Yea, most of it's great but there's also a lot of work that goes into making it great. I examine all the good bad and ugly of technology.
Linux is a lost cause!
Posted 11-14-2009 at 06:40 AM by jaymarting
This is the quote I was told earlier this week by a colleague. "Linux is a lost cause."
HAS LINUX LIVED UP TO ITS PROMISE?
I don't for a second agree that Linux is truly lost but I do certainly agree with my friend and colleague that the promise Linux fortune tellers made has not come to pass. As we close in on 2010, I harken back 10 years to promises of a nearly dead Microsoft and a world run almost entirely by Linux. Good, bad or otherwise that just has not happened. The world still runs on Microsoft. And yes one could argue that Microsoft is crumbling but that is more at the hands of google (and the emotional favorite apple although that's probably not as accurate either).
We have these nice sites dedicated to Linux. And we have companies dedicated to various flavors of Linux. We even have Dell offering Linux on netbooks but I was promised world domination. Where is the overtly dominant Linux certification. Where is the small business that runs exclusively on Linux? Why has Linux still not become more than a simply boutique OS? I want my mainstream small business Linux already. I was promised.
So I ask again,
HAS LINUX LIVED UP TO ITS PROMISE?
Be honest. Has it?
HAS LINUX LIVED UP TO ITS PROMISE?
I don't for a second agree that Linux is truly lost but I do certainly agree with my friend and colleague that the promise Linux fortune tellers made has not come to pass. As we close in on 2010, I harken back 10 years to promises of a nearly dead Microsoft and a world run almost entirely by Linux. Good, bad or otherwise that just has not happened. The world still runs on Microsoft. And yes one could argue that Microsoft is crumbling but that is more at the hands of google (and the emotional favorite apple although that's probably not as accurate either).
We have these nice sites dedicated to Linux. And we have companies dedicated to various flavors of Linux. We even have Dell offering Linux on netbooks but I was promised world domination. Where is the overtly dominant Linux certification. Where is the small business that runs exclusively on Linux? Why has Linux still not become more than a simply boutique OS? I want my mainstream small business Linux already. I was promised.
So I ask again,
HAS LINUX LIVED UP TO ITS PROMISE?
Be honest. Has it?
Total Comments 2
Comments
-
I don't recall Linux making any promises (to anyone). I understand however that this is not what you meant.
To me, the promise of Linux and OpenSource (reverse these to be more correct--OpenSource came first) is to establish a new paradigm in how SW is developed and distributed. In so doing, we have the potential for users to have more choices. This promise has been fulfilled many times over.
Will Linux topple the MS monopoly? No---nor was that ever a goal. But, watch Google, who is incidentally a big user and supporter of OpenSource SW.Posted 11-14-2009 at 06:59 AM by pixellany 
-
This is a very smart comment and one I fully support, I have a thread on the forums in general on free software and it's implications for linux, perhaps you would be interested in contributing such eloquence to that discussion
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...system-768670/
thanks in advance and well done on this response again.
And now for my response, I'm not sure who promised you this and I understand your dissapointment at Linux's state at the moment I recently compared it to a friend of mine as a giant fractals experiment however I was only joking, it seems like it's coming apart at the seems like some kind of fork bomb with new distro's that are barely different springing out of the woodwork all the time. It does however surprise me that this is happening in the world all around us and not just with Linux. If we are really going to blame anyone it is ourselves as we are the creators of Linux, the stewards to which it's fate has been entrusted and it is probably due to our own errors that Linux has not been pushed.
You ask in your post where is the small business running Linux alone, well where is the small business running windows alone? I am an IT consultant and as such peddle whatever is appropriate and works out most financially sound for businesses and I can tell you I have set up entire web-servers and development environments and presented business owners with dazzling live environments because of the power of Linux. This may not always happen and may not always be a 100% linux system but I can honestly say it is better than nothing, the businesses are pleased and if that pattern continues Linux will be on course to take up it's share of the desktop and server marketplace.
Also you should ask yourself when the internet is run on SUN and IBM boxes and systems that do not run Linux and definately do not run Windows what is the true picture of computing as a whole, it is certainly not as bleak as the M$ pushers would have you believe.
Keep your chin up, Linux may not get there today or tomorrow but as long as it's around we can check back and contribute in any small way we will eventually have the sum of our efforts backPosted 11-14-2009 at 01:05 PM by lewc
