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The Linux desktop will come when Microsoft loses its leverage over hardware manufacturers and they start to preinstall linux and stop putting up barriers to ado

The Linux desktop will come when Microsoft loses its leverage over hardware manufacturers and they start to preinstall linux and stop putting up barriers to adoption (e.g. remove windows -> lose warranty). It's already better than the windows desktop (xubuntu anyway, not unity, however). The barriers to uptake are no longer technical and haven't been for some years. It's all market + legal now.

rplnt 13y ago
> It's all market + legal now. And investing in re-schooling people to the new system and applications (Office suite would be probably the most notable one).
- tankenmate 13y ago
  Retraining people to use LibreOffice (or OpenOffice) from Office 2007 is cheaper than training them to use Office 2013; the interfaces are almost identical. The municipality of Munich has proved this conclusively with their big roll out. The only true bugbear is porting Excel spreadsheets with VBA macros.
- crdoconnor 13y ago
  Office is now easy to use on linux thanks to wine and crossover. Everything else works pretty much the same anyhow. There's a minor learning curve for learning how to install software. That's about it.
- EliRivers 13y ago
  A bit off-topic, I haven't been able to use a version of Office since they brought that ribbon thing in and moved the "Properties" menu option that used to be under "File". What year was that? 2003? I recall spending ages trying to figure out where on the hard drive the file actually was without having to go via "Save As" (used to be File->Properties, and there it is). I'm sure it's trivially easy, but that interface change effectively made Office a whole new program to learn for me, with the predictable result that since I now had to relearn how to use it, it was on a level playing field with other tools - one of which I switched to. While I'm only one data point, making me relearn the interface meant Office suddenly had to actually compete again. I also struggle to use any version of Windows beyond XP. I am a total cluster on Win 8 and it's quicker for me to find someone who can use it and get them to do it for me. The older I get, the more sure I becomes that there is no such thing as an intuitive interface; only convention.
macco 13y ago
> It's already better than the windows desktop (xubuntu anyway, not unity, however). Disaggree. Unity is by far superior to the Windows Desktop. It's the most productive DE on a notebook I know (OS X included)
massysett 13y ago
Dell is preinstalling Ubuntu. So is Asus.
- wldlyinaccurate 13y ago
  Buying a Dell with Ubuntu preinstalled is a PITA because you have to purchase it as a business which apparently means you lose all your consumer rights. I found this out the hard way when I was told that returning my XPS 13 would cost me a 15% "restocking fee". Besides, they're preinstalling 12.04, and upgrading to newer versions (in my experience) requires blacklisting kernel modules and setting kernel params.
Joeri 13y ago
Remember the netbook craze? They put linux on there, but they didn't start to sell in volume until they replaced it with windows. When people buy something in a PC form factor they expect it to run windows. Linux on the desktop will not happen in a traditional desktop form factor because people don't want it and/or don't see the point. The one possible exception are chromebooks, because a laptop that only runs chrome and is therefore cheaper / lighter is something people see the point of. Besides, linux as mass market OS has already happened, it's called android.
- noinsight 13y ago
  > Remember the netbook craze? They put linux on there, but they didn't start to sell in volume until they replaced it with windows. Those were gimp versions (distributions) of Linux though. We haven't seen what happens with a properly supported straight-up Ubuntu or such full-featured desktop.
  - Joeri 13y ago
    They weren't gimped from the perspective of the desktop, just from the perspective of a programmer. They ran all the same apps, in a UI optimized for netbooks, with a simple easy store app to download additional software. A straight-up Ubuntu wouldn't be that much nicer for a "typical" user in my opinion.
- crdoconnor 13y ago
  >Remember the netbook craze? They put linux on there, but they didn't start to sell in volume until they replaced it with windows. Not exactly how I remember it. They sold like wildfire initially when linux was first put on it. Then MS started giving away windows licenses because they freaked out over linux adoption overtaking them. Somehow them and intel managed to prevent all the hardware manufacturers from improving their specs (each year they got progressively worse). Something very fishy went on with that market.
  - ZenoArrow 13y ago
    Yes, if I remember correctly Microsoft or Intel made some sort of requirement that netbooks couldn't be sold with over 1GB RAM. There may have been some other restrictions.

rplnt 13y ago

> It's all market + legal now. And investing in re-schooling people to the new system and applications (Office suite would be probably the most notable one).

tankenmate 13y ago
Retraining people to use LibreOffice (or OpenOffice) from Office 2007 is cheaper than training them to use Office 2013; the interfaces are almost identical. The municipality of Munich has proved this conclusively with their big roll out. The only true bugbear is porting Excel spreadsheets with VBA macros.
crdoconnor 13y ago
Office is now easy to use on linux thanks to wine and crossover. Everything else works pretty much the same anyhow. There's a minor learning curve for learning how to install software. That's about it.
EliRivers 13y ago
A bit off-topic, I haven't been able to use a version of Office since they brought that ribbon thing in and moved the "Properties" menu option that used to be under "File". What year was that? 2003? I recall spending ages trying to figure out where on the hard drive the file actually was without having to go via "Save As" (used to be File->Properties, and there it is). I'm sure it's trivially easy, but that interface change effectively made Office a whole new program to learn for me, with the predictable result that since I now had to relearn how to use it, it was on a level playing field with other tools - one of which I switched to. While I'm only one data point, making me relearn the interface meant Office suddenly had to actually compete again. I also struggle to use any version of Windows beyond XP. I am a total cluster on Win 8 and it's quicker for me to find someone who can use it and get them to do it for me. The older I get, the more sure I becomes that there is no such thing as an intuitive interface; only convention.

macco 13y ago

> It's already better than the windows desktop (xubuntu anyway, not unity, however). Disaggree. Unity is by far superior to the Windows Desktop. It's the most productive DE on a notebook I know (OS X included)

massysett 13y ago

Dell is preinstalling Ubuntu. So is Asus.

wldlyinaccurate 13y ago
Buying a Dell with Ubuntu preinstalled is a PITA because you have to purchase it as a business which apparently means you lose all your consumer rights. I found this out the hard way when I was told that returning my XPS 13 would cost me a 15% "restocking fee". Besides, they're preinstalling 12.04, and upgrading to newer versions (in my experience) requires blacklisting kernel modules and setting kernel params.

Joeri 13y ago

Remember the netbook craze? They put linux on there, but they didn't start to sell in volume until they replaced it with windows. When people buy something in a PC form factor they expect it to run windows. Linux on the desktop will not happen in a traditional desktop form factor because people don't want it and/or don't see the point. The one possible exception are chromebooks, because a laptop that only runs chrome and is therefore cheaper / lighter is something people see the point of. Besides, linux as mass market OS has already happened, it's called android.

noinsight 13y ago
> Remember the netbook craze? They put linux on there, but they didn't start to sell in volume until they replaced it with windows. Those were gimp versions (distributions) of Linux though. We haven't seen what happens with a properly supported straight-up Ubuntu or such full-featured desktop.
- Joeri 13y ago
  They weren't gimped from the perspective of the desktop, just from the perspective of a programmer. They ran all the same apps, in a UI optimized for netbooks, with a simple easy store app to download additional software. A straight-up Ubuntu wouldn't be that much nicer for a "typical" user in my opinion.
crdoconnor 13y ago
>Remember the netbook craze? They put linux on there, but they didn't start to sell in volume until they replaced it with windows. Not exactly how I remember it. They sold like wildfire initially when linux was first put on it. Then MS started giving away windows licenses because they freaked out over linux adoption overtaking them. Somehow them and intel managed to prevent all the hardware manufacturers from improving their specs (each year they got progressively worse). Something very fishy went on with that market.
- ZenoArrow 13y ago
  Yes, if I remember correctly Microsoft or Intel made some sort of requirement that netbooks couldn't be sold with over 1GB RAM. There may have been some other restrictions.