The second point: "Companies tend to depend on a myriad of applications to run their business, and just a couple of them not running under Linux would be enough to derail a transition to Linux desktops" is the real killer.
This is really the only reason that I can't recommend trying Ubuntu to more people. People site usability concerns etc and while there are some issues there I think it's mostly "good enough" now and we're long past the days of having to compile a .tar.gz full of .c files and fettle with vi in order to get sound to work.
So the issue is how to get third party developers interested. I think the best way is by including a really sexy app store. Ubuntu Software Centre is a start but it's still nowhere close to what Apple has achieved in this area. Nasty looking icons, inconsistent screen shots (some showing gnome2, others Unity) and thousands of free apps with weird names don't make it the most attractive place to shop.
In many ways though , I would consider desktop Linux a success regardless of marketshare for the simple reason that it is now possible to "use a computer in freedom". I think the software world would be a bleaker place if Torvalds , Stallman et all hadn't spent the hours pushing code. Imagine a world where the cheapest HTTP server license went into thousands of $.
>> In many ways though , I would consider desktop Linux a success regardless of marketshare for the simple reason that it is now possible to "use a computer in freedom". I think the software world would be a bleaker place if Torvalds , Stallman et all hadn't spent the hours pushing code. Imagine a world where the cheapest HTTP server license went into thousands of $
I completely, wholeheartedly, agree with this. I will always maintain at least one Linux machine for this very reason.
>> People site usability concerns etc and while there are some issues there I think it's mostly "good enough" now and we're long past the days of having to compile a .tar.gz full of .c files and fettle with vi in order to get sound to work.
IMHO usability is still a concern. I truly believe it scares off quite a few potential users.
Anecdote : I've watched as a room full of professional developers cursed at their screen while working past Unity, dealing with NVIDIA driver compatibility and playing around with Xorgs. All the while, mind you, the devs using OSX would occasionally chime in with casual snark such as "oh, installing tomcat on OSX is really just a drag and drop..."
Obviously, we all got our desktops working - and I'm actually very fond of my highly tailored Xubuntu setup. However, it wasn't exactly pain free. I have to think that many a casual user might be put off by such an experience.
> All the while, mind you, the devs using OSX would occasionally chime in with casual snark such as "oh, installing tomcat on OSX is really just a drag and drop..."
Dev using OS X here. I've been on OS X since 2003 and haven't looked back. I'm now doing iOS development.
Unless it's kidding between good friends, I have no need for such snark. (Though I find it useful as a symptom.)
Part of the problem is supporting more than one distro is not as easy as people think, even different versions of the same distro are a challenge.
Compare to Windows and Mac OS where they really take good care of developers in this respect.
I'm not saying its impossible just that's it's hard enough to make developers think twice, slow them down or target only one distro.
I think the best way is by including a really sexy app store.
This is most likely necessary, but if this were sufficient, we'd all be using Lindows. Naturally, you can adjust the definition of "sexy" to include Apple's app stores, while excluding everyone else, but that doesn't strike me as a useful definition of the word.
This is really the only reason that I can't recommend trying Ubuntu to more people. People site usability concerns etc and while there are some issues there I think it's mostly "good enough" now and we're long past the days of having to compile a .tar.gz full of .c files and fettle with vi in order to get sound to work.
So the issue is how to get third party developers interested. I think the best way is by including a really sexy app store. Ubuntu Software Centre is a start but it's still nowhere close to what Apple has achieved in this area. Nasty looking icons, inconsistent screen shots (some showing gnome2, others Unity) and thousands of free apps with weird names don't make it the most attractive place to shop.
In many ways though , I would consider desktop Linux a success regardless of marketshare for the simple reason that it is now possible to "use a computer in freedom". I think the software world would be a bleaker place if Torvalds , Stallman et all hadn't spent the hours pushing code. Imagine a world where the cheapest HTTP server license went into thousands of $.