Are there areas where Open Source won't work?

I think it is both that they were seduced by Apples marketing and that until recently many laptops didn't play well with linux.

For a long time I used a NeXT machine. Was I seduced? Completely.

Ubuntu is making a concerted effort to ensure they work.

Anthony-

Apple's marketing or buzz/geek peer-pressure (from blogs or attending conferences where everyone is using a mac)?

By the way, cool website, I was thinking of putting a electric motor on my recumbent bike when I switched jobs, (25 mile one way commute) but instead bought a civic. Not half as fun as the recumbent....

I too am a Linux laptop user, although I recently requested an Apple from work to try something new for a while. Here are some problems that Linux on the desktop has:

1. We lack really good video card drivers. Furthermore, we support so many video cards that X11 desktops aim for the lowest common denominator. A lot of Apple eye candy is only possible because of their great use of great video card drivers.

2. Maybe I'm ignorant, but X11 is no match for display Postscript.

3. The whole Cocoa development environment is so nice it makes me sad. F*ck Darwin, give me Cocoa and *everything* would be different!

4. Those Apple guys make nice eye candy, but they also really do put in quite a lot of effort toward usability. It really is better.

5. ACPI and wireless card drivers are still a sore spot because of the manufacturers.

All that being said, I'm still going to continue being a Linux / open source die hard.

Shannon-

1. The binary drivers from Nvidia and ATI certainly complicate linux video matters. It was more stable for me using my Voodoo3 (which had good open source drivers) than using nvidia binary drivers for a 3-4 year old card (which is no longer supported by recent nvidia binary builds). It's too bad these companies are so hung up on IP that they can't come out with open source drivers with decent 3d acceleration.

2. Recent improvements like Xgl and Cairo should take care of this.

3. Yeah, but then I have to learn objective c.... I'd much rather use QT which has a lot more benefits, but one pretty big drawback (GPL, well some companies claim this is an issue, if it were LGPL I wonder if Gnome would be a thing of the past...).

4. I think useability is one area where Open Source suffers. Some would consider it a tradeoff and favor power and flexibility over useability. I think this is an area where commercial open source companies can really help out.

5. Here, here!

I was one of those 80% at OSCON -- though my subjective impression was more like 75% Apple, 15% Linux, 10% Windows. Doing graphic design work in the '90s cemented my bond with the Mac, but when I moved into web development I looked hard at switching to Linux. If OS X hadn't come along, I'd probably be running Ubuntu on a Thinkpad right now. Apple does arguably make the nicest portable hardware, assuming extreme light weight isn't on your list of must-haves.

I've noticed this too, and actually I find it infuriating. The main reason I see is that none of the laptop vendors (except perhaps for IBM's Thinkpad) install linux natively. What that means is lack of hw support and lack of a uniform look.

To use a linux laptop, you basically have to strip a Dell or HP laptop. Not impossibly hard, but just a pain.

sorry, one more thing unrelated to the post in question. Your sidelinks to posts and comments are not working. Also your permalinks are not working especially well. (Perhaps you know about this already). Also, you should have some sort of Contact information to be notified of these things.