Desktop Linux tidal wave alert

A return to the C64 days ????

The way I see it is that Vic 20's, Commodore 16,64,128 and many other computers of the 80's have built in BIOS. We are simply returning back that concept. People are increasingly wanting instant gratification, so instant on is the future. If you had to wait 60 seconds before you could make a call on your mobile would that be a winner. I think not !!!

The best option in my opinion is to have what the Amiga 1000, it had a area of RAM that could be loaded with your BIOS and then it would switch to ROM. I guess these days it is like flashing your BIOS in all reality. Lets say have from 2-8Gb flash area. This could be either preloaded by the OEM or by the user with Ubuntu or whatever distro you like. With apps like OpenOffice, Firefox or Thunderbird built in. Now wouldn't that be fast !

As to Linux vs Windows, well all I can say is that we have 2 XP licenses here which rarely get used due to many many reasons. We also have a Vista license which I simply hate, it is the worst OS I have ever used they seemed to have thrown out logic when they created it. But all three have Ubuntu 8.10 on them, whilst not perfect it has proved to meet 99.9% of our needs. It has proven itself across many generations to be a more stable and friendly OS as time goes by. It is the most enjoyable OS I have used since I AmigaOS.

The final point I will make is that once these BIOS OS allow mounting of external devices like HD, SSD etc, they will make HD loading OS redundant to the majority of people. If MS ignores this trend I feel it will be their loss and it could be relegated to a non market leader.

It could be interesting to see if Google has plans to approach OEM about loading Android into the BIOS. Who knows what the future holds.

Linux on the desktop

Whilst as a fulltime Ubuntu user I have seen how usable and stable it has become I doubt that it has much chance of rapidly gaining such marketshare as currently to install ANY operating system (Ubuntu is certainly the easiest though) you need more IT knowledge than most user can muster (particularly as Windows makes it so difficult to burn a CD image) and few PC manufacturers would be willing to ship it in store on a standard laptop or desktop (until it reaches mass popularity except of course in the netbook market where by being one of the early comers it muscled its way in and still has a significant market share ... including me one my eeePC 1000h arrives :-) ). Whilst Ubuntu is still wonderful for basic users and pros alike if someone competent to install it and explain the basics Microsoft has just invested to much in its monopoly and making sure that users stay dumb for users to change on mass to a full open source operating system. That said however other open source software such as Firefox (20% ish), OpenOffice.org (5% ish) and the GIMP is gaining marketshare much quicker - hopefully we can expect to see a more open and competitive software industry soon if a totally open one is not possible. Btw. regarding the boot-time of splashtop debian hackers have shown that it is possible to get a fully featured (though highly customized) Linux system to boot in under 5 seconds and with Ubuntu Jaunty setting reduced boot-time as a goal and the customized kernel for the eeePC looking to be optimized for faster boot-time (based on instructions on how to get it down to 14 ish seconds) we could be seeing very impressive improvements for Linux across the board in this area (while Ubuntu is currently slightly faster than Windows for me (YMMV) that is not saying much).

I bought a brand new DELL

I bought a brand new DELL with vista installed, ready ton prove to all my friends that I have
been right to stick by microsoft over the years.
Three months in it was running as slow as my XP used to. My friend wacked a little orange disk into my old machine and laughed when it came to life. He has now done the same to my new machine
and now I consider the installation of vista a
glitch in my computers life. Go Ubuntu. I had
never heard of Linux, seems to make my PC reliable like a Mac. Nuff said.
I don't care the origin of the product.
I just want a computer that works!!!

FADER

Steven - Linux Hall of Shame candidate

Steven, please do not put yourself into the same basket with clearly insane Aaron Seigo, Jim Zemlin and several other linutics.
3% desktop user base by 2010 (as reported by such and such agency) would be a more realistic goal/projection/prediction. Your articles are targeting a very specific audience and therefore you live in an obviously faulty feedback environment. Linux is going nowhere on the desktop. Why? - 1. Repository based application installation model is clearly wrong; for both users and developers. Just give me (the user) a platform for running/installing the application I want to and give developers a clear and unified platform specs to write those apps for. - 2. No decent desktop environment - GNOME - slower than Vista, KDE - screwed up by Aaron Seigo beyond repair, XFCE - too ratty for normal users.

Linux is way more flexible

Linux is way more flexible than Windows. For those that argue that XP or Vista is a nice and easy interface to use, it's just that an interface. In Linux you cane make it look anyway you want it, even like XP or Vista (I don't know if anyone made a theme like that yet), and an average persona wouldn't be able to tell the difference. With Windows OSs, you're stuck with only a few themes (maybe there are some 3rd-party programs, but they'll slow the system down probably).