It is my opinion that the lack of support in the business marketplace
for the desktop is three fold:
First the lack of applications that support the business community has
in the past been a big sucking sound that no one wanted to hear,,, that
is changing drastically from day to day and eventually the number of
supported applications will be sufficient to support the demand.
Second, business executives and other potential desktop customers look
back at the Unix environment and remember how it fractured and that no
one really had a market share that commanded respect. As long as there
are people out there who want to argue one distro against another we are
going to have to deal with this reality.
Thirdly, The very nature of the open source community as free, is it
owns worst enemy. We need applications and distros the we know will be
here in 90 days and will be supported not by an invisible cadre of geeks
working around the world( how do I get in touch with someone I cannot
see or talk to?) but rather we need flesh and blood at a desk somewhere
and a help desk to go along with that. If we have to pay, then we will
pay for the convenience. How do you do that and maintain the freedom
that we have enjoyed in the Linux community? By supporting companies
like RedHat who have made a significant contribution and investment in
the marketplace. It is that commitment that is earning them
recognition and respect and there are even people to call for help( and
you pay for it.)
How many of you have paid for the last distro you have running on your
computer?? I bet not many of you. These companies take the dreaded
word 'Money' to continue and if you do not support them financially that
can never happen.
As far as I am concerned, RedHat has the edge in the market place and
will continue to do so and I think that we should stop ragging on them
and recognize their contribution and support their efforts. We cannot
have a fractured Linux desktop development and dozens of distros and
expect to compete with MS$,, who I want so much to see eat dirt!!
Michael C. Rock
Systems Analyst
Registered Linux User # 287973
"The time has come the walrus said to speak of many things,,,"
"Christians give up what they cannot keep to gain what they cannot lose"
-----Original Message-----
From: slug@lists.nks.net [mailto:slug@lists.nks.net] On Behalf Of David
Meyer
Sent: Monday, November 18, 2002 9:27 AM
To: slug@nks.net
Subject: [SLUG] "My distro beat up your distro" discussion
Good Morning All,
I certainly don't wish to fan the flames, but this discussion has made
me believe all over again that the one thing that will keep Linux from
getting where it needs to be in the desktop market is the fighting back
and forth about distributions, etc.
Now I know that might not be totally accurate, but I am not the only one
on this list who sees this as a problem as others have talked with me
about this very thing.
So, to that end, I am curious to know what some of you out there think
about this. More specifically, what is it that is keeping Linux from
STRONGLY coming out on the desktop market?
We're 99% Microsoft free here (just converting some files now from one
machine) throughout our house. One reason is this list. I have a
replacement for virtually every MS program thanks to many of you.
Surely if we can do it (wife and kids included) others can to. So my
question is what can we do to help people make the change?
Just a thought...
Dave
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