Posted on 12/24/2009 9:38:24 AM PST by nickcarraway
Linux Vendors Need To Get Off the Stick to Compete with Windows
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“I’m thinking specifically of Novell and Canonical, both of which field direct Windows competitors. Canonical’s Ubuntu project has gone so far as to designate “Microsoft has a majority market share” as bug No. 1 in its issue tracker..”
Reason #1 why Linux cant compete?
Start to give people a reason to be FOR your product and not against Microsoft.
Stop assuming because your alternative does something like the MS version, people should just abandon that one for the open source product.
Sometimes free isnt good enough.
Been running Ubuntu for a couple years, the 2 or 3 winblows programs I absolutely need work great in Virtual Box. You will never go back to windows once you learn Linux. It is far superior
This is funny. Linux blades running java middleware dominates the midrange space. Microsoft keeps the desktop.
And don't make those reasons philosophical. The average user doesn't care about "freedom of the code."
Well, for my non-tech-inclined family, the biggest reason to use Linux is that they won’t get a ton of malware and have to call me every month to come over and clean off the machine.
Depending on what you do, Linux may or may not be better than an alternative OS for you. But for the average user, the person that just surfs the web, watches You Tube videos, checks E-mail, and uses the software that came with their digital camera to save their pictures and then can’t find out where the program put them, Linux is a better alternative than Windows (Specifically, Ubuntu or another easy distribution).
Redhat’s Fedora is number 1, Ubuntu is number 2, and SUSE is number 3. Novell doesn’t even show a blip on the radar as far as free distros go.
Now, talk about proprietary distros, and Novell is number 2, behind Redhat, and in front of Think IBM Blue.
Ubuntu has the best shot at succeeding in the consumer desktop arena. If I were Shuttleworth, I’d buy myself a hardware company and market my own PC’s and Laptop/Netbook’s.
Then, maybe, I’d have reliable printer support and a consistent configuration to sell.
Having an “open”-open source OS presents an always moving target for developers and support teams, and this is, truly, what’s holding them back. Just one odd package can blow up your product, and where’s the money in that? While the same can be said about Windows, and it would be true, but with Windows, at least, you can count on the kernel and the file system being consistent.
Money’s tight at Canonical, Shuttleworth is stepping down as CEO and becoming Bill Gates, er-I mean Chief Software Architect. No more free CD’s, and they’ve pared their paid staff. Worse, the Ubuntu community is up in arms because he’s trying to generate some revenue from the Ubuntu “cloud” initiative, and some important volunteers have left.
They turn out a great product, and they’re doing a very good service for folks, but they just don’t have a viable commercial value proposition to generate the needed cash inflow. BTW, does he even have a sales force? I don’t know. But, I do know, that if you can define the features and their benefits, you can create and implement a value proposition and sell anything.
I hope he does, and they do.
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