September 17th, 2007
Is Linux still too geeky?
The word for today is disappointment.
The New York Times says Apple is blowing its desktop opportunity, ignoring the channel, despite its incredible awesomeness.
As to Linux, it’s still too geeky. This final verdict, issued by Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal concerning a Dell laptop he reviewed with Ubuntu, has been spreading like wildfire on the Internets, even hitting some political blogs.
Trouble is, Mossberg admits in his story that he talked to Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth who admits the current version of the software is not really aimed at mainstream users. He found it’s not something it admits it’s not, and somehow that’s a headline.
Zonbu, which Mossberg did not review, is aimed at mainstream users. And early reviews on Zonbu are quite promising.
So what gives? Despite Microsoft’s proven vulnerability with Windows Vista, and its continuing antitrust problems, so-called “mainstream desktop users” are being told they have no choice, that they must surrender to the Redmond borg.
Must they? Between simple, SaaS-based clients such as Zonbu and ubiquitous Internet broadband, I’m not so sure. I strongly suspect we’re leaving the PC era behind, that between the Internet, SaaS and virtualization the question of which OS you run will mean less and less.
But maybe it’s me who’s too geeky.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 09/18/07
