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http://live.pirillo.com/ – Will Linux ever take off in the mainstream like Windows or OS X has?

Linux is an open source operating system, which means that the entire community can contribute to it. That makes Linux very powerful, but it also makes Linux very marketing unfriendly: it ahs taken the Linux community years to produce something that is even remotely user friendly.

Ubuntu, at this point, has the best chance of taking off in the desktop marketplace. But, before that is ever going to happen, the community needs to stop in-fighting over what the best applications are (Gnome vs KDE) before the average user should ever consider using Linux.

Even Chris doesn’t have a dedicated Linux machine, as he either uses a Live CD version of Linux or through a virtual machine. As a primary operating system, Chris thinks there’s too much elitism within the individual communities: answers tend to be human unfriendly often ending as "RTFM."

Ubuntu has the mindshare and the support, so it has the potential, but Linux probably won’t take off until the need for an operating system is further minimized.

What do you think? Will Linux take over the desktop world?

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Tomorrow, Jake and I are headed down south to the Desktop Linux Summit. Per the article posted by Desktop Linux, I'm going to be doing a tongue-in-cheek presentation as the anchor:

The 2.5-day Desktop Summit takes place in San Diego, this week. The event will feature informative keynote talks and panel discussions, free giveaways, a product showcase, and a conference-end roast of 2004 Linux and open source headlines by radio host Chris Pirillo, according to event organizers. [More]

I whipped up a rather humorous PowerPoint presentation, but I'm going to be running it on Windows. Unless, of course, I fire up Knoppix and try it from there. I might even come home with a new OS on that laptop – which would be odd, because this is about Desktop Linux.

For one admission fee, attendees will not only interact with open source industry leaders and start-ups participating in the Summit, but will also attend events to learn more about Mozilla, the Firefox Internet browser, and OpenOffice.org, creator of the open-source office productivity suite. Lotus 1-2-3 designer and Open Source Applications Foundation Chair Mitchell Kapor is slated to give the keynote address.

I'll be there. Anybody else? Bueller… Bueller…?

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