Let me just repeat something that Linus Torvalds said, a long time ago (when he started working for Transmeta): The Operating System is not the issue. It's the APPLICATIONS that are important.
The efficiency of the kernel is largely a moot point. Until Linux has sufficient penetration in the retail application market - where most people buy their software, even today - it will not become a mainstream OS. It will also not become a mainstream OS until it is embraced by the corporate desktop user segment - another very difficult task because corporate users still have enough trouble figuring out Windows 2000 or 98. I used to do tech support at an IT consulting organization and I was surprised by the lack of basic Windows literacy on the part of many of their employees. And these are Windows systems - the same type of computer these people probably had at home.
And *YES*, since Microsoft Works/Office/Word is one of the top 3 applications by sales volume, until a Linux version of those applications is released (at the very LEAST) it will make no serious inroads in the desktop market segment. Linux is doomed to be a hacker-friendly, server-oriented, Network Operating System. But that's a good thing!
Why do you even want it to become a mainstream desktop OS? It's found a niche in the embedded-computer and information-appliance market, great. It'll be used in various Palmtops, cellphones, set top boxes, interactive pagers, and game consoles. But it won't become the norm for desktop operating systems. The PC will die long before that ever happens.
The efficiency of the kernel is largely a moot point. Until Linux has sufficient penetration in the retail application market - where most people buy their software, even today - it will not become a mainstream OS. It will also not become a mainstream OS until it is embraced by the corporate desktop user segment - another very difficult task because corporate users still have enough trouble figuring out Windows 2000 or 98. I used to do tech support at an IT consulting organization and I was surprised by the lack of basic Windows literacy on the part of many of their employees. And these are Windows systems - the same type of computer these people probably had at home.
And *YES*, since Microsoft Works/Office/Word is one of the top 3 applications by sales volume, until a Linux version of those applications is released (at the very LEAST) it will make no serious inroads in the desktop market segment. Linux is doomed to be a hacker-friendly, server-oriented, Network Operating System. But that's a good thing!
Why do you even want it to become a mainstream desktop OS? It's found a niche in the embedded-computer and information-appliance market, great. It'll be used in various Palmtops, cellphones, set top boxes, interactive pagers, and game consoles. But it won't become the norm for desktop operating systems. The PC will die long before that ever happens.
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