How Apple and Microsoft are advancing desktop Linux

Desktop Linux ^ | Jun. 23, 2006 | Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

[dalight]

ROFLMAO

[bigdcaldavis]

I figure one of the main reasons Linux isn't mainstream is because of all of the many Linux distributions in existence. I think that eventually one of the commercial Linux distro companies will attempt to buy the Linux source code from Torvalds and the Debian source code and then claim exclusive ownership of Debian and Linux (including past versions).

This is my personal opinion. If I had to choose between Xandros and Linspire to be the only Linux distro in town, I would choose Xandros in a heartbeat...my biggest fear is that if Xandros does indeed become the only Linux distro around, we'll start seeing security flaws in Xandros that will make it easy for hackers to compromise your Xandros systems. (I've always suspected that the government uses Microsoft Windows' security holes to spy on Windows users and view the contents of their hard drives.)

[bigdcaldavis]

Linux will never be anything but a bitplayer as a desktop OS, but I'm not sure why it needs to be a desktop OS.

Because it is important to have a choice of what operating system you want to use. How would you like it if Microsoft forced all Windows-compatible PCs manufacturers to put some kind of DRM technology in all new PCs which would allow only Windows XP/Vista to be installed and run?

[bigdcaldavis]

There are efforts with the Debian-based distros to make a universal Debian system. It's called the "Debian Common Core Alliance". So if any Linux distribution goes mainstream, it will be a Debian-based distro. Right now Xandros and Ubuntu (and all Ubuntu derivatives such as Kubuntu) have the most buzz of the Debian-based distros. I predict Linspire will eventually be lost in the shuffle and fall so far behind that they will probably be sold to Xandros.

[tortoise]

How would you like it if Microsoft forced all Windows-compatible PCs manufacturers to put some kind of DRM technology in all new PCs which would allow only Windows XP/Vista to be installed and run?

False dichotomy. And it still does not explain why Linux will be anything more than a bitplayer on the desktop.

I use MacOS and Linux on the desktop exclusively, and there is nothing that would prevent me from doing so for the foreseeable future. There is no need to hyperventilate over what Microsoft might do.

BTW, the specific supposition you make above is absurd and will never materialize in a meaningful way for a great many reasons that may have escaped you.

[coconutt2000]

The DCC is a step in the right direction of establishing a common base of compatibility, but developers will need to actually invest in development for that common base to a degree where the resulting user experience is consistent across applications.

[stainlessbanner]

filing

[ShadowAce]

I think that eventually one of the commercial Linux distro companies will attempt to buy the Linux source code from Torvalds and the Debian source code and then claim exclusive ownership of Debian and Linux (including past versions).

This has already been attempted and failed. Linus actually "owns" very little of the code in Linux. There are just too many owners of code within the kernel to ever make that scenario possible.