A lot of that momentum comes from the fact that Linux is free. |
Apple is cool. We like Apple. But we're not going to spend a lot of time porting and supporting our stuff on Mac OS X. |
As a programmer, it's sometimes difficult to know how ordinary people with no technical experience are reacting to your software. Linux people tend to know other Linux people. In these usability tests, we selected test subjects who were experienced with Windows, but who had never heard of Linux, and asked them to perform basic tasks using the Linux desktop. |
As Mono matures, people will begin to use it to write desktop components that take advantage of all the hard work that's gone into some of the meatier GNOME libraries, as well as the nifty language features of C#. |
Big Linux deployments have reached the point where it's become a real problem for administrators that they don't have nice tools to manage their servers and desktops. |
GNOME is aiming for simplicity and consistency; we're the first open source desktop project to have a documented set of human interface guidelines. |
I have a G4 at home. They're great machines for individual users, and I even know a few core Linux hackers who are having a lot of fun with them. But if you want to move the needle on the non-Microsoft desktop, you've got to look elsewhere. |
I started hacking in Mono a few months ago for some personal projects, and was very impressed with how complete and usable it is. |
I'm personally working on converting about 250,000 different Windows machines to Linux desktops, primarily in European government. |
It makes it clear to people what a virtual workspace is. |
It takes no time at all. |
Mac OS X isn't a free platform, and it runs on expensive hardware. It is not a plausible Windows alternative for our desktop customers, who are mainly large government organizations displacing Windows desktops and big enterprise corporations replacing Solaris workstations. |
Now Linux has a world-class totally modern graphics system that will last us for the next decade. |
One of the things that people like about apt-get is having an easy-to-use software catalog at their fingertips, so if you want to install some missing software on your machine, you can do it with a quick command. |
OS X is sweet: it's simple and intuitive, and I think GNOME shares a lot of values with it. |