Linux And Unix Devices Popular On Amazon's 'Best of '07' List

christian.einfeldt writes "Computers and handheld devices running default GNU Linux or Unix OSes have swept Amazon's 'best of' list for 2007, according BusinessWire.com for 28 December 2007. Best selling computer? The Nokia Internet Tablet PC, running Linux. Best reviewed computer? The Apple MacBook Pro notebook PC. Most wished for computer? Asus Eee 4G-Galaxy 7-inch PC mobile Internet device, which comes with Xandros Linux pre-installed. And last, but not least, the most frequently gifted computer: The Apple MacBook notebook PC."

At last, and end to "Year of the Linux Desktop"

[rbrander]

Now, the "Linux Desktop" fantasists can finally let it go. There will be no "year of the Linux desktop", just as there will be no "year of the Linux mainframe".

Like the $1,000,000 "mainframe", the DEC $100,000 "minicomputer", and the Sun $10,000 Unix "workstation", each major generation had its most-popular software environment, the one with highest network effects.

Pushing for a change in the desktop from Windows to Mac or Linux is, in 10 years, going to seem like striving to continue the VMS vs Unix wars on the VAX platform.

What 2008, 2009, and 2010 are going to be are the "years where appliances took over half the desktop functions" - you still want a big monitor and ergo keyboard to Photoshop, do development of web pages and code, and so on. But people sitting right at their desktop will whip out their paperback-sized appliance to do E-mail and chat, because that's where their communication apps live.

And, yes, those new appliances will mostly run Linux. What else?

All the hot new developers and innovative companies are not going to hogtie themselves to proprietary platforms like Windows and Mac; they've tossed themselves out of the running by their lack of freedom. They can put out their own product entries, sure -- but as Bill Joy said, most of the smart people in the world don't work for you.

What? No Vista?

[flyingfsck]

Amazing. There is not a single mention of MS Vista anywhere on those Amazon lists.

Re:At last, and end to "Year of the Linux Desktop"

[gad_zuki!]

>And, yes, those new appliances will mostly run Linux. What else?

Oh i dont know everything else in the mobile world? If linux on the desktop is dead, and it surely is compared to the predictions Ive read here and elsewhere, then linux on the mobile is even more dead. Windows mobile, blackberry os, osx, android, etc. Companies dont want to hand out their code and they have enough resources to build their own OSs. FOSS isnt as attractive as you think it is for these financial behemoths. THey can easily roll their own and have every incentive to do so.

Re:How about the OLPC?

[Bloater]

> As far as I can tell, the olpc blows the Nokia internet tablet pc out of the water.

But it doesn't blow the Nokia IT out of my pocket where it very neatly fits.

Re:Do consumers know?

[dfj225]

What you said about typical consumers is probably true, but is that a bad thing? Personally, I think its a great achievement that you can hand a device to someone and it doesn't matter that its running linux. All that matters is that it is intuitive and useful in their hands.

The geeks get a device with open software that they are free to modify, and normal users get something that is easy to use and enables them to access the internet and information in a new and convenient way. I don't see any losers here, except Microsoft, and since I am not a shareholder, this doesn't bother me one bit :)