Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: ESR and Apple's irrelevance

Author:Mark A. Hershberger
Posted:8/25/2000; 7:21:22 PM
Topic:ESR and Apple's irrelevance
Msg #:20290 (In response to 20289)
Prev/Next:20289 / 20291

But good intentions aside, is having a nice interface going to chance Linux? Will Nautilus (or GNOME or KDE) make Linux easier to use for consumers?

Look what happened to DOS. For most of the 80's, it had a fairly poor interface. It was so bad that the number of homes who had a DOS-based PC was relatively low. Non-intuitive and all the rest of that good stuff.

Of course, during much of the same time, Apple was pretty strong. They didn't have the same software-only strategy that Microsoft did, but they managed to do pretty well by selling an easy-to-use package.

Along came Windows 95. W95, along with the availabity of relativly inexpensive hardware and the growing popularity of the Internet, made DOS really take off. People didn't have to see (as much of) the command line as they did before W95, and they were much happier.

If DOS can hide its ugly face, why can't Linux? These players have the economic incentive to do it.

Mark.

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