Is open source a dead end for desktop applications?

"Try as they might, open source desktop apps never gained much ground against proprietary rivals -- and maybe they never will

"Fans of the open source desktop productivity suite OpenOffice.org breathed a sigh of relief this week, when a group of prominent developers announced they're breaking ties with Oracle and launching a new fork of the suite, to be known as LibreOffice. The new suite will be managed by an independent organization known as the Document Foundation. Whether the Document Foundation will be able to sustain LibreOffice as a significant competitor to Microsoft Office, however, remains an open question.

"Among the skeptics is none other than the "father of Java" himself, James Gosling. Like many other former Sun employees, Gosling left Oracle earlier this year, citing conflicts with the database giant's management style and culture. Since then he has been increasingly critical of Oracle and its handling of the various open source properties it gained through the purchase of Sun -- in particular, the Java platform itself."

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