Re: Linux on the Desktop?

I don't know why everyone want to say that Linux isn't there for
grandma's and moms.  My wife uses Linux daily and she is as
non-technical as they come.  To her the computer is just a tool for
using the web, watching videos, e-mail and the occassional document.
She has no trouble doing any of these on the Linux machine connected to
our big screen TV and once she learns a task, for example, how to backup
her videos to DVD or how to use Vuze to download torrents, then I don't
have to hold her hand to do them.

As for me, I've been using Linux on the desktop for over ten years
(since around 1996).  The obstacles I faced in the early years, such as
the inability to talk to Exchange servers, were overcome with the
introduction of Evolution's Exchange plugin or by asking the Exchange
admins to enable IMAP.  Now I work for a company that not only allows
Linux on the desktop, but provides an official company install image for
it.  There are occasional issues with some Windows only application
(such as the web conferencing solution we use at work), but that is what
Virtualbox is for.

Tom S.

On Fri, 2010-08-27 at 10:27 -0500, Robert Parkhurst wrote:
> Hey everyone,
> 
> Got what may be a silly question, but what is the state of Linux on
> the desktop?  I think it's fairly good--albeit you can't get the
> plethora of name brand games like you can for Windows and Mac.  But I
> have coworkers that say otherwise.  Basically that Linux on the
> desktop is dead.
>