Future of LINUX

[renec2006]

Hey guys/gals everywhere I look it looks as if Linux will have the # of users Windows have! I love Linux, I use it everyday I've also converted a few Windows geeks, but lets face it. It will never compete with Windows. Linux has come a long way to get it where it's at now, but it will never be like Apple or Windows. There is no marketing for Linux. Everyday users know Windows and even Apple, but mention Linux and they give u this WTF look. I don't mind Linux not being in the main stream of everything. I think it's great Linux is working in the background of the most important computers, hardware, devices, etc.... We may be few, but we are proud of Linux. A user forever! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK GUYS/GALS AND DON'T TRY TO BE LIKE A PC!!!!!! BECAUSE PC'S SUCK!!!!!

[techieMoe]

Hey guys/gals everywhere I look it looks as if Linux will have the # of users Windows have! I love Linux, I use it everyday I've also converted a few Windows geeks, but lets face it. It will never compete with Windows. Linux has come a long way to get it where it's at now, but it will never be like Apple or Windows. There is no marketing for Linux. Everyday users know Windows and even Apple, but mention Linux and they give u this WTF look. I don't mind Linux not being in the main stream of everything. I think it's great Linux is working in the background of the most important computers, hardware, devices, etc.... We may be few, but we are proud of Linux. A user forever! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK GUYS/GALS AND DON'T TRY TO BE LIKE A PC!!!!!! BECAUSE PC'S SUCK!!!!!

Although I certainly appreciate your enthusiasm, I find it necessary to mention your usage of "PC." The term "PC" in its original form (personal computer) really describes any device you can buy or build today, including Apple PCs, Dell PCs, and everything in between. The operating system it runs does not define what a "PC" is any more than the brand of vehicle determines if a Honda or a Ford are a "car."

Your statement that "PCs suck" might be equated to someone walking into a shopping mall full of people and saying, "Don't be like a human! Humans suck!"

[renec2006]

anyone who watches tv these days knows what they mean when they say PC. Look at the Apple vs PC, I'm a PC, etc...
OK, remove PC, insert Windows OS...

[Hal343]

I have managed to convert a few people to dual-booting, and one of them prefers linux for most things. Another was impressed when she re-installed XP, but without the original disk. She ended up with missing drivers, and I used DSL (old computer, 256Mb ram) to find out what the hardware was, and downloaded Intel drivers for her.

[renec2006]

Linux is great, but I guess people want everything to be very very easy for them to use. I use a Live CD to reset tons of "Window" users 'admin' passwords. It works everytime.

[L4Linux]

Linux is great, but I guess people want everything to be very very easy for them to use.

I just love to tease my colleagues when something in windows gets screwed and they Google it for 1-2 hours and then hack their registry for another 2. I usually tell them "Oh my god, Linux is sooooo difficult, it even has this terrifying "boot loader" that gives me the creeps!! Hacking the registry is much more fun"

Installing registry cleaner, anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-trojan, anti-fragmentation, anti-everything is also fun staff.

[SagaciousKJB]

I think I have to disagree and say that Linux has already competed with Windows and Apple, but just in different areas. It is really the dominate web server platform, and it's being heavily adopted by more and more businesses. Not to mention all the hardware manufacturers like AMD and Intel that both have open source initiatives now that probably would not be here today if Linux had not garnered so much support for the Open Source model.

In regards to Linux on the desktop, I think people have unfair expectations and don't know just how much Linux influences their desktop use. I mean, for one thing, it is free software, and it is built around a free kernel with many varying distributions. I don't think that people should expect many computer makers to embrace just one distribution and begin offering that much of a line. Dell has done this with Ubuntu sure, but does it compete with the dozens of other Windows desktops sales? As far as the quality of the desktop is concerned, it has been improving steadily for over a decade; when I first used Linux in 1997 it was far less automated than today's flavors. Progress doesn't necessarily lead to adoption though, with the software being free, how do they make any money to entice hardware manufacturers? If they can't get it on more computers than Windows, how will more people be exposed? If not that many people even know about Linux, how can the demand be high enough for more manufactures than Dell to start putting Linux on some of their desktops?

Though realistically speaking, I don't think that many people really knew about Windows ten or even five years ago. There's still a lot of people now that do not even understand what "Windows" is, and think that it is an integral and inseparable part of their computer. To me Linux on the desktop is just very bleeding edge technology that is going to take people a while to fully notice, and I think people were starting to notice Linux years ago in the IT and business sect. The consumer sect has always been slow to follow in that regard.

As far as the "year of the Linux desktop" thing comes into mind, I don't think any of it will happen in just one year. I don't really expect it to consume much more of the market share than Windows either considering the way Windows has the money to get it installed on practically all factory-produced PCs. However, this market share percentage everyone pays attention to is deceiving. We're not paying attention to the actual number of people adopting Linux, we're comparing it to how many people use Windows. That is not fair anyway, because what about people that multi-boot?

Linux usage as just the kernel will sky rocket, and personally I don't see it ever being the dominate OS on the desktop until the desktop is old and out of style; at least not unless the demand for it goes up enough for manufacturers to start offering it more. To me this drive toward mobile computing with the smart phones and netbooks, seems likt it is really going to leave the desktop market a pretty niche market in itself sadly. Linux will be there to fill that niche, because at that point, if manufacturers are going to produce these PCs, they're going to want to do so with a free OS or no OS at all.

Where does that leave Linux in the future though? Seeing as it already has great market share on both netbooks, web apps, smartphones, I don't think Linux as a kernel will go away. I do wonder if it's going to resemble anything like the desktop OSes we're use to now though.


As far as Linux on the desktop right now. I think there's a little elbow grease involved, but it's always been like that on most OSes. I think that the majority of users who cry out for low configuration and loads of automation are pretty much the real people being represented here, and power users are starting to fall out of the norm. Some would argue that it's "easier" to be a power user on Windows, but to me I think it just so happens that Windows is the first OS most people get exposed to, and then when they're exposed to another OS they forget the learning curve involved with Windows and claim that the other is more complicated, buggy, and a less enjoyable experience.

[renec2006]

I understand what u r saying, but even Dell who advertises Ubuntu on it's laptop even suggested the laptop will run better on Windows.
I really wish Dell, IBM, Sun, etc... would make a commercial that shows the Linux Desktop not like IBM's Linux commercial with that kid in it.
Show how it can be used in everyday life just like windows. Or do what Apple does. Show it's weakness.
Just show of the darn kernel!!!!! With actors, everyday people, etc....
People need to know about it to use it.

[computerophil]

Hey guys/gals everywhere I look it looks as if Linux will have the # of users Windows have! I love Linux, I use it everyday I've also converted a few Windows geeks, but lets face it. It will never compete with Windows. Linux has come a long way to get it where it's at now, but it will never be like Apple or Windows. There is no marketing for Linux. Everyday users know Windows and even Apple, but mention Linux and they give u this WTF look. I don't mind Linux not being in the main stream of everything. I think it's great Linux is working in the background of the most important computers, hardware, devices, etc.... We may be few, but we are proud of Linux. A user forever! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK GUYS/GALS AND DON'T TRY TO BE LIKE A PC!!!!!! BECAUSE PC'S SUCK!!!!!

With ASUS-eee started via netbooks a kind of linux-hipe. Now there are many more that know linux; with the 100$- Laptop-Projekt for the 3rd-world its again Linux.
So I thing it might be a hard way but it isn't impossible to break the quasi monopolism of Windows.
Important will be to convince the industrie to sell computers with linux pre-installed as it came with most netbooks the last years. People stick very often to the system they had from beginning. And Linux is free so it is cheaper to buy a computer with linux than with windows and that will be the main argument for people to buy and try out linux. They will like it even if they still remain calling it windows because they often don't know what is an OS, for many people everything is windows.

[GNU-Fan]

I really wish Dell, IBM, Sun, etc... would make a commercial that shows the Linux Desktop not like IBM's Linux commercial with that kid in it.
Show how it can be used in everyday life just like windows.

The question is, "why would they?"
I think it was RedHat that made the public comment about how they don't really wish to have to support private user. They can't charge much for the software itself and even if they charge for support the company could easily get a bad reputation because "their OS doesn't work [...like Windows, that is]."

Business clients are a different story because they often if not always buy support contracts too. So they are the more welcomed kind of users to these companies.

With actors, everyday people, etc....
People need to know about it to use it.

Stephen Fry — Happy birthday to GNU — The GNU Operating System