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Is Linux Really Going To Rule the Desktop? | |
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| Time: 00:30 EST/05:30 GMT | News Source: NewsFactor | Posted By: Robert Stein | ||
|
The Linux (news - web sites) operating system remains strong in the server market, continuing to prove itself in a growing array of computing environments, including financial services, education and government. When it comes to the desktop, though, Linux can claim less than 1 percent market share, according to 2001 figures. Research firm IDC found the operating system is installed on just .5 percent of desktop PCs, while Mac OS has 2.4 percent desktop market share and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) Windows has 95 percent. | ||
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| #1 By 2062 (68.129.88.149) at 10/17/2002 12:38:10 AM |
|
Why does slashdot (a linux site) post news about microsoft?
Why does activewin (microsoft site) post news about linux? -gosh |
| #2 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/17/2002 12:45:38 AM |
| No! It won't be ruling the desktop any time this decade. Can we move on to real news? |
| #3 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/17/2002 2:32:39 AM |
| Why is it it that multiuser-ness is such a large hurdle for the 9x folks? |
| #4 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/17/2002 2:51:42 AM |
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From what you have described, this is the position Windows NT has been in for years. File permissions, install permissions, registery permissions, etc. With the end of the 9x line and the adoption of the NT line (Windows XP), users face the same problem going to Windows XP.
As for user data in the application directory, that is possible whether you have a multiuser system or not. Also, that really has nothing to do with the common user. That is a in issue for the programmers (as you stated). For the record, userdata in the program directory has long been a practice Microsoft has frowned upon. For an equally long time, there have been API calls to get the "My Documents" directory for the currently logged in user (or for the only user in the case of 9x). As far as administration goes, I imagine any admin who is running a Windows network has been dealing with the multiuser-ness of Windows NT, Windows 2000, and more recently Windows XP for some time. Again, I just don't see what point you are trying to make. |
| #5 By 2459 (24.233.39.98) at 10/17/2002 4:57:56 AM |
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This is not entirely true. Many of the security settings in XP are automatically enabled as the user utilizes some feature that would require or benefit from them. Two examples of this are automatic enabling of the firewall for connections that may need them, and not allowing remote connections to a computer that doesn't have a user password set. And things like file permissions are automatically enabled if you use NTFS (which is default unless you are upgrading and want to keep your FAT partition).
The main difference between NT and Linux is in the services that are enabled and accessible by default (and the number of services available on Windows, but not Linux). Windows does a lot of pre-configuration or automatic configuration, and has a standard set of services enabled by default that a majority of users are likely to use at some point. Even though they are enabled, they may not actually start running until the user does something that requires that service to start. In Linux, you may have to manually edit a config file just to enable a service. Most people don't know how (and won't care) to do this. When dealing with the desktop market, you have to make things intuitive for the user. On the server, you are likely to have an administrator to handle configuration issues. In this situation, it should not be much of a problem for the user (administrator) to configure the system, but you can also make setup less tedious and time consuming even in this case. This dual-sided approach to usability and security can be seen in past MS server releases, but is probably best shown in Windows.NET server. Even though you have a (supposedly) qualified admin who should be able to handle configuration and security issues in this context, his job is still made a bit easier by providing tools that can configure the server based upon the role(s) the admin requires of the server. The multiuser aspects of NT go back to its inception, and MS' development of OS/2. NT has at its core many *nix-style constructs, MS just doesn't make them all available to the user by default, but does offer programmer access to them. NT's multi desktop support is an example of this. MS doesn't make this end-user accessible OOTB, but does allow programmers to develop tools that expose this functionality to the end-user. MS even made a multi-desktop app available long ago with the NT resource kit. This functionality is now exposed through display drivers like those offered by NVIDIA, and as an MS Powertoy. Personally, if I desired *nix along with the benefits of NT, I'd get MS Services for Unix. It's not expensive, and provides a Unix shell within NT. Too bad MS doesn't make a PPC virtual machine so you can have a PPC Mac subsystem for NT. |
| #6 By 2459 (24.233.39.98) at 10/17/2002 7:33:44 AM |
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That's good. Does anyone know if Unix (FreeBSD) has come this far? I had to edit files in that to enable USB mouse support and setup the firewall. This was in an earlier version of BSD 4.x. The last Linux I used was Mandrake 8 (couldn't get networking working, though). I may try RedHat 8 since they redid the GUI. I think if any Linux will "rule" the desktop anytime soon, it's the ones like RedHat and Lycoris that try to bring Linux usability and intuitiveness up to par with Windows and Mac. The problem is that MacOS and Windows are moving targets. I think UNIX could rule a good percentage of the desktop if only Apple would ditch their hardware and embrace the support of companies like MS and Adobe rather than taking potshots at them, or as I said before, you could just drop $80 ($30 Academic) on services for UNIX.
The main problem I have with Linux is that (for me, anyway) there isn't anything to warrant the extra disk space. I install it. I play with it. I get bored (or encounter problems). I reboot into Windows. As long as Linux tries to mimic the Windows interface, and try to be a non-MS OS that looks like an MS OS trying to be compatible with MS apps rather than doing their own thing, I don't see the point of not just using the MS OS. It's not quite Unix, not quite Windows, (and now) not quite MacOS, but it tries to be all three. Heh, maybe everyone will start using Darwin. That would be ironic. Everyone using the OS Apple gives away instead of the one they make money from. This post was edited by n4cer on Thursday, October 17, 2002 at 07:49. |
| #7 By 2459 (24.233.39.98) at 10/17/2002 10:19:16 AM |
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The mistake you're making is probably the same mistake most of the Linux community makes. You referred to the user (Joe Schmo) as the admin.
Home users aren't admins. Technically they are, but only because it's their computer. They aren't admins in the sense that they don't train, nor are paid to administer their systems. Most people don't bother with advanced computing tasks because they don't need or want to. Until the Linux community gets this (and while the community doesn't, I think RH, Lycoris, etc. do), they'll never have a chance at the desktop. RE: KDE I think Linux would also be better off with Gnome. Don't you have to pay to develop for KDE? That should be reason enough to go with Gnome or some other GUI. That, and Ximian's embracing MS technologies. |
| #8 By 10896 (65.213.122.91) at 10/17/2002 10:42:02 AM |
| Who really cares what .5% of the Desktop market use. Their share is so insignificant, as to be meaningless. Maybe in ten years they could catch Apple but will never be more than that. The largest Linux company Red Hat only does 20 million/quarter. |
| #9 By 135 (209.180.28.6) at 10/17/2002 10:48:00 AM |
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beeyp - What is a control panel icon called 'Soundcard detection' supposed to do?
RichardJC - You mention multiuser capabilities, but really they are quite irrelevant to a desktop environment. In fact they are more of a hinderance. We had to implement a custom ACL solution to prevent users from logging in remotely, but still allow them to logon locally. All that's important for you TCO, is remote management capabilities. This is now built in to Windows XP, but has been available for years as part of SMS, Tivoli, etc. There is more to UI design than familiarity. Simplicity, orthogonality and so on is key. That's a huge area that Linux is still fundamentally lacking in. Whenever you see a review it usually boils down to "Well I was trying to change my resolution, but I couldn't find out how to do it." or something like that. Simplicity is really part of the key. One of the fundamental failures with Linux is it's strength with geeks. i.e. the customization. You don't want customization when you are deploying to the masses. |
| #10 By 135 (209.180.28.6) at 10/17/2002 10:50:05 AM |
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billmac - Agreed. Linux receives far more press than it deserves based upon it's merits.
|
| #11 By 2459 (24.233.39.98) at 10/17/2002 10:50:48 AM |
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This is only for Open Source app development, though.
If you want to develop commercial software, you must still pay: http://www.trolltech.com/developer/faqs/simple.html#Q3 ---------------------- When Qt Free Edition is Open Source and GPL, can I use it to make commercial (proprietary/closed-source) software? No. You will still need to purchase the Professional or Enterprise Edition to make commercial (proprietary/closed-source) software with Qt --------------------------- http://www.trolltech.com/purchase/qtpricing.html Single platform (Either Qt/X11 or Qt/Windows or Qt/Mac) Number of Developers: Professional Enterprise (Per license) (Per license) 1 $ 1550 $ 2180 2 - 5 $ 1400 $ 1970 6 - 10 $ 1320 $ 1860 11 - 20 $ 1240 $ 1750 >20 Call us or contact us at sales@trolltech.com! First year maintenance and support included. Click here to see the difference between Professional/Enterprise editions. -------------------------- That's just for one platform. |
| #12 By 2459 (24.233.39.98) at 10/17/2002 11:03:22 AM |
| Didn't like it? |
| #13 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/17/2002 4:14:07 PM |
| beeyp, I'm glad there are OSes for folks like you. I don't mean that negatively either. Sometimes I like to play with my OS and learn all there is about it. Most of the time, though, I like to use my applications and not think about what my OS is doing. I've installed Windows probably 4 times in the last year. One on a new computer, and three installs of XP on different machines. The only time I had to install XP twice was when I had a hard drive failure. It is interesting to me that you know so much about different Linux distros. I can't imagine how much time you spend installing OSes and comparing different versions. I don't have the desire to deal with that. XP has worked very well for me. It has only crashed when my HD was failing. |
| #14 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/17/2002 4:17:57 PM |
| beeyp, I wanted to respond to your questions about who would want to use services like httpd. I assume that is the HTTP daemon. If I'm a web developer, I'm probably not an admin. If I were developing on Linux, I would want an easy way to start whatever services I needed to test and develop web apps. If my area of skill is in writing code, I'd like to be able to do that and test it swiftly without learning shell commands, config files, etc. Setting up IIS is a very easy thing to do. Securing it is also easy - URL Scan, IIS Lockdown tool. |
| #15 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/17/2002 4:18:31 PM |
| FW, we agree on this issue. Yipee! |
| #16 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/17/2002 8:47:57 PM |
| I think, beeyp, that point Jagged is trying to make is that for Linux to take hold in the desktop market it has to be as easy to use as Windows is. If not, it probably won't over take Windows any time soon (if ever). |
| #17 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/17/2002 10:18:10 PM |
| For folks like beeyp, such a command is fine to type in Jagged. I guess if we were brought up on Linux, it might be easy for us too. |
| #18 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/18/2002 2:55:58 AM |
| First of all, what does this smart server / dumb client thing have to do with Linux? Is that the type of Linux environment you support? |
| #19 By 1845 (12.254.162.111) at 10/18/2002 2:57:39 AM |
|
Secondly, you can't comment the registery, but you sure can back it up and do what you will with it. You can do it all, or just a single key. Version control it, email it, print it, whatever.
The difference with the registery is that there are nice tools to edit it. Does Linux have such nice tools? |
| #20 By 135 (209.180.28.6) at 10/18/2002 10:33:52 AM |
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RichardJC - Haven't you ever worked in a largescale Unix workstation environment?
Anyway, the days of one big computers with 1000 dumb terminals connected are long since over. Time for you to move on from the 1980's... "A text file puts all the configuration in an easy place, that you can navigate easily. It can be as documented as you like - you can even add your own comments to it to say why you're doing what you're doing. You can search it, email it, print it, batch process it, put it in version control - all of these things not possible AFAIK with things like the Windows Registry." I search it, email it, print it, batch process it and put it in version control all the time. The only thing that doesn't work is commenting. You also forgot to mention it's faster to search the registry and access the registry than it is parsing hundreds of text files. That access bit is the key, has that helps application performance. |
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