Groklaw: Is Linux Ready for the Desktop?

“We’re often told by pundits that ‘Linux is not ready for the
desktop.’ I’ve always found this statement a bit odd, because I’ve
been using Linux on my desktop for about seven years now, so
clearly it’s ready for my personal desktop. In my opinion the
software available for the Linux KDE and Gnome desktops broadly
matches that available for other proprietary desktop
environments.

“So I started thinking about desktop environments I’ve used in
the past, to try and understand what the pundits thought might be
missing from the Linux desktop. I cast my mind back to 1998 when I
was working for a multinational insurance company who, along with
many other small and large businesses around the world at that
time, used Windows 3.11 as their desktop environment, and the
pundits weren’t complaining about that, so presumably Windows 3.11
was ready for the desktop…”

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