Has the Desktop Linux Bubble Burst?

[John.Michael.Kane]

Have a read,and post your thoughts.

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=16783

[darrenm]

I kind of skim read it after reading the first few sentences and realising the author didn't have a clue what he was talking about.

If the title of the article was "Am I Impatient?" then I would say yes because that's basically all the article is saying.

Saying that the desktop Linux bubble has burst has nothing to do with Gnome or KDE. Developments in Ubuntu do the most to push desktop Linux forward.

I don't think there will be a year of the desktop for Linux but the next five years should push everything a lot further. The UK seems to be really embracing Linux and Open source recently and all of Europe and Asia want a reason to ditch Microsoft. Vista may not be XP in a shell suit but its still not a great deal better.

People get taken with eye candy and the biggest pull to Linux desktop useage and Ubuntu is particular is Beryl/GL which completely embarrasses Aero. Now its getting very stable very quickly and there isn't a lot left for Ubuntu to do to make sure everything but games work then suddenly it all looks a lot rosier.

I can't speak for KDE but Gnome has had a lot of behind the scenes work done recently. Anyone could change the major rev number if they wanted to.

[Rhubarb]

As well as Beryl competing very nicely with Aero and OS X's interface, let's not forget Beagle.
Beagle has the capacity to search through more document / email / picture / sound formats than any other desktop search engine.

I could go on ... but it's time to knock off from work now :)
Thanks for the interesting link there SD-Plissken.

[floke]

Well I got as far as the bit about Gnome and realised that the author hadn;t a clue.
Has he bothered to check it out?

See this: http://live.gnome.org/ThreePointZero for all you need to know about why it is wrong about G3.

Can't comment on the rest though since I stopped reading.

[raul_]

Well I got as far as the bit about Gnome and realised that the author hadn;t a clue.
Has he bothered to check it out?

See this: http://live.gnome.org/ThreePointZero for all you need to know about why it is wrong about G3.

Can't comment on the rest though since I stopped reading.

Exactly. People often think that new versions are "oh so great" , just because they look new.

[Mateo]

I kind of skim read it after reading the first few sentences and realising the author didn't have a clue what he was talking about.

If the title of the article was "Am I Impatient?" then I would say yes because that's basically all the article is saying.

not trying to be confrontational here, but don't you think it's a little unfair to accuse the author of being impatient when you admittedly weren't patient enough to read his argument?

[mykalreborn]

i guess it's an issue. some parts of the open source software were a bit unmainatined, but that's the "price" you have to pay when you don't actually pay a PRICE ;).
still, i'm sure the developers of gnome or kde aren't going to let two of the biggest linux desktop envoirments just go down the drain. there are to many distros counting on them. this may be just a minor setback. and if that is the case we can all turn to enlightment :p

[raul_]

i guess it's an issue. some parts of the open source software were a bit unmainatined

Who said they are unmaintained?

[mykalreborn]

i said a bit unmainained. still maybe it's too strong a word. but you must admit some parts of the linux software world - like the audio authoring distros for example, not the desktop envoriments - are a little "unmainained". don't get me wrong, though, i'm not complaining.

[Solver]

Wow... so the article's author disses the development teams of both KDE and GNOME, adds a Vista-praising sentence to the end and considers his job done. Hmm?

I think Linux for desktops is doing better than it ever has, and still improving. My first experiment with Linux was back in 2000. I've had an interest in Linux since before then and wanted to use it. In 2000, I couldn't use largely due to hardware support issues. In late 2001 / early 2002, my own problems with Linux hardware support were gone, but neither KDE nor GNOME seemed user-friendly and convenient enough for me at the time. Compared to the then-new Windows XP, I felt that Linux, for all of its strong points, still lacks in usability. But I also felt later that the desktop environments are improving, and now in the beginning of 2007, I'm very satisfied. The GNOME desktop, by default, is very good. It can't do a few simple things that XP can, but it can also do a whole bunch of things that XP can't. With Beryl and various themes, it can look at least as good as Vista, while having much, much lower hardware requirements.

Linux has really gone a long way, and Ubuntu, in particular, is a pleasant surprise. A new distro, gained so much populairty and brings more users. It's now actually useable by mere mortals who don't know how to compile software from sources or use grep and awk.

[lyceum]

If you want to gripe, type some code or shell out some money for someone who can. I agree that both need some big names funding them. Maybe there should be more stories on why big business should give money instead of gripping about products that are free.:-k

[Lord Illidan]

There are unmaintained pieces of software out there. But KDE and GNOME are not what I would call unmaintained.

[doobit]

Vista may not be XP in a shell suit but its still not a great deal better.

People get taken with eye candy and the biggest pull to Linux desktop useage and Ubuntu is particular is Beryl/GL which completely embarrasses Aero. Now its getting very stable very quickly and there isn't a lot left for Ubuntu to do to make sure everything but games work then suddenly it all looks a lot rosier.

I can't speak for KDE but Gnome has had a lot of behind the scenes work done recently. Anyone could change the major rev number if they wanted to.

I agree with this. XP has been around without any changes to it's interface for more than five years, while Gnome and KDE trudge forward, with small, but significant steps. I also don't know how you can call OSX fast, and certainly, that word does not apply to Vista. Try running any of them on a 500MHZ machine with less than 512 MB RAM, and compare with Xfce or Fluxbox in Linux and you will see what I mean.
Other than looking nice, I also dont' see where significant improvements in function have come along in any interface, except to make certain features more available on the desktop (the trashcan? come on !), which doesn't seem like such a big deal to me.

Bill Gates said last month that he thinks the next big change should be to get rid of the mouse and keyboard by making more use of touch screen technology, speech recognition, etc.
I actually thing that would be a better direction to go with Linux interfaces if we want to see real movement. What is so great about a rotating 3D cube to change desktops? Most of the time I don't even use more than one of the 2D desktops.

[raul_]

Linux isn't going in any particular direction...These are individual projects. Beryl isn't part of Linux. Linux is only the kernel. all the rest is independent

[Lord Illidan]

I agree with this. XP has been around without any changes to it's interface for more than five years, while Gnome and KDE trudge forward, with small, but significant steps. I also don't know how you can call OSX fast, and certainly, that word does not apply to Vista. Try running any of them on a 500MHZ machine with less than 512 MB RAM, and compare with Xfce or Fluxbox in Linux and you will see what I mean.
Other than looking nice, I also dont' see where significant improvements in function have come along in any interface, except to make certain features more available on the desktop (the trashcan? come on !), which doesn't seem like such a big deal to me.

Bill Gates said last month that he thinks the next big change should be to get rid of the mouse and keyboard by making more use of touch screen technology, speech recognition, etc.
I actually thing that would be a better direction to go with Linux interfaces if we want to see real movement. What is so great about a rotating 3D cube to change desktops? Most of the time I don't even use more than one of the 2D desktops.

On Googlevideo there is a great video about a guy with a touchscreen running Compiz. To change virtual desktops, for example, he touches the edge of the screen, thus rotating the cube. Search for it, it is the future.

Also on youtube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQkSObRtw0o

[darrenm]

not trying to be confrontational here, but don't you think it's a little unfair to accuse the author of being impatient when you admittedly weren't patient enough to read his argument?

I suppose so. But I never say anywhere that being impatient is bad ;) I run Ubuntu because I'm impatient. I run Feisty because I'm impatient. I want the world of Linux to do everything fantastic yesterday :)

I don't really accuse him of being impatient though, accusing implies it being wrong. I'm just saying that the title of the article would have been more accurate if it was "Am I Impatient?" which of course would be yes. Instead he just uses a sensational title to get people to read it. Which seems to have worked.

[Spano]

Burst before it ever bubbled. The (small amount of) media coverage Linux received, specific to the desktop, while Vista stalled is probably over. In the US, improvements in KDE or Gnome, or the lack there of, will make little difference in home user desktop share. 2007 will be all about Vista; Leopard's release and the resultant marketing competition will result in more words being published about proprietary software and even fewer about open source.:(

[Henry Rayker]

I think the article's author is a complete ***-hat. I read through his arguments and it just appears, to me, that he is talking trash about something he understands little about and has little interest in.

[mykalreborn]

I think the article's author is a complete ***-hat. I read through his arguments and it just appears, to me, that he is talking trash about something he understands little about and has little interest in.

if you search a web forum or a blog in general you will see that few people really know what they're talking about. especially in the computer world. so i guess we can all excuse him ;)