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

["Jarod Wilson" <user=74@nabble.blu.org>]

 On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 00:41 -0400, Mark J. Dulcey wrote: 
> Tom Metro wrote: 
> 
> > That was a good explanation for the situation 10 years ago. Now Linux 
> > development is heavily sponsored by large corporations like IBM, Novel, 
> > and RedHat. So the real question is why isn't new hardware supported 
> > more quickly by these commercial OS vendors? 
> > 
> > The answer is probably that there is just too much hardware to cover 
> > even by these large companies with deep pockets. With Windows, Microsoft 
> > writes drivers themselves only for a minority of the hardware. The 
> > vendors do the rest. 
> > 
> > So we're back to the usual chicken-and-egg problem where vendors don't 
> > feel compelled to support a platform that doesn't have a big market 
> > share, and consumers aren't drawn to a platform that doesn't support the 
> > hardware they want to use. Of course this is slowly changing in Linux's 
> > favor, but is still a far way from the "tipping point." 
> 
> A point you missed: most of those big companies are mostly interested in 
> Linux in the server room; the desktop is an afterthought. Ubuntu is 
> unusual in having such a strong desktop focus, and I believe that's one 
> reason that people are so enthusiastic about it.