The seemingly annual questions about Linux being ready or suitable as a desktop OS is no longer the right question to ask. Perhaps its not, at least not for the mainstream windows user, but it seems linux is ready for everywhere but the desktop.

The rise in 'web-book' devices that only need to address the fairly limited needs of most people (web/email) is where linux is already streets ahead, its a lot easier to slim down linux when it is slim to start with.

Given HP's long history of working WITH the community rather than AGAINST it like Sun (amyone remember the fve minutes of Sun Linux?), I would say it is much more likely HP will partner with someone like Red Hat or SuSE to produce a "simpler" Linux desktop. Alternatively, there are a number of simplified Linux desktops out there already (use the search tool at http://www.linux.org/dist/ to see the variety on offer) that HP could polish up. HP could write their own Linux, but why do they need to?

My own experience with HP and Vista was getting it downgraded to XP on some HP desktops that were accidentally ordered earlier this year with Vista installed. The HP support guys were helpful in getting a solution to a problem our Mickey$haft rep grumbled about, but the HP guys did admit they were getting "dozens" of requests for downgrades! But the problems with Vista are so deep in the code I don't think it is something HP can polish up. McKinney was probably referring to the HP TouchSmart all-in-one PCs which have a very funky interface that seems to appeal to the iGeneration. I played with one at an HP show and the comment I heard most often was "a PC like my iPhone".

Linux users like myself were laughed at because we were not following the masses, and now every week people come to me asking me about "Microsoft alternative". This week alone I have installed Kubuntu (Debian based distro) on ten computers. Also in my local PC Store where I work as Computer Tech, we sold over 20 Linux notebooks -- virtually everyone was happy to get a "non-vista" PC!.

In a way we are leading the revolution. Of course, Microsoft will control the PC market in future, but writing are on the wall.

Linux, because it is as diametrically opposed to Microsoft as George W. Bush is to sanity.

OTOH, Vista might behave OK if it weren't for the atrocious drivers and overblown services which HP infests your machine with should you buy one of their printers. A basic printer driver seems to involve loading about 50MB of software, and if you want some basic utilities such as, I don't know, letting you know how much ink is left then it's the full 350MB for you.

Talk about pot and kettle ...

This would seem to indicate there's not going to be a lot of R&D going on in the future...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7618068.stm

...unless that means Redundancies and Downsizing.

Ironically I see a future where Vista begins to take back market share MS has lost. The logic being do you pay for something that's clunky and does most things consumers want and exists today or do you spend money building something that does all things consumers want elegantly and exists 1,2, 3+ years from now? Financial Armageddon, oh how we laughed :|

@jeremy - Have you seen the Dell Inspiron Mini 9? 250 squid + vat, delivered next day. Linux is not ahead, it is very, very far behind - not in its capabilities, but in the "community's" capacity to deliver a commoditized product.

So HP are denying having a *HUGE* R&D team working on this? Interesting wording.

Okay, so HP are not only trying to put something on top of Vista to make it less annoying, and at the same time maybe doing a Linux-based alternative? To me this sounds like a win-win all round - Windows diehards get a "better" Vista, and folks that are open to choice have (yet another!) option - presumably supported on the HP hardware. If this is the case, then I for one say "well done HP!" :)

People keep saying "Linux is/isn't ready for the desktop" - when my experience is that "Linux is ready for some peoples desktops". If you're not a diehard Windows user then Linux is just as relevant to you as Vista. In fact some of the younger users I know went to Linux as an experiment because Windows was annoying them (esp. the slow boot up times) and haven't looked back. Then word gets around that there's a different way...

The EEE etc has also got to be good news - why bother with Linux on your Netbook/Nettop only to then have to unlearn to use Vista on the desktop. There's a question - is anyone doing a Vista netbook - all the Windows ones I've seen have been running XP? Personally I'm very sure that there's enough punters out there for a Linux (or three) and Windows.

Interesting times ahead perhaps for all concerned.

Just installed Ubuntu myself on an old laptop. Quite impressed. A bit tricking going off the beaten path and there are some 100% vital apps missing (I'm struggling to get OpenSawn to work, and then to connect if to a Checkpoint VPN - anyone any ideas?) but it is good.

For the average user, things just work (and the "average" user just wants their web, mail and chat). For the business user, there's a few rough edges still to be smoothed off (see above). For the hardened gamer...not sure. I'm not one of them.

Oh, and Ubuntu is damn swift on the crappy we P4 lappy I am using. Joy!

I use it for work and play at home, fantastic it is too. At the end of the day, if you have kids or anyone not entirely tech savvy, the box is just going to be a glorified browser, mailbox and office suite, which is fine for most people, my folks included, but when granny buys little Johnny the latest DX10 game and it won't even install, there will be tears before bed time!

This has to be stressed by the vendors. When we say it's an "MS Alternative" we really mean it! It will not, with very few exceptions, be able to run any MS compatible software.

"Innovating on top of vista" == "Cramming in even more of those godawful shitty buggy destabilising crapplets than every HP box already comes completely infested by out of the box". I'll stick with my W2k upgrade, ta very much.

Mud has many uses, you can use it to make huts in Africa, hippos use it to stop sun burn and vain women spread it on their faces to reduce wrinkles.

The only thing Vista can do is make your PC unusable, hardly a useful skill, is it??

Please get a grip or I will cancel my subscription!!

Oh !! sorry; that last bit is for my regular letters to Private Eye.

Why doesn't HP go after Apple and just license OS X x86?

Hmmm.....

OTOH, why don't other tier 1 player(s) do the same w/ OS X x86?

Looks like it's starting to happen anyways ala - http://www.psystar.com/

you mean like HP-UX?