3:31 PM - Desktop Linux is dead?
I just read a PC World article about the death of Linux on the desktop. The author believes desktop Linux is dead because of lack of content. My first thought was software. There are many areas Linux is behind with applications. However, upon considering his words I realized he meant music and movies. He made references to DRM, etc.
Thinking about my own setup, this is a huge problem. I have over 400GB of iTunes content. Much of it is video. I would not be able to play it on Linux. I can't stream netflix movies on Linux. I can't play games I purchased on steam on Linux (for the most part).
Most people don't have large iTunes libraries. Many people don't have netflix accounts. These would stop me from switching exclusively to an open source OS, but it does not stop many others I know. My mother only buys music on iTunes. Most of that can be upgraded to DRM free versions and then moved to another platform. Real player on Linux can play AAC files.
So the question isn't what stops a tech savvy geek who has a lot of toys on his PC, it's what stops the average person. The simple answer is availability. When Asus eee PCs shipped with Linux, people bought them. Some people didn't even notice it wasn't Windows. Others returned them because they couldn't run a Windows application. The failure was not clearly advertising it wasn't windows compatible and using a non standard Linux distro. Had Asus shipped Ubuntu and their massive package repository, one could have put on the box "4000 applications for free".
The Apple iPad is proof it can be done. It doesn't support Flash and people still use it. It doesn't play netflix movies. It doesn't have large storage capacity for iTunes (although it can play the files). Another example of success with Linux is the Google phones. People don't even know they have Linux in their pocket.