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Why 2012 may finally be The Year of the Linux Desktop (courtesy of Microsoft)

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mahesh2k:
If i'm not wrong then with QT, Mono and Ironpython any linux based program can run between multiple window managers or distros. So it doesn't matter what type of distro people are running. Centralization of distros will put linux in same queue as that of apple and windows. There will be more people unsatisfied with the choices made by council before final OS release, take example of ubuntu unity window manger move or monthly release move. So my view is that it doesn't matter which distro user is running on desktop. They need apps to get their work done. Non-developers are concerned about getting work done and developers are interested in platform stability and ease of development. Linux has ability to balance this need without losing any popularity factor.

AFAIK, most of the tablets around me are linux based so i can't say that there is not much of support for touch interface. I do agree there should be more hardware support ( drivers and apps). I have no idea about battery life so i can't comment on that.

40hz:
Hell hardware manufacturers would welcome the move with open arms to get away from MS OEM licensing.

At the moment the problem isn't lack of under4standing (most Linux is one click install pretty much) - it is the lack of pro software tools and lack of manufacturer based hardware support.
-Carol Haynes (September 22, 2011, 03:57 AM)
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Carol raises a very important point.

Drivers are no more difficult to write for Linux than they are for any other operating system. But hardware support will always remain a problem as long as the hardware manufacturers continue to be afraid of offending Microsoft.

And with something like an average of 600,000 Windows 7 licenses being sold daily since it's release, that's not something most hardware manufacturers are willing to risk. Especially with Microsoft's ongoing patent FUD campaign - and the IP cross-licensing deals its signed with certain major Linux players.

One simply does not squeeze the udders of Sacred Cows. Especially if that same cow provides your daily cheese.

superboyac:
600,000 Windows 7 licenses being sold daily since it's release
-40hz (September 22, 2011, 06:48 AM)
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Carol Haynes:
Drivers are no more difficult to write for Linux than they are for any other operating system. But hardware support will always remain a problem as long as the hardware manufacturers continue to be afraid of offending Microsoft.
-40hz (September 22, 2011, 06:48 AM)
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I don't think that's the issue - many manufacturers already produce Mac drivers and some produce Linux drivers too.

I think the biggest problem is return on investment - while Linux is seen as a niche market there is no incentive for most manufacturers to bother.

Linux is big in the webserver market but hardly registers on the desktop market.

Its all about bottom line - and when users start to leave MS in droves the Linux driver market will begin to be established.

There is also a huge inertia in the software market. How many professional products (such as photo/graphics or video editing,  or a decent word processor/DTP) are available for Linux? And who writes games for Linux?

Until corporate users and power users can use some of their past investment in a Linux environment they are going to be more than reluctant to move. If you have worked for years with Qurk as your publishing package and can no longer even open Quark files why would you consider changing to Linux. Mac maybe since Windows/Mac both have compatible product catalogues (MS Office, Adobe, Quark etc.)

It is all a bit chicken and egg. No one will write games for Linux until AMD and nVidia start writing full blown driver packages for Linux. OK you can get most cards working to some degree but it is far removed from current game support in Windows (same problem to a large extent with the Mac games market). Similarly no one will start porting large scale publishing products (Photo or Print) until the printer drivers on Linux can match the output quality of Windows and Mac.

Also no company will write drivers or software for an OS that is so disparate - how can they possibly produce hundreds of different pre-compiled build for the hundreds (or possibly thousands) of distros out there? It is all very well saying they can be compiled at the user end, or by the distro writers but I can't see Adobe, AMD or nVidia handing out source code to be locally compiled any time soon.

40hz:
Also no company will write drivers or software for an OS that is so disparate - how can they possibly produce hundreds of different pre-compiled build for the hundreds (or possibly thousands) of distros out there? It is all very well saying they can be compiled at the user end, or by the distro writers but I can't see Adobe, AMD or nVidia handing out source code to be locally compiled any time soon.
-Carol Haynes (September 22, 2011, 09:28 AM)
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Um...yes, if that were the case. But the video subsystem in Linux is modular, and not affected by the distribution since it's common to all distros. So a hardware driver written for one distribution should work with all of them. I've never run into a driver that was binary-specific to one particular flavor of Linux. The only reason I could think of why a driver wouldn't be universally available is if it were because of the vendor putting a license restriction on it.

Don't know which distros you're most familiar with, but virtually all the big names (and those based on them)  auto-recognize video hardware and notify you when there's a third-party or proprietary driver available for it. A simple click (and your password to authenticate it) and it's downloaded and installed.  

I've been told by an acquaintance who writes hardware drivers for a living that it's easier for him to write them for Linux because the underlying OS is open. So when something goes wrong they can just go to the source or documentation to quickly figure out exactly what needs fixing. He said with Microsoft you're often only told "just enough" for you to fix something. Otherwise it's blackbox.

 :)

As far as compiling drivers locally, it's just not gonna happen. Ever. Because in order to allow you to do that, the manufacturer would have to release source code. And that's not something they are not willing to do. If it were, they'd be part of the open source world...and the script stops right there.

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