Why would anyone use Windows?

platypus said:
I share the same sentiment :).
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and me...

I really don't get why people are desperate for linux to compete...it exists, it's good at some things and bad at others, it's there if you want to use it.

Why try and compete, what purpose does it serve? There's no money to be made from it, which is part of why it works. Just use it if you want, improve it if you can etc.

I use linux/unix because it's the best at a few things I need to do, it makes sod all difference how many other people use it....
 
bigredshark said:
I use linux/unix because it's the best at a few things I need to do, it makes sod all difference how many other people use it....
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Bad analogy time!:

You and all of your friends are using a particular brand of pogo stick. You're fairly happy with it in most aspects. You, being the most technically-minded pogo-sticker of the group hear about a different brand of stick. Unafraid to experiment you try it out. Wow, it's amazing! It jumps higher than your old stick. It is more durable than your old stick. It's even absolutely free, unlike your old pogo sticks. There are a few drawbacks, but in your mind these are fairly easily overcome.

What a great development. You, being a good friend, now have the option of telling your buddies about your free-pogo-stick discovery or to let them live out their days never knowing there is a better option for 95% of pogo-stickers.

In the same situation many of us, apparently, would shout about the new brand from the hilltops because it seems so great. We'd feel something of a weak moral responsibility to lift our brothers from ignorance of other options and thrust them into the wonderful world of spring-loaded freedom.

That's why Linux zealots and evangelists are they way they are. They feel compelled to share the gospel of Linus.
 
almichev said:
The Impaler is right.

If Linux develops into something better than Windows, then tell as many people as possible. Is pretty selfish not to.
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You could argue that this is already happening with Ubuntu. Linix will grow via word of mouth. Ubuntu I feel is doing this better than any other desktop linux distribution so far in showing people the linux way.
 
JonRohan said:
You could argue that this is already happening with Ubuntu. Linix will grow via word of mouth. Ubuntu I feel is doing this better than any other desktop linux distribution so far in showing people the linux way.
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Yes, trying Ubuntu can also lead to people trying other dists. It also depends what IBM do with it, if they really promote it then other distros could also gain users. Nothing'll happen overnight of course.
 
My Office uses Linux servers and about 20 Windows PCs for Sales and Support while Dev and and sys-admins use Linux. If you need a reasonable office suite, you need Microsoft, if you need to support, you need the same OS as your customers, XP and IE generally. And gaming of course, plus media Everything just works with Vista, including gaming. I dont need to read a manual the size of a phone book and take a year out of my life to properly understand the OS.
 
IBM's OS/2 was superior to MicroSofts Windows
With IBM taking Ubuntu under its wing, plus MS being a little bit of a pain in the bum for many people, plus news that MS may be pulling out of the desktop market, seems like a very strong possibility that Linux does indeed have a chance of becoming a more powerful player in the desktop market, and does indeed have a chance at the title.

Lets not forget however, that even if Linux users doubled every day, it would still take a few weeks to topple windows off the throne.
 
I had to add this bit seperately, but...

Too many people say that the move to linux is slow because toomany people dont like change and wont change.

I have heard other such things like that.

Now, when the average mr or mrs john/jane doe buys a PC, 99% of the time, they dont have a clue as to how to use a PC, and they dotn know or care what is on there?
with this 99%, if their PC had Linux on it, then they would be just as happy with that as they would be with Windows.

I remember when I first introduced my father to linux, it was a complete accident... I had taken SuSE 7.1 eval disk to my mum to show her, and I elft the disk there.

My dad started up the PC and sure, he noticed it starting up differently, but he went and made his cuppa and then after finding the internat icon, he was browsing away like nothign was different... It wasnt until a few weeks later that I remembered the disk was at my mums, so I went to get it.

My dad said that he likes the new theme that I put on his PC, but it was too slow.

I told him about it and I took the disk out and it was back to normal.

He then asked me if I could put it onto his PC properly.

Which I did, and since then, he has been using SuSE all the time, and to this date, he is still running linux and nothing else.

All because he thought that linux was actualy only a theme for windows FFS!!!!???

So, there is no real excuse for people not wantign to learn a new O/S because most of the time, as long as their PC does what they need it to do, they dont actualyl do anythign under the hood do they? - half the time they get the shops or friends to install softwrae anyway, and lets be honest, most of the time, its a hookie copy of Office anyway, but we have OpenOffice that, more often than not, comes included with Linux and its free!!!

Thankfully more and more distros come as live CDs now, but this is surely the way to go?
 
FatRakoon said:
IBM's OS/2 was superior to MicroSofts Windows
With IBM taking Ubuntu under its wing, plus MS being a little bit of a pain in the bum for many people, plus news that MS may be pulling out of the desktop market, seems like a very strong possibility that Linux does indeed have a chance of becoming a more powerful player in the desktop market, and does indeed have a chance at the title.

Lets not forget however, that even if Linux users doubled every day, it would still take a few weeks to topple windows off the throne.
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Why would MS pull out of the desktop market? It isn't feasible, both in terms of the effect it would have on MS as a business, and the effect it would have on consumers.

I also don't really see the relevance likening the Linux market share to an organism that doubles in size every day. In what realistic scenario is that going to occur?
 
BillytheImpaler said:
Bad analogy time!:

You and all of your friends are using a particular brand of pogo stick. You're fairly happy with it in most aspects. You, being the most technically-minded pogo-sticker of the group hear about a different brand of stick. Unafraid to experiment you try it out. Wow, it's amazing! It jumps higher than your old stick. It is more durable than your old stick. It's even absolutely free, unlike your old pogo sticks. There are a few drawbacks, but in your mind these are fairly easily overcome.
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This new pogo stick may be fantastic, but unfortunately you have to build it yourself, which is beyond the capabilities of your friends who just want a basic pogo stick. And when your friends learn that it's no good for a lot of the applications that they put their old pogo stick to, it becomes a harder sell!
 
I would highly doubt MS will pull out of the desktop market. They still have a 90% share of it. It must be worth billions to the company. Not to mention the corporate package they can offer for server software.
 
Mattus said:
This new pogo stick may be fantastic, but unfortunately you have to build it yourself, which is beyond the capabilities of your friends who just want a basic pogo stick. And when your friends learn that it's no good for a lot of the applications that they put their old pogo stick to, it becomes a harder sell!
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The analogy wasn't meant to explain why Linux lovers love Linux. It was trying to explain why Linux lovers like to tell other people about how lovable Linux is. The Linux lovers are already past the technical issues. They've moved on to evangelism hoping that others might follow into the same fruited pastures.
 
i was trying to get centos (red hat variant) on my machine today, and it was an absolute nightmare!!!!

Tryed to install some things on it, and kept hitting brick walls. Everything had missing dependencies, which in turn had missing dependencies grrrrr, so wiped centos clean and going to give ubuntu a shot, seems to have a much bigger community.
 
TheVoice said:
Why would MS pull out of the desktop market? It isn't feasible, both in terms of the effect it would have on MS as a business, and the effect it would have on consumers.

I also don't really see the relevance likening the Linux market share to an organism that doubles in size every day. In what realistic scenario is that going to occur?
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Just search on BBC news for Microsoft. They are planning to pull out of the traditional desktop market and aim windows to a more thin client market.
 
Outcast said:
They are also in the Tom Tit
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Sounds like it:

At the end of June this year, the company was sitting on a cash mountain of $23.7bn and has never been in debt in its 33-year history.

The BBC's technology reporter Maggie Shiels said there was little doubt Microsoft had to do something because it simply had too much cash lying on its books following the company's failed attempt to buy either all or part of Yahoo.
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Not.


M
 
If your daily Airbus flight was using open source software, would you still board the plane?

yes? err no? Maybe? :p "We are sorry, SuperCoder did not manage to upload the patch last night cause he went out with his girlfriend. We appologise for the inconvinience" :p

Companies pay, so they can blame and demand!

Risk/Reward rule applies also here I guess. If you need free software and prepared to blame your self if it goes wrong then use it, else pay in 3 figures someone and blame them if it goes bust.

I am sure the people in enterprise IT would demand 3 figures if a bug resulted in their systems going bust for 2 days if they bought a product. Not the case with open source - use at your own risk.
 
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