Ubuntu KDE

[Eric Dunbar]

On Sun, 05 Dec 2004 14:58:51 -0500, Henry Keultjes
<hbkeultjes at earthlink.net> wrote:
> did you read the Perfect Pair article

?

> As to the US only, we are at odds with the world in having 110 volt 60
> Mhz currency and the USA will be at odds with the world in how things
> are maketed and purchased.  The Linux community either uses those facts
> to its advantage or Linux will never become a factor, meaning >25%
> market share, here in the USA.
> 
> Henry

So what? 110-120 vs 220-240 V is a non-issue. Pretty much every device
I have is capable of 110/220 60/50 Hz. Likewise, the variants of *nix
are all moderately interchangeable and geography has little to do with
who uses *nix for whatever purpose (I keep using *nix because Linux is
not the only viable *nix variant... Net BSD et al (& I'm sure that
with Apple doing work on that code base some interesting stuff will be
coming from those quarters)).

> To be commercially successful on the desktop, Linux will need at least a
> 25% market share and that's what my ideas are focused on and that's why
> I have focused on KDE and Debian which I have run in my office without
> the slightest problem for nearly three years..  Debian is wonderful but,
> like with most of the Open Source software, the last step, making the
> product commercially viable will never happen and consequently Xandros
> and Linspirre, a Xandros licensee, are making much more headway on the
> desktop than Debian itself.  Mark Shuttleworth had the concept and the
> means to put the Ubuntu team together and I would like to see him
> succeed wildly with his ideas.  However, success will only  be measured
> in millions at the enduser level and that level of success requires the
> total integration of all applications, something that only KDE has
> accomplished thus far but also something that KDE is only perhaps 5% on
> the way to accomplishing.  Why this contradiction?  WinTel is a moving
> target and catching up with that moving target requires a vision of
> where the future is heading.

Balderdash. In the next decade Linux will not reach 25%. Windows is
simply _too_ good (and, however much I hate its ancestry, it is now a
slick piece of software) for that to happen.

But, that doesn't mean Linux can't be viable. Apple has under 5% of
the market with Mac OS (X) and hasn't ever had much more (it had more
with Apples but that was b/c they were cheaper (& people are dumb
enough not to equate upfront savings with _massive_ down the road
costs ;)). They are still a stunningly viable company with a very
functional *nix-based OS.

KDE vs. GNOME. Potato, potato, tomato, tomato. You can make the one
look like the other and vice-versa. Having the one and not the other
isn't going to make or break a distro. It's what you _do_ with what
you've got.

If you want KDE, there is lots of choice out there. If you want GNOME,
there's lots of choice out there too. I commend Canonical for trying
to make the best damnded OS that they can and if that means picking
one UI over another, that's fine. They're not trying for the kitchen
sink which means they need to focus on providing _normal_ users with
what they need -- functional applications and not featuritis.

Eric.