On Tue, 9 Mar 2010 12:32:26 -0500, One Shot, One Kill wrote:


http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic... axonomyId=89

///Quote Begins

Linux on the desktop: Still not happening
March 9, 2010

I'd love to see viable alternatives to the current mainstream
operating
systems. The PC market stands ready to be revolutionized by
something new.
But is Linux the agent of change that can do all of that? Not
yet, I'm
afraid.

For a while last year, things were looking up for Linux. Many of
the early
netbook vendors were forgoing Windows licenses and instead
offering
consumers machines that ran some form of Linux. That didn't last
long,
though. Return rates for Linux netbooks were much higher than for
their
Windows counterparts, and most netbooks today are sold with some
version of
Windows, not Linux.

What this means is that, though Linux is a great value for many
server
applications, it's still a non-starter on the desktop.

What about Android? you might wonder. Google has made it clear
that Android
is an operating system for phones, not other devices, and it has
denied OEMs
that are not building phones access to parts of Android's feature
set, such
as the Marketplace.

(me: android is open only when google tells you it is open)

In my own case, Linux has given me no compelling reason to switch
over from
Windows 7 or Snow Leopard, and I can think of a lot of reasons to
stay put.

What you're left with is the "Linux is free" argument, but "Linux
is free"
greatly exaggerates the case.

///Quote end

Somebody should pull the plug on Linux and put it out of it's
misery. As a desktop operating system Linux has been a
catastrophic failure and there is no signs of that changing.