They tried. They gave it their all, but the little penguin isn’t going anywhere on the PC desktop. Mainframes, you betcha! But on the desktop, and in this article at least, the dream of desktop Linux is over. Alas.
October 18, 20105 CommentsRSS feed for comments on this post. Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time. |
Finally!! a “Linux is Dead” article that gets it right, the problem with Linux is not ease of use (Ubuntu solved that) but lack of commercial content, or more specifically the inablility to make commercial software that will run on all distros. Whats sad is that this problem is solvable, there are even already existing solutions like Moblin/Meego, but no one is interested in running commercial apps on Linux.
let me quote the part in the article that makes this point:
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Linux didn’t fail on the desktop because it’s “too geeky,” “too hard to use,” or “too obscure,” as casual detractors so often claim in online forums. On the contrary, the best-known distribution–Ubuntu–has received high marks for usability from every major player in the technology press, and it features a menu layout nearly identical to that of Mac OS X. Ultimately, Linux is doomed on the desktop because of a critical lack of content. And that lack of content owes its existence to two key factors: the fragmentation of the Linux platform, and the fierce ideology of the open-source community at large.
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Comment by BradC — October 18, 2010 @ 7:10 am
I agree. Back in the days when there were multiple operating systems to choose from (Apple DOS, ProDOS, TRS-DOS, MS-DOS, PC-DOS, CP/M, Unix, and on and on), the best buying decision was to go for the operating system that had the largest software base. Linux suffers from a small software base compared with Windows and OS X. That’s it!
The point about the open source community is also well-taken. Software developers are in business to make money. You don’t make money giving things away. (You do, however, make money on support for free software.)
I still like Linux, as well as FreeBSD. As the user base dwindles, it’s removed completely from the radar screen for malware.
Comment by admin — October 18, 2010 @ 7:14 am
Not only is there a lack of a userbase AND a lack of software. But there is also a lack of QUALITY software. As much as I love the free and open-source software movement, they fail where companies that are in there for profit excel. Those companies are better because they have money from selling their product, and they can use that money to make and even better product. Its Capitalism at work!
Although Ubuntu made an excellent step forward with the ‘Ubuntu Software Center’. People hated that they had to hunt down software, and now its all in one, built in software client.
Comment by gamerguy473 — October 18, 2010 @ 12:46 pm
I think Linux does have a lot of quality software, but that software is more enterprise based, and definitely more geeky. I have a lot of friends that think they are cool because they have Ubuntu installed in their machines, and that’s the only OS they use. I laugh at them. To tell you the truth, I love Linux and all, but it just doesn’t work for desktop use and media entertainment, and I have the feeling that it was never meant to be for client use.
The distro I use the most is CentOS. I have a couple of machines running a lot of server software, including an iTunes server to consolidate my music (and to let my family enjoy my extensive library on the network), and adds new music from my Windows machine automatically via rsync. Also have bittorrent daemons on them, No-ip daemons, FTP, SSH and HTTP servers. Linux works great for servers, but I’ll pass on my client machines.
Comment by samus250 — October 19, 2010 @ 7:29 am
I think most of the people who use a PC would be completely content with a Linux box — if it came with proper documentation. You know that the typical user does email, Web, word processing, maybe a spreadsheet, plus basic financial software, add in a few games. All that stuff is available on on Linux and free. I believe the problem is documentation, e.g., a manual. I bet if a manufacturer put together such a Linux box and tossed in a good manual and sold it for $250 it would fly off the shelves.
Comment by admin — October 19, 2010 @ 7:47 am