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The Linux desktop has been wildly successful! Hobbyists have been using it since the 1990s. Yahoo! was built using the linux desktop. Much of Facebook was, t

The Linux desktop has been wildly successful! Hobbyists have been using it since the 1990s. Yahoo! was built using the linux desktop. Much of Facebook was, too. People in web dev and tech support use it as their workstation OS. The Linux desktop has failed to become a mainstream 'consumer' OS. Meritocracy has nothing to do with it. Microsoft's monopoly is just unbreakable here. OS X is less than 10% of the market. Linux less than 1%. I believe the Linux desktop is usable in the retail space, because I installed gOS on a guest computer and several novices (including my mom) used it for email, web, music and word processing. My linux desktop progression has been X11R6 -> KDE -> Mandrake -> Ubuntu gnome -> Mint -> latest Ubuntu HATED IT! -> Xfce crunchbang -> (plan to) Mint Xfce

mbell 14y ago
> The Linux desktop has been wildly successful! Hobbyists have been using it since the 1990s. Yahoo! was built using the linux desktop. Much of Facebook was, too. People in web dev and tech support use it as their workstation OS. While true, look around at younger companies, OS X has taken over a very large segment of the web dev crowd and I don't see any signs of that changing, especially with the almost mandatory nature of using OSX for iOS development.
- zanny 14y ago
  This is entirely brand. I went through college where all the cool kids had overpriced shiny aluminum macs and that was the hip thing to own. Having used OSX on laptops in High School and IMacs in college the desktop is awful and I much prefer the diversity of Linux DEs, especially ones like Cinnamon and XFCE. OSX got its market share off spoiled 20 year old college kids getting their parents to buy them overpriced trendy hardware. I have a 15 year old and 13 year cousin who each have a macbook because its hip. But besides the hip factor, OSX succeeds because it is the default on Apple products, where Windows succeeds because it is the default on everything else. When average Joe buys a pc, they go to best buy, and every single device has Windows on it, so they use that. They don't know any better and would never fathom installing an OS, and if you show an alternative to them it breaks their minds because it is universe breaking that Windows isn't the computer.
  - untog 14y ago
    "the desktop is awful and I much prefer the diversity of Linux DEs [...] OSX got its market share off spoiled 20 year old college kids getting their parents to buy them overpriced trendy hardware." Sigh. Stop stating your opinion as fact. Personally, I use OSX because it's a *nix OS that actually has a coherent UI, and it's paired with the best hardware available right now. Saying that it's popular because it's trendy is wildly misguided- how do you explain all the developers that use it?
    - zanny 14y ago
      I said the market share came from college kids. I honestly never understand how developers use it, but I can understand smart people find value in it I don't. But don't ignore the fact that the Mac rose to prosperty not through its developer tools but through appealing to a younger generation with access to money a desire to look cool, because they hit that ball out of the park from my experiences, not my opinion.
    - CountSessine 14y ago
      But don't ignore the fact that the Mac rose to prosperty [..] through appealing to a younger generation with access to money a desire to look cool, because they hit that ball out of the park from my experiences, not my opinion I'm glad it isn't your opinion, because you'd be wrong again. Mac owners, by age, are actually older on average than PC/Windows users. http://www.metafacts.com/pages/media/tupan06_announce_061129.htm http://www.metafacts.com/pages/media/tupan06_announce_061129... As an embedded systems developer, who works in a company filled with EEs using OSX for their personal machines, I can say that what keeps me buying macs is that * Like Linux, OSX is posix and has a working shell and scripting environment, and * Like Windows, it has a pixel-perfect window manager and a tastefully designed UI that doesn't make my eyes bleed.
    - old-gregg 14y ago
      Saying that it's popular because it's trendy is wildly misguided- how do you explain all the developers that use it? Trendy, popular, whatever... The original comment is spot on. Products becomes trendy and popular mostly because of great marketing. The reason you prefer OSX (or almost anything else in your life) is because you've been conditioned to. We make decisions based on a complex cocktail of facts and feelings, most of them external to our own thinking and, therefore, susceptible to clever manipulation. Every BMW owner buys an "ultimate driving machine" (with an automatic transmission) and most OSX users believe they're enjoying "the best UI/UX" (and obediently squeeze their life into ~500 vertical pixels leaving the rest to the Dock and global menu). It does not make sense to look for a technical explanation for why "Linux desktop" is not popular. Technology has nothing to do with popularity. Moreover, Linux Desktop is indeed widely popular among people who're pre-conditioned to like things it offers. Here's an anecdote: I have introduced younger relatives to computers in mid-2000s using only Ubuntu. After years of daily Gnome 2.x use they find both OSX and Windows incredibly "retarded" and hard to use. Don't kid yourself thinking we're far ahead of Pavlov dogs.
- lifeguard 14y ago
  It has been my experience graphic designers use Apple's OS du jour and hackers are split between Linux and OS X.
akldfgj 14y ago
> Mint -> latest Ubuntu HATED IT! - Why this step? Most people go in the reverse direction.
- lifeguard 14y ago
  The new UI sounded interesting. But after running it the UI felt like it was for a touch tablet and I have a K/M.

mbell 14y ago

> The Linux desktop has been wildly successful! Hobbyists have been using it since the 1990s. Yahoo! was built using the linux desktop. Much of Facebook was, too. People in web dev and tech support use it as their workstation OS. While true, look around at younger companies, OS X has taken over a very large segment of the web dev crowd and I don't see any signs of that changing, especially with the almost mandatory nature of using OSX for iOS development.

zanny 14y ago
This is entirely brand. I went through college where all the cool kids had overpriced shiny aluminum macs and that was the hip thing to own. Having used OSX on laptops in High School and IMacs in college the desktop is awful and I much prefer the diversity of Linux DEs, especially ones like Cinnamon and XFCE. OSX got its market share off spoiled 20 year old college kids getting their parents to buy them overpriced trendy hardware. I have a 15 year old and 13 year cousin who each have a macbook because its hip. But besides the hip factor, OSX succeeds because it is the default on Apple products, where Windows succeeds because it is the default on everything else. When average Joe buys a pc, they go to best buy, and every single device has Windows on it, so they use that. They don't know any better and would never fathom installing an OS, and if you show an alternative to them it breaks their minds because it is universe breaking that Windows isn't the computer.
- untog 14y ago
  "the desktop is awful and I much prefer the diversity of Linux DEs [...] OSX got its market share off spoiled 20 year old college kids getting their parents to buy them overpriced trendy hardware." Sigh. Stop stating your opinion as fact. Personally, I use OSX because it's a *nix OS that actually has a coherent UI, and it's paired with the best hardware available right now. Saying that it's popular because it's trendy is wildly misguided- how do you explain all the developers that use it?
  - zanny 14y ago
    I said the market share came from college kids. I honestly never understand how developers use it, but I can understand smart people find value in it I don't. But don't ignore the fact that the Mac rose to prosperty not through its developer tools but through appealing to a younger generation with access to money a desire to look cool, because they hit that ball out of the park from my experiences, not my opinion.
  - CountSessine 14y ago
    But don't ignore the fact that the Mac rose to prosperty [..] through appealing to a younger generation with access to money a desire to look cool, because they hit that ball out of the park from my experiences, not my opinion I'm glad it isn't your opinion, because you'd be wrong again. Mac owners, by age, are actually older on average than PC/Windows users. http://www.metafacts.com/pages/media/tupan06_announce_061129.htm http://www.metafacts.com/pages/media/tupan06_announce_061129... As an embedded systems developer, who works in a company filled with EEs using OSX for their personal machines, I can say that what keeps me buying macs is that * Like Linux, OSX is posix and has a working shell and scripting environment, and * Like Windows, it has a pixel-perfect window manager and a tastefully designed UI that doesn't make my eyes bleed.
  - old-gregg 14y ago
    Saying that it's popular because it's trendy is wildly misguided- how do you explain all the developers that use it? Trendy, popular, whatever... The original comment is spot on. Products becomes trendy and popular mostly because of great marketing. The reason you prefer OSX (or almost anything else in your life) is because you've been conditioned to. We make decisions based on a complex cocktail of facts and feelings, most of them external to our own thinking and, therefore, susceptible to clever manipulation. Every BMW owner buys an "ultimate driving machine" (with an automatic transmission) and most OSX users believe they're enjoying "the best UI/UX" (and obediently squeeze their life into ~500 vertical pixels leaving the rest to the Dock and global menu). It does not make sense to look for a technical explanation for why "Linux desktop" is not popular. Technology has nothing to do with popularity. Moreover, Linux Desktop is indeed widely popular among people who're pre-conditioned to like things it offers. Here's an anecdote: I have introduced younger relatives to computers in mid-2000s using only Ubuntu. After years of daily Gnome 2.x use they find both OSX and Windows incredibly "retarded" and hard to use. Don't kid yourself thinking we're far ahead of Pavlov dogs.
lifeguard 14y ago
It has been my experience graphic designers use Apple's OS du jour and hackers are split between Linux and OS X.

akldfgj 14y ago

> Mint -> latest Ubuntu HATED IT! - Why this step? Most people go in the reverse direction.

lifeguard 14y ago
The new UI sounded interesting. But after running it the UI felt like it was for a touch tablet and I have a K/M.