Gone Jackal is talking about how
Linux sucks as a desktop operating system. He is 100% correct. I would not suggest to anyone, even myself, that using
Linux or any other free
Unix-like on the desktop is going to be at all productive (or even fun). I've been there, I've done that, and my
nick should prove it. The idea of
Linux sucking as far as a server operating system is a bit less substantial.
Microsoft, obviously, wants you to believe
Linux sucks. People who listen only to MS might idly believe this, but really it doesn't hold water. Free
Unixlikes have an incredible
price-to-performance ratio. You can't beat the price, the performance ain't too
shabby either.
The point is, Linux is a foundation, and you can build almost anything on it. For the past few decades, Unix has sort of been grandfathered into the role of server in the back room. But, it can be used for GUI purposes. Look at SGI, or Sun. The reason that "Linux sucks" is 100% of the fault of X11, X-Windows, X, The X Window System, or whatever you wish to call this monstrosity, because that's what it is. Man, does it ever suck. The only reason Linux can't be a viable desktop is because a.) Microsoft dominates the market (although increasingly less so) and b.) X11 fucking sucks and Joe Sixpack would get fed up after about 5 minutes with it and go boot up Windows. In fact, I would probably do the same.
For an example of how someone is trying to make a good GUI based on a Unix core, look at Mac OS X. Far from perfect yet, but it's getting there. If someone would do this for Linux, and make it not totally suck, we might have something. But until then, Linux has, does, and will continue to, suck for desktop applications. Blaming the inherent faults in X11 on "Linux" isn't really fair, though. It's like someone saying "The internet sucks" when they mean "The world wide web sucks".
The discussion in this node really should be under "Why X11 sucks", but we all already know that, and the whole point of this writeup is to illustrate how Linux doesn't suck, it just plays host (along with a myriad of other Unixlikes) to the horror that is X11. Don't hate the playa, hate the game.
The management further apologizes for whatever it may have done to get this node downvoted.