Every year is the Linux's year.

[Simon Tupper]

There is a lot of noise in the forums about Linux... Some see it as a Windows 8 killer... Personally I am not afraid of Linux...

Don't get me wrong, the concept is good. But really? Linux is too flawed to be a serious player in 2013. We want our products to simply work and stay fast for a while until we change our PC, Laptop or Mobile device. We don't want to mess around with an unstable OS that requires you to deal with all sorts of incompatibility problems. Compatibility used to be a problem for Macs and it doesn't seem to be a problem nowadays, but Linux has too many problems with the OS itself that you simply can't take it as a serious competitor for the moment.

Recently a journalist from ZDNet proudly showed number from Android + iOS VS windows xp/7/8, saying that Linux was now the most used platform in mobile devices. I simply don't understand why he compared smartphones + tablets OS VS PCs OS... You generally only have 1 PC, but you can have several Mobile devices. Some people I know own 2 smartphones and a tablet. Of course there is more mobile devices than PCs...

I don't see much future for an OS that gets more market share under another name (Android) than it's own name (Linux). In fact everybody knows Android, but only some people know Linux...

Maybe in a few years when the OS will be more polished, with a little more visibility and more mind share... Because I tried Ubuntu and it does not compete against OS X and Windows 8... Linux might become a strong player, but it's not there yet.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Linux has never become popular as a desktop OS. However, the majority of web servers run Linux (such as Amazon.com). Linux is also extremely popular on the small scale in embedded devices such as appliances and car computers. The majority of the world's supercomputers also run Linux.

 

[abhibh]

Well you can say Linux is already killing Windows Phone and Vice-Versa.

Android is Linux as core, iOS is Unix, Ubuntu Mobile OS is Linux, QNX is Unix and FF OS AFAIK is also on Linux kernel like Android. Now the world is already using Linux and if you see the market share Windows Phone has very small share.
Now you cant compare windows phone share to Android / iOS, but Windows Phone might sell more compared to FF OS and Ubuntu OS just because MS has a lot of hardware partners ready to jump on their OS and MS does more than half the marketing for Windows Phones and Tabs.

At the end it all boils down to your vision how you see Linux. I see it as a success because i have been using Linux / Unix for long but never as a primary OS, because they were not user friendly. Even though Ubuntu is very user friendly still doesn't have full support for hardware and it can be pain to install drivers etc. iOS and Androids are Unix/Linux in core with nice GUI and support, that's why they sell.

 

[Simon Tupper]

Linux has never become popular as a desktop OS. However, the majority of web servers run Linux (such as Amazon.com). Linux is also extremely popular on the small scale in embedded devices such as appliances and car computers. The majority of the world's supercomputers also run Linux.

Of course Linux is vastly used, BUT ask anybody that is not a techie if he knows what Ubuntu is... I am not saying that Linux is complete crap and that it's not vastly used... The times where Linux shines the most is when it's not called Linux. This is the reason why I don't see much success for Linux in the consumer market in the near future. It might become a solid player one day, but for the moment it's not there yet.

A friend of mine has Ubuntu, and some days he can spend 4 hours trying to figure out how to make some hardware work with it... I mean... people want an OS that is easy (Ubuntu is) and is compatible with most of their current hardwares (Linux isn't). otherwise they simply go with Apple and get Apple made hardwares to go with their Mac(Being locked down to an OS). Linux will get some attention soon, but until then it will all be about Windows 8(maybe 9) and OS X.

 

[crystal_planet]

Linux in its desktop o/s form is for hobbyists imho. I'm running Win 8 on my laptop and have no desire to burn it just to put on one of the 10000 Linux distros on it. I do however, have a really old Thinkpad that came with Win 98 that I put on Bhodi just to check it out and was impressed with the performance afterward.

The world runs on Unix/Linux - especially on vast enterprise systems, but I don't think we'll ever be able to order a Dell XPS with Linux installed.

 

[palandri]

....A friend of mine has Ubuntu, and some days he can spend 4 hours trying to figure out how to make some hardware work with it... .

LOL! That was true about 15 years ago. My Windows 3.0 floppies went bad and I couldn't afford the $80 for new ones and started using RedHat 4.0 (Colgate) and writing script for dialup modems.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Linux in its desktop o/s form is for hobbyists imho. I'm running Win 8 on my laptop and have no desire to burn it just to put on one of the 10000 Linux distros on it. I do however, have a really old Thinkpad that came with Win 98 that I put on Bhodi just to check it out and was impressed with the performance afterward.

The world runs on Unix/Linux - especially on vast enterprise systems, but I don't think we'll ever be able to order a Dell XPS with Linux installed.

Here's a high end Dell XPS that comes with Linux preinstalled. XPS 13 Developer Edition | Dell

 

[crystal_planet]

Here's a high end Dell XPS that comes with Linux preinstalled. XPS 13 Developer Edition | Dell

Ha!! Nice callout. I had no idea.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Ha!! Nice callout. I had no idea.

I'm a member of two local Linux user groups, and I follow Linux news on Twitter and RSS feeds.

 

[Simon Tupper]

I still believe that Linux is not going to dominate in the consumer market in the near future. I know about Android, but I don't consider this as a win for Linux since almost no one knows what Ubuntu is and most of them never heard of Linux... So my point is that Linux is not ready for the consumer market. Maybe in a few years.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I still believe that Linux is not going to dominate in the consumer market in the near future. I know about Android, but I don't consider this as a win for Linux since almost no one knows what Ubuntu is and most of them never heard of Linux... So my point is that Linux is not ready for the consumer market. Maybe in a few years.

Ask AC: Is Android Linux? | Android Central

 

[Simon Tupper]

Ask AC: Is Android Linux? | Android Central

Sure, but most people who owns android phones do not spend their time on blogs and forums... We do, but we are a minority.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Sure, but most people who owns android phones do not spend their time on blogs and forums... We do, but we are a minority.

That's true.

I did hear an ad about Linux on a local radio station several times. The ad was from a local PC repair company. They mentioned Linux and its benefits. They said that if people wanted to try Linux, they would install it (along with LibreOffice and other software) and show the users how to use it for $70. That's actually pretty cheap, compared to what Staples/Bestbuy charge to install Windows and show how to run it.

 

[Simon Tupper]

That's true.

I did hear an ad about Linux on a local radio station several times. The ad was from a local PC repair company. They mentioned Linux and its benefits. They said that if people wanted to try Linux, they would install it (along with LibreOffice and other software) and show the users how to use it for $70. That's actually pretty cheap, compared to what Staples/Bestbuy charge to install Windows and show how to run it.

like I said, Linux is good. It's just not ready for the consumer market yet. I'm sure it will be successful thou. Ubuntu is very user friendly, but not touch friendly for the moment.