windows rant

I take a pragmatic view.........

If linux was that good it would pose a serious threat to windows..............it isn't so it doesn't.

You may not like that, but it is fact...........I know that if I installed linux in any corporate client I would destroy that client. Too many distros, too little support, too few apps, too few drivers and so on.

Be real folks, it is close to Christmas, hundreds of thousands of computers will be sold........they will boot windows not linux.

Basically of all the domestic/home users I can think of, NONE of them would get past the boot sequence on a linux box. Bill Gates did not get where he was by accident.........he is a cunning b*****d, and he isn't about to belly up and let a shower of anoracks/propeller heads take over his empire.

Until there are serious applications contenders and turnkey systems ( as in they work straight out of the box with no brains required :D ) in your local store that run on linux, Gates will stay in control. That is a simple economic and practical reality. He (Gates) has been allowed to get too big for too long.

OK, the technically aware have a choice, but at the moment I think that "joe public" does not?

Just my £0.02 worth

Cheers

yea with XP i got BSOD every time i booted on my laptop and my amd xp athlon 2000 couldnt keep xp stable so i just dont care for it. it may hav been a bad install every time but 7 times in a row? probably a bad disk

I don't mind Windows, it's only an operating system. For some people it's the best choice. I doubt my grandmother will ever learn how to mount /dev/hda4 or whatever. I love Linux myself, but the vendor and software support is just not there. I am setting up a dual boot system on the new laptop, SuSE and Windows XP.

I run RH 9 on two other systems, Windows 98SE on another and I have 1 1/2 Macs. Plus two more systems that don't have any OS. I'll get arount to it when I get SuSE.

may be a dum question but how can u hav 1 1/2 macs?

It's a good question old chap, but I can remember when you got dual booting Apple boxes that had twin processors and the lot. Ran Mac and Doze they did..... :D

I regret not purchasing one when they were going cheap...quite a collector's item now I would have thought?

Cheers

Windows has its days, just like teh computer does.
its kind of like a child, when it is good it is mine, when it is bad or pissing me off it is Nightfalls


Nightfalls_Girl

Ok I guess I'll jump in here...

If all you need a computer for is to check your email, write some resume's, chat, download music, and maybe do some taxes, does it really matter which operating system you use? No. It doesn't. Why would most people even care which operating system they're using?

Like Nihil said, until someone can put together a distribution with a button that says "Install Linux Now", with nothing else required from the user, Windows will dominate the market. I would further add that until somebody actually advertises a Linux distribution and tries to convert normal users, people will still continue not caring. But since Linux is not made for profit, nobody will advertise it. Because of that, it will remain the realm of computer geeks. Even Redhat, which came close to the ease of a Windows installation, was still severely lacking in user friendliness and far too tchnical in thier installation screens. And thier RPM managament is still too buggy to rival the Windows installer.

Redhat is really the only company ever to take a shot at Microsoft. And they missed. Once enough people began using thier product and needing support, downloading updates and images without paying a dime for it, the whole enterprise became too expensive, so they scrapped it and started selling thier nonpaying customers on Enterprise Redhat. SuSE is coming close to that point now, but I fear they will eventually walk the same path.

The big difference is that *nix was designed for programmers by programmers, and Windows was designed for idiots by businesspeople.

I like my Slackware because it does everything I wan't it to, but more importantly, nothing I don't. It does everything my Windows installation does, and it does it faster. But none of my Linux-challenged friends can even find the buttons they need to push to log in with Gaim or check thier email, with what is in my opinion an extremely friendly Gnome desktop. Some won't even touch it after seeing the boot screen scroll all the kernel messages past them. Obviously it is still far too different from Windows to ease enough people's fears of change to make a difference.

Yes, Linux may be more secure, more stable, more configureable, and more cheap than Windows, but until the rest of the world knows it exists nobody will ever use it. And once the world starts using it it will become too expensive to maintain for free.

I belive that some Linux distributions have the potential to rival Windows one day, but that until somebody finds a way

haha, don't let catch see this thread. He'll have a field day :D

I think when it comes down to it Linux is by no means user friendly enough for you average home user yet. As far as Win XP being crap; I have found that XP once set up properly runs great even on AMD machines. What I have found as well is that most people that have complaints are running a pirated version. What I am trying to say is "XP Pro Legal = Good" "XP Pro pirate = Crap".

I would love to know if I am on to something. Please let me know if you have a legal copy of xp, with updates, that gives constant trouble.

we run Xp pro legal edition with no problems at all!!


Nightfalls_Girl