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Linux Desktop for the Masses is "10 Years" Away, Says Torvalds

Linux Desktop for the Masses is "10 Years" Away, Says Torvalds

Speaking with Australian IT, Linus Torvalds says that, even though over the past 6 months big companies have shown interest in not just selling desktop Linux, but also using desktop Linux internally, he believes that "it's going to take, literally five to 10 years before 'normal users' start seeing Linux desktop.

But in what he calls "the technical space," desktop Linux is doing pretty well, says Torvalds. "Especially in companies that can support it already," he adds.

What else does Linus have to say? Here's a quick round-up:

On the 2.6 Kernel - in general

"So far it's been going pretty well, but so far the only people who've been using it have been fairly advanced users. So, big distributions switching over to the new kernel, that's a few months away. Judging from how it looks right now, everything is ready to go, but that's what you always think."


On the 2.6 Kernel - in particular

"One thing that 2.6 kernel is much better at is device management, and especially we've been working a lot, doing hot plugs - not just USB, but USB's an example of something people are aware of... figuring out what driver to load... and making it an experience that seems very obvious, but isn't."


On LInux in Little Devices

"I bought my wife one of those electronic picture frames... and only when I was uploading my pictures, the night before Mother's Day, I was uploading them and looked at the technical specifications and found out it ran Linux! That's much more fun than big machines."


On the SCO vs IBM Case

" It hasn't been that bothersome, but every once in a while, when they make some new claim, it really riles me - I mean they've literally claimed copyright on files I can prove I wrote personally, and that's very irritating. ... I'm just hoping it's going to finally come to a head soon, because it's just dragging on - it's been dragging on for something like eight months, and it's getting pretty tiresome."

More Stories By Jeremy Geelan

Jeremy Geelan is Sr. Vice-President of SYS-CON Media & Events. He is Conference Chair of the all-new International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo series, of the International Virtualization Conference & Expo series, of AJAXWorld RIA Conference & Expo series, and of the long-running SOAWorld Conference & Expo series. He's founder of Cloud Computing Journal, Web 2.0 Journal, AJAX & RIA Journal and other leading SYS-CON titles. From 2000-6, as first editorial director and then group publisher of SYS-CON Media, he was responsible for the development of all new titles and i-Technology portals for the firm, and regularly represents SYS-CON at conferences and trade shows, speaking to technology audiences both in North America and overseas. He is executive producer and presenter of "Power Panels with Jeremy Geelan" on SYS-CON.TV.

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