[lugm.org] Linux on the desktop got a long way to go

Jochen Kirstätter lugm at ios.mu
Thu Oct 6 17:56:12 UTC 2011


Hi all,

either it's my mail client or Logan's replies are integrated into the 
stream... ?
- Doesn't matter anyway as the knowledge of "proper" quoting is pretty 
low on this list. No offence, just fact!

Alright, here we go...

[X Windows System or Xorg]
The system is a dinosaur back from the good ol' Unix days... and 
actually a network protocol rather than a graphical UI system. ;-)
Every incremental release produced a lot of headaches in the past. But 
even existing alternatives like NX or the upcoming Wayland 
infrastructure are kept down or even have been rejected by the *nix 
communities and distros. What an outrage and flame wars were sparked 
when Mark Shuttleworth outlined the swap towards Wayland...

[Paid open source developers]
Microsoft follows this trend since quite some time, and has even 
developers/teams on the payroll that are completely dedicated to open 
source development. While having a look at the projects on CodePlex you 
will find a good number of open developments "made by MSFT".

[Patents]
IMHO total non-sense in general. But even in certain cases there are 
simply agreements like between MSFT and Novell (R.I.P.) for the 
development of Mono and related as well as support agreements. Microsoft 
Services for Unix (SFU) has been awarded several years in a row as 
outstanding piece of software on Unix/Linux related events and trade shows.

[Linux on desktop]
The process has started and a huge number of successful case studies, 
especially in the public sector (schools, universities, etc.), 
governmental area, or in a lot of 3rd world / development countries, 
demonstrate the "ready for business" level of recent Linux 
distributions. In scientific institutes you will hardly find 
Windows-based environments (talking about CERN, or LHC, etc)

But the conversion of non-technical staff takes time, especially for 
re-education and acceptance.

Just my 2 cents...

-- 
Kind regards.

A. Because it breaks the logical sequence of discussion
Q. Why is top posting bad?

Learn how to quote properly: http://learn.to/quote

Get Blogged by JoKi - "The only frontiers are in your mind"
   http://jochen.kirstaetter.name/ - http://www.ios.mu/





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