Linked by David Adams on Thu 29th Sep 2011 23:47 UTC, submitted by lucas_maximus
Linux is struggling on the desktop because it only has a small number of "great" apps, according to the Gnome co-creator. Miguel de Icaza, co-creator of the Gnome desktop, told tech journalist Tim Anderson at the recent Windows 8 Build conference "When you count how many great desktop apps there are on Linux, you can probably name 10," de Icaza said, according to a post on Anderson's IT Writing blog. "You work really hard, you can probably name 20. We've managed to p*** off developers every step of the way, breaking APIs all the time."
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
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2011-09-30
Clusterssh but that is kind of an admin app so I can see how it would be missed.
That all said their isn't that many truly killer apps on windows either. Yes there are some niche apps (Maya, 3DMax, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc) but they are really not used by the vast majority of users. In fact most apps that fit 90% of the users would work for them on the Linux space. Problem is you have to look at the impact of the market. The vast majority of users use productivity apps like Office or a web browser and that space is starting to be eat'n by the tablets and smartphones. Even windows will be hit by this change.
Thus we will come back to the niche markets which will then depend on where those places one to be. Adobe will still sale Photoshop for Mac and Windows and as long as some crazy Linux guy can use Wine to get it running on Linux Adobe doesn't care. And frankly most of the niche apps cost so much that most people who use them can afford to have systems specific for their purpose.
The tablet is poised to take over the productivity and consumption apps. It will soon be that all you need is a tablet and usb/bluetooth keyboard and you can say bye bye to you desktop of your.