Celebrating Linux's anniversary, inventor Linus Torvalds has admitted that the reason that his operating system never made it big on the desktop was because that market was too interesting.
Speaking to LinuxFR, he admitted that the desktop so special and so much harder than any other market because it was more interesting and people do so many different things.
Linux has done well on the server. However the server does almost nothing, says Torvalds.
It might have a lot of CPU power, a fast network, and lots of IO, but it does the same limited thing over and over again.
It may be important, but it's not a very varied workload, and it's not something people are attached to, he said.
However a desktop is what you see every day, and you get attached to it. The attachment might be some kind of "Stockholm syndrome", but even then it becomes a kind of dependency where you get used to it and rely on it rather more intimately than you ever end up relying on the company mainframe, Torvalds said.
People do much more on their desktop. They play games on it, do word processing on it, and development. It is not a one trick pony.
Torvalds said that he did not think there was much he could do to the Linux kernel that would make the operating system popular on the desktop.
Android has done a lot to create mainstream users for Linux, but the problem is that the desktop is a difficult market to reach.
He said that there are huge amounts of "network effects" where having existing users is a big reason to retain them and get more new users.
Most people do not want to change their environment, and if they do switch, they want help and support. That support is not about commercial support, it is about asking the bloke next to you, Torvalds said. To get over that hump you need wide scale adoption.
I also agree with "asking the bloke next to you" issue. At school i see lots of people asking for help with Windows issues, and because they seem to be used to asking other people but not trying very hard to figure it out themselves, it makes sense Linux hasn't reached them, because who would they ask? Chance are the guy next to them would not be a Linux dude either. :(
Now phones, tablets and mini notebooks are changing this a bit with those android, Meego, Ubuntu, WebOS (etc) devices shipping in millions. I think there is question of time before a big company going for Linux on a game consol, to compete with Xbox, Wii, PS, and winpc( or even Sony or Nintendo will choose Linux). Then many gamers will find their home in Linux.
Linux is just now breaking through in phones and small computers. I guess Desktop will come within ten years.
This is technology too you know Linus. When did he change his name? This is Charlie Brown's friend with the blanket right? That makes sense - ie that he created Linux - only a weirdo of that ilk could do it. Don't get me wrong. I love a good old root login session with a bit of ssh and some apache and shell and perl and a tail here and a grep there and some seds and the odd ls. Oh yeah. That beats sex.
What? Wake up dull boy. Life is big. Linux is some small collection of orders used to tell a disk what to do. Anyway, on a less sartorial nature (no I really don't mean satirical) let me just say this Torvil. I have a scheme which will REVOLUTIONIZE the desktop and you're a right charlie for not thinking of it yourself there's NO reason you couldn't do it with Linux you amateur. Hah. I enjoyed that one. It makes no sense, without the secret formula. Ask Bill Bailey. It's because the Ravens are superglued to their perches in the Tower.