What's next ? (Was Re: Experience the New Windows)

[Arun Sharma <arun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Feb 21, 2001 at 07:44:59PM +0530, Raju Mathur wrote:
> 
> So Linux isn't necessarily faster or more efficient than Winduhs,
> especially in the desktop space.  On the new box, Winduhs and Office97
> still load up much faster than Enlightenment and SO.  Of course, I
> could use a lower-end window manager, but I don't particularly like
> twm :-) and we should be comparing apples to apples.

Here is my take on world domination. This comes after switching to
Windows as my primary desktop (I've been doing that for a few months
now) and running FreeBSD and Linux on headless boxes and displayed on
my windows desktop using VNC for a while.

The talk about too many technical users not doing much to help the
average users or make distros more user friendly is very relevant.
Linux is where it is today, because of these technical users and they
don't have any interest in making it user friendly. Distro companies
that are interested in $$$s coming out of support or by selling a mix 
of open + closed source (this won't happen in linux land, but could in bsd
land) could make a difference. Note that, the former model is yet to 
be proven.

So as free software developers, we're better off developing cross
platform apps (Java, if you can put up with it) or WxWindows, WxPython,
PyQt - pick your poison. That way if Linux becomes irrelevant due to
some unforeseen event, your software will still be relevant and help
keep the next monopoly from enforcing it's closed standards on everyone.
The mantra is, help the small startup company, that's challenging the
big guy.

Also, with 25% lay offs at VA Linux and the dotcom crash, the economics
of the internet may be in for a change. People may be forced to pay for
things that they used to get for free - greeting cards for example, as
companies go out of business due to unsustainable business models.

I'm watching closely.

	-Arun