Originally Posted by bjsmith
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I don't see Linux breaking into the "superstore" market anytime soon.
But in reality, Open Source is "incompatible" with the "superstore" profit model anyway, where vendors get SOHO users to upgrade every 2-3 years.
All other arguments are "economies of scale," and when it comes to industry applications, it's just as costly on either platform once you move away from SOHO.
I would agree with this, and posit my own opinion that open source software, to a degree, is what is keeping Linux out of the stores. OSS projects like MySQL, Mozilla, OpenOffice and Linux itself as a Server OS work both in the SOHO as well as the enterprise because at their core they are very well funded. And in the case of some you have paid-for enterprise level support.
However when it comes to most other applications there isn't that corporate backing, and as such the software isn't up to snuff with the status quo. Don't get me wrong, I love Linux and shudder at the thought of being trapped in Redmond's idea of what computing should be. But I acknowledge that I pay a price for my "freedom".
Now look at Apple's Mac OS X. It is actually BSD Unix once you pull back the covers. In a brilliant move they made UNIX a viable OS for the masses by wrapping code libraries, a familiar and friendly looking GUI and robust applications around Berkley Unix. They turned a once scary environment for anyone but a systems programmer in to a virtually idiot proof platform. I mean no offense to Apple users; I'm merely stating that virtually anyone can fire up a Mac (a UNIX machine) and be instantly productive. Nice job, Mr Jobs.
But Linux is still playing catch up and will remain so until Redhat or Novell or a company like them steps in and gets serious about funding application development. Just as an example, of all the photo editing software able to run natively on Linux only three of them can compete at any level in the Windows and Apple worlds: GIMP, Bibble and LightZone. And two of these are
not open source. GIMP can and does serve as a viable alternative to Adobe PS for Win users, but it is a very exceptional case. RawTherapee, UFRaw, DigiKam, RawStudio, et. al. are all good and fine applications but in the retail marketplace they could never stand on their own merits in their current incarnations. They simply are too unfriendly from a UI standpoint for the majority of people. If your UI intimidates people they won't use it and if they can't/won't use it they certainly won't buy it.
I'm a big fan of both Linux and open source, but it's a real love/hate fanaticism.
