Were you to walk around LinuxWorld in San Francisco this week, for almost every person you'd see sitting, you'd see a laptop in front of them. And, if you're a snoopy person, like me, you'd also see that about half of those laptops were running Linux. That doesn't sound like that much? Think again. Even a year ago, Linux-powered laptops were a rarity. Find out why Linux journalist Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols thinks the Linux desktop is poised for success.
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Member since:2005-07-06
"Novell merging with RedHat, Novell or RedHat buying Canonical, or some combination of the above."
Novell already merged with SUSE, and what was the result?
Not much, because you still ask for more merges to solve the problem.
As I said above two things should happen to improve linux situation in home desktops: Supporting linux with best hardware and then port all important applications from windows/Mac worlds.
Member since:2006-07-28
Novell already merged with SUSE, and what was the result?
Novell didn't have a distro before they bought Suse. There was no consolidation happening.
As I said above two things should happen to improve linux situation in home desktops: Supporting linux with best hardware and then port all important applications from windows/Mac worlds.
What do you mean best hardware? - best drivers? Uhmm, you realize that you can't just "port" Office to Linux right?
And I forgot, having a standard desktop Linux would also help in one huge way. Games. You think windows support is a nightmare, just think of the nightmare with various distros that have to be accounted for.
I've been hearing this better, more drivers and more apps for years now. It sure doesn't hurt to have lots of great drivers and general purpose (non-geek) apps, but I don't believe that will ever be enough.
On the flip side of more consolidation, I think if Google ever got into the linux desktop game, it would be a positive. But that's highly unlikely, considering their gig is the web.
Member since:
2006-07-28
...if he really wants desktop Linux to get out of single digit market share is one of two things. Either some kind of consolidation between the big vendors. Novell merging with RedHat, Novell or RedHat buying Canonical, or some combination of the above. Or, that one desktop Linux stands heads and shoulders above the rest - unlikely.
The effect of either of those is that there becomes a defacto "The desktop Linux". It can be packaged up for mom and pop, it's a known quantity for support, and there's something that can be finally targetted by ISVs.
The true geeks can still have their Gentoos and Slackware and laugh at all the newbs with their newb distro.