The Year Of The Linux... Everything Else | Hacker News Reader

The Year Of The Linux... Everything Else

linux-mag.com

14 pointslinuxmag9 comments

> So before consumers know it, they will pause their Linux based television to receive a call on a Linux based phone, while they use their Linux based tablet to browse the net through their Linux based router.

This is already happening today.

Linux doesn't have much traction on the desktop because the most important things to users are the most broken:

- graphics drivers

- wireless drivers

- flash performance/silverlight support

Whole article is uh; not good.

All the things that are consistently broken on Linux are third-party problems (usually drivers). When a company makes a first-party Linux product (TV, phone, tablet, router), things work much better.

The fact that most companies don't give a damn about making products for Linux is Linux's fault though.

The first two aren't "desktop" problems, they are "putting a 3rd party OS onto hardware intended for another OS" problems. (Think about putting Android onto an iPhone, or ddwrt onto an Airport for comparison).

And even then I think they're all mostly issues from the wanting to be 100% open source to get the full benefits angle, rather than the "it's just not working/non-existant" kind of problems that they might have been just a few short years ago.

> - flash performance/silverlight support

Wait a minute: this useless, proprietary, redundant piece of DRM-Patent-ridden crap is actually catching on? Why? Are some of my qualifiers wrong, or Microsoft's sales power is that strong?

Silverlight is big in the US because Netflix uses it for video streaming.

Silverlight is proprietary and does have support for DRM, I'll give you that. However, it is technically quite impressive.

OK, thanks. Do you have a pointer to its specific advantages? I'd like to know a bit more about that.

Links is to an interstitial ad- a crummy thing to do.

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