Really, though, who didn't see this coming?
Who?
The unwashed mob that is known as freetards collectively by the rest of the human race (and affectionately as the Linux-heads by the open source proletariat), really, truly, wanted this to work.
However, between what they wanted, and what works is something known as the wishes of the customer.
AKA, reality.
Too bad those clowns almost never seem to move out of the reality distortion field that is the echo chamber of their communities.
Lesson #1: The customer (however dumb-seeming) is ALWAYS right. Always!
Lesson #2: Ease of use matters. Segueing from #1 above, it does not matter if Linux distros are the most powerful things since fried bread, if Average John Joe cannot use it. Listen, the International CXT is the real man's pickup truck. However, since the Real Man cannot drive that monstrosity, a mere Silverado will have to do.
Lesson #3: Technical merits do not matter in day-to-day work. Microsoft learned this the hard way, and is still battling to reach the sweet spot at the intersection of ease-of-use and power. However, to hear these freetards put it, Linux is the most powerful OS out there. Zzzzzzzzzzz!
Lesson #4: Get out of your grannies' basements echo chambers of L-head communities and into the real world, and ask what people really want. What is also very problematic is the gang-tackling people get whenever they try to ask for help from the 'experts' in those communities: they get shouted away. Which is sooo helpful, right? While it is not unlike the Mactards, at least those Mactards have the elegance of OS X and the snob appeal that comes with it. These yobs do not. And do not realize that!
Lesson #5: No one wants to go trolling in your communities for drivers. "Anytime you want a driver, just go to the <insert URL/name here> to get it. That might be fine for hobbyists, but real-world it, and that precept falls down. Yeah, like I would do so in a consumer or business environment.
Lesson #6: No one (in his or her right mind) wants to recompile ***, OK? No one! Like #5 above, feel free to assume that Average Joe ain't gonna recompile jack. Ever!
Lesson #7: If it is so 'free', why charge more than commercial programs for service? You need to see the way these yum-yums are selling this to companies, especially in this recessionary period in the US of A, and to the Third World less-developed countries. It is free. No need to pay for anything? Well, unless you count our services as an expense. However, that little nugget of information is never explicit, just subdulously added to the contract. When it comes time to pay, and scales have fallen from the eyes of stunned buyers, do the ramifications of their signed contracts come into play. If not, how else do you explain the non-orders the OLPC received from numerous countries? After due diligence, they found out it would be far cheaper to pay more for a Microsoft Windows-based system initially than get a 'free' system for which it would cost them more over the long run for 'service' or 'maintenance' or whatever those yum-yums class their fleecing in their invoices.
Lesson #8: Open source is the ultimate lock-in. With the supposedly free entry, you are locked into this netherworld of incompatible file format hell. Like a drug addict, you can only move your data between shadowy niche products and vendors, always wondering when your supplier would be nabbed by the bankruptcy or irrelevancy constabulary. However, you 'helpful' open source professional would constantly tell you it is OK, regaling you with tales of how you are helping the planet or some similar BS. Don't drink the Kool-aid!
So far, Linux has fed off the UNIX ecosystem.
Correction, it has fed off the low-hanging fruit in that ecosystem.
The big dogs there have held their own. Look at the flat-lining growth curve for Linux, and extrapolate that to the real world.
The apologists for Linux would have you believe that each downloaded copy is recopied severally amongst systems.
Yeah.
Whatever!
A great American leader once said, "Trust, but verify."
Verify. Sounds simple, but something the freetards only want to happen when it comes to sales of Windows Vista. Just like their moronic attacks on the standardization of Open XML. It is good for the goose, but not for them, eh?
Red RHAT gives up on desktop Linux?
Like I give a (Red) RHAT's ass!
Like I have said time and time again, there will be no Linux revolution.
Believe that!