There was a time when I also thought that Linux was going to storm the market, including the desktop. That was when I read Eric Raymond's paper, "The Cathedral and the Bazaar." One of the major themes was, "so many people are working on open source, that commercial software would not be able to compete." It seemed reasonable to me, and I wrote an article with a friend in 1998 that made it onto Linux Today, and into a crappy book by Wiley called, "Linux at Work."
Eric Raymond was wrong.
The problem with Desktop Linux, is Linux. I've been involved with Linux since the beginning (though not anymore if at all possible). Much of my career has been working on and with Linux servers and Desktops. I've heard over and over that, "this will be the year of desktop Linux," and it never has been. Open source development has a critical flaw, no one forces anyone to do the final grunt work on various components of the desktop that are necessary to put the final grunt work polish. Linux, and open source do not have the millions spent by Apple and Microsoft on user testing. No paying developers to stay in their chairs and finish that grunt work that no one wants to do to put the final polish on software/operating systems. Ms and Apple thoroughly QA test their products, which is a whole boatload of grunt work that people will only fully complete when they are paid to specifically do that.
No, this is not the year of Desktop Linux.
Linux is good at many things, but it is nowhere close to the commercial operating systems in ease of use, documentation and direct support if necessary. If you like spending Saturdays attempting to get some obscure error figured so you can attempt to get a crappy half-assed driver for Linux working, then it's for you. If you just want to do things, and play hundreds of great games, choose a well supported and developed commercial operating system. "
