Desktop Linux: The Dream Is Dead | Hacker News Reader

Desktop Linux: The Dream Is Dead

pcworld.com

9 pointsscrrr16 comments

Credit to the guy, when he trolls he doesn't do it half-arsed. A whole article of linux FUD and crud.

Desktop linux will probably never match Windows' or Mac's market share, but it is not dead.

Indeed. I myself have been enjoying Linux on the Desktop for the last 15 years, and continue to do so.

"The dream of Linux as a major desktop OS is now pretty much dead." - first line of the article

He never claimed that desktop Linux itself was dead, just that it would never achieve equivalent market share to Mac/Windows.

You guys are saying the same thing; it's a shame to see the name-calling.

From the article:

modern Linux distributions such as Ubuntu have utterly transformed the open-source desktop user experience into something sleek and simple, while arguably surpassing Windows and Mac OS in both security and stability

Hardly sounds like he's anti-Linux. Truth is it's been "the year of the Linux desktop" every year. Maybe it's time to move on.

This is because someone else comes up and proclaims that it's the year of the linux desktop every year. This should be taken about as seriously as "x is dead" posts until it's the consensus of the majority of the industry.

2010 is the Year of the Linux phone. Linux conquered supercomputers and servers years ago. Its reach greatly expanded this year. Chrome is on the way. Shortly more people will definitely use Linux on the "desktop".

Probably the wrong time to call Linux dead anywhere. Apple survived with 2% market share. Chrome or Android will get Linux there.

This article is a solid block of FUD. It reminds me of the arguments made by IT industry types against Windows 3.1, fancy fonts and graphical user interfaces in the early 1990s.

For me desktop Linux happened about five years ago. The main reason why it doesn't have much market share is simple: Windows is still shipped by default on nearly all new PCs. However, if Canonical does a decent job with its software store I think things could change quite rapidly and they could be in a similar position to do deals with box shifters as Microsoft has traditionally been.

Nope. It's coming. Now more than ever. Why? Because of Android.

For the longest time people tried to get linux from the server market to the desktop market and failed. But now we're seeing the opposite starting to happen. We'll start to see Android tablets and netbooks, and when that starts to become accepted...mini computers wil follow. Will it ever dominate? Probably not. But it isn't a fantasy either...

I don't think of android as a "desktop". I don't see it as being useful for workaday stuff -- in the same way my iPad isn't really great for that. I'm doubtful, but I hope I'm proven wrong -- just because it'll be interesting to see it evolve towards that.

I've always found the competition for the "linux desktop" to be somewhat weird. It will never "win" -- and who cares?

If you're not sold on the Free Software manifesto or not dirt poor (or just cheap), why bother when the non-free alternatives are radically better (and they are IMO)? If you are, why do you care if your desktop is popular, as long as it's "Free"? If you're cheap, then stop complaining about your free shit.

I sort of understand: Most of the success of the free software movement is based on not having to pay for it -- e.g. getting a free compiler. Turns out that's a good way to go for some software for many other reasons, but it has nothing to do with this "us vs them" crap I see when people talk about the linux desktop. You get what you pay for, and the GNOME desktop is pretty damn good for the price of a download. However, it's nowhere near even windows XP, except at the most surface levels, IMO.

"The" Office and Steam (its games) run better on windows. Mac Office, iLife and the thousand little accesories (dashboard stuff, writeroom, etc) run better, in a more integratedfashion, on a mac. None of these run well on GNOME. Instead of iTunes, you get 3 music management apps that are supposedly "better", but in truth, they were designed by ADD teenagers (or not designed at all). And iTunes isn't even that great as a target. Oh, and don't forget OpenOffice, which, being completely free, is also completely crap.

And if the future of "desktop" linux is web apps, that really isn't any future at all is it? It simply means that Linux may or may not be running under that snazzy Web Terminal you're running. It means you might as well install windows, 'cause at least you'll be able to run good native apps in addition to the marginal web apps.

Paradoxically, the linux "desktop" wins in a key area: command line "apps", research and dev. I can literally download ubuntu and with a single click, install whole dev environments, for various different targets, in various different laguages. This is also true for research envs, not particularly related to dev.

This has no peer on windows, and mac is better, but still not as good. And the graphical "desktop"? That becomes just an excellent means to visualize my dev or research work. Even here, you get what you pay for. If you have a mac, look into some of the "Instruments" stuff Apple provides for visualizing what programs are doing. Fucking night and day vs. your typical linux fare. And.. yeah... while it's "free" to you, someone was paid to write it, and you did pay them (by buying mac hardware).

The main reason I am stuck with windows is because I have to reboot to play my new "windows only" games (wine cannot handle it) and, I have hardware with "windows only" drivers and I use as a freelancer CS5, gimp scribus and inkcsape just are not there as far as innovation and then people keep sending me M$ word docs and openoffice just cannot format these files 100%, in business this needs to work seamlessly.

I prefer a linux desktop but the rest of the world keeps making it "windows only."

The guy states the points about why an operating system cannot generate revenue, but he misses the point that Linux distributions does not need to generate revenue.

It's total flame-bait, the guy needs the attention and tries to get it by half-ass disguised trolling.

Carefully added note under the story does not change my opinion of a barking dog under the wrong tree.

Precious minutes of my life wasted on reading unworthy crap.

"common streaming technologies such as Flash ... deliver poor results on Linux"

I have a 4-year-old Dell PC running Ubuntu, and a brand new MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard. The Ubuntu machine shows Flash video content much better than the Mac.

I don't want to reopen the Adobe-vs-Apple question, or who's fault is it. Just pointing out that Flash Player works great on Ubuntu.

The stage wasn't set a few years ago, even using Ubuntu was too high-level for many people, since it inevitably required at least a bit of command-line usage. I expect linux will continue to get more popular as the medium level of computer users decreases.

1# I don't believe his numbers. I don't think market share is at 1%. 2# I think it is desirable, that Linux is the world's leading operating systems. 3# The future lies in asia, Linux is much stronger there.

I'm surprised this piece of linkbait is on the front page of HN.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com