Too much of anything is bad, and that includes Integration.
^^^^^^^^^^^"Vendors come in and buy piece parts, and they try to assemble a mini Microsoft development model. But who is going to test it? It's the user," Hilf said. "The user tests and reports back bugs on the desktop. The end user doesn't want to be a tester, unless they're a developer. It's extremely hard and complex."^^^^^^^^^
That's pure FUD. He makes it seem like Linux alpha's and beta's and release candidates' don't exist.
^^^^^^^^^^And even though Linux may appear slick on the desktop, it can't compete under the covers^^^^^^^^^
Ah.... heh heh heh.... He's just mad that out of the big three OS's, only one doesn't have a 3d desktop.
^^^^^^^^^"There was a ton of work and engineering put into the Win32 API. Why do people want to clone the Win32 API, like the WINE project?" he added.^^^^^^^^^^^
For someone who claims "I've been a Linux desktop user for a really long time", the lack of giving his own answer makes it obvious this is some sort of ploy.
The easy answer is that people want to run photoshop on what they want to run it on. Not what Adobe wants you to run it on. Same for Quickbooks, various games, and even in rare cases IE.
Not just security woes.
Even with their new face of trying to appear user friendly in customer service, they are light years behind. And seem more than a little clueless about how to catch up.
Horribly degraded phone connections to India with rapid fire English with Indian accents and excruciatingly frustrating tech calls in general will not help them much.
Especially with software still far too excessively kludgy to wrestle with--too often at every turn.
I bought one took it back to the office. It booted Linux 6.2 right up. So, I can likely change the root password or there are some recent distros that run on the Alpha. Now that's "cheap" computing:)
Microsoft is making a tactical mistake downplaying the competition- Linux has made significant advances in the last three years. In less than 5 years some linux versions will be virtually indistinguishable from Windows and cost a fraction of what Microsoft charges (some will be free).
Microsoft is one to talk anyway- they have delayed deploying Vista by about 18 months and will likely miss the holiday sales rush in December (release expected January '07 if there are no further setbacks).
Linux is transforming into a windows like environment because that is what consumers are used to and demand. There are Linux versions that come complete and ready to use out of the box (Ubuntu/ Kubuntu etc.). All you need to do is know how to answer a few simple questions on setup, much like Windows.
I think he's right for the next two years. Two years is a lifetime in software. In two years I'll take another look at desktop environments and update my opinion.
I've always been convinced that computer gaming is what drives the desktop OS market. Every computer will run a word processor, but they won't all run Doom.
That paradigm may change soon, but not yet. Home entertainment, including computer DVR applications may be what sets the next standard.
"Linux is not a threat to Windows they are already defeated and their platform infected by viruses!"