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I was in the local Target tonight and I happened to pass the electronics department when i saw this, a Linux mini-notebook on an end cap. I looked around and there were no Windows based notebooks on any other end caps, could it be that the general public is finally ready for mainstream mega-stores to push open source in their faces? It was pretty refreshing to see to see anything other than a bloated Windows PC or glaringly hipster Mac on a featured shelf in a store.
Unlike many Linux users I do not forsee the "Year of the Linux Desktop" the way others do. I believe Linux will remain a "tinkers" OS for the most part. One distro might emerge as a stand-out noob friendly mouthpiece for Open Source but I do not see the general public, especially Joe Sixpack, prefering one of the many flavors of freedom to the iron tight hug of MS. But thats OK with me.
To me the Linux platform is a programmer's wet dream. I can't speak for most of the distributions, but at least with my prefered flavor, the default install gives me the choice to code many diffrent ways without worry of downloading a single file or configuring anything. It just works for programmers. For example, in my school the main language of the Computer Science track of degree is C++. I was immediately able to start my programming homework and turn things in on time rather than downloading scads of crap from the internet which I would have had to "register" and deal with nag messages on a regular basis...not to mention that fact that the recommended development software is effectively nuetered unless you want to spend an obscene amount of money to buy it. I think most of my classmates would be shocked if I told them that I do all of my assignments in what they would think is the equivalent of Notepad.
In fact today while the rest of my class was listening to a lecture about loops and functions I spent some time logged into my server reading some man pages about perl in order to make an automagic perl script to update my website. I finished my mini-project while managing to pay attention and not be rude to the professor. This is why I do not think Linux will become the defacto standard distro of the masses. It takes a certain person to even think what I did today was even remotely interesting, let alone interesting enough to want to do it themselves.
This is why I do not go around preaching to the common folk about open source and Linux and all of the other fun stuff I am interested in because it usually reaches a deaf ear. If someone is inquisitive enough to want to know if there are other choices in OS than MS or Mac's I think they will find their way to us, otherwise let them be sheep and graze their way into complacence through familiarity, it doesn't affect me either way, I'll be here clicking away at my keyboard.
9:06PM 10-17-2008-stitch
Wow I think I really deserve a reward for the most non-updated website on the internet that still gets looked at everyday (by me). Anyway I've started school again at Camden County College and I am taking computer science. In honor of that I made a new section called Code in which I will be adding programs I make in school and in free time in order that I might reflect upon them at a later date. Well thats it for my yearly update.
8:11PM 12-29-2007-stitch
Our baby was born on the 23rd, I've set up a gallery for those who wish to check him out. You can leave comments and rate the photos, its a sweet little piece of php script I found on Freshmeat.