This does not have to come from FOSS. Steam on Linux might be all they need. They need a system to sell their applications and get them to end users.

–Sure, fundamental programs work on all versions of Linux, but say you’re an ISV, what desktop should you build for? KDE? The slumping GNOME? Ubuntu’s Unity? My own favorite Linux Mint Cinnamon?–

This is close to the right question. As a ISV how am I going to distribute updates and other things to all the different distributions to make supporting many distributions simple. Currently if you look for that you are screwed. Steam could be the cure. Then hopefully other true distribution independent app stores would open up for Linux.

ISVs that use appstores mostly don’t run there own websites either. So ISV’s are lazy we know this we need to support them that way.

Reality people run programs all the time under Linux that don’t match their desktop. Windows and OS X users do the same thing. This is mostly tell the complains about application does not match there desktop needs to suck it up.

–4) Slow down the pace of change.– and
–3) Work even harder to get low-level hardware vendor support.–

Both conflict with each other. Lot of the rapid changes at moment are about support more hardware types. Like hardware that can decode mp3 in audio and Prime for those video outputs that are two GPU. So slow down pace of change equals equals slap hardware vendor in face and say we cannot support their hardware.

So some of the pace of change cannot be slowed down not just yet. Because Linux don’t support everything in hardware in existence yet.

So since Linux cannot slow down. So question becomes can we make it less painful for those that don’t keep up?

Basically how can we get what is important from the bleeding edge back to those who are no where near the bleeding edge.

This is where this comes in. https://backports.wiki.kernel.org

So a person running a distribution a few years old still has current drivers for current hardware. So extending the time a person can go between updating fully.

Linux 2.6.27 kernel released 9 October 2008 will be maintained for 5 years. So end of life October 2013. Problem is how to get drivers from 3.6 back to 2.6.27. There has been no automatic way. Yes that is the oldest kernel backports will support at this stage.

So the kernel backports project will slow down requirement for hardware support to update you kernel more like once every 5 years.

So yes is the answer we can make it less painful for those who don’t keep up. Solution is more automatic back-porting and virtualisation that is under-way. People would not still be on XP if someone had pulled the driver rug out from under them. Its that driver rug that forces people to update there Linux Distributions as often.

Most versions of Windows only start dropping out of existence when the driver rug is pulled. So Linux is not magically different its just been pulling the driver rug a little too often.

Lot of people don’t get wayland. Wayland allows you to run two completely different X11 servers. Even run different wayland solutions inside each other. Change to wayland allows more virtalisation for old application support.

Needing new applications is another that takes the rug out and that is refer to number 5 we need distribution independent app stores.

–2) Pound on PC vendors’ doors.–

Most likely after backport kernel project lands and steam lands. PC vendors particular hate having to recertify their hardware and they do also want to offer the latest software without having to reinstall the machine. So 2, 3, 4 and 5 are all related. Most likely major-ally solved by curing two problems.

–1) Linux distributors need to take the traditional desktop seriously.–

Question here is current Linux distributors or do we need a new one. There is a possibility we need a new one focused on what Windows and OS X users like in performance and so on.

If not a new distributor maybe a group who takes testing distributions and design automated tests to get what the performance shape of the distributions are.

There is a problem define what you call unresponsive. Different groups of people call this different things. So if someone did event a scale that rated where each distribution was with the metrics each group wanted we would have something useful.

Thorsten Rahn SJVN is mostly on the money. Problem here is he is a little out the loop.

The issue is what is under-way addresses a lot of it.

So the correct list is 3.

1) Linux need distribution independent appstores ISV trust.
2) Linux need drivers to have a backport system.
3) Linux really need someone to come up with a desktop metric with test cases for assessing distributions that makes some sense. We have test cases that make sense for servers.

As you see 1 and 2 are under control. Number 3 I have not seen a project yet dealing with that.

Without number 3 Linux will still progress. 1 and 2 on my list are critical.

Well, well, well. SJVN may be a nutjob, but he’s not on Rob’s level. I can accurately predict how Rob will react: complete and utter denial. Linux evangelists questioning if Linux can take advantage of the opening Windows 8 will (supposedly!) give Linux are simply: traitors! SJVN even has the nerve to suggest that the Linux invasion via Android won’t really help. Hang him!

But Rob will dutifully explain why SJVN is a paid M$ shill in a moment. Stay tuned, folks.

http://www.zdnet.com/five-things-desktop-linux-has-to-do-to-beat-windows-8-7000003901/

Of course I do. It still ran DOS underneath and crashed every day. I read that people lined up to buy it. I never bought Lose ’95 but I worked in schools that did. In those days, most schools preferred MacOS but they gradually shifted to COTS PCs. MacOS was non-UNIX in those days too and similarly crashed and froze so there was not much choice on retail shelves. I chose GNU/Linux and had a lot of fun with it.

Its third party drivers that have not been properly maintained or updated. Then no a proper separation between versions.

Linux distributions you could say have too strong of separation between versions.

Windows 9 Microsoft is going to start breaking things the same way Linux Distributions has for years. The simple reality is that the ways Microsoft has done are insecure. What Microsoft people like where windows will run everything over a very long time frame without having todo anything is in fact security wrong. This results in new programs using old broken ABI/API so preventing its removal.

Time is catching up with Microsoft. Culture around Microsoft is flawed from a security stand point.

The culture around Linux is still flawed from the point of view I want to use the latest hardware or software. Latest hardware most like will be handled by the Linux kernel backport project. Latest software that could be steam and other distribution neutral package management.

The problem here is the Linux people have been able to see the culture problem in Windows and the Windows users have been seeing a culture problem in Linux. Problem is neither wants to admit their own culture problems. This is normal human.

Also normal human trying to claim a culture defect exists long after it died.

I am basically yanking Clarence’s chain but you would have missed that.
To call Linus’s efforts piddly.
Well even you I am sure would agree that anybody with half a brain knows that calling linux piddly is a bit of a stretch.

Your comment numbered 11 refers:

You complain that the article is so biased yet you use a quote from it where code was looked at in order to make a point.

You are using those quotes in isolation.

If you had read the whole article perhaps you would be able to put everything in perspective.

Because he doesn’t have to!

One of the big problems in the loonatic Kingdom of FLOSS. If you dare to criticize, one of the usual alibi answers will be: send a f**king patch, moron! Well, duh, how on earth could a critic just trying to be helpful assume that critique isn’t really well liked in the Kingdom of FLOSS? Must be one of the reasons why Linux still sucks.

Clarence I see you were also a developer in your day.
Wow! I am impressed.

Your comment refers:……..”That is world class performance and the piddly efforts of Linus and his pals pale by comparison. Linux is just a copycat sort of Unix and is not particularly appropriate for desktop usage.”

Why don’t you offer your services to Linus and his pals I am sure they would appreciate some help with their piddly efforts and then maybe just maybe Linux will have a usable desktop.

Translation: “I can delude myself pretty good.”

If Lose ’9x had any advantages it was fleeting.

Translation: “I actually don’t remember a thing about Windows 95.”

I did use most of M$’s later OS and they were varying degrees of crapware being slow, buggy and fragile.

Translation: “I have to convince myself that GNU/Linux was ‘far superior’.”

GNU/Linux has been rock solid since I started using it in 2000.

Translation: “If ever something went wrong it must’ve been my fault. Oh, silly me!”

Sure there have been a few failures but they were narrowly isolated to particular human errors.

Translation: “If I’ve learned one thing, it’s that ‘isolated’ and ‘particular’ are great buzzwords.”

You heard wrong, Rob. Sorry.

That other OS contains thousands of vulnerabilities designed in by the sales team at M$.

Translation: “Thanks to studying all of GNU/Linux’s code my eyes have become able to transcend the binaries and look at the evil machinations contained within them. You can call me ‘Neo’ from now on.”

Classical cognitive dissonance at work here.