Well, hopefully this is the end of the annual “This is the year for Linux on the Desktop” idiocy.
I’ve never believed Linux is a good desktop OS. It simply lacks the tools you need for a desktop. Although some open source stuff is decent, it isn’t well enough linked into the corporate infrastructure to matter.
Linux’s strength is as a server of VM host. It simply excels at that. The fact it’s open source also means you can do some pretty nice things from a security perspective.
Hopefully the Linux folks will now focus on having a singular GUI (instead of wasting effort on a variety of them and balkanizing their efforts) and focusing on Linux’s strengths.
Time will tell.
Update: Spoke too soon. Over at Dive Into Mark he switches his folks to Linux from a Mac. Granted, an ancient Mac, but the reasons make sense — though he should have gotten them a Mini, it has enough “oomph”, methinks.
I have thought of using an old Windows box to the same effect for my parents. To be honest, I can see Linux being useful for people who only want to interact with the Internet via a browser and not so much on the desktop. But as a full replacement for Windows it’s really Mac or nothing. At least that’s my opinion.
In the end, though, if I do get my parents to use the Internet I’ll probably just get them a new Mini with a nice monitor. I know it’ll just work and updates are simple.
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