Is Android the future of Linux Desktop?

[Isthmus]

For years I've heard that one of the biggest reasons why linux has not caught on at a desk top user level (as oppose to a server management level) is because of the lack of a standardized full featured desktop experience. With Android being based off the Linux and looking to move into bigger and more usable devices, I was wondering whether standard android wouldn't be just the right OS and UI to finally make Linux appealing and usable by the masses. I know that I would think nothing of picking up a powerful Android based tablet, and If that experience proved positive, I can see myself doing the same with a similar desktop.

Any thoughts?

 

[dvdivx]

No. Desktop releases have no java underlayer like Redhat, Ubuntu. Thank god.

If you haven't tryed Linux it's easy. Just download the latest live cd from Ubuntu. You don't even have to install it to try it out. Just boot from the cd.

 

[bluenova]

I think as long as you can't buy Linux off the shelf in a shop or pre-installed on PC World computers it will never catch on to the masses. With Android, you are buying a phone, if it goes wrong you'll take it back to the shop where you bought it. With Linux you can't do that. I know Ubuntu does have home user support packages now but they are not very clear or advertised in any way. I installed Ubuntu on my Dad's laptop using Wubi so he could try it out, the next time I went to visit my parents he had uninstalled it because 'it was taking up a lot of space on the C: drive' . Ubuntu/Gnome is so similar to MacOS these days but my parents just felt it was wrong or naughty to be using it and instead went out and bought a very expencive Mac Book Pro. The reason being, if it goes wrong they can take it into the Mac shop. Crazy.

 

[Isthmus]

I think as long as you can't buy Linux off the shelf in a shop or pre-installed on PC World computers it will never catch on to the masses. With Android, you are buying a phone, if it goes wrong you'll take it back to the shop where you bought it. With Linux you can't do that. I know Ubuntu does have home user support packages now but they are not very clear or advertised in any way. I installed Ubuntu on my Dad's laptop using Wubi so he could try it out, the next time I went to visit my parents he had uninstalled it because 'it was taking up a lot of space on the C: drive' . Ubuntu/Gnome is so similar to MacOS these days but my parents just felt it was wrong or naughty to be using it and instead went out and bought a very expencive Mac Book Pro. The reason being, if it goes wrong they can take it into the Mac shop. Crazy.

Yeah I was thinking along these same lines. The ability to go to a store and have a major company stand behind the product (especially if the product is ready made and can be at least played with at a physical store) is a big deal with a very large portion of the buying public.

I know that for me, part of the reason I got a Droid instead of an N1, was because there was no way (and still isn't) to even see an N1 in person, let alone test drive one. I suspect that the same applies to computers to some degree.