Caver1 wrote:
On 05/06/2014 01:28 PM, Silver Slimer wrote:
On 14-05-06 06:28 AM, mechanic wrote:
On Tue, 6 May 2014 05:12:18 -0500, BillW50 wrote:

So I've never found one killer app for Linux in all of these
years.

Shotwell? Nothing better on Windows or Linux (don't know about
Apple).


The problem with GNU/Linux killer apps is that they're not exclusive in
any way. Shotwell is nice, so is Handbrake and LibreOffice. They're all
free but they're also available for other operating systems. For
something to be a killer app, it has to be exclusive and in this case,
no GNU/Linux software is.



That doesn't mean that Windows is better.
None of the "Killer" apps in Windows is free or multi platform. So Linux
supplies good software for everybody. Windows doesn't. Not all Linux
software is multi platform. So some GNU/Linux software is.

I'm surprise in this day and age, we would waste
time on the "better" aspect. Why are we still wasting
time on such discussions ?

All popular operating systems now, use preemptive
multitasking. And a robust split between kernel and
userspace.

So the core of the OS is rather the same.
Boringly the same. So boring in fact, that
companies can spin new versions... and get
stuff wrong.

We have to be content comparing the graphical
decorations, the size of the icons, whether
we swipe from the left or the right. How boring...

What Linux lacks, is commercial focus. No more or
no less. Canonical is just inept. They do a good job
on delivering a product (i.e. the "little people"
are skilled - it's not their fault). But proper
direction is missing at the top. There are likely
companies that have done a better job, but
"they don't advertise". Nobody has a customer focus.
What do customers want ? What can we do to attract
customers ? Canonical certainly doesn't waste
any time on that. They just do stuff to **** people
off.

*******

There was a FUD article recently, on smart phones.
And how all the innovations were over, the playing
field was flat, and it was a matter of making
a phone the right color or the right shape. And you
can see how the desktop part of computing, could
easily receive a scathing article like that as well.
Stale. Boring. The only excitement for users comes,
when their support is killed (this happens with
both Windows and Linux, so neither is free from
this aspect - if the Linux folks wanted, I could
be running package manager for Ubuntu 7.04 and
it would continue to deliver apps when I want them.)

So why are we wasting our time on these advocacy
discussions ? The only thing worth discussing,
is why nobody is able to take a leadership
role, and deliver anything. Is it that the
market is too small ? The market is not worth
owning ? I don't get it. All the ingredients
are there, but nothing is happening. Instead,
mobile devices come along as a displacement
technology, and everyone else just sits
back on their haunches. The last time I checked,
there were some things that don't work well on a
small screen. Why would we expect to kill those
off, and stare into a 3" screen, scrolling left
and right, up and down as we work ? There s
still room for other kinds of devices.

*******

The next innovation could have been VR, but
that's kinda ruined now, by the Facebook
purchase. I wonder if anyone in the OS side
of things, is at all interested (3D GUI) ?
At least with a desktop environment (chair and table),
and a VR headset, you won't be walking into
the furniture :-)

Paul