Game up for Linux?

A couple of valid points are raised.

I'm a Linux fan myself tho.

Maybe Ubuntu and Dell have to join forces? (Dell recently announced that they will do Linux). More on that here.

But it still is not all lost. There will still be a place for Linux in the market.

Also, keep in mind that the final release of Windows7 might be totally different than the Beta.
 
Linux has a 0.5% Desktop share, Apple Mac has a 8% Desktop share and growing fast.

What is all this hype about MS going after the 0.5% Linux share?
 
Largely true.

There'll always be a place for Linux as a marginal player, as there is for the 15 or so other (non-Windows) operating systems in PCdom - they'll occupy the 20% niche that Windows doesn't. Of course their fans will swear by their fave non-MS OS and curse anything from the Evil Empire. That's just how people are and the world is. For now, at least.

PS. I was once "Mr-OS/2". Remember that?
 
I can't comment on what windows 7 will do or won't do, but I can tell you that MS definitely lost users to Linux after Vista. Maybe only 1% or so. I'm pretty sure those users (myself included) wouldn't go back to Windows.

Biggest gripe amongst windows users that want to move? No MS office. The sooner MS office (and dont sing the open office song here please, it's good, but it just isnt MS office) is ported to linux, I think you will start seeing far more penetration into the corporate markets. They've done it for Mac, and that's already helped folk move over.
 
Netbooks is where Linux is winning. You don't need Windows on a netbook.
 
Well, Microsoft have shaped people's mind into thinking like them, in a way so that they can make more money out of the same thing. Like server and desktop software. Hell they are both using the same kernel, why pay different for it? No it is a marketing thing.

A guy came to me and asked: "Oh which Linux do you have? Do you have the desktop or server?" and I'm like WTF? Linux doesn't care if you run desktop or server, distributions like Gentoo, Debian or FreeBSD. People have missed the plot. The only thing Linux can do is to try and break the mind set of Microsoft/Mac zombies. But Linux doesn't pay for advertising... Linux doesn't pay for new computers at school.

Oh well, can't win them all. ;)
 
That's right people!
Linux is dead! Long live FreeBSD!!

But yeah, gnome is ugly, kde is ugly... and when you spend hours to make it look nice, it's all flashy... but looks like windows 3.11 compared to even XP.

My girlfriend called linux cheap after using it. But ey... priorities... users dont care about the look :)
 
_TrXtR_ said:
That's right people!
Linux is dead! Long live FreeBSD!!

But yeah, gnome is ugly, kde is ugly... and when you spend hours to make it look nice, it's all flashy... but looks like windows 3.11 compared to even XP.

My girlfriend called linux cheap after using it. But ey... priorities... users dont care about the look :)
Click to expand...

Well, wasn't that difficult to convert my girlfriend to Linux, after I got hald going, she could plug in her memory stick, automounted by hald, she could start to work in OpenOffice. She used Gmail to send the odt file. The usual first response is, I can't open odt in MS Office (boo-hoo), then she replies back, open it up in Google Docs. Yay for Google ;)
 
@Qwikslver: Nothing is wrong with open office¸ but it just isnt MS office. There are formatting issues, and some features that just don't gel well together. And it is most likely MS's fault anyway. Kinda like when websites only worked in IE, cos they didn't stick to any html standards, so coders got sloppy.

My point was that for most coproate workers, their main tools are MS office and browser based apps. Give them MS office, and the desktop platform becomes irrelivant.

@TRXTR: You think XP is more pretty than KDE? Errrr I worry about you... :P
 
_TrXtR_ said:
That's right people!
Linux is dead! Long live FreeBSD!!

But yeah, gnome is ugly, kde is ugly... and when you spend hours to make it look nice, it's all flashy... but looks like windows 3.11 compared to even XP.

My girlfriend called linux cheap after using it. But ey... priorities... users dont care about the look :)
Click to expand...

EtienneK said:
Dump her.
Click to expand...
No please, keep her. Don't let her loose. :D
 
Slobber said:
@Qwikslver: Nothing is wrong with open office¸ but it just isnt MS office. There are formatting issues, and some features that just don't gel well together. And it is most likely MS's fault anyway. Kinda like when websites only worked in IE, cos they didn't stick to any html standards, so coders got sloppy.

My point was that for most coproate workers, their main tools are MS office and browser based apps. Give them MS office, and the desktop platform becomes irrelivant.

@TRXTR: You think XP is more pretty than KDE? Errrr I worry about you... :P
Click to expand...

You are only refering to when Somebody sends you a MS Word document and you have to open it up in OpenOffice, only THEN does OpenOffice look bad. But so does any other Office that don't know all the M$ internal secrets. The fix is to write the document in OpenOffice, then even GoogleDocs will format it correctly! :D
 
rpm said:
Game up for Linux?
Click to expand...

Duncan, you write this article as if the point of Linux is to take over from Windows? Where did anyone ever say that was their goal? Sure, it would be nice to get more market share and bring the free OS to more people enriching their lives and saving them money. But it is not one of the primary stated goals. The point of Linux is to make a fun, free, versatile OS that can be tweaked and customised by the users for a myriad of applications and uses. If some of that overlaps with Windows, great.... but Linux will carry on plodding along slowly eroding Microsoft's user base for years to come. It's not going anywhere. When Linus Torvalds was recently asked if the various Linux Distros should throw their weight behind a common distribution, he quickly replied NO... that is not the point. There are too many small versions of Linux being used in lots of little nooks and crannies... and that is its strong point. If it grows stronger... and if Ubuntu becomes much prettier and much easier to use... I will keep using both of them side by side as long as Windows is usable as well. The thing that will hurt Windows is its price and any form of DRM or copy protection (and of course the crap Vista experience). Those two factors will continue to contribute to the growth of Linux.
 
Arthur said:
PS. I was once "Mr-OS/2". Remember that?
Click to expand...


Hehe can remember the 25 or something stiffies that you had to load. My no.2 was faulty and IBM in Pretoria replaced it without a word. Was very impressed. MS wouldnt have gave a damn about it.
 
@chubster: Been using it for docs from scratch (that I dont have to use some nonsense template for) and it's good.
 
Arthur said:
Largely true.

There'll always be a place for Linux as a marginal player, as there is for the 15 or so other (non-Windows) operating systems in PCdom - they'll occupy the 20% niche that Windows doesn't. Of course their fans will swear by their fave non-MS OS and curse anything from the Evil Empire. That's just how people are and the world is. For now, at least.

PS. I was once "Mr-OS/2". Remember that?
Click to expand...

It is largely true Arthur, that M$ has dominated the market and used its monopoly to destroy competitors such as Borland and Lotus. M$ has pushed on us inferior products (OS/2 Warp WAS BETTER than run-atop-16bit-DOS-Windoze 95, ME was worse than 98SE, 98 and 95 should have been
98SE and Vista is a total dud while everyone is excited over Vista SP2 (7)).
For a long time Word for Windows couldn't copy-paste more than one page of text and formatting across properly. MS Office and other products were
artificially made obsolete and each new iteration of MS Operating Systems and applications brings more bloat. Windoze copied QuickTime in at attempt to get a functional Video for Windows functionality. M$ produced the ZUNE which trashed PlayForSure and partners like Creative, currently has a heavily DRM'ed non-transferrable mobile music solution and the origami dud etc etc...
Windows XP is GOOD enough for most people. Most people do not need DirectX 10 graphics, they don't need the eye-candy
and they don't need to trash a generation of adequate computers (1GB + Celeron is enough for 90% of consumer PC experience
short of recent games) to run a bloated, super expensive, new OS.

M$ just makes buggy, bloated software. The alternatives are better.
 
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Well said Garyvdh!

Are the many thousands of contributors around the world suddenly and collectively going to close up shop? This article is nothing more than FUD, if you ask me.
 
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