On Wednesday, September 19, 2001, at 01:43 AM, Every Man wrote:
> Inspired by some recent email I read today, I just
> wondered if you all agreed that linux is basically never
> going to be a popular desktop OS?
In all honesty. Probably not. There are two main problems...
1. Window Managers have been of poor quality at best. They are clunky and
EAZEL (former Mac Heads) tried to change that. The problem was that they
got into the market right at the time the down-turn started. It was
really bad timing.
I got all excited when the guys at Objective-Reality were going to put
together a 3-D Window interface. Even before any product was released,
the features were eventually downgraded to a 2-D interface with a lot of
perspective. I don't even think they're around any more.
2. There are so many distributions that incompatibilities have been
introduced. It's getting too complex with almost too much choice. Also,
this has led to a lack of quality control and standardization.
>
> My feelings are mixed on this one. Do you really
> think a freely developed OS will be more user friendly
> than windows or the Mac OS?
For the reason's mentioned above, the freely developed thing has run
into problems. Open Source is a great notion. It's not the best business
model in every case. EAZEL had the right idea in charging for services
related to the maintenance and development of the OS, not it's actual
purchase. If you focus on services that actually make the experience
more interesting and user friendly, a company may be able to find a
niche.
I should preface my next comments with the point that I'm a mac
programmer. So I'm biased :)
OS X is going to pump new life into Apple. All the new features will
help it compete strongly for new users. As a company, they're doing
great. Very efficient (only days worth of stock in stores, lower
overhead, cutting out middle men for distribution). Also, they've been
very responsive to user comments on the development and improvement of
OSX.
Apple has also joined the desktop server market and will probably
started gaining market share there also. Right now, I'm in the process
of learning WebObjects server application development. Apple is lucky in
that respect too. WebObjects technology runs on various other platforms,
so they have some leverage.
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