What Linux Needs To Do To Reach The Masses.

[dreamer]

According to this comment Jim Zemlin Executive Director of Linux Foundation told him already in 2008 that Linux is NOT important on the desktop.

ken starks
April 3, 2017 at 11:08 pm

In 2008, I was asked to attend the (by invitation only), Linux Collaboration Summit in Austin Texas. Since I am local to Austin and my head swelled X 10 by receiving this invite, I rounded up one of our non profit Directors and we pushed our way through the front door, into Mecca, as far as I was concerned.

I was still a bit naive and star-struck when I attended that summit. Between presentations, Tom King and I collared Jim Zemlin and I made mention to him that there was little to catch the Desktop user’s attention or interest within the gathering’s program and scheduling for the duration of the summit. Zemlin stood in front of Tom and I and looked down his nose while explaining that there was no real market for the Desktop application For linux and The Linux Foundation had no real use for the desktop or its users.

Tom and I stood, completely gobsmacked; for the next minute, both of us trying to process what we had just heard and from whom we had heard it. That was an eye-opening experience, and I could not have cared less if I was ever invited again, which I have not. We are dreck in the eyes of the Linux Foundation, us Desktop folks…and it’s a shame that the LF profits from the hard work from those that contribute reams of code for the Linux Desktop.

It’s a wonder that Desktop linux has made as much progress as it had, given that “The linux Foundation” would just as soon see the whole “desktop thing” sucked into a black hole.

Comment 3 from the top:
http://fossforce.com/2017/04/lin-deskto ... -openness/

Jim Zemlin is also (in)famous for using OSX/macOS.
https://twitter.com/mjg59/status/907000812131385344

It appears that Jim Zemlin, President of the Linux Foundation, was using MacOS while declaring "2017 is officially the year of the Linux desktop!" at the Open Source Summit 2017. This was observed by several YouTube channels: Switched to Linux and The Lunduke Show. Finally it was reported by It's FOSS.

if, indeed, this is the year of desktop Linux, why oh why cannot people like Zemlin present a simple slide presentation -- let alone actually use a Linux distro for work.

https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/09/ ... rce-summit

[handy]

A 20% refund of the price of the distro.

[manyroads]

Who works any way??!?!?

[dave88]

There was a similar question with blenderartists.org.

I find linux in general to be extremely chaotic in regards to distro information and reliability of updated software packages etc. Or the distro is too awkward to install. With MX linux I am still dealing with how to solve basic monitor workspace issues. I also had some issues with redshift on mint in regards to setting a file up to control it properly.

On mint the software packages are slighly older seemingly, than MX. But the process and schemes/themes etc is more on mint. My old hardware compared to my laptop maybe making it more difficult to install mx on the desktop, but at least there is more gui help than linux mint.

People do not want to waste their lives on a computer operating system that they only want to do artwork, office work, gaming, communicating or business on, rather than spend ages trying to remember commands for things they don't understand. This is why "the masses" are unlikely to bother with any linux distro, especially when the distros that are designed to make it easier, cancel support and discontinue, like antergoes for an easier linux arch etc.

But it is free, and the software packages are free, so people who are poorer or who are more techy lean towards linux, rather than the masses who just know how to do the basics.

I would like more options for a simpler installation as the video information for mx linux is nearly non existent, such as preparing the correct partitions during installtion, monitor gui adjustment and sytem usage tutorials of a level that is not for children but not for IT techs either. With mint that seems to be ok. So I had little delay in that area. BUt others? I haven't used as there is seemingly a difficulty divide for me to jump across, otherwise I would use arch for top releases etc(potentially). Thought fonts and workspace first :)

[jeffreyC]

One more to add to the list: automatic scaling. Windows 10 detects your hardware including native monitor resolution and scales itself accordingly so fonts and icons are easily visible. Every Linux DE requires that the user manually set scaling.

The user must set it in as many as four places, some deeply hidden in the file system and can only be edited as root, and there will still be apps that ignore the setting.
And fractional scaling? Fuhgeddaboudit!

Where did the 96 DPI is set in stone come from?
Microsoft decreed it in the 1990s, then soon abandoned it, but the Linux diehards still cling to it.


Screen resolution is not usually an issue on old desktops or laptops? (as KBD claimed)
I have one laptop from 2012 and two from 2013 that are HiDPI, so just how much older do you mean?

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Where did the 96 DPI is set in stone come from?

See this, this and this.

[jeffreyC]

Things Linux would need to change to become more mainstream?

Stop requiring the root password for common ordinary tasks. Linus is right about this.
Yes, the origins of Unix were as a multi-user system in huge expensive computers that had to be shared by dozens or hundreds of users and so needed protection from foolish or malicious users, but today computers are cheap, common and often single user, in fact it is at least as likely that one user will have several computers as one computer have many users. It is long past time to let the user have full use.

File permissions that seem to be designed to keep the user away from their own data?
Before anyone complains that getting rid of many of these permissions is not the Unix way neither is systemd and yet it is widely adopted.
The Unix philosophy states that tools should be small and interchangeable. systemd is about one million lines of code, and they work very hard to prevent anything replacing it which is the definition of interchangeable. Adhering to the Unix philosophy by concentrating on doing one thing and getting it done properly? Clearly not systemd which seeks to be everything between kernel and app.

It is time to stop thinking of Linux as Unix-like, that ship has sailed.

[andyprough]

Stop requiring the root password for common ordinary tasks.

That's a distro-specific choice, and other than Puppy Linux, the ones that have implemented the drastically-reduced/no-root password rules have been unpopular.

[jeffreyC]

Stop requiring the root password for common ordinary tasks.

That's a distro-specific choice, and other than Puppy Linux, the ones that have implemented the drastically-reduced/no-root password rules have been unpopular.

Unpopular among people who already use Linux, but this thread is about attracting people who are not currently Linux users, many of whom may think Linux is too much of a PITA to use.

[anticapitalista]

Why should linux reach the masses?