C
Canuck57
"Marc " <RmEaMrOcVE@imarc.co.uk> wrote in message
news:AEFC58B0-3873-4E15-BFDA-505F5F46313E@microsoft.com...
> While I love Linux, and use it daily - it doesn't come accross as a
> hobbiest project sometimes. Yes it may never crash, but having to restart
> the Window Server because the Gnome control applet can't corectly detect
> your sound card it just as bad as a reboot for most people. I had to
> restart it when I entered an invalid WEP key too, pretty shoddy IMO.
One thing you need to know about Linux is it is like a shrink wrapped full
version of Ultimate. You can load it, but often you need to go to the
vendors site and get drivers and integrate them yourself. This is
unavoidable. But I will say, the last version of Ubuntu, I only needed one
driver to get Compiz running right and it was the easiest to date.
OEMs add this value to Microsoft Windows and Linux if they sell it. In
something like hot selling Eee PC this is already done for you.
> So I avoid Linux as a entertainment/mobile OS, saving it for my
> development machine. Netbeans and Eclipse are it's saving grace, along
> with Apache/Tomcat and the other severs.
That is a permier we development system.
> It's no competition to Mac, as it's a long long way from "just working" -
> and as far as competition for Windows goes, it's a tough challange to
> compete with Microsoft's ecosystem - .NET, ASP.NET, Acive Directory, SQL
> Server, Windows Server - they may not be cheap, but to most companies the
> licience fees are a small percentage of their profits, and cheaper than
> the extra training and staff required to run a Mac/*Nix network. Being
> "free" just isn't enough, why do people still buy Photoshop and Office
> when there's free alternitives?
Mac is high end. Something like Eee PC on the low end. MS is getting
squeezed.
There is the Microsoft API tred mill. Redevelop everything ever API
release/change. While backward compatibility exists to a large degree it
isn't absolute and makes the MS API one of the most complex error prone APIs
in existance. Businesses grossly underestimate these costs.
More people are using Open Office than ever before. MS-Office sales are
stagnent. OO Works great. Me, I have been using it for 3 years
exclusively. I only pull up Word 2000 to check that Word people can read
the output. Or I just export as PDF.
This isn't all or nothing. One can load FireFox and Open Office on XP/Vista
PCs. Leaves you in a great strategic position too.
Then when the MS rep comes on by let them inadvertanly see you have these
two apps running. Never know, they might slash the price of MS-Office in
half or less. I think in Taiwan the went to $20 seat. But to get those
deals you have to show you are willing to change.
> Don't get me wrong, I've been using Linux since Red Hat 5 (that box had
> 32Mb RAM!) and absolutely love it for what it is. What it's not however,
> it a mass market OS, and I can't see it ever being that while it's so
> fractured. Too many distributions, disagreements (see Fedora's refusal to
> bundle Firefox 2 because they didn't like it. That's not their choice!!)
> mean Windows will have the edge.
Fedora 9 ships with FireFox 3 beta 5, which don't mind the beta part, it is
stable. And it is true, FireFox 3 is ultra fast and very nice. Upgraded all
my systems to FireFox 3 already.
Those "disagreements" is evolution of FOSS at work. When enough people want
it different, it can fork or be changed. It does a couple of important
things. It prevents monopolies and WeSaySo behaviour. And it allows for
open evolution of the distribution. If you want to run or obtain FC 6 I am
sure it is out there, no one is going to say like XP as of June 30th you
can't download it because WeSaySo. If people want, it is there.
Since the kernel is shared, as are the sources, they can share the work
between the distributions focusing on their targets and mandates. For
example, Unbuntu versus Fedora. Newbees might want Unbuntu but those into
heavy development might want Fedora. If you write something on Fedora,
moving it to Ubuntu or Debian is usually as easy as 123.
This kind of distributed development model is going to survive and has grown
for over 30 years. It is by common evolution standardized. Linux has
amazing compatibilities between them, and with other environments like Macs
and UNIX. Even MS-Windows, where Microsoft hasn't spiked to road to bad.
news:AEFC58B0-3873-4E15-BFDA-505F5F46313E@microsoft.com...
> While I love Linux, and use it daily - it doesn't come accross as a
> hobbiest project sometimes. Yes it may never crash, but having to restart
> the Window Server because the Gnome control applet can't corectly detect
> your sound card it just as bad as a reboot for most people. I had to
> restart it when I entered an invalid WEP key too, pretty shoddy IMO.
One thing you need to know about Linux is it is like a shrink wrapped full
version of Ultimate. You can load it, but often you need to go to the
vendors site and get drivers and integrate them yourself. This is
unavoidable. But I will say, the last version of Ubuntu, I only needed one
driver to get Compiz running right and it was the easiest to date.
OEMs add this value to Microsoft Windows and Linux if they sell it. In
something like hot selling Eee PC this is already done for you.
> So I avoid Linux as a entertainment/mobile OS, saving it for my
> development machine. Netbeans and Eclipse are it's saving grace, along
> with Apache/Tomcat and the other severs.
That is a permier we development system.
> It's no competition to Mac, as it's a long long way from "just working" -
> and as far as competition for Windows goes, it's a tough challange to
> compete with Microsoft's ecosystem - .NET, ASP.NET, Acive Directory, SQL
> Server, Windows Server - they may not be cheap, but to most companies the
> licience fees are a small percentage of their profits, and cheaper than
> the extra training and staff required to run a Mac/*Nix network. Being
> "free" just isn't enough, why do people still buy Photoshop and Office
> when there's free alternitives?
Mac is high end. Something like Eee PC on the low end. MS is getting
squeezed.
There is the Microsoft API tred mill. Redevelop everything ever API
release/change. While backward compatibility exists to a large degree it
isn't absolute and makes the MS API one of the most complex error prone APIs
in existance. Businesses grossly underestimate these costs.
More people are using Open Office than ever before. MS-Office sales are
stagnent. OO Works great. Me, I have been using it for 3 years
exclusively. I only pull up Word 2000 to check that Word people can read
the output. Or I just export as PDF.
This isn't all or nothing. One can load FireFox and Open Office on XP/Vista
PCs. Leaves you in a great strategic position too.
Then when the MS rep comes on by let them inadvertanly see you have these
two apps running. Never know, they might slash the price of MS-Office in
half or less. I think in Taiwan the went to $20 seat. But to get those
deals you have to show you are willing to change.
> Don't get me wrong, I've been using Linux since Red Hat 5 (that box had
> 32Mb RAM!) and absolutely love it for what it is. What it's not however,
> it a mass market OS, and I can't see it ever being that while it's so
> fractured. Too many distributions, disagreements (see Fedora's refusal to
> bundle Firefox 2 because they didn't like it. That's not their choice!!)
> mean Windows will have the edge.
Fedora 9 ships with FireFox 3 beta 5, which don't mind the beta part, it is
stable. And it is true, FireFox 3 is ultra fast and very nice. Upgraded all
my systems to FireFox 3 already.
Those "disagreements" is evolution of FOSS at work. When enough people want
it different, it can fork or be changed. It does a couple of important
things. It prevents monopolies and WeSaySo behaviour. And it allows for
open evolution of the distribution. If you want to run or obtain FC 6 I am
sure it is out there, no one is going to say like XP as of June 30th you
can't download it because WeSaySo. If people want, it is there.
Since the kernel is shared, as are the sources, they can share the work
between the distributions focusing on their targets and mandates. For
example, Unbuntu versus Fedora. Newbees might want Unbuntu but those into
heavy development might want Fedora. If you write something on Fedora,
moving it to Ubuntu or Debian is usually as easy as 123.
This kind of distributed development model is going to survive and has grown
for over 30 years. It is by common evolution standardized. Linux has
amazing compatibilities between them, and with other environments like Macs
and UNIX. Even MS-Windows, where Microsoft hasn't spiked to road to bad.
