Desktop Linux (fwd)

Andrew W. Gaunt quantum at lucent.com
Wed Feb 25 12:10:45 EST 2004


Linux has been a failure in the server room and 
somehow it has recovered very well. What does not
kill it only makes it stronger.

It may be a failure for the home desktop now, but,
to embrace and extend another's famous quote,
"Linux [on the desktop] is inevitable."

We are on the very brink of going large scale (for us)
here at work. There are a few groups (our internal
customers) working away at the reasons (usually
legacy tools that need to be replaced) not to. From 
my perspective here, linux on the desktop is without
any doubt going to be a reality in the foreseeable
future. Granted, we are not a 'home' environment, but,
didn't desktop computing start in the business world
and then flow out into the consumer world?

I write this on my XP machine which sends mail through its
solaris server while I burn some linux CDs.
 

-- 
____    __
 | 0|___||.  Andrew Gaunt - Computing Development Environment
_| _| : : }  Lucent Intranet: http://mvcde.inse.lucent.com/~quantum
 -(O)-==-o\  Internet: http://www.gaunt.org



Jon maddog Hall wrote:

>travis at scootz.net said:
>  
>
>>You know why linux will fail on the desktop for most families..
>>    
>>
>
>Travis,
>
>You are right that Linux will fail on most at-home desktops in 2004-2005
>because of a lack of "cool" software.
>
>It will also fail because the normal "support line" of at-home desktops
>(the church, the club, the nextdoor neighbor) will not be there in 2004-2005
>because it is not being used at work in 2002-2003.  But as people start
>using it at work two things will happen:
>
>	o that alternate support line will be built
>	o ISVs will start porting that "cool software"
>
>Make no mistake about it.  Vendors do not port or not port their software
>due to the difficulty of the port.  They port it due to the perceived volume
>growth in new desktops.
>
>I think that Linux will start to see that growth in 2004/2005, and I think that
>the ISVs are already porting.
>
>Regards,
>
>md
>
>  
>





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