Posted on 01/20/2012 4:43:17 AM PST by ShadowAce
I use a Linux desktop. According to Google Analytics, 12% of the visitors to my various technology Web sites use Linux. Nevertheless, I know that on the traditional desktop, the vast majority of ordinary users are running Windows, and don’t even get me started on “The Year of the Linux Desktop.” It’s not going to happen. But, and this is interesting, it appears that there is a slight upward trend in desktop Linux use.
First reported by Katherine Noyes on Linux Insider, it turns out that the Web research firm Net Applications’ data show that Linux’s desktop market share has been growing , from a mere 0.97 percent in July, 2011 to a new high of 1.41 percent in January, 2012.
As a Linux lover, this is good news, but it’s also odd news. GNOME, long the desktop interface darling of many Linux desktop users, lost many of its fan with its 3.x revision. Ubuntu, long the most popular Linux desktop, changed to a new interface, Unity, in April 2011 and many people hate the new Unity desktop.
Mint Linux, which recently surged to the top of mind for Linux desktop users, has kept its fans, but now it’s also changing its desktop interface. With its users turning up their noses at GNOME 3.2, it’s now creating its own GNOME 3.x shell: Cinnamon.
In short, these are confusing times for Linux desktop users. So where are these users coming from?
It’s not like these are Android or Google ChromeOS users. Those are both counted separately. True, their numbers are growing rapidly as well. I think Adrian Kingsley-Hughes was right when he said that “‘Post-PC’ is a far bigger threat to Microsoft than Mac or Linux ever was.”. But, that’s another story.
It’s not like the mainstream PC vendors are supporting desktop Linux. While you can get desktop Linux from them, you normally need to be a business making a special–and large–order. True, there are PC vendors that specialize in Linux. These include companies like ZaReason and System76 that deliver quality products with excellent support at a good price. But none of them have reported that they’re suddenly doing boffo business.
Could it be that Ubuntu is being successful with its plans to use Unity to make Linux more attractive to ordinary users? Are tech-savvy users finally realizing that Linux really will run on anything these days? Sure, it may not run popular Windows games like World of Warcraft (WoW) natively, but many Windows games, like WoW will run on Linux with Crossover Games. Linux, though, will run applications that do everything most people need or want. Are folks finally realizing that Linux’s stability and security advantages are worth the trouble of switching to Linux?
Darned if I know. I’m just glad to see more people joining me in Linux. You should give it a try sometime yourself if you’re mildly technical—the days when you needed to be a computer guru to run Linux are long gone. You may find that you like it. In the last six months millions of other computer users have made the jump to Linux.
I have no problem with it either, as long as it is a choice and not forced. What they’ve done here is remove the current choice (Gnome 2) and forceus to choose between two radically different new paradigms.
I’m not sure why your friend said this but I don’t think it is the case. To those who haven’t tried Linux, you can download one of the distros, burn it to dvd and boot your computer from the dvd. It lets you use the software without reformatting and installing it on your harddrive. Try Linux Mint, Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Mepis, etc... they are called distros. I download them as .ISO files and burn to dvd. I hooked my laptop up to the flatscreen tv, booted into Linux, it automatically loaded the right drivers to display the laptop on the tv screen. I then booted into Windows, it took me a few minutes to get the right settings to make the laptop display on the tv.
Jfls45
Linux has
That's the beauty of Linux--nothing is forced. You always have a choice--even if that means moving to a different distro.
Bingo!
Linux will never be a big desktop OS on PCs. Windows and Apple will be the dominant PC OS.
However, as we’re move away from PCs to other devices (tables, phones, etc...) Linux will be a major player, but I’m not sure most users will even know it.
Android is just a flavor of Linux.
Most non-apple tablets run some version of Linux.
The Nook is a Linux device.
The Kindle runs Linux as its Os.
My guess is Linux will eventually become huge as a personal operating system, just not on the PC (and most people will never even know they are running Linux).
I think its going to move up from tablets to the desktop. With many functions moving to the Cloud it is not really relevant what you run on the desktop anyway.
Downloaded it and burned to DVD. Booted it. Ha! Same ol’, same ol’. It boots and a note appears there’s a wireless network available, I should go to Network to configure. But Network gives no intuitive, sensible method of discovering a wireless network let alone configuring one.
I’ve tried several distros including Ubuntu, Mint, etc. and they’re all the same. Trying to set up a wireless network is absurd for the casual user.
I’ve basically had it with Linux. It’s created by geeks, with little intuitive knowledge into the everyday computer user. Windows may have its faults, but it’s easy for the average Joe to understand. Linux will never, ever, get there based on the same ol’ way of thinking.
1. Ensure that your wireless device is turned on.
2. Click the Network Manager icon in the system notification area.
3. Under Wireless Networks click on the network you want to connect to.
I’ve been able to install it successfully (with some odd quirks) just once, a number of attempts, a number of flavors, a number of CPUs. The main impediment to wider use of Linux is the cliqueishness of its users and developers. In part that’s a consequence of the complete lack of a market incentive (because it’s free). In order to install it on an eMac I use, turns out I’ll have to empty out the data on the hard drive (which isn’t large by today’s standards) but I’m in no hurry, because I have no idea what the next barrier to installation will be.
In my experience it'll be getting Xorg to work with the video card -- though that may not be an issue with Macs as their hardware is much more uniform/predictable than PCs.
Xorg! Oh, sorry.
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