Linux Desktop Summit Re: [SGVLUG] Hello from San Diego

[Dustin Laurence]

On Wed, Apr 26, 2006 at 06:14:27PM -0700, John Riehl wrote:

> The EXPECTATION level of my users (yes, they are rocket scientists) is 
> that it should work as well in linux as it does in windows.  On windows, 
> you install the os, you install the drivers, and it works as you would 
> expect.

My friend, they are not *real* rocket scientists.  Real rocket
scientists never started using Microsoft Windows in the first place.

<Dustin isn't kidding here, but he weeps for the state of science in
this country anyway>

> >In general I think laptop support is a *totally* different
> >beast than desktop.  I think we're much closer on the desktop than this
> >thread would suggest, but definitely not with laptops.  I spent a *lot*
> >of time researching hardware support before I bought this one.
> 
> 
> You know, I can agree with this. The issues that I brought up were 
> laptop issues.

You didn't say that.  That changes everything.

> There were some stats out from 2004, i think, that said that corporate
> america was buying more laptops than desktops.  I see that in my
> environment.  most people going with a laptop to use as the real 
> desktop, and a beefy desktop to use as a computational machine.

Yes, and of course it's an issue for Linux; we don't want to be
leapfrogged and end up being the master of ground that is no longer
valuable.  OTOH people are using embedded devices for things they used
to use a general-purpose computer for, and we're doing well in that
space.  So it isn't clear who is leapfrogging whom.

Frankly, I think we'll win, but the US will be the last fortress to
fall.  Too much investment in Microsoft and "it's a US company."  We're
going to win elsewhere first, among people who can't afford the "windows
tax", those with no prior expectations about how a computer works, among
those who are too small a language/whatever group for MS to support but
can get Linux support just fine, and those who are afraid to be
dependent on a US company.

We're catching up now, and we still have a billion hackers to recruit.
Ultimately we're gonna bury them, even if it's rougher here inside the
Iron Curtain for a while. :-)

Dustin, wondering how long before people don't recognize cold-war
        references anymore.

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