Rationale of the GNOME ScienceCD
"Why didn't Linux make it on the desktops yet?" is a usual questions of journalists. A partial answer is that desktops are "multi-purpose" maschines while servers, in general, are not. Thus, switching to Linux/GNOME is often prevented if just one needed application is missing.
A very similar explanation is mentioned in a Newsforge article called "Software freedom vs. software utility" : Linux can now do 90% of what everyone needs, but there is still that 10%, and the 10% varies from user to user and from company to company.
The ScienceCD, however, aims to serve the need of a group of people with rather similiar 10% of needs.
The idea is: If we improve a small subset of applications to meet the demand of a small target group of users, there's no argument to not use Linux/GNOME. Later, when a majority of the target group uses Linux/GNOME, the rest will be more open to the idea of using it.
The sub-goals are thus:
- Promote third-party open source applications, build with GTK+/GNOME.
- By doing so, promote GTK+/GNOME.
- Promote distribution shipping GNOME, since the ScienceCD is not very useful without a installed Linux distribution.
Background info / Additional rationale
The OSDL Desktop Linux (DTL) Marketing group identified five user segments: In four of them, Linux adoption is said to be restricted by available applications. http://www.osdl.org/lab_activities/desktop_linux/
- Users often start using Linux "on their own", i.e. there are seldomly real persons available to help ease the transition. Thus, even small problems become complicated and time consuming. Concentrating efforts on a small group with existing social relations reduces the barrier of adoption.