Posted on 10/30/2009 1:02:46 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
These topics came up yesterday during my interview with Curtis for Network World's Panorama Podcast series. It was an interesting conversation with someone who has crossed over worlds, from Microsoft employee to free software advocate. But it raised as many questions in my mind as it answered.
(Excerpt) Read more at networkworld.com ...
Why Windows 7 will crush Linux
By Ron Barrett on Fri, 01/09/09 - 3:04pm.
This is impossible because Linux killed Microsoft in 2003. We all know that. It was predicted confidently.
MS has representation on many standards bodies. The last thing we need is another operating system from MS right now
Somewhat off topic, but saves me from having to post a vanity.
I have a EeePC (701) with Xandros Linux, Firefox 2.0 and Flash 9.0.
The newer EeePC has GNU Linux. I was wondering if anyone knows how difficult it would be to make the switch to GNU Linux and upgrade to Firefox 3.5 and Flash 10??
Don't worry--looks like it's vaporware, anyway.
The XP virtual machine (that comes with Windows 7) appears to work pretty well, although you have to run Windows Update to bring it up to the latest. It actually starts with Internet Explorer 6!!!
It's WinXP SP3. You would think that Microsoft would at least have brought all the other packages to the current release.
LOL!!
LOL!!
I can’t answer your question directly - but you have the terminology mixed up. Xandros is a distribution (so that makes sense.) Your use of the term GNU Linux doesn’t. GNU software is part of every Linux distribution. Perhaps you mean Debian or Ubuntu? These are distributions that are FSF blessed (at least Debian is..) and Ubuntu is a Debian progeny.
I think there’s an Ubuntu distribution especially for the EeePC. You might check into that....
Love that site. :-)
Who says Microsoft won’t do it if the O/S market becomes weird and unprofitable?
Linux wasn’t anywhere near viable for widespread desktop use in 2003. However, 2009 is another story. There are distros (Mint in particular) that install and set up everything for the end user, including stuff like Flash and media codecs without any headaches.
The popularity of cross-platform open source applications like Firefox, Thunderbird, etc. make it much less of an issue to make a switch.
And frankly, I find Linux much easier to use. Everything in Windows requires memorizing or Googling some nonsensical method of navigating through a maze of windows. I find Linux much more straightforward.
To each his own, but as I said, as the cross platform applications gain popularity, so too will the willingness of end users to switch to Linux or Mac if they’re rolling in dough for designer hardware.
You do realize that was an April Fool’s joke, right? :-)
Yeah, but the response seemed appropriate. :)
Microsoft wins because people are used to it.
The author in the article makes several incorrect statements like Windows has ease of installation. I run Linux and Windows on all my machines. Windows *never* runs correctly until I load all kinds of drivers. Then I have to pay for all the software that runs on it. Sometimes the software costs $20 and does things Windows should just freaking do.
I load Eeebuntu on my Eee901 (for instance), and it just runs. No additional drivers and no additional programs.
Linux will never win simply because of the McDonald’s factor. The food may suck, but at least they know what it tastes like.
eeebuntu is what you want.
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