On 7/1/06, devon gleeson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Daniel Johnson wrote: > On 7/1/06, devon gleeson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Personally I think that the only way linux is going to make it to the >> masses is though distros like Ubuntu. easyubuntu just makes it that >> much easier for the not-so-tech people to join the revolution. I noticed >> that Ubuntu is offering a support pkg for industry. on a certian level I >> feel >> like they should offer it to the home user as well at a cheaper >> price, for >> those that don't know how to get around forums and irc very well. >> >> devon > > I think at the moment cannonical is only interested in doing teir 3 > support. They have links to other support centers on the ubuntu site > somewhere. > _______________________________________________ > PDXLUG (a Portland Linux user group) mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.pdxlug.org/mailman/listinfo/pdxlug > IRC: irc.freenode.net #pdxlug & #orlug I wondering how the people on this list feel about linux in the main stream? sometime I feel like if could really change the paradigm of how computers are used, but other times I get the feeling that linux isn't going to get out of hobbyists homes and server racks anytime soon. as soon as I say that I realize that many home users are being presented with new devices, which don't have linux painted all over them, every day.
I have to admit, I don't paint linux all over my devices every day either. I hope that doesn't make me a bad geek, I just can't afford that much paint or the time commitment. ;-) On a serious note, if an os's success hinged on its technical merit alone of course linux would become mainstream (perhaps we can say that's why it's so successful in the server market). But life is not so simple of course. I think some of the biggest inhibitors are social factors like the ones you alluded to. There are OEM factors, corporate power, momentum, the we-need-someone-to-blame factor and finally all the workplace factors. Linux is an os not a corporation so it has very limited power to influence the factors I just named (and probably some more I forgot about). Fortunately I'm not alone in this observation and certain organizations are taking action now to help with these problems. For example, the Portland Project, http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2649626642.html Wouldn't it be interesting if our government took a 'utilities' approach to software and declared that they need an open standard for operating systems and business? What would our world be like if our government standardized on the linux desktop and started subsidizing linux and the major related open source projects? We might pay a computing tax, but the money could be used to create and implement open standards for information interchange on desktop computers. What if linux was the standard and all other operating systems that wanted to compete in the business world had to go through a certification process? Of course Microsoft could still embrace and extend but if you dealt with the government you'd have to be linux compatible. I think getting a change like this in our current government would take as much shift in thinking as socialized medicine and we don't have that yet either... Ah, back to dreaming... Jason _______________________________________________ PDXLUG (a Portland Linux user group) mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlug.org/mailman/listinfo/pdxlug IRC: irc.freenode.net #pdxlug & #orlug
