[vox] is the Linux desktop OS dead?

[Norm Matloff]

I once heard a financial reporter state, in a rare moment of candor,
that most financial reporters really don't know what they're talking
about.  If they did, they'd set up their own hedge funds, etc.  (This
was before the crash.)

I've found that the same is true for most tech journalists.  They don't
know the issues that well, and on top of that they, like other
journalists today, feel the need to sensationalize.

The guy is posing the wrong question.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I
don't recall even Linus claiming that Linux would take over the desktop.
Microsoft is just too entrenched.  UC, with all its horrendous budget
problems, continues to purchase Windows machines and software.  That
says a lot.

To me, the fact that Linux has found such substantial niches, such as
servers, specialty appliances, etc., plus a large number of (yes, techie
type) fans, is more than enough to say that Linux has been a big
success.  In the early days, I never would have dreamed I'd see 3-4
shelves of Linux books in every chain bookstore.  Linux has been a huge
success.

As to innovation, it may well be that KDE developers are trying to look
more Windows-like, but since I'm one of the hard core people who do most
of their work from the command line, KDE is irrelevant to me.

Norm Matloff