Recently, another year of the Linux desktop article appeared: “2008: Year of the Linux Desktop” by Robert Strohmeyer
Why?
There are always great steps in Linux desktop development. There are always more and more people trying out desktop Linux. Does there need to be a “year of the Linux desktop”? Like Linux isn’t ready for the desktop, the phrase year of the Linux desktop has no definite agreed-upon definition, but it does hint that basically a huge shift will occur where hoards of Windows users will drop Windows and suddenly start using a Linux distro as their main desktop operating system.
But I don’t remember there being a year of the Firefox desktop. Was it 2003? 2004? 2005? 2006? What year was the year of the Firefox desktop? We’re up to 25% browser share in Europe and about 15% worldwide, but did that happen over the course of any one year? Of course not. There wasn’t a year of the MySpace page. There wasn’t a year of the Google search engine. There wasn’t a year of the iPod player. These phenomona happened quickly but never in one huge clump.
Linux desktop users are a growing population and will continue to be so. We don’t have to elect one year for desktop Linux to be a household name. Think big, people—not immediate.
There wasn’t a year of the home computer either. However, if we build hype, we can make Ubuntu 8.04 be remembered by many non-linux users. Feisty was a big PR hit, and the Gutsy features + LTS would make a killer OS. Linux won’t grow to a double digit user share because of it, but it would help to get recognized as a major OS.
BTW, ex MSFT blogger Robert Scoble just asked exactly the same. Seems like Ubuntu impressed him favorably.
From parenting to Linux. Truly a renaissance man ;-) I would leave some kind of helpful comment about this post, but have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. In any case, I am just glad my puter works and am always willing to give some new things a chance.
Well, considering my church pastor doesn’t have any idea what I’m talking about, I think it’s safe to say that 2008 is not “the year of the Linux desktop” (whatever that phrase means).
I doubt you’d want to install Ubuntu Linux on your Mac, but if you’re open to playing with something new, the Ubuntu CD allows you to try it out without affecting your hard drive. It runs a fully functional operating system (complete with applications) from the CD itself and your computer’s temporary memory (RAM).
Let me know if you’re interested, and I’ll slip you a CD one Sunday.
I’m pretty sure there was a year of the iPod; market share jumped from next to nothing to like 25%+ of the US digital audio player market… I’ve seen it on Wikipedia, but I can’t remember where.
Linux desktop is more about “Linux is here, it’s damn ready, and it WILL start finding itself on more PCs”, kind of like step #1 of World Domination. Dell is helping to fuel the Ubuntu craze, and as long as one linux distro is doing good, it’s better for all of us. Once 7.10 rolls around… It will be better than Vista. Without a doubt. The only people who would favour Vista are those (Like thebland from AVSForums) with sick minded attitudes about DRM being “good”.
Most people with computers… I hate to say it, but are “drones”, in the sense they don’t mind much what they use, and don’t realise that sometimes what they use is crap; this applies for everything… A majority of north americans shop at Wal-Mart to save money, but from what I’ve seen, in a lot of cases Wal-Mart is more expensive than smaller stores that specialise in the stuff.
Oh crap, here I go again, filling your blog with nonsense ;P
Fill away. At least you’re not berating the “stupidity” of me and my wife.
“Think big, people—not immediate.” Thats a very good point. Our children and our children will be using Linux over Windows for basic reasons. Such as a number of SSN’s being stolen by a hacker. While you have the Guardians telling their children “Those aren’t hackers, those are crackers”, “Hackers are good people”.
Then there is the parents using Linux a lot, which is very influential to the child.
But most of all are the curious teenagers that have had it with windows. And having to had replace broken mice and keyboards (I know i did). Linux wasn’t very good back then, but I did contribute some ATI drivers to the cause, so I can’t say I’m just ranting about it.
But now Linux has come a VERY long way from what it once was. I enjoy using Linux, and now I don’t have to boot back over to Windows thanks to the developers coming up with a way to seamlessly integrate Windows apps into linux, whether it be WINE or Seamless Virtualization. Linux is much easier to use, has massive hardware support, eye candy for the vanity crowd, has some great games if you just look around some, most of them free of charge, and most of all, Security. The coup de graw of Linux popularity is its amazing security because they learned from the mistakes of Apple, Microsoft, and AT&T. Mostly that remote code execution is a bad thing (See Morris Internet Worm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Worm)
I don’t think this is the “Year of the Linux Desktop” its the “Decade of the Linux Desktop”