"Linux companies like Novell seem careful not to get ahead of demand for Linux on the desktop. How big is the demand for desktop Linux in your opinion? Where does its demand exist? Do you see that demand growing, shrinking or staying the same over time?
"John Featherly: I expect the demand to grow. Places that were early adopters like the scientific and academic [space will continue to use desktop Linux] while corporate and government [sectors] are joining in and will show the most growth. The key enablers are application types and IT support structures. Science and technical users are typically writing their own domain-specific apps and are self-supporting. A scientist is much more likely to write a research paper using TeX than they are MS Word. Home and small business adoption is somewhat further out and will be enabled by retail equipment vendors as much as the users. It may seem not necessarily related, but until there is widespread game support I predict home adoption will be slow regardless..."
