On Saturday 02 November 2002 02:42, Curtis Rey wrote:
Linux has the talent in the programmers and the ability to do essentially anything anyone else is doing, that goes for the GUI, hardware, an Office Suite, etc... I't just a matter of will and focus. Most people don't want to think about how things work, they just want them to work.... after all, why should they? It's their money and they'll spend it on "what ever works".
Cheers, Curtis.
I just thought of a something, and is that in my extensive Windows experience, I've seen the same hardware problems and such as people have with SuSE on thier hardware. The largest difference is that the computer manufacturers themselves modify Windows so that it works right with all of the hardware that they provide. Typically, Joe and Jane average user don't buy a computer, then by an operating system. They buy a computer pre-loaded with an operating system on it, which of course "just works" because the manufacturer makes it work. Now, some of the GUI and office suite issues that have cropped up will need to be polished off by the Linux community, and I certaintly think that the community has both the will and focus to do just that. The largest problem, IMHO, is hardware support. This issue permeates to all areas of the system, and no Linux vendor can support all of the models of even the current shipping brand-name PC's on the market today. TO do so would require a testing lab that is insanely extensive. Heck, even M$ doesn't have those kind of testing facilities that I know of. Most of the time they rely on the manufacturers to do this. Which is why an important part of Linux permeating the average desktop is to get the PC vendors on board, which a few have already done so with the vanilla kernel source contribs, etc. Honestly, the movement probably will have to start with custom PC vendors validating distributions and shipping pre-loaded Linux desktops, with it spreading to brand-name systems afterwards. Dell already tried this, but I thnnk that they got really discouraged by the unethical busisness practices by M$, and it's hard to see them going at it full steam like they did before. Hopefully the DOJ case against M$ will help with this. It's going to be fairly slow going, but it will happen soon. With a community that is as large as the Linux community is today, I see serious potential for the marketing of Linux like it needs to have in order to take over the desktop. Just my 2 cents worth. Donavan Pantke