Can Linux beat XP in homes yet or NOT?

[Srikanth Konjarla]

Ashley Pritchard wrote:
> "I have looked at Dell's initiative with
> Ubuntu Linux but i guess a user would have to contact Ubuntu forums for
> any kind of support"
> Yes Dell is supplying OS support for Dell systems sold w/ Ubuntu Linux 
> under their warranty service.
> 
> Will Linux ever be on the desktop mainstream? NO it will never be on the 
> desktop because the open source community is not unified enough to 
> accomplish this. There is not standardized distribution that will work 
> ...ie w/the ability to play DVDs, MP3s etc out of the box (even 
> individual users will argue just over the pettiest of commands such as 
> how to su to root). The conflicts between DMC, Patton laws & GPL & no 
> one willing to compromise on either side of the issue continues to make 
> linux a pain in the rear to install & configure. Even though 
> incorporating multimedia support to work in the distribution may be in 
> conflict with the philosophy of "free" (as in free speech) software not 
> incorporating multimedia support limits my freedom to listen to music & 
> watch movies on the system with the OS of my choice. You can install F7 
> in an afternoon & then spend the next 4-5 months configuring & trying to 
> figure out how to get things to work. Just to have a usable system for 
> multimedia & simple browsing is complicated for the lack of flash & java 
> support (I still have not gotten java to work on my system & I installed 
> F7 almost 2mo ago). I had to edit all of the GDM themes to have Welsh 
> language support & that took the better part of 2 days to sift through 
> all of the xml files. I am still configuring my system but almost have 
> to where I like but by then they will have a new version out & the cycle 
> will start again.   

This is where i believe hardware vendors can add significant value as 
users are going to *pay* for a desktop/laptop. Hardware vendors can 
easily include support for multimedia out of the box.
> 
> No linux will never win over Windows for the desktop on PCs. If you want 
> a system with an open source OS get a MAC which is basically Free BSD.
Mac is a overly hyped and priced software/hardware. Again, the same 
theory applies here. Apple takes the work from open source and builds 
into its hardware and charges a fortune to users with lots of flashy things.

Srikanth
> 
> On 7/13/07, * Srikanth Konjarla* <srikanth.konjarla at gmail.com 
> <mailto:srikanth.konjarla at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>     Les Mikesell wrote:
>      > Srikanth Konjarla wrote:
>      >> Interesting subject as always. To me, yes Linux beats XP/Vista etc.
>      >> Last time i have run windowZe for business was NT4 (i go to
>     customers)
>      >> since then i have started running Linux on laptop (started with
>     RH7.0,
>      >> no dual boot either).
>      >>
>      >> But, for many out there it may not beat XP because there is no
>     vendor
>      >> stands behind "Linux" to support. Also, Linux has become very
>     general
>      >> term and i guess these days we gotta be specific about a Linux
>      >> distribution (F7, Ubuntu, SuSE etc). If there is a vendor who is
>     ready
>      >> to pre install Linux (any distro) and extend it to full
>     supportability
>      >> while providing all the drivers (video, wireless specifically)
>     then it
>      >> can beat any OS (in my opinion OS X also).
>      >>
>      >> The question, who is gonna do that.
>      >
>      > Maybe these are US-only links, but they are to PCs with RedHat and
>      > Ubuntu factory installed.
>      >
>      >
>     http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/precn_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&redirect=1
>     <http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/precn_n?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&redirect=1>
>      >
>      >
>     http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
>     <http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/linux_3x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs>
>     Sun,IBM,HP also shipping RH,SUSE based Linux servers for quite a while.
>     But, on the desktop side of the Linux, there is no vendor who can
>     "extend" a supportable Linux. I have looked at Dell's initiative with
>     Ubuntu Linux but i guess a user would have to contact Ubuntu forums for
>     any kind of support. Also, Dell is not known to contributing any code
>     that might augment the functionality of Linux or works better on their
>     hardware with complete support of hardware. But, i guess it is a good
>     start from Dell.
> 
>     Most of the hardware vendors have a mailing list that is specific to
>     Linux but when it comes to actual support they contribute nothing
>     (specially Toshiba). This need to change for a big push into
>     desktop/laptop market.
> 
>     Srikanth
>      >
>      >
>      >
>      > But, installing your own is trivial if the hardware is recognized
>     by the
>      > installer.
>      >
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Diolch yn fawr, Ashley
>