Desktop Linux's Future

[Chanchao]

Hello John,

Tuesday, July 19, 2005, 12:11:43 PM, you wrote:

JL> I would like to hear everyones point of view on this statement and
JL> what the future of desktop linux holds.

Looking at the steady improvements over the last 10 (at least) years,
and especially the last few years, I can only conclude the future is
seriously bright.

Right now you can see it can do all it needs to, what it needs is some
maturity in standards and stability. ("Stability" not in a technical
sense, but as in having things stay the same for a while as oposed to
radical changes/improvements every year) That's not happening yet:
people seem far more excited about adding 3D effect crap, widgets &
doodles to a desktop rather than uniformity and standards in the way
things work.

The coming year, OpenOffice 2 will be the biggest blessing. More than
any other technology within Linux itself, it will make people and
companies think they don't need Windows on every single PC/Client
Workstation. (This year's blessing was Firefox' breakthrough, in case
anyone wondered. :) (And the dawning of the age of Ubuntu, of course.
:)

As more and more software works just the same on Windows/Mac as it
does on Linux, the effort involved in a "transition" becomes less and
less.

JL> The only thing I have yet to understand is what do companies and
JL> small businesses have to benefit from getting into the open source
JL> world?

It's trendy. :)  Compare: "You're a Microsoft Partner."  Yawn.  Or:
"You're actively using and supporting Free Software."  Cool!

(There's a lot more opportunities in OSS of course, but I'd just like
to get this one in, too. :)

Cheers,
Chanchao