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Why Linux is About to Lose
mpawlo writes "Wired ran an interesting piece by Russ Mitchell in the latest issue of the magazine. Mitchell focus on the so called war between Microsoft and Linux and why Linux will have a hard time winning such a war, and especially in respect of the desktops. The article was only available in the paper issue, but is now also available online."
... but I think the 10- or 50-year outlook isn't so clear. Yes, for now Dell has dropped Linux from their computer line, but that may not stay that way. I personally think that the 'Ghandi-esqe' approach that open-source has (i.e. the passive resistance thing - not pushing to sell), not to mention the fact that there is no single company behind it, makes it an invincible force in the long run. Maybe Windows will stay ahead of Linux forever... but that will take a lot of running from a horse that will surely get tired.
"Free beer tends to lead to free speech"
Here's a comment from my tech-illiterate wife: "Get that damn Linux installed -- I'm sick of this s**t from Microsoft!"
If my wife, of all people, is asking for an alternative to M$'s stuff, then there really is some hope. Linux may never get beyond a 10% desktop share, but just giving up because there's no good spell checker for Linux is silly.
"The market alone cannot provide sufficient constraints on corporation's penchant to cause harm." -- Joel Bakan
Lots of people who can program need Linux desktop apps. They will write them, and they will eventually be far better than Office. End of story.
They that quote Benjamin Franklin on liberty and safety deserve neither.
Imagine a day when you buy a computer, plug it in, and it can dual boot windows-linux out of the box...
Boot into linux, and you have a usable system.
Boot into Windows, and it asks you for your credit card number so it can charge you $99 for a license to use it.
You can keep the system dual-booting, or tell one OS that it can delete and take over the other partition.
If users *really* have a CHOICE, and could SEE the cost associated with windows (instead of paying a 'tax' on every computer), linux will gain desktop space.
Lets write to the justice department... THIS should be the 'settlement' imposed on Microsoft.
Why does everyone think that Linux is 'at war' with Microsoft?
Microsoft is about coddling the masses, Linux is about choices and options for the power users.
As long as there are power users who don't like Microsofts condescending "your dumb, we're not, do it our way" control-freakish mentality, there will be Linux.
It might not be a huge user base, but it will be by the geeks, for the geeks.
DOS is dead, and no one cares...
If there's a Bourne Shell, I'll see you there
KDE and Gnome are doing good jobs at becoming good window managers for average computer users. It's the system that is the problem. Installing a harddrive in windows is easy, you just plug it in. In Linux you have to mount the drive and edit your fstab table. Is your average every day user going to be able to do that? What about configuring Xfree86 to use a newer video drive? /etc/..."
"Goto a command prompt, load up vi, now open
"Huh? What? Don't I just reboot now?"
And your average joe compiling a new kernel? hahaha
It's the hardware installation and configuration that needs work. Linux needs better plug and play support. I mean if Windows can do, why shouldn't Linux be able to do it better?
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl