Passport to nowhere?

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Who will remedy it?

Which future version of linux will be a desktop version? You guys always talk about how linux is the windows killer, but heck, they are in different segments of the market thus far. Linux has what, about 80% of the server market, and windows has about 95% of the desktop market? You keep comparing apples and oranges. It's kinda like comparing a Chevy S10 with a Honda Civic and whining about "how come the back end keeps jumping around?".

Throw in the fragmenting and refragmenting of any and all linux desktop attempts to date, with 5+ versions plus 100+ ways of setting it up, and somehow this is supposed to be the windows desktop killer? With what kill app? Is there a killer app? Is there an app at all that can claim to do ANYTHING different from what is available on the windows desktop right now, or does everything try to emulate WIN in look and feel and functionality? Is there a Linux machine out there that can suppport every function of the latest graphics cards and every sound of the latest sound cards, that has USB support, that has IDE SATA RAID and UDMA 133 support, and software running it (a game perhaps) that actually uses this expensive hardware to its fullest? Or do you want me to run Linux on an 386 based grey box and somehow stand next to it smugly and pronounce it the "killer app in a killer box" instead (and yes, I keep hearing penguins actually say that nonsense right here on this site all the time).

You're just not getting it... the value that MS brought to the PC was that things were the same from PC to PC. As a programmer, I wouldn't care all that much what joystick is being used, or what filesystem the harddrive was formatted in (compare that to the DOS days, when every program came with dozens and dozens of drivers). As a user, I can go from one program to another and expect to see the same menus in the same areas of the screen (retraining anyone?). Is linux providing that same "cookie-cutter" approach? No. Instead, it's the old DOS - let's go into this file here in text mode, add this line and that, and with a little hokus pokus, a little compiling, and a bit of luck, it just might work again...!! This isn't progress, it's a step back to the 80's. Which is kinda funny when you think about it... since Linux was started in the early 90's, it should at least be in that decade. And don't even get me started on some of the software...sheesh, I thought at least the programs would look the same, but no, every programmer out there has to be different-some buttons on top, some on the bottom, some don't have buttons (command line text box anyone?).

Stop kidding yourself, Linux is not even close to the desktop yet, and from what I've been reading lately, the way IBM is pointing one way, Torvalis is pointing another way, and Novell is now pointing a third way, I think they will never meet on an actual PC desktop OS.... unless they meet on a MS product that is....

Posted by: rock06r   Posted on: 03/23/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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