klintron

Linux never had to overtake Windows to be relevant, I'm more concerned that it seems totally stagnant.

I disagree that the interface is years behind, but would agree that the experience is behind. I've always been impressed with GNOME and think it's a better interface than OSX or Windows 7. When I switched to Ubuntu a few years ago (I've since switched back to Windows for various reasons), I expected to have a really stable operating system that was perhaps a little harder to use than a mainstream OS. What I found was that it was actually a joy to use, but it was really unstable. Not because of the OS itself, but because of the buggy apps that ran on top of it. Linux users have some great apps, but are still stuck with subpar alternatives for a lot of stuff (particularly in multimedia).

And then there's hardware support. From what I've heard, things are pretty easy on desktops, but I had a lot of trouble using it on laptops. There are a few companies that sell laptops with Ubuntu or other distros preloaded, but other than that you can face a lot of challenges trying to wrap Windows drivers and so forth.

The hardware aspect might be easier on phones and tablets, but it's going to mean starting almost entirely over on the UI and applications (which is the direction Unity is going).

"The negative reception of Unity as default was capitalized on by Mint to drive interest."

That's a good hypothesis, though in that case I would assume the surge in interest in Mint would be accompanied by at least steady interest in Ubuntu instead of a drop. Also, the interest in Mint has been rising for quite some time and interest in Ubuntu has been decreasing steadily. This could just be that by now everyone who's interested in Linux knows all they want to know about Ubuntu, but interest in alternatives is starting to increase.

My premise has less to do with the particulars of the exact numbers of Ubuntu vs. Mint users, and more to do with the fact that there's not really a go-to distro for new users anymore. Ubuntu, Mint and Peppermint are all contenders for this role, and openSUSE and Fedora are still options as well. I think this lends to an uncertainty about which to choose and which will have continued support. The problem is compounded by the fact that a lot of applications are being accessed from browsers and/or mobile devices, so that even as Ubuntu could be gaining power users its pushing power users away in an attempt to gain mainstream users that they may never get.

Thanks for pointing that out, I meant to write Linux, not Ubuntu. I've corrected it.

I don't think so, though it does use the Linux kernel.

Satellite hacking's been a big thing in Brazil for a while now: http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2009/04/fleetcom...

(It's probably not a good long-term Internet access solution though)

Because I didn't know about it =) I've found a few more active mesh networks from around the world, so I'm doing a follow-up story. Thanks for leading me to Freifunk.

That's part of what the CouchDB based Scrumptious does.