As much as I bash M$ the simple fact is they will always be the dominant OS. Not because of some crooked things or getting rid of the competition. The reason M$ will always be the dominant OS is because of ease of use.
The reason Linux will never be mainstream can be summed up in three lines:
$ ./configure
$ make depend && make
$ sudo make install
No. Mainstream people do not want to go to a command line to compile and install stuff. We want to click on a happy little icon, hit next three or four times, then hit finished.
Now I've been in the command line world. I know how to do it, I've done it before. There is no reason for it any longer with today's computers. Linux has GUI available, but still gotta go to the command line to install it or run it, then gotta go to the command line to install anything onto the GUI, then gotta go to the command line to remove anything, etc etc.
Until Linux gets away from requiring the command line it will never ever be mainstream.
Technicians go to to the command line interface of XP all the time to, for instance, configure network settings. In addition, although I'm no Linux guru, I've used distributions that didn't require using the command line for the tasks I was interested in doing, Linspire comes to mind.
And although Free BSD isn't Linux, it is a UNIX look-alike, and Apple has chosen it to under gird their standard OS. So more people are using open source than realize it.
Linix may never have the market share Windows does, but the ease of use keeps increasing and the debate seems to have degraded into a mere debate over preference rather than capability.
Ubuntu? Time to patch or you’re going to be pwnd: http://www.serverwatch.com/news/article.php/3747531
“Many eyes” missed this for two years.
Need to update your knowledge,...look at Linux Mint...
Define "mainstream". It's not necessarily grandma who can barely see a screen. It people who actually *use* computers who care about things like this. Those people actually can get around on the command line.
I'm getting tired of the "ready for the desktop" criterion to be that any idiot can do whatever s/he wants on a tool as complex as a computer. It was never meant to be that simple, and--as long as you want the power/ability to do whatever you want--it will never be that simple.
Point and click to do whatever you want to do will never happen--even under Windows.
Your three steps you listed above are one way to install software, but it's getting rather long in the tooth. Yum or apt-get, or any number of other package managers have been making software installation/removal even easier than it is under Windows. Graphical frontends to those programs are getting more and more popular. It's now possible to install and run Linux without ever getting into the command line.
I'll never go that route, though, because I like to actually take advantage of the power of my machines. My kids, however, never see a command line, and they prefer Linux over Windows these days.
PCLinuxOS. Eight months solid use, and I have yet to do a command line.
Did you hear that? I HAVE NOT USED THE COMMAND LINE FOR ANYTHING. This is PCLinuxOS 2007 I'm talking about. Not Ubuntu, or Ubuntu, or Ubuntu. Linux does not = Ubuntu. PCLinuxOS 2007 is new-Linux-user friendly, easy to install new programs from the repository, easy to keep updated. The single hardest thing about ANY linux is learning all the stupid words, acronyms, program titles etc. that are used. I can install PCLinuxOS 2007 in 15 minutes and be ready to use it. XP takes an hour, nearly. Windows 2000 took me about NINE hours to download all the drivers, system updates, system updates round two, and round three.
PCLinuxOS is my desktop. It's ready for the average user. I sold a system to a complete computer newbie, put PCLOS upon it. He's good to go. Tell me more about "ease of use!"
$ ./configure
$ make depend && make
$ sudo make install
No. Mainstream people do not want to go to a command line to compile and install stuff. We want to click on a happy little icon, hit next three or four times, then hit finished.
Your complaint is sort of a moot point. It seems that you decided to install an application using source code. Had you decided to do the same thing on a Windows box, you'd first have to buy and then install the compliers. Then you could install the app. There are many Linux apps that install just fine through the desktop, and all you need to do is select them, as well as selecting OK for any dependencies and supplying the password.
You've obviously never had to install a database application and configure the ODBC drivers under Windows.
Now I've been in the command line world. I know how to do it, I've done it before. There is no reason for it any longer with today's computers. Linux has GUI available, but still gotta go to the command line to install it or run it, then gotta go to the command line to install anything onto the GUI, then gotta go to the command line to remove anything, etc etc.
Until Linux gets away from requiring the command line it will never ever be mainstream.
Do you really think that you can manage a windows box, let alone a windows server, without using the command line?
Mark
Holy smokes, talk about outdated knowledge. Try again grandpa, this time with a distro released in the past couple of years. Programs are installed from depositories with package management apps these days. The last use for a command line I had was deleting a series of files from a directory because I was too lazy to ctrl-click them individually.
Sure, you might be able to find a program or two that isn't available in particular distro's repositories and is only available via source, but using them rules, I could find programs that are pains to install on other OS'. [shrug] Meanwhile, I haven't had to compile a program I wanted or needed in Linux in years. The repositories are usually well equipped, and prepared packages too common.
So no, that is not the uphill struggle an OS other than Windows faces. The obstacle is the existing infrastructure in the PC industry that installs Windows as a matter of course, simply due to Windows' momentum. Windows is what people used when they learned how to use a computer, so they expect it on a system they buy. Manufacturers would be foolish to disregard this fact of life. Modern day Linux has no steeper learning curve than Windows to new computer users, but the existing base that is used to Windows is formidable. MS knows this and that is why they are taking the competitive threat of Linux much more seriously in developing nations like China than they do here in the states.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus