[ILUG] Is Linux dying?

[Paul Reilly]

> > cant download it I can only buy it. But I dont want to buy, I only want
> > to try.

I can understand where you are coming from.
However, you have to hand it to these companies for actually
seeing the potential of Linux as a desktop OS, and working on those
parts which need working on.

IMHO the offerings from GNOME and KDE are still light years behind
closed desktops like MacOSX and Windows.  Ximian made great strides
towards a usable Linux desktop, however since the Novell buyout, you
can't download it anymore. The companies which are releasing commercial
desktop distro's are filling a niche which the community hasn't delivered
on. By focussing on the little things like open/save dialogs, decent file
system browser etc, they are making a Linux based desktop OS usable.
I think the FOSS teams will get there in the end, but the companies
will be leading the way, since they are more focussed on what the
non-technical end user needs.

Paul