[Schiphol]

This article reads like it was written in 2006. The ideas that Linux distros lack polish, and that Ubuntu brought that to the table; that this is a capitalist world and Mark Shuttleworth understands capitalism, etc. are very, very trite.

[arkitaip]

Also, what kind of bizarro world is this where Android doesn't exist? You know, the Linux distro/interface that's leading the development on the consumer side? Smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices is the future for Linux and computing in general.

[hollerith]

You have not explained how Android is relevant to a conversation about desktop Linux.

>Smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices is the future for Linux and computing in general.

Even if that is true, it does not automatically make Android relevant to a conversation about desktop Linux.

Will you concede that at the current time, essentially no one uses Android as desktop OS?

[mkr-hn]

What is a desktop but a tablet or smartphone with a keyboard and mouse? It wasn't long ago that "Desktop" meant a rarely moved laptop or a tower attached to a big monitor and some peripherals, so we're not used to thinking of it in more abstract terms. This is changing as the traditional desktop--a computer you set on a surface and do work on--becomes something more modular and tablet-like.

[hollerith]

>What is a desktop but a tablet or smartphone with a keyboard and mouse?

Hardly anyone uses Android with a keyboard and mouse (for good reason).

You might believe that that will change, and that is a reasonable conversation to have, but it does not make it unreasonable or silly to have a conversation about desktop Linux that ignores Android.

(When the person I replied to wrote, "what kind of bizarro world is this where Android doesn't exist?" he implied that such a conversation is unreasonable or silly.)

[hpaavola]

Usually when people talk about Linux, they don't mean the kernel. They mean the kernel and GNU, so Android does not count.

[AndrewDucker]

It's funny that it took the rise of Android to really underscore the difference between "Linux" and "Gnu/Linux"

[jjindev]

I only want Linux to succeed because I want there to be open software stacks, especially for poor and beginning developers. Android's implicit distribution of LInux core means a more secure open stack ecosystem (even if it is special purpose at the higher levels). The same is true for the fledgling ChromeOS. And actually, ChromeOS is the real next step and competition for "distros." I mean, does ChromeOS outnumber Ubuntu yet? How long will it take?

[venomsnake]

The same bizzaro world in which you cannot run sudo bash on the majority of Android devices.

[mdpye]

Were you using Linux on your desktop in 2006? As I remember, the arrival of Ubuntu marked a massive shift in usability. I held out on various other distros, but eventually the extra polish Ubuntu offered was too compelling. Raising the bar has raised the game of other distros, but the introduction of Ubuntu was massive.