osOpinion: Not Your Grandma's Desktop

Oct 18, 2001, 13:59 (43 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Keith F. Stark)

[ Thanks to Kelly McNeill for this link. ]

"Linux on the desktop will not be ready until "my grandmother can use it." The phrase invariably shows up on both sides of the desktop war.

Windows proponents present it as proof that the Linux desktop is dead. The Linux evangelist's retaliation is his sweet, elderly grandmother. She uses Linux. She also frags him relentlessly in Quake and balances her checkbook with GnuCash.

Are the Linux desktop environment projects -- as in KDE and GNOME -- really after Grandma? Is Grandma the lowest common denominator that needs to be satisfied?

Sorry Grandma, I don't mean that like it sounds."

Complete Story

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