[AccessD] OT: open source

Bryan Carbonnell said the following on 4/6/2004 2:46 PM:

>As for the actual Desktop operating system, that is further out. 5-7
>years would be my guess. Linux needs a few things to become more
>competitive with Windows. It *needs* to become less "geek-friendly" and
>more "user friendly". It also *NEEDS* to have a "standard" GUI, or at
>least a standard layout. 
>
While I agree with you I also have to guess that a Linux convertion may 
be closer than we all guess.  There have been leaps and bounds in which 
the various distros have improved their desktop products.  I also must 
concur that a standardized GUI would be the killer blow that would/will 
ultimately drive hords of users away from Microsoft.  I base my opinion 
off such distros like RedHat or even the newest one I've seen 
(Knopixx).  Wich is an OS bootable completely off the CD.  It is Linux, 
and what makes this even more cool is that you could theoretically put 
out a distro that would make it so that end users "couldn't" break thier 
installations.  Just always boot from the CD.  With High end products 
such as ThunderBird and FireFox and even some of the OpenOffice 
products, Open Source products are reaching maturity levels that are 
acceptable to a wider population.  Some of the greatest leaps have been 
"custom installers" for such products. This improves delivery to end 
users who are wanting to try a simpler to use OPEN SOURCE community.

A greater risk than vulnerabilities in MS software is not so much the 
security holes, but the COST of the software.  You have many college 
students that simply can't afford to go w/ MS Office so they use 
OpenOffice.  While not all do, the trend is steadily climing, and w/ the 
avalability getting better and the quaility reaching acceptace from the 
general public, this will help push more OpenSource software into the 
main stream.


-- 
-Francisco