I just got a new laptop (VAIO) with Vista Home Premium pre-installed. It's got 1 gig RAM and 130gb hard drive. Well, I don't really like MS nor do I like Vista. I'm sure a crack MS OS expert to flail and fillet it down to functional behavior, but over the weeks, it's gotten slower and slower, no doubt because of the goop and gomm that Vista combined with all the rank shovel-ware that it came with. So I've installed Umbuntu 7.10, which is a slightly better install and use scenario than Fedora. Unfortunately, the fonts are still a bit off. Luckily, the KDE "add new fonts" works finally, but still the anti-aliasing isn't as good as Vista, and the default sans (which comes up on Web pages frequently) is a jaggy, badly kerned disaster. I know many may consider fonts just eye-candy, but it's one of the most important things about the UI experience. And not until fonts look and work smoothly will Linux be ready for prime-time...IMHO. »

To most users a computer is a "thingamabob" i.e,. they don't care about open or closed software paradigms, thus Linux has no traction with the average grunts. Way back before there was SCO Unix. They were in Santa Cruz where they did Unix-Zen. They had no real interest in grunt users; instead, they concentrated on the most satori-like Unix platform they could. The result was Microsoft blew them away, and Linux had to finally come to life to overcome the elitist, monastery-like attitude SCO and the other Unixae suffered from. Unfortunately, much of that snob-monk attitude still prevails in Linux-land. Nearly all of the features you mention are of little or no interest to the Unix snob-monk. For another California analogy, consider the BMW fans: In Calif there is still a big population of BMW2002's out there. Techincally they're still "superior" to the modern "beamers"...so say some of the purists. The 2002 purist says his car is a "real" BMW. Sound familiar? I know this sounds familiar because I'm an Emacs-for-everything/command-liner Unix purist. I'm also a huge 2002 fan. I would take a brand new BMW given to me and trade it in for a 2002! Every time I'm in a new BMW I feel like I'm being pandered to. Every time I use Windows I feel the same. The barebones Linux experience is an adult computer experience--same as driving a 2002. Still your arguments are right-on for Linux as a desktop machine. I'd say, either get it in gear, Linux-land, or just give up on the desktop. I'm a very rare breed who doesn't need the Mac/Win fluff, but again, I'm very rare.... »

The whole "open source/whole world included" paradigm is going to be the winner. All this hand-wringing in the present time is unnecessary. When the Big Fold-Up comes (30 hours, 30 years from now) outfits like MS will be living the Big Fold-Up, i.e., non-existent. Hopefully the Internet stays up. Let's hope computers make it. »