Is Linux a desktop operating system?

James Wilkinson ubuntu at westexe.demon.co.uk
Tue May 24 12:45:48 UTC 2005


Tony Arnold wrote:
> I was amused, and slightly irritated by a comment made on a programme on
> the BBC this evening. A transcript of the piece can be found at
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/4565581.stm
> 
> The bit that irritated me was:
> 
> "I believe that it still isn't time to call Linux a 'desktop' operating
> system. It simply isn't as usable for everyone as Windows and OS X are. 

One of the oldest dodges in journalism, whenever a magazine or newspaper
has run out of ideas or wants more readers, is to find or invent some
controversy. Then they can strongly support one side in an opinion piece
that takes little research, little effort, contains huge amount of hot
air, and takes a lot of space.

If necessary, they can run a campaign.

You'll find some people who will strongly agree, and read the periodical
out of loyalty. You'll find some people who will strongly disagree, and
make a lot of noise about it. They will quite probably read the
periodical to see what the fuss was about, write outraged letters to the
editor, and then read the periodical to see if the letters were printed.

At this point, the periodical can stick to its guns, print the least
well-spelled and least grammatical letters, and laugh at them, or
commission an opposing "opinion piece" in order to stay "balanced", and
get the other side to do the outraged act.

And many people just won't notice (unless it happens too often) that a
huge amount of "news" has been conjured out of thin air. Many people
will think that this is Important Current Affairs that has been covered,
and the newspaper or magazine is Relevant and Influential. And the
periodical gets more readers.

And computer magazines (on or offline, or broadcast) have picked up this
trick.  For at least the last eight years, the Linux community has been
an ideal target, because of its many vocal and passionate supporters.
Before that, they could get much the same effect by running the same
story about Macs, or Amigas, or STs.

And we've had loads of stories saying "Linux is not suitable for...". Or
"Can you trust your data to random bearded scruffies from the Net?"
You'll all have seen them.

There was a twenty-four hour strike at the BBC yesterday. Many of their
journalists and technicians were "out". They obviously had difficulty
getting some of their programs out (Radio 4's "flagship programme" Today
was completely cancelled).

Situation normal. Tech journalists can't think what to write about /
broadcast. They make up some controversy.  It hasn't stopped Linux so
far.

They used to run "Linux is not suitable as a mission critical server"
stories. Even Microsoft seem to have gone quiet on that one (probably
because if Linux isn't suitable, Windows certainly isn't!)

James.

-- 
E-mail address: james | Real people: People who live "out there" in the "real
@westexe.demon.co.uk  | world". Politicians at election time are obsessed with
                      | meeting this exotic species, even though it always
                      | seems to be surrounded by camera crews and reporters.
                      |     -- BBC News




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