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	Phil's Blogservations Monday, April 05, 2004 Posted by philgomes 8:35 PM Linux Desktop Makes Some Waves Linux Desktop Makes Some Waves Couldn't help but notice that both Dan Gillmor and Chad Dickerson had something to say about the idea of a Linux desktop today. It seems like ever since the giddy days of Eazel, the dawn of the Linux desktop is always about six to twelve months away from today. I think we're getting a lot closer this time, though. For one thing, installation has gotten a lot easier. My Mandrake 9.2 installation was worlds easier than 8.2. (Bad press about Mandrake 9.1 prevented me from trying it out.) It was like comparing a Spitfire to an F-14 Tomcat. For another, the Linux distributions that I've played with strike a great balance between basic no-nonsense functionality for the non-geeks and slobber-generating "featuritis" for the rest of us. I wasted about two hours last summer trying to determine what window manager configuration I liked the most. (And we won't talk about the time spent in my re-education in shell commands, which were long since lost since my sysadmin days ended in 1996.) There's also the joy — as Dan Gillmor hints at — of resurrecting that old piece of hardware. For my part, Red Hat 9 breathed new life into my 750MHz Athlon-based computer. Finally, there are folks like Codeweavers who are looking at making sure that Linux desktops provide Office compatibility. My lack of confidence in this regard has been the main reason why I haven't yet adopted Linux as my full-time OS — my business partners and clients would not tolerate cross-platform formatting and compatibility issues — but this resistance is waning quickly. Once this obstacle has been surmounted, plenty more folks will be moving toward the Linux desktop, I'm sure. HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes[[dot}]com SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.