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Chromebook: To Hell With the Linux Desktop--Pre-Installation is Key

Posted by Dietrich on · 12 comments
Linux Advocates; By Dietrich Schmitz
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To hell with the Linux Desktop. It will never matter unless it comes pre-installed on devices selling at Best Buy, etc. Linux Advocate Dietrich Schmitz explains why.

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Comments (12)

[sigh]

My gut instinct about the dman was right all along. One lil' article and I find myself apologizing, then he writes this abomination. Stupid fickle me! He writes "is a must for any operating system to become wildly popular". Seems to me linux has pretty much decimated all computing fields, the beloved desktop being the only hold out. He says we must embrace the corporate line to prevail against that last stronghold. Rather, I think, who's holding out are computer users who want to be free of corp control and succumbing to the chromebook's siren call is anathema to that end.

Much like early Americans who had to fight to remain free of colonial rule, likewise the computer user of today must fight to remain free of control of anyone who would pretend to be the user's savior. People are not flocking to the Pi cuz it's cute and simple. They are attracted to the fact that it's the user who controls it. Must control it, must learn how to control it. No pretty sparkly bling, here. Only self determination and independent user will can make a Pi work.

The computer was originally devised as a tool for the user, not a device to make the user a tool. Not a gateway for further corporate exploitation. Buying a chromebook and it's corporate controlled cloud software is jes buying into a different corporate serfdom. Is Google any different than Microsoft or Apple in their ultimate goals? I think not. The dman is merely another carny barking for a new master.



> Buying a chromebook and it's corporate controlled cloud software is jes buying into a different corporate serfdom

A Chromebook is guaranteed to run Linux, and there's no Microsoft tax. Load it with the distro of your choice.
Quoting:Stupid fickle me!


Don't be so hard on yourself, notbob. We've all been fooled before. It's part of human nature.

However, swathes of the message are spot-on. We do need Linux laptops to be pre-installed, Google have put time and effort into making sure it works reliably, they have spent money marketing it. If Linux is to become popular it needs a big manufacturer behind it to sell software with Linux pre-installed and well marketed. Not just half-arsed attempts like Acer Aspire One and EEPC.

Very good article, totally ridiculous first comment to start this thread. I have been saying for years that the only way Linux can succeed on the desktop is when it's preloaded and allowed to compete on a somewhat level playing field. We saw that with the success Asus and then others (Acer, Dell) had with netbooks preloaded with Linux and we are seeing it again with Chromebooks and convertible tablet/netbook combos with Android.

notbob, the reason you are so incredibly far off base yet again is because the desktop is incredibly important still, particularly in enterprise settings where the real money is made by vendors. Linux share there as of last year according to Forrester Research is just 9%.

Also, despite very significant success in the server room the Linux market share there is just 35-40%. Linux+commercial UNIX is a slim majority over Microsoft, but it is slim indeed. By separating out big iron the various market research companies who seem to shill for Microsoft actually show Redmond with a strong majority of the server market, which is true only in terms of revenue (not deployments) and only if you parse the server market into pieces. Still, these numbers do have an influence on the suits that make decisions. I just watched an entire department of state government shift from deploying Linux heavily with good results to throwing Linux out in favor of Windows everywhere to the greatest extent possible after a management change. It sickens me and it costs the taxpayers dearly, but there you have it.

So, Dieter Schmitz is right on when it comes to the desktop and Linux, sadly, has not "decimated" anything.
I think you are wrong so often and on so many levels, I have to honestly wonder what reality you inhabit, if any at all. For example, look up the word decimate. I leave it, there, as arguing your fantasies is a fool's errand.



Those who have no facts to argue with resort to name calling. I know what decimate means. Do you?
Decimate = reduce by one tenth.
Originally used by the Roman Legions as a group punishment, line everyone up and kill every tenth man where he stood.
> resort to name calling.

What "name calling" would that be? I merely paraphrased what you said.

decimate: "to take a tenth of or from" "to destroy a ... proportion of"

You know. Like market share.

I could have used the term annihilate, which is sometimes synonymous with one definition of decimate, but I didn't. Say, are you trying trying to "put words in my mouth"!? I didn't think so. We all know how much you hate that. ;)
shall we now move on to the definition of popular? because i think this is where the disagreement hinges on that article. linux may have decimated all computing fields but the desktop, but does that make it wildly popular?

i have no opinion on the chromebook. i am generally not interested in any pre-installed OS and prefer to roll my own installation. however, having linux pre-installed will at least assure me that linux will run on that hardware, and it doesn't change that i too believe that in order to become wildly popular, linux must be available pre-installed on end-consumer hardware.

greetings, eMBee

iOS and MacOS are wildly popular. Just ask their fanbois.

Windows is wildly popular, too. Just ask its *snerk* *guffaw* Gaaaaahahahahahahahaha!!

Rats. Well, at least I tried to keep a straight face.

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