The real problem, for the "common user", is that you cannot waltz into your neighborhood Best Buy and get a Linux laptop. To run Linux, you have to realize that the operating system is not part of the computer, care enough to install another one and spend a bit of effort getting it to work with whatever computer you have. If half the $500 laptops at Staples, for example, came with Linux, it would be much more popular.

There are, I think, two core reasons people cannot easily buy a laptop with Linux: Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft for its anti-competitive behavior and virtual monopoly; both companies for unrelenting marketing that presents only two options--the patently false Mac vs PC dichotomy being a perfect example.

I know from experience that completely technologically inexperienced people are perfectly happy with Linux as long as they're not the ones installing it. The fact that they could possibly be running KDE instead of Unity does not worry them in the slightest; in fact, particularly with Ubuntu, very little does worry them. My roommate, for example, has had fewer problems with Ubuntu than with Windows, and they were easier to handle.

In short, Linux adoption is not limited by any inherent qualities. In fact, if we just look at the sort of people who would install any OS at all, it controls a large part of the market; however, this is just an unfair a comparison as looking at the market in general.

But the GUI aspect, the bit the user actually interacts with, isn't. There's so many choices. A vendor can't just built a single binary easily like they can for Windows/MacOS.

It's this, the fragmentation of the user-space that's my concern. WebOS is built on Linux anyway, that'll never be a problem.

You can "can simply get Ubuntu and not worry about it". I know that, you know that, most technical people know that. I guess it's not too hard for most non-technical people to figure that out, but look at Linux Mint. It's suddenly taking off in a big way. How do I know which one to pick? Which one is going to run the apps I need etc? It's that - the confusion - that I worry might also happen to WebOS if 10 different builds are released.

Just so you don't think about it again: it's mostly Microsoft blackmailing people into not selling ANYTHING but Windows on the hardware.

If you think that's not true, you should really think of the time when ASUS was selling netbooks with Linux. I recall reading a lot of stories about vendors being blackmailed by Microsoft - stop selling hardware with Linux or you will not receive any more rights to sell your hardware with Windows.

I do hope it does see some increase in deployment, having used a WebOS device it really is quite nice.

If WebOS will be 100% open, HP won't be giving unfair advantage to some vendors like Google does with Android, then all will be much better.

Yes, there's fragmentation in the Linux world, but it's not like you can't get started as a novice. I've helped people who switched to Linux and said "fuck windows". They were persons who don't have any kind of formal IT training.

This really looks like one huge rant along the same lines as the article itself.

Oh, by the way, "most smartphones" includes the ones running WebOS.

That Linux isn't widely used in desktop PC operating systems is a point of ever-shrinking interest and of little economic relevance.

My point isn't about the the underlying OS (the kernel) itself, which has gained huge traction. It's about an experience to the end-user and the developers that's consistent. Not having to pick a .deb, .rpm, to know what libraries are/aren't available etc.

That's my fear for WebOS - that many different versions will get built. Some will support WebGL, some HTML5 etc. (These are examples, please don't tell me the do/don't exist already - I wouldn't know). The whole fragmentation thing people talk about with Android, but to a much greater and detrimental degree.