Fedora

Bug #1 (liberation)
Comment #642

Comment 642 for bug 1

Revision history for this message

Conrad Knauer (atheoi) wrote on 2008-04-07:

#642

foosean010:

Regarding the number of Linux distributions, while there are a lot (around 350 "active" ones listed on DistroWatch as per http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20080331), the vast majority are minor players (just getting started, winding down, niche, etc.) I put some of my notes about that here: http://limulus.wordpress.com/2007/06/29/pclinuxos-popularity/ IMHO there is really only one "main" Linux distribution; that would be Ubuntu :) Yes, you can find others that do particular things better and/or differently, but Ubuntu is usually voted the most popular, the one by which others tend to be judged these days and as a whole it does a very good job.

As far as a "COMPLETELY user friendly" Linux distro, I would suggest calling it 'Utopia OS' since NO OS is "COMPLETELY user friendly". The best you can do is continually work at it :)

Regarding proprietary games, with Wine 1.0 coming out soon, I would suggest that would be a better focus for compatibility than any particular Linux distro.

Regarding your point #2, with just a little pickyness when selecting hardware, Ubuntu is the "superior OS" compared to Windows (*especially Vista* http://limulus.wordpress.com/2008/04/05/an-unscientific-poll/ ;) so I suppose that it really IS just a question of marketing now. My personal prediction is that the third LTS Ubuntu release, which should be 10.04, will achieve a 'Windows 95' type breakthrough (the oft-predicted 'year of the Linux desktop'; http://limulus.wordpress.com/2007/08/13/2010-the-year-of-the-linux-desktop/)

I think the trick to getting advertising will be getting the OEMs onboard. Dell is still being timid about showing off their Ubuntu systems. If a couple more OEMs started preloading Ubuntu, then we probably will see some ads going up as they compete with each other for sales.

Anyway, just a little closing thought; I am running Ubuntu Hardy (pre-release) on a three year old computer (2 GHz 32-bit AMD (single) Processor, 1 GB RAM, 128 MB ATI Radeon 9250-based video card, DVD RW drive) that is probably worth less than $500 US (including the monitor) now and yet it runs like a dream; my windows are wobbly, my 'desktop' is a cube, and when I press super-k I get stars around my cursor (its the little things that make me happy :) I am not in a constant state of paranoia over malware, my software didn't cost a large percentage of my hardware, my documents are saved in formats that I should easily be able to open in a decade, and there is no DRM to be seen anywhere ^_^ I've been talking to a young guy who works at a local computer store and he is just in awe of Ubuntu; its like magic to him ('WOW' moments included: free cost, EULA (yes, please do make copies for your friends :), LiveCD, Synaptic, Compiz fun, predictable releases). Once there is a 'critical mass' of 'average' people who know about Desktop Linux in its current form, I don't think that OEMs will be able to ignore the demand.

foosean010:

Regarding the number of Linux distributions, while there are a lot (around 350 "active" ones listed on DistroWatch as per http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20080331), the vast majority are minor players (just getting started, winding down, niche, etc.)  I put some of my notes about that here: http://limulus.wordpress.com/2007/06/29/pclinuxos-popularity/  IMHO there is really only one "main" Linux distribution; that would be Ubuntu :)  Yes, you can find others that do particular things better and/or differently, but Ubuntu is usually voted the most popular, the one by which others tend to be judged these days and as a whole it does a very good job.

As far as a "COMPLETELY user friendly" Linux distro, I would suggest calling it 'Utopia OS' since NO OS is "COMPLETELY user friendly".  The best you can do is continually work at it :)

Regarding proprietary games, with Wine 1.0 coming out soon, I would suggest that would be a better focus for compatibility than any particular Linux distro.

Regarding your point #2, with just a little pickyness when selecting hardware, Ubuntu is the "superior OS" compared to Windows (*especially Vista* http://limulus.wordpress.com/2008/04/05/an-unscientific-poll/ ;) so I suppose that it really IS just a question of marketing now.  My personal prediction is that the third LTS Ubuntu release, which should be 10.04, will achieve a 'Windows 95' type breakthrough (the oft-predicted 'year of the Linux desktop'; http://limulus.wordpress.com/2007/08/13/2010-the-year-of-the-linux-desktop/)

I think the trick to getting advertising will be getting the OEMs onboard.  Dell is still being timid about showing off their Ubuntu systems.  If a couple more OEMs started preloading Ubuntu, then we probably will see some ads going up as they compete with each other for sales.

Anyway, just a little closing thought; I am running Ubuntu Hardy (pre-release) on a three year old computer (2 GHz 32-bit AMD (single) Processor, 1 GB RAM, 128 MB ATI Radeon 9250-based video card, DVD RW drive) that is probably worth less than $500 US (including the monitor) now and yet it runs like a dream; my windows are wobbly, my 'desktop' is a cube, and when I press super-k I get stars around my cursor (its the little things that make me happy :)  I am not in a constant state of paranoia over malware, my software didn't cost a large percentage of my hardware, my documents are saved in formats that I should easily be able to open in a decade, and there is no DRM to be seen anywhere ^_^  I've been talking to a young guy who works at a local computer store and he is just in awe of Ubuntu; its like magic to him ('WOW' moments included: free cost, EULA (yes, please do make copies for your friends :), LiveCD, Synaptic, Compiz fun, predictable releases).  Once there is a 'critical mass' of 'average' people who know about Desktop Linux in its current form, I don't think that OEMs will be able to ignore the demand.