4 ms·

>Linux will never be a factor on the desktop Never?

by rms 17y ago

blasdel 17y ago
Not as a desktop at least. If a device comes with OpenOffice, it's going to fail with consumers. If it's even possible to natively port OOo (if it uses an X server), the outlook is not good. ChromeOS is extremely promising in this regard.
3pt14159 17y ago
Never, ever, ever? Even as I write this from my Ubuntu 9.10 machine while coding ruby in emacs in the other screen space because Unix based development is so much easier than Visual Studios++? Even though http://digg.com/linux_unix/the_PERFECT_mp3_player_for_Linux_geeks_Linux_friendly_hardware http://digg.com/linux_unix/the_PERFECT_mp3_player_for_Linux_... has 1000+ diggs and is the only reason my coworker is buying a specific mp3 player amongst the hundreds of options? Even though Linux can be downloaded for $0, and in most of the non-western work, more than $300 dollars for an entire computer, let alone operating system, is stretching a very thin family budget? In my view Windows is good for 2 things. Running Excel and computer games. And even that is starting to change. http://www.worldofgoo.com/ http://www.worldofgoo.com/ is fully Linux compliant, and even the boys and girls making Natural Selection 2 are talking about making a Linux version. Hell, even most of the awesomest games have been ported through wine (like Team Fortress II). Microsoft will always be around, but more in the way that IBM will always be around. It's only a matter of time before Google makes the web browser so dominant and piracy makes non-SaaS based software so unprofitable that it won't matter whether you use an NT kernel (or Direct X whatever) or not. Flash is, hopefully, going to go the way of the dinosaur as HTML 5 comes out, and by that point what is the value proposition that Microsoft has? "Ugh, our software can run a really freaking awesome spreadsheet program!" Excel is great. I'd dual boot it if it were an operating system.

>Linux will never be a factor on the desktop Never?

by rms 17y ago

>Linux will never be a factor on the desktop Never?

Not as a desktop at least. If a device comes with OpenOffice, it's going to fail with consumers. If it's even possible to natively port OOo (if it uses an X server), the outlook is not good. ChromeOS is extremely promising in this regard.

3pt14159 17y ago

Never, ever, ever? Even as I write this from my Ubuntu 9.10 machine while coding ruby in emacs in the other screen space because Unix based development is so much easier than Visual Studios++? Even though http://digg.com/linux_unix/the_PERFECT_mp3_player_for_Linux_geeks_Linux_friendly_hardware http://digg.com/linux_unix/the_PERFECT_mp3_player_for_Linux_... has 1000+ diggs and is the only reason my coworker is buying a specific mp3 player amongst the hundreds of options? Even though Linux can be downloaded for $0, and in most of the non-western work, more than $300 dollars for an entire computer, let alone operating system, is stretching a very thin family budget? In my view Windows is good for 2 things. Running Excel and computer games. And even that is starting to change. http://www.worldofgoo.com/ http://www.worldofgoo.com/ is fully Linux compliant, and even the boys and girls making Natural Selection 2 are talking about making a Linux version. Hell, even most of the awesomest games have been ported through wine (like Team Fortress II). Microsoft will always be around, but more in the way that IBM will always be around. It's only a matter of time before Google makes the web browser so dominant and piracy makes non-SaaS based software so unprofitable that it won't matter whether you use an NT kernel (or Direct X whatever) or not. Flash is, hopefully, going to go the way of the dinosaur as HTML 5 comes out, and by that point what is the value proposition that Microsoft has? "Ugh, our software can run a really freaking awesome spreadsheet program!" Excel is great. I'd dual boot it if it were an operating system.