Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 5th Mar 2007 15:46 UTC, submitted by WillM
"Freedom of choice is one of the great benefits of Open Source Software in general and Linux in particular. This freedom gives consumers the ability to select, without fear of litigation, what software they will use and how they will use or modify it. As a principal, this freedom is extremely valuable. However, a couple of announcements this week seem to indicate that market value of freedom of choice has dipped considerably. The biggest hurdle Linux adoption faced this week wasn't Microsoft, it was an enemy from within: Linux fragmentation."
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Member since:
2006-04-21
Where has it gotten on the desktop?
Even if only 2% of people use it on the desktop, that represents 15 million out of 300 million computers. Hardly small fry.
Only place Linux is really going right now is into the data center, where companies hire people to make sense of everything for them.
On the contrary, I think the fact that Dell felt it necessary to do as much as they did (and the fact that Linux was number one on its list) shows that the best is yet to come on the desktop.
It's a real shame too, because so much about Linux is supperior, it's just too confusing for normal home users.
Windows can be plenty confusing, too. Those who don't have a guru to hand either must be very flustered with their systems, or limit themselves to email, web browsing and maybe games.
I really hope Ubuntu continues its popularity, and becomes what people base all Linux desktops from. It's already beginning - with Linspire and MEPIS - and it would be far easier for ISV's to support.
No thanks. This is the biggest problem with the "we need a Linux monoculture" theory: Just about every distro you choose to base this mythical "Linux for everyone" on is going to have its rabid fans, its ardent detractors, and the rest of us caught in the middle. Personally, I think Ubuntu is crap.