When Gnu/Linux will be desktop ready?

[mangar]

Gnu/Linux been around for 16 years,
how long do you think it will be until it is desktop ready?

[RussianVodka]

When people stop investing their time in making "desktop ready" threads and start putting it into the making Linux better.

[ironfistchamp]

Depends on who for. I think it is perfectly ready for me. It's the only OS I use and I know some other people like that too.

Then again I know some people who wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.

[forrestcupp]

I got in before this thread was merged!

[Hex_Mandos]

Resistance is futile

[stalker145]

T'would be nice if they could preserve the poll when it gets merged, too... just for fun ;)

[mangar]

The mega-thread asks whether gnu/linux is ready now, the poll tries to gauge the readiness level.

[rjfioravanti]

Gnu/Linux been around for 16 years,
how long do you think it will be until it is desktop ready?

I don't understand the questions... what is unready about it now?

[AusIV4]

It depends on what you call ready. The platform is quite capable. If you get the right devices, the drivers are quite capable. There are a few programs out there for Windows that don't have equivalents for Linux, and someone who needs those programs might say Linux is not ready. If you're not in a field that requires an obscure program and aren't much of a gamer, Linux should do everything you need.

I use a VM for a few programs that aren't available for Linux. It's no fault of the Gnu/Linux platform, it's simply that the developers of the software didn't develop for Linux, and either there hasn't been sufficient demand for a Linux alternative, or patents got in the way. The platform is capable of supporting programs with these feature sets, but the programs aren't being written.

Linux will be "ready" for the desktop when it has a significant enough user base that vendors feel it necessary to release their software for Linux. If there could be some magical surge in popularity, this could happen with no change in Gnu/Linux.

Realistically though, more programs will become available making Linux an increasingly viable alternative. Eventually, if all goes well, it will have enough user base that vendors will make their software cross platform to avoid excluding any significant group of customers.

[EDIT]
I made it before the merge. Should be any time now.

[mangar]

@rjfioravanti
See the desktop readiness thread..

Basically - when every user will be able use it as his/her only OS.

[aimran]

From http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=450676 :



with ready I mean :
-easy
-works out-of-the-box
-has big benefits for end-users above windows XP


1. I would say ubuntu is easy for me to learn. I took a dive into linux (without knowing anything about package managers and that sort) and I came out fine by the end of week 1.

Easy to maintain? Yes. No system slowdowns after a while of using. No viruses - you must remember that it is possible to avoid these in windows with safe computing, but how many people actually know about safe computing? An OS that doesn't need you to consider these maintenance factors is an EASY OS.

2. Works out of the box? An install of XP onto my custom machine (non-branded) would require me to install drivers later on. No OS will ever work out of the box. Try installing OS X onto another machine and see if it works out of the box.

3. Big benefits? It's hard to define benefits. For some, not having to pay for software is a big benefit. And so on and so forth.


Summary:

I wasted precious minutes of my life typing this out but at least I made it before the merge.

PS - Don't tell anyone but... Linux is ready.

[Outrunner]

When it is ready.

[ThinkBuntu]

Here's my analysis of "desktop-ready"

Fully desktop-ready:

OpenSuSE
Fedora
Ubuntu
Vector
Mandriva
PCLinuxOS
Pardus
Foresight

Nearly desktop-ready:

Sabayon
Debian
Zenwalk
Dreamlinux
Elive
SAM

I've left off Arch and such simply because of the learning and work they require to be "up and running." Xfce needs a few minor enhancements, which is what's keeping SAM off the top list. Mint and MEPIS are left off because they're essentially re-spins of Feisty and Dapper, respectively.

[rjfioravanti]

For anyone that just has regular stuff to do, it is completely ready already. If you have some weird app that only runs on windows, then fine its not ready for you. Then again theres lots of apps that people may need that will only run on linux, for them windows is not desktop ready.

[cobrn1]

Depends...

For most people, it is ready. It is a very capable and easy to learn OS.

For people needing it to be even easier, things are improving, more GUIs and the next version of Xorg banishing another config file. Things are looking up.

For people needing professional tools, as market share increases companied s will put more time into this. Even now we are starting to get hardware manufacturers supporting linux, so we're getting there.

For gamers... I don't know what to say. Depends on how well DX10 does really.


BTW, what is the open source alternative to directX. Why did the games companies defect to DX. Which is better, the OSS alternative or the DX?

I ask because gaming is a serious problem, many of the people who really like linux are shakled by gaming to windows - I'd make the kove completely, but I love gaming too much.

Anyway, if anyone has the answer to my question, I'd very much appreciate it if you could post. Question (again:

what is the open source alternative to directX. Why did the games companies defect to DX. Which is better, the OSS alternative or the DX?

Generally, linux is ready tho, and it gets readier (;-)) every day.

EDIT: so whan's this grand merge going to take place? Sounds exciting :D

[mangar]

DirectX 10 (actually, direct3d) )is totally different from previous generation of DirectX, as it is not only defines a software API,
but also many aspects of the hardware architecture - several prime examples are the pervasive use of floating point numeric data (previous version used mostly integers), unified shaders, etc. Supporting directX 10 defines the hardware in pretty strict form.

The OSS alternatives to directX are OpenGL (version 3.0 is supposed to be feature equivalent to DirectX 10), OpenAL and SDL.

pictures and reference (from google):
http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13647

IMHO, the OpenGL API is better that Direct3D, but it's not a unified stack like DirectX

[Foxmike]

How much time before the merge??? Let's start a poll about that:

a) 15 minutes
b) 1/2 hour
c) 1 hour
d) 1/2 day

:popcorn:

[bapoumba]

Polls are lost upon merging. I'm just closing here, and please continue there:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=3034214