I really cannot agree with this article. The problems that Linux are facing are because of the inherent nature of open source software, fragmentation.
This is a problem most tech-savvy people see as a good thing but makes it difficult to get into Linux, Ubuntu being so popular is helping but there are still issues.
Just deciding between things like KDE, GNOME, XFCE, Cinnamon and so on can be close to impossible for a rookie.
And that's just the beginning. Meanwhile Windows is becoming better and better and Windows 10 is looking amazing, immensely updating the desktop environment.
Is Linux becoming viable? Yes. Is it there just yet? No, I don't feel like it is. Ubuntu is taking good strides towards becoming a standard in the Linux world but I know many who dislike that as well.
But even Ubuntu is facing fragmentation, as it became more popular Linux Mint gained traction and we gain yet another distribution and more fragmentation.
That would be a great thing but I fear it would just become yet another installation process furthering the fragmentation issues.
I think Canonical is the closest thing to bring some unity to Linux (yes, pun intended).
For me the issue is really knowing that the programs I want will run on my computer. I work on linux all day every day. I have several terminals open at a time, but at home I have 4 computers. 2 laptops for my wife and I and 2 gaming rigs. I know that any game or software I want can run on them. I love linux, the command line and programming environment is so powerful and useful. But at the end of the day, I want to be able to install the software I want and most developers don't support linux.
Very true, all too many times have I been stuck trying to configure wine correctly until I gave up and moved over to a complete Windows environment with a few Linux-VMs for some minor things.
I really cannot agree with this article. The problems that Linux are facing are because of the inherent nature of open source software, fragmentation.
This is a problem most tech-savvy people see as a good thing but makes it difficult to get into Linux, Ubuntu being so popular is helping but there are still issues. Just deciding between things like KDE, GNOME, XFCE, Cinnamon and so on can be close to impossible for a rookie.
And that's just the beginning. Meanwhile Windows is becoming better and better and Windows 10 is looking amazing, immensely updating the desktop environment. Is Linux becoming viable? Yes. Is it there just yet? No, I don't feel like it is. Ubuntu is taking good strides towards becoming a standard in the Linux world but I know many who dislike that as well.
But even Ubuntu is facing fragmentation, as it became more popular Linux Mint gained traction and we gain yet another distribution and more fragmentation.
[This comment was removed]
For me the issue is really knowing that the programs I want will run on my computer. I work on linux all day every day. I have several terminals open at a time, but at home I have 4 computers. 2 laptops for my wife and I and 2 gaming rigs. I know that any game or software I want can run on them. I love linux, the command line and programming environment is so powerful and useful. But at the end of the day, I want to be able to install the software I want and most developers don't support linux.
Very true, all too many times have I been stuck trying to configure wine correctly until I gave up and moved over to a complete Windows environment with a few Linux-VMs for some minor things.