eWeek: Assessing Linux's progress on the desktop | Linux Today

eWeek: Assessing Linux’s progress on the desktop

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Feb 8, 2001

“Judging from the time I spent with Ximian and Eazel, two of the
major players working to making GNOME the great free hope of
desktop computing, Linux is now approaching the status of just good
enough.”

“I had the chance to spend some time with Ximian CTO and GNOME
luminary Miguel de Icaza, who took me through Ximian Setup Tools, a
set of interfaces for configuring network, user, time, and memory
settings across the various Linux, Unix and BSD platforms for which
Ximian GNOME provides a desktop environment.”

“There’s nothing Earth-shaking or particularly exciting in any
of this, but this is the sort of consistency in performing basic
configuration tasks that Linux has sorely lacked, and that has
retarded its wider adoption….”

“Desktop Linux may never rival Windows in terms of
out-of-the-box polish–Microsoft will always be hard at work
producing new features to differentiate its OS, and vastly
outspending the competition in the process. However, once the open
source OS can smooth its edges just well enough to deliver a
reasonably accessible and configurable computing experience,
Linux’s price advantages should assure it a solid place in the
desktop market.”


Complete Story

Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

Linux Today Logo

LinuxToday is a trusted, contributor-driven news resource supporting all types of Linux users. Our thriving international community engages with us through social media and frequent content contributions aimed at solving problems ranging from personal computing to enterprise-level IT operations. LinuxToday serves as a home for a community that struggles to find comparable information elsewhere on the web.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2026 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.