Mixed Message on Linux

Interesting notes from a recent trade show ...

Two vendors of consumer Linux distributions, gOS and Xandros, spoke glowingly about the OS and its future. But representatives of three PC OEMs next to them – Dell, HP, and Lenovo – declined to commit to the operating system as a platform for their machines, with the exception of the education market. [...]

What's holding Linux back? When asked what they would have the Linux community improve, all three OEM representatives named power management. HP's Mann added the lack of good wireless support. John Hull, manager of an engineering team at Dell, wanted shorter boot times. And Mann added, "don't ever make me open a terminal window and access a command prompt."

That doesn't mean the OS hasn't had its successes. All three said that Linux had been well-received by the education market and third-world countries, and not just One Laptop Per Child low-cost PC efforts.

Still, the panel seemed to indicate that many still see Linux as just a cheaper alternative to Windows, rather than an operating system that has its own advantages. In the education example, for example, Lenovo's Kobs explained the appeal of Linux as a "low cost computing solution." "Looking at the business offering, one of the things we continue to look at on a regular basis is price," Kobs said. "It is one of the most important things."

Not surprisingly, the two Linux vendors represented on the panel took a different view. David Liu, the chief executive of gOS, which launched gOS 3 this week, said the Linux community needs to improve the user interface – not surprisingly, as that is gOS' goal – and the underlying drivers, and Linux applications. "I guess the short answer is can we change the UI and apps, and not just cost down", or lower the cost, of the platform, he said.

I have Xandros on my EEEpc and it's a little intidateing at times, but I really don't have a lot to complain over it. Granted I don't have all those nice or cool programs that I could of had if I had XP, but it's almost like Mac was in the early days where virtually everything Win based wouldn't work, now look at Mac, you can get almost anything on a Win based computer to work on a Mac.

I think it's possible that Linux based OS systems can eventually evolve to the level that Mac's have now.
I think

I think what is stopping market penetration is the lack of perceived engineers to look after it. When the product is a desktop but the engineers get paid server level contracts it is a mismatch in what business is looking for.

I have DSL on my key chain... nice little OS. Has it uses, but I haven't really used it much... it is more there as a USB key version of a boot floppy.