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Is Linux ready for the Desktop?
By Jamie | July 25, 2007
Is Linux ready for the mainstream desktop?
Just been reading an article from eWeek called The March of the Penguins, which kind of coincided with my brother and I installing Linux Ubuntu last Friday. Here something I rather liked from the article…
In 2001 we had…
- Outlook Express
- Internet Explorer
- Office
- Windows XP
Today in 2007 we have…
- Open Office v Office
- Firefox v Internet Explorer
- Thunderbird v Outlook Express
- Ubuntu / SuSE / Debian / Redhat v Windows XP/Vista
- Wikipedia, a massive open source collaborative project
Ubuntu
As I mention last Friday I showed my brother how to configure an existing Windows XP laptop so it could dual boot into Linux Ubuntu. Dual boot, means you can decided weather to Load Linux or Windows when you switch on the Laptop. We where both impressed how straight forward installation was, pre-installed applications such as Open Office and Firefox means it’s ready to go, was completely compatible with my laptop, even detected our Windows accounts and asked if we would like to import them into Ubuntu. Although what impressed us the most, was the virtual desktop cube and jelly effect. Rather than explain, watch the first 60 seconds of the video to get an idea…
Yes a bit geeky I know, but certainly shows Linux can give Mac and Vista a run for its money.
Ready for business?
Not just yet, but its close. The availability of popular applications is just holding Linux back. Businesses decide that they want to use programs like Sage 50, PhotoShop and AutoCAD which automatically rules Linux out. Of course there are alternatives to these programs for Linux, but people in business tend to stick with the rest of the heard. You can off course use emulation software such as WINE to run these Windows applications, but from reliability and manageability come into play. On the hardware front things are looking good, big vendors such as Dell and HP are now supporting Linux. Dell recently announce it would ship hardware with Ubuntu instead of Windows if you so wished.
So if you have a spare machine or not (Dual boot it) why not give Ubuntu a bash!
Topics: Business, Linux, UNIX & FreeBSD, Tech Overload, Windows |
July 26th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
The major hold back for small business use is Quicken and Quickbooks. Not only do the SMB’s use it but so do their accountants.
On the home use side, I have converted and been converting home users for the past 5 years, first from winME, win2000 and now XP. Started with Mandrake untill they charged for the release and went to Fedora core and Suse.
July 26th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Spot on Richard, many of our clients, accountants and ourselves for that matter use Quicken/Quickbooks. I think alot of Mac People wished they could get this product too. GnuCash has potential but a product like this needs to convince the Accountants.
Jamie