Don

I don’t think extra options cause problems with users. If they don’t want to learn how to use different desktops, they don’t have to…

I think the focus should continue to be on the applications that are available for Linux. I was trying to find a good password management program the other day, didn’t want to use one from a non-mainstream desktop software group because it would be a particularly easy program to write to collect passwords for websites and then dial “home” and share with the programmer. Gnome has started development on one, however, it seems limited to Gnome applications. I’d like to see one with less requirements to run… (like http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/ – which is specifically written for Windows, last I checked.)

Multimedia: Again, this isn’t much of an issue for the consumer market since playback resources are abundant, with the exception of image managers. As for production environments, Linux is worth hassling over to configure, given that the end result will exceed expectations: The film industry uses Linux to churn out high quality products, such as “Shrek”.

Polish: Eye candy should not be the driving force behind a great desktop; usability, stability, and security should be. But even so, how can you argue that Mac OSX or Vista could possibly be better than the astonishing Linux/Compiz environment?

I run my business with Linux and will never go back to Windows. My desktop is just fine, thank you.

c# + novell mono;

finish the mono framework; everything is half baked … no mit licensed ajax extentions and no enterprise library take the benefit from switching from asp.net to mono.

A lot of companies would like to grow their markets to other operating systems but linux needs to develop more in this area.

The situation is: Plan on giving up a lot when you migrate to 64 bits.

migrate to opensuse 10.3 64 bit; i’m running it on amd dual-core athlons without a problem.

but most software in the repository strictly have 32 bit in the title. Good thing i haven’t needed any of them yet – so i haven’t tested if they’ll run on 64; however all major server apps seem to work [apache, postfix, bind, samba ect] .

Linux desktop developers should be required to spend at least a month using nothing but a Mac to get the idea. (If I could run OS X on a white box, or Apple had a better selection of hardware, I’d leave Linux in a heart beat, though I’d miss the configurability of the desktop)

Another mindset issue I see is that even as Linux talks about a desktop community it seems to still be focused entirely on businesses. Point in case there was no option in the survey for using Linux in the home. I’m also guessing this is also why the switch to cifs for mounting Samba shares has required multiple headaches for my home network. By requiring static IPs and domain names to auto mount a share. Rather than just sniffing the local network for the share name.

All that being said, once configured I find that Linux is definitely easier and more reliable to operate than Windows. At least until you inadvertently install a new kernel while loading what you thought were “security updates”.

The reasons I still boot into my windows partition (I’d love to access it as a VM but all attempts to set up either VMware or Parallels to access my windows partition have failed) are as follows:

Printing photos: While I’ve gotten fairly accustomed to GIMP (I still feel more comfortable in Photoshop), the driver support for my firewire connected EPSON R1800 is severely lacking and there are no ICC profiles for Linux (They adjust what I see on the screen to look exactly like what will come out of the printer).

Editing home movies: Kino actually works? I installed it but could never get it to work.

Visual Studio: I’m a PHP/MySQL developer but I’m occasionally called on to integrate data stored in MySQL with M$ Office apps.

Yeah, Kino does work (or, I’ve gotten it to work) and have had pretty good luck up to a point with basic editing — but it lacks a lot of the stability, features and polish that would make it suitable for use beyond editing home video or playing around.

Since I just got an HP laptop with built-in webcam, I’m going home tonight to see if it works (though getting the webcam to work with Ekiga or Kopete would be nicer).

But this thing about there is no good contact manager,.. well, I still hesitate to use Evolution, but I have heard good things about how much it has improved. Have you tried it ? I also like, and use Jpilot, I think it is getting better, and better. Have you tried Jpilot ?

Thanks for the comments. I’ve tried Evolution, several times — it’s not really a good contact manager *or* mail client, IMHO. I’ve also tried JPilot, but it doesn’t really work in the way I’m talking about, or at least didn’t the last time I tried it.