Switchers to Linux are often heard saying "It looks a like Windows.", and it does. Well, it can, but it doesn’t have to.
Gnome and KDE drive most Linux distros, but Beryl could change everything.
As we’ve said before, Linux works, Linux is free and people want Linux. What happens if you take those three Linux truths and slap on some serious eye candy the likes of which Vista users thought they might get and OS X users hope they get?
Imagine showing this video with Beryl’s transparent windows and animated 3D effects on display on any laptop at Best Buy. I’ll bet that’s the one people would flock to. Lots of people will tell you “Beryl is not about eye candy.” Beryl is about eye candy. People love eye candy, so give it to them. If the eye candy is functional, like Beryl, don’t worry about it, just let the people eat the candy.
Beryl is supported by several major Linux distributions including Ubuntu. Sabayon is the official distro for Beryl and has Beryl installed by default. Try before you buy and burn the live CD. Beryl offers various themes that work just like normal desktop themes, only infinitely cooler.
Chet wrote,
Linux needs iTunes and iPod support that is as easy to use as it is on OSX and windows. Everytime I try to encourage people to switch to it, I find myself saying, “the only problem is that if you use iTunes with your iPod then it’s not supported.” We can talk Beryl and Gnome and Ubuntu and fun linux t-shirts all we want, but if a person can’t use iTunes (or a close knock-off), linux is effectively stalled for the averge home user. Sorry.
Quote | Link | March 19th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
alf wrote,
People don’t want Linux. Linux doesn’t work (otherwise my Canon scanner wouldn’t be a glorified paper weight within Ubuntu).
Let’s face it, Linux is only for geeks, and it has a long long way to go before it can capture the any sliver of the main market.
Quote | Link | March 20th, 2007 at 12:41 am
Chet wrote,
I’m going to have to agree with the point made by alf. I could not run my 5000.00 ipf8000 printer from linux - at least not with any color accuracy if at all. Granted, few people own a 44″ wide-format printer, but for me it’s a barrier.
Nevertheless, I am writing this from a 1998 fist generation powermac (the yosemity sam g3 verions) with 128 megs of ram and a 4 gig HD. It may be the last one in operation. The only reason the computer wasn’t trashed 5 years ago is because I am running linux on it.
The average home user needs a decent image program (gimp is more than enough for a homeboy) and the tools to manipulate some video, and your basic office/email/browser suite. Linux has all that. Linux is a great system. Really the next big step is iTunes support. Linux won’t be a serious contender for the home desktop until they have that. And alf is right, many third party vendors don’t release the necessary linux drivers for their equipment. However, just like with mac software, it wasn’t until a significant user base starting bitching about not having mac support, did they start supporting the mac platform.
Linux is a bit of a niche product right now. Maybe in 2010 everything will be unix based. I for one will be glad to see it.
Quote | Link | March 20th, 2007 at 5:45 am