Why Linux isn't ready for the desktop.

Originally Posted by Germany_chris But up until OS X and 10.5 for that matter Mac OS wasn't POSIX compliant, OS X is Jobs' baby.

i always heard that mac-os is closer to at&t unix than linux can ever claim to be (linux kernel + gnu are just re-implimentations of unix without using the real unix code). os-x has authentic unix source code.

which is funny because their 'i'm a mac/i'm a pc' marketing shows that macs are cool and pc's are nerdy eventhough macs are actually nerdier than even linux.

Originally Posted by schneidz i always heard that mac-os is closer to at&t unix than linux can ever claim to be (linux kernel + gnu are just re-implimentations of unix without using the real unix code). os-x has authentic unix source code. which is funny because their 'i'm a mac/i'm a pc' marketing shows that macs are cool and pc's are nerdy eventhough macs are actually nerdier than even linux.

You can be a geeky as you want with OS X or as non-geeky it's your choice. Jobs created a system that had sophisticated underpinning that any idiot can use and there is nothing wrong with that. If Apple can stay pure in there design direction both HW (like 16:10 displays) and SW the will be for the foreseeable future a force in the tech industry.

Originally Posted by Germany_chris You can be a geeky as you want with OS X or as non-geeky it's your choice. Jobs created a system that had sophisticated underpinning that any idiot can use and there is nothing wrong with that. If Apple can stay pure in there design direction both HW (like 16:10 displays) and SW the will be for the foreseeable future a force in the tech industry.

good points... but (i mite be wrong) wasnt woz more involved with the technical parts or is he strictly hardware ?

Jobs was brought back because of NeXT Step OS 8 and 9 were garbage and everyone knew it. Woz left before Jobs was kicked to the curb so there isn't much Woz left in Apple after 1990 or so which is really a shame. The guy was brilliant and likable a nerd to the core Apple could have used him as a counter point to the suits, then Jobs himself. I don't like Jobs as a man at all but he had a knack for taking taking complex things and making them tools for the every man. He also had a knack for surrounding himself with smart folks who would tilt windmills with him.

Why Linux isn't ready for the desktop.

If Linux is not ready for the desktop, how have I been using it for the last several years? Am I a magician? Do I have divine favour? Or is that kind of stuff nonsense continuously perpetuated by companies trying to prevent loosing paying customers to the "competition"?

Originally Posted by schneidz i think this recent post is evident that linux still isnt ready for most peoples desktops: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...tu-4175496142/

That is like posting a photograph of people eating Big Macs in a McGag n' Puke as evidence that most people are not ready for real food. The person in that thread is trying to apply his/her knowledge of using Windows to Linux. If someone has only used a unix-based system and decides to try Windows, but is puzzled because Windows will not let him save his "Word document" as an .odf file, that would be evidence Windows is not ready for the desktop?

If you don't like it, then don't use it!

Hey the false dilemma fallacy that happens in every internet argument.

Also, do follow http://www.groklaw.net, which is a website originally started by a paralegal who has since built for herself a career as a follower of court cases ... beginning with [i]SCO vs. (well, just about everybody)/i], in which the company which the company that ostensibly bought Unix from AT&T asserted that it was entitled to royalties from anything and everything that smacked of Unix ... specifically including, of course, Linux.

SCO was resoundingly defeated and driven into bankruptcy ... except, of course, that there is still one more appeal pending, which may or may not actually be heard someday (but I doubt it ...).

And of course, stuff like this (http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?s...90623181938397) is what made Groklaw so justifiably famous:

Reading it, I get the picture, I think. SCO wants the bankruptcy judge to handle the Red Hat litigation, and since it filed similar objections to IBM, Novell and SUSE's claims, it wants to get out from under them too. That way they can go out and sue new people, I suppose, without all those damages slowing them down. I know. Well, if you were SCO, wouldn't you want this bankruptcy judge to handle all your affairs? Could this really be the plan? They are the amazings, so why not? Their position is that the appeal of Novell will annoint SCO as the victors after all, and all the other cases will then fail against them, so the claims are worthless. SCOthink.

Anyway, I digress. But if somehow you haven't encountered GrokLaw yet, definitely bookmark it. Great reading for a rainy night. It'll tell you a lot about what the lawyers are doing, and how attorneys on both sides of any argument cleverly perpetuate it, forever. (Any aspirations that I ever had to be either a lawyer or a judge are long, long gone.)

FYI ... There is also an excellent article on GrokLaw, written by an attorney for Red Hat, entitled Understanding Open-Source Software, at this address:

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?s...31231092027900.

Originally Posted by Randicus Draco Albus ...That is like posting a photograph of people eating Big Macs in a McGag n' Puke as evidence that most people are not ready for real food...

well, maybe in the us ?

Linux isn't ready for the desktop because it doesn't promote laziness. Most Windows users don't want to learn a new way of doing things either. This is why a lot of people don't like Windows 8. You need to learn keyboard shortcuts, which is more difficult than pointing a mouse at something. With tablets, you don't even need search the Internet for software. Just search the "store", and touch install. Searching the Internet, downloading the software, double clicking on it, and hitting next a couple times is difficult and time consuming. How can any body be expected to learn a command for a package manager to search and install software without fancy names? These days, if it takes more than a few mouse clicks or touch screen gestures, it's too much work.

This is true: computers are becoming what they always were meant to be ... an appliance.

And . . .

. . . if you are currently engaged in "programming web-sites," or "managing lots of [Windows?] [laptop?] computers for your present employer" . . .

. . . if you think that your job is secure because of the arcane things that you know . . .

. . . then you had better wake up and smell the coffee, because your present, "craft-skills based," presently-lucrative job is just about to disappear forever.

Computers are rapidly becoming a commodity: the Internet is "an Internet of things." No one needs to know how to be a <Windows | Linux | anything-else> "guru" in order to use a phone or a tablet. No one needs to know how to update the software on it because the software updates itself. The list goes on.

Where specialized labor is required, that labor is being shopped out to the countries that employ paeons most-cheaply, and when the prices start going up in those countries another country will be picked. And that labor, also, will be worth no more than that, because all that will be required is to know how to operate a machine.

You can't stop this inevitable progression: everything follows it and everything always has. But you can, at least, be aware of it and step out of its way before it blind-sides you.

it's generally easier to install stuff on Linux, go to your software manager search and install you don't even need get on the net download and click your way through..

Hi,

I just came back from vacation where I took a 'Dell Laptop w/windows 8.1. Took a 'SSD' to use with Linux on same. Short story, never had enough time to do the install so I just used the Win 8.1. No more than a utility box for me to get my mail and com to friends. Do I like Win 8.1? No! Did it do what was needed at the time? Yes!

I'm back home and using my main Laptop with Slackware. Feels good!
Desktop works as before and does everything I want. I move from the Desktop to 'cli' all the time. Good habits do not die! Desktop on this machine is KDE, feels good and smooth. Do I think that Gnu/Linux is ready for Desktop? Generally it is and depends on the distribution a user chooses and their level of expertize with that Gnu/Linux or dependent on the maintainers abilities to provide a usable Desktop for the population.

Will Gnu/Linux ever replace a Microsoft dominated world? Possibly happen when Microsoft fails if ever. Not everyone in this world can afford to upgrade or purchase a computer all the time to keep up with Microsoft's regenerations so old hardware or new can be used with a free Gnu/Linux that will support said hardware.

So the Desktop is ready for a Gnu/Linux user who chooses to install and use a good distribution that provides the necessary apps for their use. Do I want a turn-key Gnu/Linux? No, that is why I use Slackware!

Will the Gnu/Linux Desktop replace Microsoft's Desktop? For a user that does need a OS that is secure and not bloated then Gnu/Linux is meeting the needs for some. Smart Gnu/Linux users have the luxury of changing things to suit their needs or desires to provide a usable computer with a Desktop or 'cli'.

Do I care if Gnu/Linux replaces Microsoft? Yes, I make money helping clients who cannot follow or even read instructions to solve their issues with Microsoft. I'm not the only one who makes money from Microsoft users.