Is Linux a desktop operating system?

Kreg Schlosser liberaltugboat at gmail.com
Fri May 27 21:19:49 UTC 2005


Well, its not just the efforts put forward by suse and Red Hat (both
companies are doing a good job with it)
It all goes back to the context of "desktop". Getting the User
switched from windows to linux is alot different then setting up a
linux server that is admined by a technogeeky nerdish guy.  In an
established company this can be very expensive (trainging, highering
new tech support), but where they need to target is companies not
locked into the MS model yet. This is why developing countries are so
important to linux. US companies are going to be the hardest sell on
linux, but if we can get the rest of the world then the US may be
force to follow.
Linux companies also dont have the marketing machine (though Novell
and IBM help) that microsoft does. They get more users by telling them
they have to use it then by proving that their business will actually
benefit from it.
The last part of accountability is from third parties like software
developers and hardware manufactures. Even though some companies do
make linux drivers and software they dont give the support to linux
users that the MS users get. There is no universal linux driver
certification program, and because of the differences between distros
getting software to work out of the box (and drivers to) is not a
reallity. Having so many different choices in linux does have its
downside.
Well I think I am done ranting for now I may add more later...

On 5/27/05, Greg Donald <destiney at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/27/05, Kreg Schlosser <liberaltugboat at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The Second problem hinders the corporate market:
> > Accountablity and support. If it breaks, who is going to fix it? This
> > is still a major problem for alot of reasons. Tech support from
> > distrobutions, internal support, training and certification all need
> > more work before linux can really be used as a business desktop.
> 
> Lots of distro makers provide paid support for their distro, same with
> certification and training.  I personally have experience dealing with
> Suse on a support basis, and we never had a software issue they
> couldn't solve as far as the OS goes.  Suse and RedHat both have
> training and certification programs.  In your experience what exactly
> do you see lacking from them?  I mean, did they not teach you
> something you needed to know or leave you hanging on a security issue
> or something?
> 
> I hear about governments and schools switching to Linux all the time.
> There's nothing stopping the corporate markets from doing the same.
> There is nothing holding the corporate market back but themselves.
> 
> 
> --
> Greg Donald
> Zend Certified Engineer
> http://destiney.com/
> 
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> ubuntu-users mailing list
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>




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