On Sun, 2006-06-18 at 16:25 -0400, Sean wrote: > Linux is doing quite well and there is real reason to hope that the > situation will get better on the hardware front as hardware becomes > more and more standard. If Linux managed to have 100% hardware > coverage there is little reason to believe everyone would switch away > from Windows on the desktop; there is just too much inertia. OS/2, > MAC and others all failed to win the desktop as well; the desktop wars > are already over. Au contraire, mon ami. The desktop wars are just revving up. Mac didn't get market share because they stuck to a HW/SW solution that costs 1/3 to 1/2 again as much as the Wintel options. OS/2 lost because MS told all the OEM's and system vendors that they would start charging them for the preinstalled WinXX licenses on any system that duel booted OS/2 or that only had OS/2. Plus IBM did one of the absolute worst marketing moves in the history of the Industry (remember those acid-trip "OS/2 Warp" commercials?) > The _real_ value of Linux and other open source projects is the > freedoms given to developers and end users. Undermining or giving up > that aspect of Linux just to get a bit more hardware support would be > a real shame. Linux is going to move in on the desktop just like it did in the data centers and server rooms. It'll be a bit more work to do it but it's inevitable. -- Joe Klemmer <klemmerj@xxxxxxxxxxx>
