[ILUG] Is Linux dying?

[Michele Neylon :: Blacknight Solutions]

>>> 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.

Exactly.

> 
> 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.

Odd. Maybe you can't download the latest and greatest, but you can certainly
get a usable copy of Ximian at:
http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/download.html

 >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.

Ximian, for example, is a very usable desktop for a non-technical user. It
may not suit people who like to tweak every imaginable setting, but would
make a very good desktop for an office environment. 



Mr Michele Neylon
Blacknight Internet Solutions Ltd
http://www.blacknight.ie/
Tel. +353 59 9137101