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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| salparadise Oct 24, 2005 10:14 PM EDT |
I always thought SuSE had the potential to take the home market over if marketed correctly. Going after RedHats market just seems a little misguided. We don't really need another corporate distro, but we do need a company to target the home desktop seriously. |
| jimf Oct 24, 2005 11:49 PM EDT |
I have reservations about Novell or IBM on my desktop. Sorry, I just don't see that. |
| salparadise Oct 25, 2005 12:15 AM EDT |
I base what I say on the look and feel of SuSE alone.
I know there are some issues with multimedia - though those are largely sorted via YOU on SuSE 9.3.
I am unaware of other issues. Do tell... |
| jimf Oct 25, 2005 12:20 PM EDT |
salparadise: Call it my distrust / paranoya of big business in general, but i've been burnt too often to want those guys on the home desktop. I'm also very questioning as to whether any of them understand what the home user really 'needs', and the possible disregard for what the home user really 'wants'. Novell and IBM have always had and understood the Corporate market, probably better than Red Hat ever will. Let them stay in that arena. |
| tadelste Oct 25, 2005 1:07 PM EDT |
Maybe we can have it all. I drink Guinness. if the pub doesn't have it, i don't leave, i ask for Sam Adams. If they don't have that, I ask what they do have and might get a diet coke. I installed SUSE 10 for my wife and it's so much like JDS, she likes it. It's not a bad distribution. I don't like KDE, but this time SUSE got gnome right. That's the only system where SUSE running. It's a good distribution for consumers. Novell's desktop is aimed totally at the enterprise. I hated everything about Novell when I was first getting into networking 12 years ago. They kept making you re-certify and they were A-R-R-O-G-A-N-T. Even after Microsoft took the wind out of their sails and their guts, they had their noises up in the air. That bunch is long gone. I don't mistrust Novell today. We know them and I think they'll do fine. They just have to roll with the punches. IBM is a friend of Linux. I don't mistrust them either and I was their first Linux partner and hung with the big shots. They're just so big. This isn't the old IBM either. Personally, I like Debian. That's right - for my servers - debian. For my desktop - I have my own patched up Breezy 5.10 Ubuntu doing fine. Whoever gets the desktop selling, I'm glad for them. I support them. It might wind up being Linspire and I'll have a stomach ache. Talk about ugly. Someone hit Linspire with the ugly stick. I knew this guy who knawed off his arm rather than have someone see his laptop running Linspire. But if Linspire helps, then we should write new themes for it and backports so people can install gnome. We can do it. |
| salparadise Oct 25, 2005 2:20 PM EDT |
I sometimes wonder if there isn't just a little too much hooha over distros. At heart they're all Linux. They have a more or less identical file structure, a common set of tools and so on. There's differences in how configuration is arrived at, but other than that it's down to wallpaper, icons and splash screens. So whether someone is using Mandriva or RedHat or Ubuntu is kind of besides the point. The other difference between the distros is in the stated philosophy of each team/site/project. The decisions that people make as to which distro they are interested in is as much made on these philosophies as on alleged hardware support, attention to detail or acclaimed security. So, under the great umbrella that is Linux - there is room for everybody. Whether you want it with politics or without, with socialism or without, with super lush GUI or without. |
| jimf Oct 25, 2005 11:56 PM EDT |
As I've said before, I know only what I like and will work for me in a Linux Distro. Ultimately of course Linux is Linux and the flavor is a matter of individual preference. I really don't care what flavor others use, but from my perspective there is still a vast mistrust of companies like IBM and Novell. tadelste says that all the bad people are gone from those outfits, and, i certainly hope that is true since I also ran into these people, but I think I'll err on the cautious side. Also, I think these companies are outside of their area of expertise and will have limited success with the home market. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but the history tells me I'm probably right. Ultimately none of us will decide which Distro succeeds or fails on the home desktop. This will be a market popularity contest no matter how good or bad the Distro or OS. I've seen this happen again and again, and the best system rarely comes out on top. Nothing personal, that's just life in the marketplace and technical superiority is only a small part of the equation. If I were to pick the Distro that will finally put Linux over the top in the home desktop market, I suspect that will be Ubuntu... It has been successful in capturing the imagination of a huge number of new users and works better than average... not my first choice, but again, it could be worse, and it really isn't my choice anyway. |
| tadelste Oct 26, 2005 10:00 AM EDT |
jimf: I worked at IBM in 1994 on the OS/2 project. I also did some editing on the AIX API manual. Really, the bad actors are gone. You know about the turnover at Novell. No guess work there. I have concerns about Linux making it to the consumer. We may all wind up being content with Linux like the Mac guys are with OS X. So, we'll be the Studebaker of the IT industry. I can live with that if I can find parts. ;) |
| salparadise Oct 26, 2005 11:52 AM EDT |
I suspect that once Linux is being installed in large numbers by the box makers to ship to business/corporate customers, the home market will follow. |
| jimf Oct 26, 2005 11:55 AM EDT |
salparadise: I agree, but what will that give us... Dell Linux :)? |
| salparadise Oct 26, 2005 9:13 PM EDT |
It'll give us "not Windows". I can't wait. This does actually raise a point. Imagine you are a whitebox manufacturer and you're releasing a box for the home market. You decide to go with Debian (for arguments sake). Do you make a decision for your customers and install Gnome, the basic productivity apps and leave the rest off but include the 14cd's? Or, do you install a really good selection of apps with at least two or three per task? If you provide an "Ubuntu-like" set of apps and people then want to add more do you support them through this or do you say "install 1 line of code and it's guarantee void"? How would you support SO many new users at one time? |
| jimf Oct 26, 2005 11:29 PM EDT |
Probably sell it with a hardware guarantee, but the software will be 'as is'. However, like everyone else, they will sell you a full service contract... at a substantial premium. that's a whole market in it's self. |
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