Linux may lose its chance of competing with Microsoft after the 64bit revolution gets underway

[Evan Leibovitch]

paul sutton wrote:
> I agree with this,  why are we obsessed with the desktop,
On the contrary, Linux to date has been "obsessed" with the server. It 
is only recently, within the last few years, that the Linux desktop has 
been mentioned at all as more than just a pretty UI for server admins 
and power users.

Those of use who are old enough to remember the glory days of Linux 
recall that it was the lack of a credible desktop version that allowed 
Windows to encroach on its server territory. If your operation was going 
to be all-Windows or Windows/Unix, the logic went, wouldn't it be easier 
just to get both sides from one source? The story was compelling, 
especially to the small business sector that gleefully traded in its 
Unix-based Foxpros and Business Basics and Wyse 60s for Visual Basic and 
Access and talking paper clips.

There is a lesson to be learned -- while I'm not amongst those who say 
Linux is a failure if it doesn't display Windows everywhere, I do 
believe that a credible desktop offering is very important to those 
advocates and vendors who need to demonstrate an corporate-quality 
end-to-end FOSS solution without needing to fall back on MS somewhere in 
the chain.

IMO, credible does not mean that it needs to be as slick as the Mac or 
have as many third-party apps as MS-Windows. It just needs to be 
reasonably functional and easy to use by non-geeks. Things have come a 
very long way but there are still gaps that are fixable and can't be 
totally blamed on licensing issues (ie, better PDA connectivity, better 
interoperability between GNOME and KDE apps).

As has been mentioned elsewhere, the client platform is not as 
monolythic as it used to be. Joining the traditional networked PCs are 
thin clients, PDAs, smartphones, networked game machines, the OLPC 
project, etc... and Linux has a growing presence here that shines as a 
flexible, extensible platform. Windows can continue to dominate the PC 
thick-client platform while seeing its share of the total client 
population plummet.

If anything, Linux is unquestionably the current leader in scalability 
and end-to-end interoperability. It runs supercomputers and 
wristwatches. It arguably gave new life to the IBM mainframe product and 
powers millions of phones in Asia.

In any case, Linux is doing quite well for itself in powering the 
servers that will give all those new clients something to do.

A good desktop is a Really Nice Thing to have, but our world won't be 
made or broken based on whether your Fedora box can play Shockwave 
animations or  do Pantone colour matching.

- Evan
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml