From the same article

"The Linux Foundation isn’t just going to complain about the need for more “Magic” on the Linux platform - we are going to do something about it. Stay tuned over the next few weeks for big news on just how we will accomplish this."

Thats more like it.

I think there's an inversely proportional relationship between the 'magic' and the perceived 'power' that conventional linux users crave.

The 'magic' that Apple has repeatedly demonstrated has to do with making computing simpler and reimplementing real world objects\workflows\analogs into their interface design (to make things more intuitive) - both of which are generally shunned by power users.

At the end of the day Apple designs their products for the regular Joes and Janes, and capitalizing greatly from it... and much of the FOSS userbase simply don't appreciate the same thing as them (although they seem to secretly envy parts of Apple's positions/assets).

i just hope its not more gnome/kde4 nonsense...

From something I did with my tablet, plus this quote from the other iPad thread, I'd like to propose what magic looks like:

First, what I did with my tablet:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=27279

Second, the quote:
Third, the magic:

The hardware needs to be the size and weight of the regular Kindle. No keyboard as the OS's input layer is totally finger optimized. However, there is a stylus because you'll need it for...

The main software would simply be a Firefox/MicroB-like web browser Xournal with some extensions for shapes, creating vector graphics, and sharing notes via PDF directly to devices (ad hoc networking).

*Missed one thing: needs Office file editor, not viewer.

The targeted use is to office workers who need to annotate, browse files on hosted shares/servers within an enterprise, and have a sufficient notification system for email, IM, and VoIP (w/wireless headset).

For what I'm speaking about, color or not, this device comes in under $400 USD. The user interface is built around the browser and Xournal, making the rest of the user experience derivative of the lessons from both those applications.

If Linux wants magic, it needs to package the wonderful energy of its contributors into something like this. Otherwise, it will always be a niche population, seeing the polish of others, and never pulling together what it means to be a cohesive solution, rather than an agreement of many parts.

Sounds ideal to me.

I got netbook with ubuntu and n900, tell me why would I need an iPad (or similar), I can't think of anything useful :<

isn't the magic of linux that you don't see the magic?

like vim or mutt. it's ugly but much faster than gui programs. The magic of apple are the looks. the magic of linux should be primary the usability.

Just out of curiosity, do you prefer Lynx or Elinks as a browser?

For those who don't recognize the names, those are leading text based browsers. Most people have never heard of them because most people will put up with the relative slowness of a graphical browser. The idea that Linux's prowess at command line processing gives it a big (or any meaningful) advantage is an outdated perspective that won't seem to go away.

Right now, I find myself far more limited by 3G and even Wi-Fi speeds than I do by the slowness of the OS/program. For marginal computers like the N900, Linux still makes a difference but that difference is diminishing as Moore's law takes over.

I can get vim and mutt on OS X, which is why I have a Macbook. Every Mac comes with an xterm and bash. All the power and usability with the magic on top. The power of Linux is that its -open- so you can go FULL MAGIC! or no magic at all.

And quite frankly, the world likes FULL MAGIC! so they can blithely ignore the underlying bits and do what they want to do. The problem is Apple seems to be carrying forward with FULL MAGIC! and being totally closed at the same time, least on the mobile front. Considering the eyes they're winning among the non-techie crowd (and even the techie crowd) that's quite dangerous.

So if the Linux Foundation wants to push efforts to give more MAGIC options to Linux distros such that they can actually compete, then we can only benefit.

That's no outdated perspective. It's a matter of one's point of view, nothing more.

if you think there's no meaningful advantage to a powerful commandline, may i direct your attention to Microsoft's recent desperate attempt to provide something for "power" users: Powershell!

this has of course nothing to do with "magic", linux definitely needs some of that to be more successful in mainstream markets.
i just couldn't let that comment stand


edit:
upon reading your post a second time, i guess i misinterpreted what you referred to by "advantage". disregard this post.