Desktop Linux: The Dream Is Dead

[Fabio FZero]

I agree we have to invent the future, but the problem is this future
is sort of being ignored most of the time. Take for example 10/GUI;
it's a perfect mash-up of multi-touch and desktop interfaces. For some
reason it's being ignored to this date.

http://10gui.com (Notice the linux-based GUI mockup!)

I really hoped the Toshiba dual-screen Libretto would implement it in
some form, but they seem to have screwed up royally in the UI
department.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/08/toshiba-libretto-w105-review

Anyway, I'm of the opinion that the desktop will continue to change
and become even less relevant in the near future. In fact it already
has; most people use notebooks now, and it *is* a different way to use
the computer. Instead of going to a desk and turning it on, you put it
on your lap and wake it up. This alone is a huge shift.

I for one believe the computer will be the cellphone pretty soon. You
will simply insert it or connect it (wireless, probably) to an "empty"
laptop-like device to do more complex tasks, but that's it.

And you know what? Microsoft doesn't have that much of a foothold in
this market (yet).

- Fabio

On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 12:54, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> | From: Thomas Milne <tbrucemilne-TcoXwbchSccMMYnvST3LeUB+6BGkLq7r at public.gmane.org>
>
> | I've read this article a million times before, and it'll be written a
> | million times more. Why? Because it gets people riled up and reading
> | the article and sells ad space. It's a headline with no body.
>
> You have a point.
>
> | Anyone who claims to have even the vaguest idea what will happen with
> | computing in the future is selling snake oil, and is most likely just
> | trolling for an argument.
>
> Someone has to make the future.  Articles like this can affect that
> process.  Possibly negatively for us (preventing effort towards a
> Linux desktop).  Possibly positively (preventing wasted effort towards
> a Linux desktop).
>
> I was looking for an Alan Kay quote and found other apt ones here
> <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Future>
>
>        The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
>                Alan Kay
>
> pretty similar to the earlier:
>
>        We cannot predict the future, but we can invent it.
>                Dandridge M. Cole
>
> Also relevant:
>
>        If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
>                John Galsworthy
>
>        The future is already here – it's just not very
>        evenly distributed.
>                William Gibson
>        (Example: many of us use a Linux desktop.)
>
>        The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked,
>        is mine.
>                Nikola Tesla
>
> My desktop and notebooks run Linux all the time.  My wife often uses
> WinXP because I haven't found a good QuickBooks replacement.  My (grad
> student) children use Linux desktops exclusively except when gaming.
> Even gaming is mostly done on a console these days.
>
> I ran Win7 last night on an Acer Revo that I'm using as an HTPC.  The
> reason?  I wanted to watch a TV show from Global TV's web site and
> Adobe Flash is much smoother on Win7 than on Linux.  Damned
> closed-source.  In the event, I didn't have flash on the Win7 box and
> it used some other facility (Silverlight?  It didn't tell me) that was
> just as choppy as Adobe Flash on Linux.  I've since loaded Adobe Flash
> on the Win7.
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