[arch-general] We have lost the desktop war. The reason? Windows 7.

[RedShift]

Rafa Griman wrote:

(note, lots of things cut)

> 
>> I've been working these past few months with KDE 4.3 and it feels very
>>  sluggish and incomplete. I can't enable the desktop effects because that
>>  makes things even slower. I'm doing this on a fairly decent setup, an AMD
>>  Sempron 2 Ghz with an nVidia FX5500.
> 
> 
> I've got a Dell Latitude D610 with an Intel VGA:
> 
> $ lspci | grep -i vga
> 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML 
> Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
> 
> 1 GB RAM
> 
> $ cat /proc/cpuinfo
> model name      : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.86GHz
> Using KMS for my Intel VGA.
> 
> I've got to say I've got a very snappy KDE running. Doesn't "feel" slow, 
> response is immediate, ...
> 

I have about the same setup running here (Intel 915 VGA and a Pentium M processor), yet it distinctively feels slow compared to for example Windows XP or KDE 3.5.

> My guess is that there's something wrongly configured or installed in your KDE 
> 4 installation. Check this:
> 	- deactivate nepomuk and Akonadi
> 	- delete /tmp/k* /var/tmp/k*
> 	- delete your .kde4 and .kde and .local dirs (you can also choose
> 	  creating a new account and see if it's "faster")
> 

Already did those. Doesn't help.

> 
>> So basically, where are we at?
>> KDE 3.5 is Windows XP
>> KDE 4.3 is Windows Vista
>> ??? is Windows 7
>>
>>
>> When are we getting to the Windows 7 stage?
> 
> 
> KDE 4.5? ;)
> 

I hope so. Maybe I should have waited with my response and give KDE 4 project more time to mature, but there's also chance I would be writing this same e-mail two years in the future.

> 
>> Microsoft didn't do a big advertising campaign for the launch of Windows 7,
>> nevertheless they delivered a big slap in the face to the Linux desktop
>> environments. The numbers speak for themselves, Windows 7 has already sold
>>  more copies in its first week than Windows Vista did in its first month.
>>  And with good riddance, Windows 7 really is better than Windows Vista.
>>  Microsoft recognized the problems with Windows Vista and dealt with them.
>>  And dealt with them swiftly if you ask me, doing it in less then 3 years.
> 
> 
> MS _DOES_ have some help from IHVs ;) Those IHVs preinstall Windows on their 
> laptops, netbooks, ... + MS also has some very deep pockets (filled with $) to 
> "convince" those IHVs to preinstall MS-Windows. Not only that, their deep 
> pockets help them "talk" with polititians (at least here in Spain that helps a 
> lot ;)
> 

That is true, but even that's not unlimited. Look at windows vista. Most OEMs still ship XP upgrades with business desktops. Though that'll rapidly diminish now that 7 is out.


>> Conclusion
>>
>> We are losing ground. We are losing it fast. Our competitors recognize what
>>  the user wants and delivered.
> 
> 
> This reminds me of a time (long ago) when MS "prooved" that Win2k was faster 
> serving files that Linux+Samba. While the FLOSS Community was shouting and 
> arguing whether the benchmark was well done, Mr. Torvalds said that was good 
> news since now we would know where we have to apply fixes and what fixes would 
> have to be applied. I think this situation is similar.
> 

Than it is a good thing that I spoke up. I am worried about the future of Linux.


> 
>> * Double clicking the system icon in the titlebar doesn't always work to
>>  close an application (the system icon is the left-most icon in the
>>  titlebar). This bug has also been reported a long time ago and still not
>>  fixed.
> 
> 
> Never tried that, TBH, always use the "X" on the far right.
> 

Partially agreed, however, my reasoning here is "don't provide features that don't work".

> 
>> * I get a full 10 minutes of extra runtime on my laptop when I switched
>>  back to 3.5
> 
> 
> Not here.
> 

On the forums the response was, "well duh". That being due to the fact that KDE 4 makes more intensive use of the graphics card, which I can understand. But I would have expected by optimizing hardware usage, the system would be faster as well, which is not the case.


Glenn