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Linux and Main: Twelve Steps to Desktop Dominance

“While I normally turn a cold shoulder to all those increasingly
arcane ways of dividing people into two groups we keep inventing,
there’s one that I think holds the key to Linux’s prospects for
success on the mainstream desktop.

“The first group thinks Microsoft’s virtual monopoly of the
mainstream desktop is a Very Bad Thing For Everyone, and that the
contender with the best chance of ending that monopoly and
restoring genuine choice is Linux. This group also believes that
Linux programmers can and should take on this very formidable task,
regardless of what Linux or any part of it ‘was originally meant to
be’. I’m in this group, and I hope you are, too.

“The second group are all those who either want Microsoft’s
monopoly to endure or don’t think Linux can compete in that
toughest of all computer markets, the mainstream desktop, or they
simply don’t want to see the masses using Linux, since it would
change their favorite OS or remove a “special” part of their
identity, i.e. being able to master an OS that’s too tough for the
washed masses. If you’re in this second group, please stop reading
here and go take part in the latest food fight in a Linux newsgroup
or on Slashdot…”


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