Re: [OT] Re: Linux in the News! WooHoo!

[jjs <jjs@lexus.com>]

sort of off-topic, please direct responses to email.

James Simmons wrote:

>
>   Linux will NEVER move into the desktop market!!! 
>
If that's true we're already dead.

But I don't accept that defeatist attitude,
and I haven't had any use for a non-linux
OS in the server room or on the desktop
for some years.

See Linus' reasons for why the desktop is
important - in a nutshell, if you abandon the
desktop to some crappy monopolist, and
hunker down and hide in the server room,
guess what? you won't be safe there either.

The viability of linux on the desktop is very
important - to stress the importance of the
desktop, look at two ends of the spectrum:

At one end, an excellent OS like freebsd -
it excels in the server room, but it's losing
ground to ms windows just the same -

Why? because folks don't use freebsd on
the desktop - not even freebsd bigots.

At the other end we have crap ms windoze,
which is silly to put in the server room, but
folks are doing it - why? because they are
familiar with ms windows and that means
a lot to them.

Bottom line: server-only OSes are in danger
of becoming irrelevant, because once ms can
claim 100 percent (or close) of the desktop,
they can then leverage the desktop monopoly
to dictate what's allowed in the server room.

Joe