Re: [wlug] PC-BSD: Set For Serious Growth?
On Tue, 17 Feb 2015 21:40:02 +1300, Peter Reutemann wrote:
'Luke Wolf, a KDE developer, argues that PC-BSD might become a serious
-- source: http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/15/02/16/2355236
NB: Mentioning "Linux + Year of the Desktop" is always bait for a flamewar. But... Did anyone ever use PC-BSD as their primary OS (work/home)? Willing to share some insight?
Cheers, Peter
Perhaps people have to consider why they use Linux on the desktop at all (and why others than don't at present would). I think its people with a technical interest that use Linux on the desktop, either because they are familiar with it on servers, are passionate about the 'freeness' of it or the ease (including cost) with which they can set up a development environment. I think the big players like Apple and Microsoft would have to make some serious stuff-ups for the rest of population to go through the hassle of switching OSes on their current desktops. While many of the FOSS applications (GIMP/LibreOffice/Firefox) run just fine on Windows (and possible Mac too I don't know), they also reduce the imperative to shift entirely to Linux or BSD. And the only thing I see that really could shift the corporate environment is a server based Office(Document/Spreadsheet/Mail) solution that was so compelling, that eventually system administrators started to wonder if there was any point in sticking exclusively to an MS Desktop. Cloud computing, Smart TVs and the advent of Android and iPhone have certainly helped computer *users* become more comfortable with alternative OS and user interfaces. -- Chris
On Thu, 19 Feb 2015 13:45:42 +1300, Chris O'Halloran wrote:
And the only thing I see that really could shift the corporate environment ...
I keep thinking about this issue historically. How did Microsoft become dominant in the first place? If you remember, back in the 1980s, there was the saying “nobody got fired for buying IBM”. Big, serious companies did big, serious computing using mainframes, while some departments (and not-so-big companies) had 32-bit superminis and such. Yet somehow the upstart PC running PC/MS-DOS (Windows came along only later), seen by many as a mere “toy”, came to dominate, and Microsoft along with it. What I suspect happened is that the new technology was adopted by new companies, while the older corporates stuck with the old technology until they were eventually eclipsed. In other words, don’t bother trying to sell a change of desktop strategy to existing corporates. Look at the new, smaller, players, because that is where tomorrow’s big players will come from.
participants (2)
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Chris O'Halloran -
Lawrence D'Oliveiro