RSSMore Linux promotion than Linux adoption evidenced at LinuxWorld
By Michael Hatamoto | Published August 6, 2008, 6:29 PM
While open source phones have been the talk of this year's LinuxWorld, a majority of attendees and vendors we saw were typing away on their iPhones and BlackBerrys -- neither of which is nearly as open as, say, OpenMoko's NeoFreerunner.
SAN FRANCISCO (BetaNews) - Although LinuxWorld is one of Moscone Center's smaller events, especially compared to the Apple's Macworld or Oracle's OpenWorld conference, it's typically a good place to gauge the state of the Linux community. One look around the place will tell you that there's more talk about Linux adoption than there is actual adoption.
Linux-based operating systems continue to expand away from the desktop and servers more towards mobile devices and laptops, but there's talk here that there are simply too many mobile Linux versions right now. A quick look at a handful of people using laptops revealed most of them were using either Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS X, although there were a few Linux users scattered around the Moscone Center.
The representatives I spoke with at the Ubuntu booth were fairly optimistic that its users are interested in taking Ubuntu off the desktop and using it on their laptops. But after randomly selecting 50 people who were laptop users, eight of them admitted to having a Linux distribution installed on their notebooks. Twenty of the people admitted they have tested a version of Linux on their laptop, but simply were not happy with the performance of the OS.
I believe Linux distributions need to fully tackle the desktop market before switching its focus to the laptop market.
Even though Ubuntu Linux and Oracle's Unbreakable Linux have received a large amount of publicity during the show, several other Linux flavors have a presence at LinuxWorld. Attendees were able to pick up copies of Novell's OpenSUSE 11.0, Fedora 9, FreeBSD's PC-BSD 1.5 Edison Edition, and others. While these distributions haven't been in the spotlight as much as Oracle or Canonical's offerings, they each play an important part in the open source movement.
Also at LinuxWorld this year is gOS, this time introducing its newest operating system able to operate specifically for Google Gadgets, LXDE, and Wine. The gOS system can normally be found in low-cost PCs and notebooks, such as the $199 Wal-Mart gPC and NetBooks.
After spending a couple of minutes playing with it, I could tell it's obviously not designed for experienced Linux users, but could give people new to Linux pain-free access to several different programs that could ease the transition from Windows to Linux.
The goS 3 Gadgets Beta is now available for download on the thinkgos Web site. The company is requesting that more experienced Linux users test out the beta, and offer feedback on the official gOS Linux Google discussion board.
Finally, after the voting disaster in Florida in 2000, things on the voting front remain unchanged, much to the dismay of many voters. Computer engineer Alan Dechert, creator of an open source e-voting system, was among those disgusted with the closed source voting system.
Dechert made an appearance here to talk about his proposed, fully open source e-voting system that he hopes will be picked up by counties for use in upcoming elections. BetaNews has an interview scheduled with Dechert for the end of the week, and will learn more about the system and why Dechert chose to create it.
The Linux distros have made great strides in usability in the last 2 years or so. Still not quite ready for the non-techie masses though.
Why on earth the big players like Ubuntu haven't launched a campaign trumpeting the benefits and, in particular, the price compared to MS is beyond me.
Learn from Mozilla and deliver an experience that MS is not.
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|Ubuntu needs to drop GNOME support and make a call to devs to devote more time to fixing (and adding functionality to) KDE 4.
Bundle that, the latest OO.o, and *ONE* app for each task (no need for a massive number of text editors...really) and they might actually have something "the masses" could find useful that they'd be able to "market".
GNOME is slow and outdated. KDE looks to be going in the right direction, but the 4.0 release was a *huge* disappointment, and the point release "fixes" are too few and far between.
FTM, GNOMe should simply be dropkicked entirely and more development focus towards KDE, both a "full" and a "lightweight" version without all the kitschy crap.
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|sorry, but GNOME is better than KDE, well thats my opinion...
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|I agree Gnome should be dropped, but I've always found KDE to be a little slow. At least Gnome is organized. XFCE is a nice lightweight environment, but not ready for the masses either. Also, I believe a "lightweight" version of KDE would be preferable as well.
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|Opposite here. Prior to 4.0, KDE has always been faster for me. Obviously, YMMV... ;)
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|Unless major distros are reduced to a couple (for real) I doubt there will be much progress. The first problem a normal (non-geek) user faces with Linux is "what should I chose?". And there it ends most of the times as you know people don't want to invest time in their computers.
Then you need to chose an interface (KDE or Gnome), and then you have tons of applications doing the same thing... sometimes so much options isn't good.
The OS is fine and some recent distros are quite nice but it will take years for them to take over Windows with the same geek attitude while not understanding that the user don't want to learn or chose, just use.
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|This shouldn't come as a surprise to see so many people at LinuxWorld using Macs and iPhones. Linux is still the choice of uber-geeks while those covering the event were using either laptops (PC) or Notebooks (Mac).
I tried Linux distros on three separate occasions and they were terrible!
Most people are either die hard Mac fans or secret Mac fans. :)
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|Most people are either die hard Mac fans or secret Mac fans.
The rest are actually somewhat intelligent and couldn't care less which OS they use as long as it gets the job done.
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|Well, I actually come to think that internetworld7 is either underaged or had lack of oxygen issues during his birth, or both.
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|I thought so for some time but he's got the knack how to provoke people with ridiculous statements. It's quite amusing to watch.
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|"I believe Linux distributions need to fully tackle the desktop market before switching its focus to the laptop market," is not a supportable strategy for Linux. Computer sales are moving more and more to laptops. If Linux focuses on desktops, it'll be left behind, as appears to already be happening.
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|But after randomly selecting 50 people who were laptop users, eight of them admitted to having a Linux distribution installed on their notebooks.
So at an event specifically for Linux, only 16% of the people used Linux on their laptops. That's pretty pathetic. What hope does Linux have if that's all the buy-in they can get from a gathering of people who are already far more likely than the general population to use Linux?
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|Look, there's a reason why Linux in 2008 only has a 0.68% market share. Numbers don't lie and clearly Linux has a hell of a lot of maturing to do before it will ever be adapted by the general public.
But to be quite honest, there is simply no room for Linux. Winblows dominates and the Mac is slowly taking away that dominance...
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|ok that's great, i would love to see the Mac OS with a 50% or higher in the marketplace and linux with at least 15%
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|and the Mac is slowly taking away that dominance...
Very....very slowly. ;)
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|HA HA HA HA i agree
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