk 3y ago
  I maintain that the distraction of their obviously impressive abilities towards Mono was a blow to desktop Linux that curtailed its rising popularity. IMO, Mono -- without support WinForms -- has been nothing more than a curiosity for the Linux world until the advent of .NET proper, and I say that as someone who has used it more than once to compile bespoke Windows programs for both Mac and Linux.
  - TillE 3y ago
    It's a little sad how Mono is dead, ironically killed by Microsoft not in a malicious way, but just because they open sourced their own superior product. Even Xamarin is finally on its way out, replaced by .NET MAUI. Mono did have an important impact, but it was mostly with games, especially Unity.
  - olau 3y ago
    The impression I got over the years is that perhaps de Icaza was actually less interested in the Linux desktop and more interested in language technology, starting with CORBA, and then when Microsoft released C#/.NET, he shifted to that and started Mono. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you probably really can't blame Microsoft.

olau 3y ago

This is not what happened. A quick reference is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ximian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ximian

TheRealDunkirk 3y ago
I maintain that the distraction of their obviously impressive abilities towards Mono was a blow to desktop Linux that curtailed its rising popularity. IMO, Mono -- without support WinForms -- has been nothing more than a curiosity for the Linux world until the advent of .NET proper, and I say that as someone who has used it more than once to compile bespoke Windows programs for both Mac and Linux.
- TillE 3y ago
  It's a little sad how Mono is dead, ironically killed by Microsoft not in a malicious way, but just because they open sourced their own superior product. Even Xamarin is finally on its way out, replaced by .NET MAUI. Mono did have an important impact, but it was mostly with games, especially Unity.
- olau 3y ago
  The impression I got over the years is that perhaps de Icaza was actually less interested in the Linux desktop and more interested in language technology, starting with CORBA, and then when Microsoft released C#/.NET, he shifted to that and started Mono. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you probably really can't blame Microsoft.