How Apple Killed the Linux Desktop

[mr john]

Linux had a great chance every when Vista came out. Sadly Apple put more money, resources and effort into advertising and getting media support. The final nail in the coffin was the end of the Gnome2 interface

[Dragonbite]

Linux had a great chance every when Vista came out. Sadly Apple put more money, resources and effort into advertising and getting media support. The final nail in the coffin was the end of the Gnome2 interface

As the Monty Python skit goes...

I'm not dead yet!

[Mikeb85]

Linux had a great chance every when Vista came out. Sadly Apple put more money, resources and effort into advertising and getting media support. The final nail in the coffin was the end of the Gnome2 interface

Gnome stopping development of Gnome 2 has absolutely nothing to do with Linux's lack of success. Gnome 3 is much better.

[Szor3n]

Gnome stopping development of Gnome 2 has absolutely nothing to do with Linux's lack of success. Gnome 3 is much better.

Yes. IMO Gnome 3 / Unity are a step in the right direction for desktop OS's. You can kind of see it in Windows 8 / OSX, but personally I think Unity did it best. You have integraded search, a non horribly glossy UX, and everything is fairly minimal, without going overboard.

Other than the fact that they don't run so well on older hardware, I really don't understand the massive 'outrage' in the linux community against these new designs.

[Mikeb85]

Yes. IMO Gnome 3 / Unity are a step in the right direction for desktop OS's. You can kind of see it in Windows 8 / OSX, but personally I think Unity did it best. You have integraded search, a non horribly glossy UX, and everything is fairly minimal, without going overboard.

Other than the fact that they don't run so well on older hardware, I really don't understand the massive 'outrage' in the linux community against these new designs.

The massive outrage is people who get stuck in their ways, don't want to learn, and see it as being more 'hardcore' to hate on the new paradigm...

People resist progression in every facet of life, computers are no different. Inevitably though, progress passes them by, and they become like dinosaurs...

[jwbrase]

Gnome stopping development of Gnome 2 has absolutely nothing to do with Linux's lack of success. Gnome 3 is much better.

I very much agree with the first sentence and vehemently disagree with the second.

Linux's lack of success on the desktop is a result of chasing an entrenched incumbent in the desktop OS market (a difficult situation in the first place), and of anticompetitive practices on the part of its competitors (Microsoft and Apple).

Furthermore, the Linux desktop isn't dead: mobile is starting to take over more and more of the role of the desktop, and Android is doing very well in the mobile market. In ten years or less I predict it will be commonplace to plug your phone into a terminal at your desk and use it like a desktop when you're at home or work rather than on the move. We're already starting to see some of that, though the current phones that do it present crap interfaces when docked (basically, a duplicate of their touch interface, which isn't exactly great for use with a mouse). So it's arguable that the long awaited "Year of the Linux Desktop" has already happened (call it 2010 or 2011). The biggest threat in this respect is that Apple and MS will manage to kill Android with lawsuits.

EDIT: With regards to the article linked in the OP, even if OS X becomes mainstream instead of Linux when Microsoft eventually falls apart (assuming that mobile hasn't completely taken over the role of the desktop by then), Linux is likely to do better (even though it still may not exactly thrive) in an OS X dominated market than in a Windows dominated one, due to somewhat better API compatibility (due to OS X also being a *n?x).

[vexorian]

The guy CNN mention is Miguel de Icaza. Sorry, but no, thanks. I'll give 0 credibility to this article.

The guy is so full of it. Really? Does he really think the issue with Linux is that we are losing developers? Sorry, but is he on crack?

Is there an "issue" with Linux? The numbers have stayed stable for years. Until last year when we supposedly had a surge. CNN links to it: http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/N...desktop-stats/

Otherwise, who cares?

Mobile development is also on de Icaza's mind. Since 2001 he's been working on Mono, an open source framework for running Microsoft's .NET languages on non-Microsoft operating systems like Linux and OS X. Now the project is available on Android and iOS as well.

Ah so he cares. The whole silly claim was a dull attempt to promote his little dead horse and make people move to Microsoft instead of Apple.

i look at apple as another linux distro

That's a VERY wrong way to view things. It is at best a very proprietary FreeBSD distro.

[cariboo]

Maybe Miguel should have stuck with Gnome.

[vexorian]

And seriously, since the web platform works nicely in Linux, is it not a good thing that it is getting popular?

I guess for Icaza anything not MS encumbered .NET is bad for business Linux.

[mamamia88]

Meh until I can get a mac without a 30% markup over pc hardware I'll continue to use linux. Heck I'll probably contiune using linux because I can contiune running a modern desktop indefinitely without new hardware (within reason). I guess macs are good if you really need mac specific software but come on windows with 90% market share so gets most apps.