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Is it possible that Linux is going to surpass Mac?

scienceblogs.com — Children have not yet learned to be selectively ignorant of technology or afraid of what they are told to be afraid of.

Who dugg this? Made popular Aug 1, 2008

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  • subgeniusd, on 08/01/2008, -25/+105Is it possible that a MacBoy flamefest will soon occur?
  • inactive, on 08/01/2008, -13/+63Hopefully. I could see Ubuntu becoming a popular OS amongst average PC owners. It's visually pleasing and is very easy to use. I'd say someone who has been using a PC all of their life would have an easier time with Ubuntu than OSX.
  • k3rfuffl3, on 08/01/2008, -5/+48I tried to boot my computer with a Linux LiveCD today. The moment it tried to load Xorg it failed saying my widescreen monitor was unsupported. I knew the problem was with the open-source "nv" driver so I switched to "vesa" for a quick fix. I might be a huge enough nerd to figure this out, but the average user isn't. That is why Linux is not ready to take over any OS's end-user market share.
  • mizike, on 08/01/2008, -8/+43I've been hearing this same ***** from linux fanboys since 1993. Feel free to start that open revolution any day now. Or just talk about it for another decade, I guess that's an option too.
  • wTheOnew, on 08/01/2008, -1/+35How many people do you know? 3? I mostly use Linux and I work in an Unix environment but I know quite a few people that use Windows and a few that use Mac.
  • kevdotbadger, on 08/01/2008, -6/+34Not just yet. I think give it 5 years then it might. It just still isn't ready for everyone to become a linux user.
  • Proctor, on 08/01/2008, -17/+43Doubt it. Average people could never use Linux. There's a reason why people use OSX and Windows over Linux. It's easy, time friendly, and works with wifi almost 100% of the time. I can spend hours trying to get Wifi working on linux with no result. My Macbook Pro is connected to the internets before I can click webkit.
  • Pittance, on 08/01/2008, -7/+32This article is horribly biased against windows and mac and for linux.

    "Right now, I still believe that Linux is not for everyone. It is not for the faint of heart, it is not for people who like to whine. It is not for individuals who are not very smart or who don't really need a computer that works well and packs a punch. People who don't know their Ram from their Rom or the difference .... or lack thereof .... between a file and a folder need to be hand held by their Mac or bullied by their Windows box had better stay away."

    So he called non-linux users faint of heart, whiners, stupid, and people who want useless technology. Oh, also computer illiterate, and socially and technology dependent (hand hold). Good job. An entire paragraph denouncing the traits of a windows or mac user.
    How about people who want to use 95% of all programs written, or who like the interface of their OS?
  • terminalpariah, on 08/01/2008, -4/+26I was a hardcore GNU/Linux user for years, but I was so impressed with OS X that I made the switch. It really is the best Unix desktop ever created.
    Not that GNU/Linux can't catch up. Too bad the community didn't throw their weight behind GNUstep, you'd pretty much have parity with OS X by now. If you could get GNUstep to look great and extend it to match Cocoa, you could just recompile your OS X apps for Linux.
    Instead, we have two teams of coders creating two different Windows clones. Incompatible Windows clones at that. Kill KDE and GNOME.
  • gn0stik, on 08/01/2008, -0/+20My 20 sided die says it's pretty likely.
  • orangefly, on 08/01/2008, -23/+43i know a lot more people that use linux than people that use macs....
  • Steaminx, on 08/01/2008, -9/+29I love how projects like the OLPC is going to uncover thousands of computer scientists from all over the world. Just because you're broke, and in some cases don't have running water, doesn't mean you aren't a brilliant programmer. And what's best is that these new developers will be ingrained with the open source bug. Sharing, collaborating and improving. I'm excited for the future.
  • str1fe, on 08/01/2008, -0/+20This is the internet. You can say ***** here.
  • inactive, on 08/01/2008, -2/+22I love how Apple is the new "enemy" of Linux. What happened to the good old days of Microsoft hating? I guess they lost that war and have to scale back to the next in line. Time to replace that copy of XBill with umm... XSteve?
  • inactive, on 08/01/2008, -5/+23"Children have not yet learned to be selectively ignorant of technology or afraid of what they are told to be afraid of." This explains how unaware high school kids get on Digg and without fear unknowingly become accustomed to liberal socialist Democratic ideologies. I knew there was an explanation.
  • Spuy767, on 08/01/2008, -2/+17There's a fundamental difference between Linux and Mac OS X in their current incarnations. With a Mac, you can go into the command line if you want to, but you never have to. With linux, eventually, you're going to be forced into the command line. I've installed fedora, ubuntu, and gentoo on more machines than I can count, and i've invariably had to go to the command line to get something done.
  • inactive, on 08/01/2008, -0/+15PC's are free now?
  • duckyinc, on 08/01/2008, -0/+15Hi go meet your neighbor who is wondering if you died in your home or not.
  • hoogie, on 08/01/2008, -0/+14If the computer had come from the store with Linux pre-installed and configured, like Windows and OSX machines do, this would not have been a problem. The average user isn't going to install an operating system.
  • superkendall, on 08/01/2008, -2/+15Children are also used to the ease of use of consoles, and are no longer the PC generation used to more complexity in a computing device. You should remember that as well.
  • Pittance, on 08/01/2008, -1/+13If you hear one argument without hearing the opposition, this almost always happens. Happened when I road to school (out of district) for 4 years listening to hannity and Limbaugh my father had on. I become a republican and thought democrats were liars and idiots. Now I know that nearly equal numbers of both parties are liars and idiots. It is also why I go to Fox News occasionally when surfing Digg. Keep my info sources from becoming tainted with 1 sided arguments.
  • aanhorn, on 08/01/2008, -9/+21In a word? No.
  • ebarras, on 08/01/2008, -2/+14You pretty much just proved his point, while at the same time bringing up another interesting talking point against widestream linux use. Linux nerds are generally of the "know it all" verity, and more importantly, annoying.
  • btschul, on 08/01/2008, -8/+19You have obviously never used a mac.
  • LowFuel, on 08/01/2008, -2/+13So the free one runs on thin air? Kick ass!
  • Subcranium, on 08/01/2008, -3/+14I've been a programmer for 30 years and Linux on the desktop still gives me fits. Stuff barely works.

    I love Linux as a server, though.

    Desktop? Maybe in another 10 years.
  • inactive, on 08/01/2008, -0/+11What... the hell?
  • crunshii, on 08/01/2008, -18/+29the real question is!

    who gives a f***!?
  • Freps, on 08/01/2008, -4/+14The title is like saying, "Is it possible that 'Jeopardy' is going to surpass Television??" Let's compare apples to apples here: "Is it possible for Linux to surpass OS X?"
  • freezerburn666, on 08/01/2008, -5/+15why are u getting dugg down? i know hundreds of people, i can only think of 2 dudes i know that have a mac, and about 10 off the top of my head that use linux
  • inactive, on 08/01/2008, -15/+24Yes.
  • Zorkon, on 08/01/2008, -1/+10I have, and Proctor is right. I'm not saying this as a Mac fanboy ... if anything, I'm saying it as a Linux sysadmin and software developer. Even with the progress made by Ubuntu and some of the more n00b-friendly distros, for the most part if you want to run Linux as your primary desktop you have to be technically-inclined.

    That's not to say that you have to know your way around the bash shell, or be able to write Perl scripts in your sleep. It means that you have to be comfortable with digging up answers to your questions in Google, various forums, etc. Because you will one day connect a piece of hardware that will require a module to be built, or ndiswrapper to be installed, etc ... or an automated upgrade will bork for some reason and you'll have to drop to the shell and run a sudo apt-get install -f ...

    Not hard to do, but you'll have to do it... and for some reason, I can't picture anybody in our marketing department doing that in the office, much less on their home machines. They just aren't interested in scanning the forums for answers.

    If more support companies offered Linux support for the "average" person (as opposed to corporate-level Linux support), you might see more Linux desktop adoption.
  • Rocco03, on 08/01/2008, -0/+9Could this be the year of Linux?
    No wait, that was 2007
    and 2006
    and 2005
    and 2004
    ...
  • tadpoleontheweb, on 08/01/2008, -0/+9Funny. The only people I know who run Linux are on these forums. I guess it depends on who you hang out with.
  • Dumbledorito, on 08/01/2008, -0/+9"The other people are serious computer users ... people who are not programmers or engineers or fiddlers with hardware, but who need a serious computer ... who simply don't like windows and don't like macs and who have not been convinced by their 'friends' to be afraid. "

    Nobody convinced me to be afraid of anything. My OS choice has to do with what software will run with the least amount of obstacles. I make my living with my "un-serious computer," thank you very much.

    Its articles like this that make me think elitism and hubris among Linux users has surpassed those of the Mac demographic already...
  • evilregis, on 08/01/2008, -1/+10How many "average people" do you know that install their own OS? They buy their computer with the OS already loaded and configured. And I promise you, average people can use Linux. They can't fix Linux but nor can they fix Windows -- hence Geek Squad, Nerds on Site and all other manners of PC support out there.

    Remember we're talking about "average" here. Not gamers. Not tinkerers. Average folk who browse the net, IM, email and download music can very easily get by in Linux.

    I built my parents an Ubuntu machine last year after their last computer tanked. My 65+-year-old parents have been using it for almost a year now. My dad did the upgrade from 7.10->8.04. He connects his digital camera to the computer and it automatically imports his photos. He burns his images to CD from time to time. He browses the web, listens to tunes and emails his Linux-using ass off and you know what? It has not slowed down at all from the day I delivered it. It has not crashed once. Not one time. My dad loves his new OS... not because it's trendy to be different, but because it just works for him.

    Linux is definitely not ready for everyone, but it's certainly ready for users such as my parents.
  • coldpockets, on 08/01/2008, -3/+12$2000? Why would they be buying a MacPro? They could easily get a Macbook for much closer to a $1000 or use a MacMini and a donated CRT or something.
    Oh wait, you're not going for a logical comment, just hyperbole.
  • average650, on 08/01/2008, -0/+9I afraid you must live in a cave, or a compsci dorm... Seriously, you don't know anything close to the average user.
  • Zorkon, on 08/01/2008, -0/+8Well, as long as we're talking single data points here ...

    I was a Linux sysadmin for nearly 10 years and switched to the Mac. Of all my former coworkers and colleagues, most have also made the switch to OS X. Offhand, of 12 Linux admins and developers I used to work with, 10 are now running OS X on their primary machine and one of the two holdouts is thinking about a new MacBook Air.
  • cyclades, on 08/01/2008, -9/+17No. Next question.
  • bitweever, on 08/01/2008, -0/+8It's like the NYT reporter that in 1980 said, "How could Reagan have won? Nobody I know voted for him!" It's all about who you hang out with. I have 3 friends on Mac, and 0 on Linux... I'm a former UNIX programmer, and I just really liked Mac better than anything Linux was offering.
  • wTheOnew, on 08/01/2008, -4/+12That doesn't even make sense.
  • Norumeni, on 08/01/2008, -0/+8@ noogymmij: don't go repeating the usual fodder about live CD's being the best thing ever...I had a terrible time getting Hardy installed, and it completely wiped out my harddrive, which was not fun....the live CD is not all it's cracked up to be, and I'm not the only one who's had significant problem with trying to install Ubuntu with it. I still love and use Ubuntu every day though, and believe it's only going to get better, though it's still not quite there yet, but very close!
  • Vector713, on 08/01/2008, -10/+18Yes, but the free one isn't nearly user friendly enough to be an end-user computing platform. Even a power user such as myself has difficulty with Linux. Ubuntu even! which is supposed to be the most user friendly Linux distribution out there. I would like to see Linux become widely adopted, but the Mac platform is ready now, and has been for quite some time. I'd rather pay for something that works than have to rely on a community for tech support all the time.

    I can fire up any old box in my house and install windows on it. I can install OS X on my mac without issue. I can't do that with Linux just yet though, and believe me I've tried several times. It doesn't "just work".
  • inactive, on 08/01/2008, -1/+8What could explain why Windows is so popular.
  • Dextrose, on 08/01/2008, -7/+14No.
  • coldpockets, on 08/01/2008, -0/+7That's a pretty subjective statement. Do you mean the value of the individual hardware components? Yeah probably much less than $1000. I have bad news though...that's the case with most electronics.
    You need to realize that Apple is not selling you a box of parts and telling you to do it yourself, they're selling you an "appliance" that works the way it's supposed to in an easy way that more and more people are appreciating.
  • div2n, on 08/01/2008, -1/+8Can you be more specific on what you found difficult in Ubuntu?

    I myself found opening/closing program, task switching and minimizing/maximizing to be rather unintuitive and, therefore, difficult in OS X.

    I'm sure with some patience and training/documentation I would have figured it out, but I didn't have to do that with Ubuntu. I'm sure that's because much of the experience is similar to that of the Windows world where I got my feet wet in computing.
  • Spuy767, on 08/01/2008, -0/+7Things were different then, our parents taught us how to cope with, and overcome, diverse situations. These days, parents do no such thing, opting instead to complain that the schools aren't teaching their children things that must be learned at home, and then blaming music and entertainment for ***** them up. Sit a kid today in front of a terminal, and instead of trying to work with it, he'd get bored after three seconds because the mouse doesn't work and he'd go do something far less constructive thanj learning.
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