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Year of the Linux Desktop: 2001
Written By Scrivs on Sep. 7, 2007.
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Nope, that isn't a typo in the title. It's a random year I made up to claim that it was the year Linux hit it big on the desktop since every year seems to be that year, yet it never arrives. Ubuntu is doing a great job of consolidating the fragmented Linux market, but in all honest Apple has stolen all the thunder and will only continue to do so until Jobs leaves.
Before OS X, when looking for a Windows alternative you looked at Linux (man remember BeOS?). Now it seems Linux even plays second fiddle to the geeks who are too busy sitting back and enjoying the sexiness that is OS X. It seems the only reason to go with Linux on the desktop is if you like to build your own computers.
It's not that Linux really did anything wrong, it is just that there wasn't enough right stuff going on. Sure there were things that could be done better than Windows, but the gap of catching up was simply too much. OS X didn't really close the gap all that much, but it did what Windows could do and seemed to do it much cooler in a nicer hardware package. That was the main problem with Linux: the presentation.
A great aspect of Linux though is that it will never die down and won't disappear. It simply does not get the hype that it used to and this is probably a good thing as working under the spotlight can showcase more problems than you want. How desktop Linux will leapfrog OS X though is something I am not so sure they can do. Leapfrogging Microsoft seemed easy due to their development cycle however.
I used to be a staunch advocate of Linux and how one day it was going to reign supreme on the desktop. Now I could care less.
Tyme
Written Sep. 7, 2007 / Report /
I think everything has its place and the desktop just wasn't for Linux (overall). Linux is very widely used (the majority of hosting companies use it) but it was never user friendly enough for a non-geek like Mac and Windows are. Even the distributions that claimed to be easy didn't scale. Updating the kernel? Haha, to this day a kernel upgrade will cause me to cross my fingers and pray it works whereas updating Mac/Windows - it just does (for the most part).
Looking at some of the Linux desktops I wished Windows looked as good but I no longer play around with Linux for the desktop and unless something spectacular happens, I doubt I ever will.
mwilsonemt
Written Sep. 7, 2007 / Report /
I feel Linux will become a major player in the desktop market soon due to the inflation of prices for MS software and apple products. I use Linux. I would probably use a Mac, but I just can't afford one.
Ozone42
Written Sep. 7, 2007 / Report /
I used linux primarily from 1994-2001. I still use it on my servers. It's not a desktop solution.
It of course, depends what you're doing. Anyone can make it their desktop solution if they work at it. For some people, the out of the box configurations of Ubuntu, or Suse, or the like can work, but it's still a far cry from Microsoft or OSX as far as ui (moreso in consistency/intuitiveness/familiarity.)
The moment someone wants to do something different, they have to be an expert. This is where it breaks. It's great for the top 20% of the bell curve. It fails utterly for the middle and low end--where MS and Apple excel.
I still have my licensed copy of BeOS 4.5 too, book and all. Man that showed promise.
Scrivs
Written Sep. 7, 2007 / Report /
Couldn't this statement be used anytime between 1994 and now? That is what almost all Linux advocates continue to say.
Kyle
Written Sep. 7, 2007 / Report /
To me the problem with linux is the free-ness of it. Want an MP3 player? You've got about 500 options. But none of the players by default can even play an MP3. And about half of those free options are dead projects or don't work for some reason. By the time you've got an MP3 playing, it's 5 hours later and you just bought a Mac.
Linux needs to corrall it's software into walled gardens -- much like Ubuntu has done for the distribution market. (Remember the days when you asked someone which distro to use for desktop and got 50 options?). One of the reasons Mac has had such a huge popularity boost is the software development Apple has put in -- iWork, iLife, iTunes, and Pro apps like Aperture and Final Cut have done WONDERS toward making OSX a good OS to use.
Sometimes proprietary is a wonderful thing. Until Linux can do that, they will constantly be on the outside looking in.
mwilsonemt
Written Sep. 7, 2007 / Report /
Your very true, but I am a very new Linux user. I have also helped my mom, who has vista, and I have had a more success getting ubuntu to run right on my 6 year old computer than I have with vista on her brand new computer that had it preinstalled.
clicknathan
Written Sep. 8, 2007 / Report /
What ever happened to Lindows? That sounded like the most viable option for Linux to ever take off, because it actually provided a completed package "right out of the box."
I learned Basic on my own in high school, CSS and XHTML later in life, and now am making my way through PHP, all which can be a bit daunting, but doable.
Sitting down and trying to figure out Linux, installing kernels, patches, boxing my root... it's all just so overwhelming, anyone who doesn't replace all of his E's with 3's is going to have such a hard time.