There is probably 3 or 4 areas hurdles for Linux to become widely accepted 1.Help is still a issue and man pages are to hard to figure out for most people. Despite Microsoft's many faults they have developed a very good self help with their Technet web site. 2.Linux training: Linux classes are still not as abundant as they should be. The only public classes are at UCSD continuing and some that included in some other web server classes. 3.Another problem is that there is not enough well written text books available. The Oreilly series is good, but they seem more geared to experienced Linux users.
But overall we are very close to widespread acceptance, especially in the business market.Samba3 is moving along and should be out of beta soon hopefully.When this happens we are going see one the last Windows dependiicies end. > > > > I view this as the last hurdle to be overcome to make Linux a fully > > competitive replacement technology for Windows on all fronts. A > > successful replacement technology not only has to perform all the > > functions of the technology it is intended to replace better, faster, > > cheaper, or more easily than the existing solutions, it must be able > > go beyond the existing technology and provide additional features > > the current technology can't. This is why steam-powered horseless > > carriages and trolleys failed and the internal combustion engine > > ultimately supplanted them. Linux has the second part, doing > > more than existing technologies down six ways from Sunday. It's > > coming along, but still a bit weak, on duplicating existing > > functionality easily IMO. > > My perspective on Linux apps is quite different. Not that I can't > see room for improvement, but that I can't see value in duplicating > the existing mess from one OS to the next. I don't want just a > cheaper, stabler Windows than Windows. I don't either. You don't need to duplicate Windows to duplicate the functionality of the Windows OS or applications. To keep with the example I started with, Linux SQLedger needs to be able to do online banking and be easier to install and set up to better compete with Quickbooks in the accounting space. It currently can't. Adding this capability to SQLedger isn't duplicating Windows, but it is offering equivalent fucntionality. > principles that shaped the Unix environment appeal to me; they open > possibilities for very different ways of developing desktop > applications. And to me too. They don't need to be, and shouldn't be, abandoned to meet the goal of giving customers equivalent parity of capabilities with their Window counterparts. > Given that predisposition, I rather hope that developers of Linux > apps will come up with new ways of thinking about what applications > and features are important to have. Absolutely, but I think most business people would consider accounting programs capable of doing online banking important to have, if not as part of the OS out of the box, at least available as an add-on. I'm not suggesting that all of these things be part of a standard installation, just available to the end user. > I'd also like to see them find > ways to keep things small, modular, and hopefully allow for several > different types of interfaces to be added on as others find need of > them. (MVC) We agree completely, but that doesn't preclude finding new ways to give users the functionality they are used to to get them to use Linux in the first place. > As it stands, Miguel DeIcaza and a host of refugee Windows developers > can't seem to extract themselves from the assumptions and trends > they've been saturated with for so long. They are missing a huge > opportunity to innovate and come up with some killer apps, IMO. I > guess it wouldn't bother me so much except for the fact that there > are so many refugee Windows *users* who influence the direction > of development, and the direction of the well-known distributions. All fine things, but if none of those killer apps do what I need to do in my business right now, today, They will not be adopted easily, no matter how good they are. > The old saying goes, "As the twig is bent, so the tree grows." > To me it feels a lot like the 800 pound gorilla is sitting on the > twig. *This* to me is the hurdle that Linux faces, not the > features of the desktop apps. I think that one really effective way to unseat that 800 lb gorrilla is to be able to say to potential users that a set of Linux apps does all the things they do with their Windows counterparts only better, cheaper, more securely, and with greater flexibility. > (I suppose it's obvious, but I really don't give a rodential > hindquarters if the Linux Desktop ever dominates, or how many > people use it. Clearly there need to be enough users to inspire > continued development. Beyond that, I don't give much attention to > who uses Linux, or how many users there are.) A position you are very welcome to take. I hapen to take a different view, which I suppose is also obvious. RD -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
