Linux Isn’t Quite There Yet
Just 3 snapshots. Tell me, which one still looks like in the eighties
Granted, you’ll see something much better if you check Ubuntu or Red Hat. But isn’t Linux, as an OS, supposed to go mainstream at some point?
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Skunk Works 
What!? You’re judging about how mainstream an OS is by how professional-looking its website is. That’s a ricidulous metric. It’s like judging how tasty a breakfast cereal is by how flashy its packaging is.
But I’ll play along. You even admit, “you’ll see something much better if you check Ubuntu or Red Hat”. Ding ding ding, that’s because those sites actually host Linux distributions and are backed by companies, unlike linux.org which is more of a community site.
Look at how ugly Slashdot was before it got its CSS facelift. One of the biggest eyesores on the Net. But it was hugely popular.
Joe, if Linux is supposed to go mainstream someday, it will be judged by that kind of criteria. This post is half a joke, but only half. I’m a strong supporter of Linux and have been using it exclusively for quite a while now. But I believe the state of linux.org is a blatant symptom of what’s slowing down its adoption, despite the great quality of the OS.
And by the way, people do buy cereals from their packaging. And also from the quality of the TV ads.
Linux.org is optimized for lynx 😉
It may be one factor that is slowing down its adoption, but it’s hardly a “blatant symptom”.
And looking back, you’re right, my cereal analogy was not the best one to use here. However, the Slashdot analogy stands. Slashdot is hugely popular and widely read. Whether or not it is “mainstream” is a debate for another day. But even with its ugly UI (before the facelift), it was still massively popular.
Perhaps this blog post should have been titled Linux Marketing Isn’t Quite There Yet – Then I would have been in agreement with you. But you can’t judge an OS by the flashiness of its web site.
For slashdot I’d argue that the great majority of its audience is hackers and computer geeks, like me (and maybe you as well) 🙂 So I guess it’s already the Linux crowd, those who know what Lynx is as tnlessone pointed out.
But sorry if I haven’t been clear enough, I was really talking about public image here.
Well as for the public image, we are certainly in agreement. I think another thing that is confusing for people who aren’t familiar with Linux yet is the notion of all the different Linux distributions.
The second one looks a bit plastic-ey and fisher pricey so I guess that windows is the one that looks like it is from the eighties. As for isn’t quiet their yet I would say I would say that this would must be windows and you have all your os’s a bit mixed up.
At first i thought You meant apple site. that one looks oldschool.. but then i got the joke you meant. pretty sad you failed with that joke 🙂