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Why not Desktop Linux ?
By Martin English | November 12, 2007
From 37 Signals comes a great explanation of why they use open source servers and proprietary desktops.
There is really nothing religious about our use of open source. We use it because it’s better on the scales of merit that we care about. For infrastructure software, such as web servers, databases, server operating systems, programming languages, and web frameworks, the scales of merit lend themselves incredibly well to open-source development. Thus, we use it and are passionate about it.
For desktop operating systems? Not so much. There are just too many disciplines involved that programmers are not naturally good at and don’t have sufficient levels of taste to prepare masterfully. And programmers constitute the vast majority of builders in the open source community.
So it’s not unreasonable to think that these programmers will do exceptionally well when they’re designing for them and their kind, but at the same time do less well when they’re trying to figure out what makes a great iPhoto or iTunes or what have you.
Personally, as a programmer and sys admin, I have no problem running Linux. As a family man, I used to have issues with it (the time it took to setup…), but even that is starting to improve now with products like ubuntu.
Topics: Uncategorized |
November 12th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
As a non programmer and a family man I switched completely over to Linux in 2/05. It was the maintenance that drove me to it. Now I live in peace. I have read too, that it is much easier to maintain multiple Linux desktops over a network than it is to do the same with Microsoft desktops. I’m not a system administrator either so I can’t attest to that statement. It will be interesting to see how many businesses hang on too long to Microsoft and, as a result, lose precious ground in their markets. Detractors may just as well say the opposite. But if you look at which business environment is growing and which one is waning, the final outcome speaks clearly.