Fri, Jul 25, 2008 15:08 EDT

The Desktop of the Future: Windows?

Topic: Infrastructure

Current Rating: Comments: 2

I was at OSCON (the O'Reilly Media Open Source Convention) this week and saw the desktop of the future -- and Microsoft should be scared.

I know, you think I'm going to talk about how next year will be the year of the Linux desktop -- but I'm not.

What was surprising to me was the number of Macs at OSCON. They were all over. In fact, I commented on this to the person I was sitting next to in the Speaker Lounge on Tuesday, and he told me that he had counted them up -- and 20 of the 26 people in the Lounge were using a Mac!

Now, I do believe that Linux is going to make a run at the desktop going forward. I addressed this in my newsletter this month, identifying the burgeoning netbook trend as a driver of Linux desktop adoption. The low price and limited hardware of netbooks makes Microsoft Windows a poor choice for this category -- and this will only get worse as Microsoft deprecates XP in its attempt to improve Vista market penetration. While XP can be shoehorned onto a netbook with around 4 gig of memory, still leaving room for apps and data, Vista's size precludes use for them. Moreover, the licensing cost of Windows represents too high a percentage of total system cost for it to be a palatable option for netbook manufacturers.

Consequently, most of the netbook manufacturers have turned to Linux for a lightweight, modular operating system. Netbooks will be the beachhead for Linux on the desktop.

Microsoft's not going to go out of business any time soon, and it will continue to milk the mainstream commodity desktop market, but if I ran the company I'd be worried: top end power users are moving to the Mac, low end users are being drawn by the netbook phenomenon, making a squeeze on the middle almost inevitable.

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Sun, Jul 27, 2008 2:01 EDT

dogfood

Posted by: Anonymous
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This has always bothered me at OSCON. Its as if the free and open source desktop technologies aren't good enough for Mac toters. Some have given me reasons that a Mac "just works" or how its kinds open with the BSD heritage. Well, FOSS has come a long way and I find that a desktop solution like Ubuntu also "just works". I really wonder when Mac toters at OSCON will really learn to eat what they dish up.

This includes the organizer(s).

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Tue, Jul 29, 2008 19:38 EDT

To support FOSS, does EVERYTHING have to been FOSS?

Posted by: Esther Schindler
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In truth, I see more Mac notebooks at every conference I attend, not just OSCON. But to your point...

Is it necessary to be a purist to support open source? Can you vote with your feet for "the best for my needs," and be happiest if it's open source? Otherwise, I think, using FOSS just because it's FOSS rewards the not-quite-perfect yet.

The goal ought to be excellence. Open source solutions can often supply the best answer--and we can both give several examples where that's true--but it isn't always the case. What's more important: the open source philosophy or picking the best answer for one's needs?

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