Yet another "This Could be Linux's Year" article...

Here is an interesting article over at ExtremeTech making the leap that the seriously lacking Win8 release coupled with Steam's introduction of potentially good gaming within Linux and the expensive alternative with Apple products could drive people to Linux...

 

Great article. I’m using UB V12.04 in VMware Player V4.04.
This Linux OS trend is really going full “steam” ahead.
Home users, business, universities, data centers, cloud, etc, either converted
and deployed or are doing feasibility studies with Linux. A few years ago,
IBM AS/400’s had a strong hold in IT shops. Linux “steam” rolled it.

One area I’d like to see an improvement is Speech recognition on Linux.
IVR or interactive voice recognition Linux App would be icing on the
cake and a blow to MS/Apple and other OS/Apps, commercial or freebies.

 

While I sympathize with the linux cause very much, I dont see why anyone (mainstream general users that is) would switch when they already have a license and the possibility of getting a computer without windows leaves you with a) building your own desktop OR b) the rare chance of getting certain business models with a "DOS" option. Do I see more casual enthusiasts switching over? Sure, but again I still think linux has its place in the server market and the enthusiast market. But mainstream general users? I dont think it will make that jump yet.

::Awaits the 2013 article:::

 

One other factor is that enthusiasts like myself often recommend/install Ubuntu for their friends or family. So sometimes enthusiasts radiate a little circle of linux use into the mainstream user base.

 

..honestly, people have said that for years now. But it's become more nuanced than it was. You have had enthusiast spins for a long time. And it's always been easier to create specialized solutions over a unix-based system.

But what we're seeing more and more is that Windows becomes the enthusiast platform. The one that doesn't really give you the light UI experience, but that people stick with because of work, etc. While either embedded systems based on a linux core, or a linux spin with more custom options for window managers, etc, really is the "OS" of choice for netbooks and small "internet" PCs and laptops.

So it's not a stretch to say that if games disappear from Windows, then there's no reason to bother with it any longer for anyone.

 

This, I just converted a friend to a part time user (he games) and i offer to install linux on systems that are old, not working, or they want to give it to the kids.

Not to mention that most people i know have put ubuntu on their netbook instead of using XP.

 

Being an enthusiast myself I understand and as well as sympathize with it too (yeah I know I know). Its easier to have my windows 7 setup and configured for my development and IT work then linux for now. Sure I could go back to using linux on my main rig, but with a family life + work + school its just easier to run windows.

PC gaming will never truly die or even leave windows in general. Does steam coming to linux make me happy? Sure, but its a bit late as Im already back to windows. Now had this happened last year Id have debian squeeze on my m4600 and play portal and TF2 to kill time at work ::cough cough dont tell the boss::. Will I switch back over to linux ever again? Sure is possible as my dynamic does change every so often. But for now putty and tight vnc makes my linux work easy and stable. Might even mess with cygwin so I can get my rsync back up so I can transfer my work from my laptop to my server to deploy it easier then ftp the files and then switch to putty to transfer them from my ftp folder to /var/www or wherever...

I try this with family and friends all the time who just need general use computers. I have about a 10% turnaround. Might have to work on my salesmanship

 

Heck!... That's better than I have done and I am in sales...

 

I also hear the same thing every year. And I will tell you, not going to happen any time soon .

 

I'm feeling a sense of deja vu here - just replace Win8 with Vista. Except Vista didn't help Linux adoption at all. Most people either just stuck with XP or moved to a Mac.

 

If you take gaming alone - I feel Windows has a place which Linux has not been able to compete.

But I dont think it is a pain anymore as it used to be 5 or 10 years back to install Linux - as long as you choose a good community supported distro. And believe me Linux does not deserve the sympathy, because it has gained a place of its own in many markets where Windows can hardly compete. And no, I'm not talking about embedded devices but rather PCs.

And Linux has never competed for market share - they have only competed to provide an open platform with support for latest hardware. And the beauty of it being open-source community driven, tons of quality contributions from around the world, co-existence amongst other FOSS kernels like *BSD and other *nix variants - is something Windows or OSX can never beat