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101 Comments
- hokie47, on 10/16/2009, -4/+36It is free, it works, and besides people on slashdot no one cares or will notice.
- LostSoul83, on 10/16/2009, -6/+34It is already the dominant OS for people who want to escape "DRM mmalware land".
- jrstoddard, on 10/16/2009, -1/+23I love Linux. Many geeks love Linux. But consumers don't care. They just want something that is simple and reliable. Hopefully Linux can fit this bill.
- badqat, on 10/16/2009, -6/+25Linux will be the dominant OS for consumer electronics, yes. Further, it should remain the king of serving up the web as well.
However...it is still unlikely to be more than a niche in terms of the desktop. - spikeb, on 10/16/2009, -8/+26it probably will be, and in the most closed way possible, so who cares?
- hellengineer, on 10/16/2009, -3/+20Apart from desktops it is a part of most consumer electronics in 1 way or the other.
- Smiff2, on 10/16/2009, -5/+19right, because Ubuntu 9.04/9.10 are no better than the desktop versions of linux available in 1996 relative to the competition. (sarcasm).
no, obviously, it *is* closer, its just not happening for various other reasons. - DiggUnderground, on 10/16/2009, -4/+18Many actual electronics are build with Linux... and I hope this is a real trend to make Linux dominant!
- noPCtoday, on 10/16/2009, -3/+15In short: Yes.
As long as Microsoft doesn't open source their .NET Framework and Windows, then yes, Linux will be.
For most consumer electronics it's stupid for manufacturer rewrite a firmware from scratch, linux is much more powerful, promising and proven. Keep in mind that linux can be scaled down to an ipod firmware and scaled up to a super parallel computing OS. - raydeen, on 10/16/2009, -0/+11sudo ./make_toast.out --medium
- ivanmarsh, on 10/16/2009, -2/+11I don't think you understand what consumer electronics means in this context. Linux is already widely used for embedded programming. Linux isn't *just* a desktop OS.
- depro9, on 10/16/2009, -1/+10Linux will run our botmaids & botbutlers. Free as in emancipation.
- UselessTrivia, on 10/16/2009, -1/+9Isn't it already? I thought a lot of consumer electronics already used a linux core as their OS. Not that it matters because they're still locked down and filled with proprietary code.
Just cause the OS is linux doesn't mean the rest of it is open source or something. - LostSoul83, on 10/16/2009, -3/+11I have an ancient Winfast TV2000/XP card that works better in Linux than it did in Windows. This always made me laugh, given the name. I think the official drivers were just bad. It would blur during high-speed motion (whileplaying my PS2) in Windows. This doesn't happen in Linux though.
- ivanmarsh, on 10/16/2009, -2/+9Microsoft doesn't make an embedded OS that's worth a damn. They couldn't even get it working correctly on their own hardware.
.NET has nothing to do with it. You can't run Windows on anything by an Intel compatible processor.
Linux has already been ported to hundreds of micro-controllers. - fungie5, on 10/16/2009, -1/+8I can agree that Linux will likely remain a small player on desktops. But to be honest, I don't see how the desktop itself will remain as important as it is now, once smartphones become as mainstream as the standard cellphone is now.
For most consumers around the globe, the pressure to own a PC comes from the need to access the Internet. The smartphone may end up becoming the default way for most consumers to access the Internet and it will likely have billions more users than PCs. I think it would be more important for Linux to be in the smartphone space than in the desktop space, because, in the face of an onslaught of smartphones, the global consumer PC market would shrink in size and become something that most consumers could actually opt out of (in the same way that having a fixed telephone service is optional today). - P5ycHo, on 10/17/2009, -0/+7My TomTom has it, my phone has it, my Asus o!play has it, my router has it, my NAS has it, my car radio has it, my home automation system has it.
I think it's already dominant.
P.s. Has anybody seen a custom firmware for the Asus o!play yet? - MacParrot, on 10/16/2009, -0/+6I believe they are still working on the Butter/Jam problems. It won't work without a GUI
:) - puzzud, on 10/16/2009, -1/+7Exactly, the first device that comes to my mind is my TomTom GPS enabled device.
Sure, alot of software companies are riding the giant Microsoft. But, with Linux there is a slowly accelerating trend where hardware developers contribute development of drivers to run their hardware. If the software is free, then there is more money to purchase more expensive hardware. The hardware companies love this idea, obviously. Eventually, every Microsoft suckling company will realize. - Doghound, on 10/16/2009, -3/+9Maybe
- fungie5, on 10/16/2009, -2/+8LOL..right.. Gartner's already predicted that Android (a Linux-based OS) is going to become the second most popular OS for smart phones in just 2 years. A host of companies are going to be developing smartphones that use Android....even Dell has Android phones of its own in the works. Then Google's got another Linux-based OS in the works for release on netbooks. Intel is building its own Linux OS for netbooks. Several companies are going to release netbooks powered by Android in a few months. Nokia's has more Linux phones on its To-Do list. See the emerging patten yet? Notice the names I've called? Notice where these companies rank in the business world today?
And that's just the stuff in the pipelines. Linux is already powering lots of devices...car stereos, routers, GPS devices and a host of other electronics are already using Linux at their core. You probably own a few and didn't even know it. - SteveMax, on 10/16/2009, -1/+6Can (a modern version of) Windows run on SPARC? No? Ok, so it must run on Alpha, right? No? PowerPC at least? No again?! What about ARM? Oh, it runs but it's a completely different kernel?
The types of hardware that have Linux drivers is different than the types that have Windows drivers. They are different sets; some "laptop" hardware have Windows drivers but no Linux drivers, but in general the number of devices that can run under Linux is orders of magnitude higher than the number of devices that can run under (a modern) Windows.
Note that by "number of devices" I mean "number of different devices", not "number of deployed devices". If you want to talk about "deployed devices" the numbers will be closer, but still I'd say Linux would win due to the number of devices that don't work anymore on recent Windows versions (I'm looking at you, Geforce4 MX4000!!) - puzzud, on 10/16/2009, -0/+5A good open source toaster doesn't need to be run as root to make "medium toast."
- badqat, on 10/16/2009, -6/+11The standard rubbish is that this is "the year of Linux" finally carving out huge desktop marketshare.
I've been using Linux to power web properties since 1996. I've been hearing that since 1996. And it's still no closer to reality than it was back then. - godsdead, on 10/16/2009, -1/+5Dugg for the cool thumbnail :)
- depro9, on 10/16/2009, -10/+14Yes.
- DBeta, on 10/16/2009, -0/+4You don't have to release your source code to use linux as a base for your product, you just can't intertwine your code with the OS's code. That's why phones like the Pre can run Linux, but still have a large closed source part to it. Palm gets all the advantages of Linux and gets to keep their OS their own.
- HalationEffect, on 10/16/2009, -1/+5Shouldn't your "beef" be with Adobe rather than with Linux?
- ihova0, on 10/16/2009, -1/+5Sure if it's not already.
- LostSoul83, on 10/16/2009, -0/+4Sure. Let's say I purchase a Tivo or a game console that uses GPL software. I expect the manufacturer to not go out of their way to sabotage me if I choose to modify the code. I think users should have the right to run their own software on the hardware.
I dislike the way GPL3 uses copyright to force conditions on hardware.
It sort of reminds me of the way MS tries to "lock" OEM copies of software to the PCs they were shipped with. - mkriss5681, on 10/16/2009, -1/+5Does anyone know the sudo command for "medium toast"?
- boxxa, on 10/16/2009, -4/+8Of course it will be. More open to different hardware, no licensing typically, and will help companies create a specific form of code to distribute on all their ranges of devices which will lead in turn to cheaper devices for the consumer.
I am a firm believer that Linux is very good on specific applications like servers and databases and also in specific devices. Just hasn't gotten the steam to replace the desktop yet. - Chakat, on 10/16/2009, -1/+5Good thing we're not talking about Desktop Linux then. Stay on target.
- the8thbit, on 10/17/2009, -0/+3Or, like, now when you're writing or reading Digg comments which are stored and managed on Linux servers.
- T8erT0T, on 10/16/2009, -4/+7Really dude?
- krisrm, on 10/16/2009, -5/+8I like the way you cleverly substituted a $ sign for the letter S in "Microsoft". That convinced me that you knew exactly what you were talking about, and that I should agree with you.
In other words, screw off. Go preach your operating system somewhere else. - brockorr, on 10/17/2009, -0/+3point taken. I stand corrected and wish to edit my original statement.
I don't use linux (as my desktop) because Adobe wont release Photoshop on a linux platform. - LostSoul83, on 10/16/2009, -2/+5Well, there's always GPL3. I'm still not sure whether I like the GPL3 or not. I understand and agree what they're trying to do, but I disagree with the method.
- LostSoul83, on 10/16/2009, -1/+4They would be forced to if everyone told them "we're not implementing DRM".
- Langford, on 10/16/2009, -2/+5They always have their FAT lawsuits.
- the8thbit, on 10/17/2009, -0/+2No, but it's a step in the right direction.
- fuzzynyanko, on 10/16/2009, -0/+2Could you explain the pros and cons?
- Chipesh, on 10/17/2009, -0/+2I agree with you about smartphones but also can't believe that this won't influence the desktop/laptop. People are going to question the need for Windows even more.
Linux has progressed immensely over the last couple of years. Distros like Mint are viable alternatives for the vast majority of users.
Watching my wife just start using my Mint desktop in Firefox (she didn't know it was Linux) last night convinced me.
Bob - mahadiga, on 10/17/2009, -1/+3Open source will be the dominant software for consumer electronics.
- DAC1138, on 10/19/2009, -0/+22010: The year of the Linux desktop!!!
- doshindude, on 10/16/2009, -18/+20No.
- quantumstatejim, on 10/17/2009, -1/+3I would be forced to disagree about Linux sucking on the desktop. I have been using it for the last 9 months virtually exclusively (I boot windows for gaming occasionally). But it is not only me, the majority of my professors seem to use Linux on the desktop as well and I would definitely not call them stupid.
Perhaps you dislike using Linux but that is completely different from it sucking. - opticwind, on 10/18/2009, -0/+2Your A/C has an OS? Haha mine has an on/off button.
- DBeta, on 10/16/2009, -1/+2BSD.
- johnwayne1, on 10/17/2009, -0/+1no
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