lattyware

Because Valve are not a company that always goes with what is normal.

Think about it, the thing everyone complains about with Linux is the lack of game support. If Valve make Steam for Linux, and port the Source engine, they would open the floodgate of would-be linux users. They could nigh-on create the market.

Before the TV was made mainstream, I'm sure people could have said 'Why would anyone broadcast on TV when Radio is so popular?' - You are saying the same thing.

If Linux gets software and hardware support from developers/manufacturers. It's market share will skyrocket. Fact. Those that gave the support then get more sales.

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Lattyware | Main (Sig) Rig: gBOX42 | Lan Rig: gLAN42
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R3ap3R

The problem is that it would commercialize linux and make it too mainstream; eventually, it would kill the idea of free and open source when manufactures make too many demands. The only reason why the support is like it is: because manufactures are unwilling to make their products open source....

razar

Latty, this is a quite interesting thread you started here.....I've read through most of it, interesting indeed. From my perspective (linux user for over 10yrs now) linux has come a long way and it's very usable by most people. There are still a few issues that keep it from the mainstream. It's licensing, and it's stigma related to difficulty. Open source is good but it won't replace closed in our lifetimes if ever. I won't go into all the boring details but lets just say they both have their place and serve the public well. One good thing is that stigma related to difficulty or having a high learning curve for new users is steadily dwindling. Hmmm did I say that was a good thing....that musta slipped out. At any rate some of those new users can provide some good comedic moments.

Man I must be old school now......OldManVoice "Why....in my day we didn't have a GUI......and if you wanted to install one, well then by god you had to compile it.....and we LIKED IT!" /OldManVoice

At any rate....to me it's a very useful OS for getting work done. At work it's all I use, I have a multimonitor FedoraCore8 running and an rPath Linux host for rPath dev work. At home though, I use my comp for gaming, and well, we know who wins out in that respect.

I must fall into your 3rd category LOL.

Edit: FYI I've never tried Ubuntu.
Linux flavors I've used/admin'd/dev'd for: RedHat, SuSE, United Linux, Debian, Slackware, Mandrake (now Mandriva), Fedora, rPath/Foresight linux
Unix flavors I've admin'd: OSF, AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, Tru-64, SCO (shudder)

lattyware

Heh, I like not having a GUI to begin with too. You should try out Arch, it is beautiful. You start off with the most basic system you would want, you then get everything you want and install it. Pacman is there for ease, and AUR makes compiling routine stuff easy. It's a wonderful distro. I'm missing it already (I installed Hardy x64 after a hard drive died, as I didn't have time to set up Arch again. I really should do again).

Thanks for the comments. I think we will see a much wider adaptation of Linux over the coming years though - it's getting better at such a rate.

Not really, no one can make Linux not open source. That's the whole point of the GPL. Non-open and open code can live side by side, and when that happens, more and more code will end up opening up.

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Lattyware | Main (Sig) Rig: gBOX42 | Lan Rig: gLAN42
Never been convinced by Linux? Here is a challenge. | Using LVM
Scratched Disc? | Guide To LAN Parties | Writing a GUI application in Python/Glade
Etching an image into your case. | Wireless Access Points: Easy wireless networking.
A Member Of The OCN Anime/Manga Club
There are three types of software. Free as in speech (FOSS), Free as in beer (Freeware) and Free as in BitTorrent.

DigitalPhreak

As a sys admin I really dont like the idea of having to learn and know all of the ins and outs and advanced tasks of more than one platform. I already have trouble with dealing with M$ problems. Where would I go from just basic desktop use to being as advanced as I am with windows for Linux help? (Forums arent reliable and convenient enough to use when I need an answer to my problem NOW!) So many distros. So many possiblities. It seems ridiculous.

The linux world needs to learn to stick with one basic distro and just improve the hell out of that.

Think about it it for just a sec... Major movie studios have been slowly dropping off of the HD DVD bandwagon. (The better choice IMO for more reasons than I can count that have nothing to do with the quality of the format itself.) They have been doing this because having two formats out there is causing customer indifference about the technology and slow adoption rates. Basically, the customer is saying "I want there to be a clear winner here before I buy anything." Thats the nature of most people. Faced with too many choices (and in the case of the dvd formats, just two. And linux has like 10 or more.) causes you to become jaded. And I am definately jaded by Linux and all of its "possiblities".

Its mostly just feels overwhelming to even think about, not even switching, but even just using both for their qualities.

As a whole, my past (yes more than six months and with Redhat) experiences with linux have been ho-hum. My experiences with windows have had its ups and downs I must however admit.

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timxirish

Nice post latty. I may show it to a couple of lan buddies I have. A few of them, when presented with running a linux distro, say "Why?" as if it's a statement rather than a question.

Here's another reason to run linux (in dual boot) for the list:

If you fubar your Windows install, you can use NTFS drivers to back up your data, whether that means burning CDs/DVDs or moving the files to another partition or drive. I actually have been in that scenario 2-3 times, and recently DID have have an XP install refusing to boot after upgrading to dual core within the past week. All my data was backed up with ease.. Makes reinstalling XP feel like less of a burden (even more so if you slipstream hotfixes and service packs into your disc).

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R3ap3R

I agree with Phreak (as in telephone phreaking?)... I think that different distros do serve a limited purpose, ie RedHat v Mint... but it should be narrowed down to maybe 6 distros, including Ubuntu of course

The Hundred Gunner

I'm fine with all the distros... It provides a variety of pre-installed stuff, and it's not like they're each whole different OSs. One package can more easily install in one OS, but, for example, a .deb file can be converted to a .rpm file and vice-versa. So a Debian/Ubuntu file is easily made available as a Fedora/Suse file. There isn't much negative to the variety of distros.

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Blah, blah, can't hear you

DigitalPhreak

OT (sorry):

Ya... Its my homage to the old days of "thinking outside of the box" so to speak. Except now its all digital and not so much analog. Hence "digital-phreak".

...I unno. It made sense to me at the time I thought it up.

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R3ap3R

lol... the art is still alive