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Re: Linux on the desktop - it's come a long way, but is it there yet?



 I think it also has a lot more to do with need. The amount of people 
installing linux on an nvidia built in 8mb graphics card on a 1u rack far 
out numbers the number of people installing it on an 8600 GT 512MB. In fact 
I can't think of a single reason why anyone truly needs a 3d accelerator 
card in Linux. most of the games I've seen for it don't even come close to 
needing it. It doesn't help doing photo editing, perhaps it may do something 
faster with 3d modeling but how much of that seriously gets done on linux? I 
think that it's purely economical. If they hire 10 people who write kick ass 
linux drivers for their shit it costs money. That money they deem is less 
then the potential that Linux users will buy nvidia cards. Hence back all to 
market forces. People use linux and unix everywhere just not on the desktop. 
At least not nearly the usage you see in racks. I personally love it on the 
desk top quirks and all... but it's the mind set... and that is changing 
rapidly. I can't wait until microsoft stops XP support and everyone has to 
switch to vista. I don't know a single IT person who likes vista, I don't 
know a developer who likes even the idea of vista, and I know on my end 
almost nothing is compatible with it. This is Linux's time to shine and I 
think the fedora and sun teams know it. 

Honestly I think the deals with dell are the best thing ever, and it's proof 
that Linux itself is ready for prime time. Dell wouldn't support it if it 
wasn't. But there is already this huge infrastructure for windows in the 
office. The first thing that needs to change is the corporate desktops which 
pale in comparison to the number of home users. Also people who get paid to 
learn stuff find it much easier to use when you are confronted with a new 
OS. 

The proof is in the pudding so to speak. For the 95% of users out there who 
only need to use something like a word processor, internet and excell it's a 
beautiful fast fully functioning OS with a huge support team. ~Ben 

On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 9:13 AM, Jerry Feldman <[hidden email]> wrote: 

> On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:23:00 -0400 
> Ruben Safir <[hidden email]> wrote: 
> 
> > Patent law and fear of legal exposures for releasing with Free Software 
> drivers 
> > is a large component of the foot draggging on the part of companies to 
> release 
> > even specs.  This is particularly true of the video cards where they 
> think 
> > they are stepping on each others patents. 
> 
> I would tend to disagree. Most of the video chip people do not want to 
> expose their trade secrets.  There are a couple of issues with drivers. 
> The Linux kernel community wants Open Source drivers, but most of the 
> chip makers don't want to release their sources, but they are willing 
> to release Linux binary drivers. While at Compaq, I spoke to a network 
> chip maker with respect to a Linux driver for their NIC chip used in 
> some of Compaq's laptops, and the person told me that it was simply a 
> matter of time. 
> 
> I don't think that patent law has much to do with the decision to 
> release source drivers since competitors are certainly going to look at 
> these chips, and they can always reverse engineer the Windows drivers. 
> 
> 
> -- 
> -- 
> Jerry Feldman <[hidden email]> 
> Boston Linux and Unix 
> PGP key id: 537C5846 
> PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB  CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846 
> 
> _______________________________________________ 
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> 
> 


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