Why Linux will succeed on a desktop computer

The reason for Linux to succeed on a desktop computer (reprinted)-Linux general technology-Linux technology and application information. The following is a detailed description. Linux will become a standard desktop operating system. Although it takes some time for many users to get rid of the limitations of Windows, there are good reasons to believe that this day will come.

The world community has begun to pursue standard file formats. In addition, with Firefox and other browsers gaining more market share, it is increasingly difficult for users to tolerate browsing websites only with Internet Explorer. However, this change is slow and will continue to slow. Most people will give up Windows only when the funds are insufficient.

Perfect General customer (Generic Client)

Desktop computers support multiple ways of working. For example, you can use Microsoft Word for Windows and other local Word processing programs to edit files, or use network Word processing programs such as Google Doc. You need Windows to run Word, but any operating system with good browsers can process Google Doc smoothly. Once you eliminate the transfer to the new document format, the question becomes, "Why do I have to use a Windows system that is full of bugs, large sizes, and insecure ?" Simply put, getting rid of the power of habits makes desktop computers with the cheapest and least-problematic computers the ideal choice.

In the long run, Linux is a perfect general-purpose customer. It is the center of free software development, making it the focus of general open computing. As people continue to use Linux as the basis for cell phones, DVRs (such as TiVo and Dish networks), routers, and other dedicated systems, it can be seen in almost all fields other than PCs. This makes it more likely to control the PC field in the future.

As Linux becomes a de facto standard platform for various software development, it will become more attractive as a personal computing platform. Any overlap between the above products and PCs will save repetitive work. A large number of free software is available, enhancing the attractiveness of Linux as the basis for development.

Many Linux tasks that must be undertaken on the PC have been implemented on mobile phones and other products. We may never see the era of $100 in Internet computers, but network computing is developing. People are increasingly dependent on Web-based emails and the emergence of network applications such as Google Doc, this has been proved. We owe the rich client features in PC and/or mobile browsers to AJAX and Java ..

The more we rely on this type of computing, the more invisible the operating system is. Most people do not know or care about what operating system their mobile phones use. We may always care about what systems we run on the PC, but the boundaries between the two operating systems will gradually become blurred. Linux should be the best choice because it is already widely used on so many devices.

Power Desktop

If Linux is only a general network computing customer, it will not succeed. People will continue to use their PCs as power workstations, even if sometimes this is not appropriate. This is the nature of computer users. For this reason, Linux requires a compelling desktop experience. Although Linux already has Compiz Fusion, many Linux users refuse to install or disable Compiz, even though 3-D does not require as many hardware resources as Vista does in Linux.

Desktop computers need to make more substantial improvements in thinking. The new KDE--KDE4 looks promising in this regard. KDE developers seem to want to bring new things to the desktop experience, not just some novel visual effects. KDE4, or some of these features, will run on Windows and Mac OS-X, but it is completely Linux software and will be more conducive to pushing Linux than any other platform.

KDE4: the spread of Linux in electronic products to the outside world, the trend towards general network computing, the fact that Linux is free (free and free), and other factors, this helps Linux achieve the inevitable success on a desktop computer. But Linux still needs more things. It needs an opportunity window to replace the original system, and it needs to overcome some important obstacles.

Windows for Linux"

Whether Microsoft succeeds or fails, it will provide an important opportunity window for Linux to seize a large share of the desktop computer market. Changing the operating system of a desktop computer is a very painful process. Especially for enterprises, traditional operating systems such as Windows will always have great advantages. However, Microsoft has recently made so many big mistakes that people can expect Microsoft to encourage users to seek other desktop operating systems. Windows has always been notorious for being insecure, while Microsoft's Vista makes the problem more complicated. Visa is expensive, full of bugs, imperfect, and requires complicated licensing, which hinders DRM and imposes high hardware requirements. It is frequently upgraded without the user's permission.

As mentioned above, when funds are insufficient, people are most likely to switch to new operating systems. If it is wise for Microsoft, it should continue to support "fairly good" Windows XP, because any attempt to force users to upgrade to Vista may result in a "tight money" situation. If you upgrade to a desktop computer that you know you don't like, it is easy to adapt to the risks of the new system.

Perhaps Microsoft's biggest mistake is to use SCO to arouse fear and doubt about Linux. Those who used to support SCO are not self-satisfied now. Microsoft claims that Linux has infringed its patents and directly launched an attack on Linux. SCO makes the high-profile analysts more likely to make the same mistake.

When Microsoft launched Windows 95, it began a difficult strategy. On the one hand, it successfully took advantage of its unique advantage in building 32-bit Windows applications, and actually eliminated all competition in the mainstream desktop applications. The problem is that Microsoft has no friends. For example, if Lotus Smartsuite and WordPerfect

If Office is still competitive with Microsoft Office, it is almost impossible for Linux to enter the desktop market. Vendors will be able to collect revenue from Windows applications and will not be interested in supporting another desktop platform.

However, Microsoft is unfortunately unable to find regret for past mistakes. Microsoft cannot give up its large Office market share to save some of its loyalty to Windows. The loss has been caused, and manufacturers are now more inclined to support more competitive platforms, which creates opportunities for Linux and other desktop operating systems.

However, although Microsoft makes it almost impossible for competitors to make money using Windows's mainstream desktop applications, Linux does not have to restore this opportunity. The best mainstream Linux applications are free and open-source applications. Although many vendors are beginning to recognize the superiority of Free Software, most vendors still do not want to understand how to use it to make money. At least they realize that they cannot use the same method to make money in the old market.

Another problem with the opportunity window driven by Microsoft is that they only make it easier for any alternative operating system to expand its share in the desktop computer market, but not necessarily Linuxf. Mac OS-X can benefit from these opportunities and may have benefited. Linux may have advantages in the long term, but in the short term, Linux requires some additional changes to take advantage of these opportunities. Linux will have to overcome some major obstacles.

Obstacle: Linux pre-installation needs to be expanded

If Linux correctly identifies hardware during installation, it is much easier to install Linux than to install Windows. This is the personal experience of many Windows and Linux users. Obviously, Linux can be forcibly installed in case of hardware identification problems, but Windows can also do the same.

Some may say that the Linux installation program has become much stronger in terms of hardware identification recently. This is irrelevant. The simplest installation is not required. So many people believe that Linux is more difficult to install than Windows, regardless of its authenticity. They have to "Install" Linux. They do not have to "Install" Windows. The PCS they purchased are pre-installed with Windows. Mac OS-X has advantages in this regard. After purchasing a Mac computer, the desktop operating system is ready.

The way to overcome this obstacle is obvious. Install Linux on a PC without having to deal with installation issues. Ubuntu works with Dell to pre-install Linux for machines. This is a great start, but it's just a start. Linux will require more vendors to support pre-installation in order to succeed in the desktop computer market.

Obstacle: KDE must replace GNOME and become the preferred GUI for Linux.

GNOME is the default graphic desktop computer environment for Red Hat Linux, Ubuntu, and SUSE. GNOME may not prevent Linux from entering the desktop computer, but it does not sell the desktop computer Linux. For cainiao and hackers, GNOME seems to be confused. If GNOME tries to satisfy both types of users like KDE, the situation will be different. However, GNOME tries to become a user-friendly desktop computer, which makes it impossible (or almost impossible) to perform any task other than the most basic operations. If you really want something that GNOME doesn't want you to do, you must edit the GNOME registry or other configuration files.

GNOME developers believe that removing things other than the simplest functions can free users from worries and avoid being overwhelmed. Even Linus Torvalds challenges the wisdom of this design strategy. He wrote in an email two years ago: "If you think your (GNOME) user is a dumb, then only a dumb will use it ."

Some people may think that GNOME is doing well, because most popular Linux distributions use it by default. If the market share of Linux desktop computers is growing rapidly due to these releases, this may make sense. However, the Linux desktop computer market share is poor, indicating that this is not the case. These releases are very popular, but are only popular among those who are already familiar with Linux, and GNOME is more likely to be attractive to them. GNOME is attractive to some experienced Linux users because it is one of the few complete desktop computer environments that are lighter than KDE, making GNOME more suitable for servers. For those who know how to crack and those who are not afraid of GNOME registration or command line, the limitations of GNOME are negligible.

What measures must be taken to eliminate these obstacles? Red Hat supports GNOME because the licensing problem has been solved for a long time. SUSE favored GNOME because an early GNOME developer actually runs the company. Only one day knows why Ubuntu defaults to GNOME (although you can download and install Kubuntu, KDE is the default ). However, if these releases want to drive Linux's expansion in the desktop computer market, they need to accept and push KDE to become the default desktop computers and/or force GNOME developers to abandon their mind-dead development principles. This is especially true for Ubuntu, which is taking the lead in pushing popular brands such as Dell to pre-install Linux. In any case, the market share of Linux desktop computers may rise, but if more distributions support the same graphics desktop computer, its share will grow faster.

Open Document format will promote the acceptance of Linux in the market

Linux requires two obstacles. Windows and Microsoft Office are actually the same thing, and there is no Microsoft Office for Linux or a fully compatible suite. Or the user must switch to the open document format, or the Linux application must support the perfect introduction of Microsoft Office documents. The ideal solution is to switch to the open format, but this will be determined by the market.

This obstacle does not seem as insurmountable on the surface. People should remember that WordPerfect once monopolized the word processing market, but they still found a way to port Microsoft Office. Microsoft will not allow the market to easily switch from Microsoft Office to other applications, but this change is still possible. The attractiveness of open document formats is hard to resist. Open Document formats are more meaningful than Microsoft Office. Moving forward to the open document format is to ensure compatibility in the future.

Bottom Line

Despite the many obstacles, there are still good reasons to be optimistic about the prospects of Linux in the desktop computer market. Since the middle of 1990s, I have almost always been dedicated to using Desktop Linux, although I needed more computer knowledge than now.

There is another factor that cannot be emphasized. For anyone who really knows what the "Free" Software means, they know that "Free" is the biggest advantage of Linux. However, people cannot deny the power of "free. Microsoft uses this power to make Internet Explorer the world's most popular browser. Netscape died because the company was unable to compete with free software providers. Only Firefox can defend against attacks because it is a free software. Among the three main competitors in the desktop field, Windows, Mac OS-X and Linux, only one of them is free, which will make it a de facto standard in the desktop market.

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Only reprinted, does not represent personal opinions.

[ This post was last edited by deepwhite]