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Linux, Inc.
An anonymous reader sends in a link to Businessweek talking about the business of Linux, and the increasing threat to Microsoft's operating system monopoly.
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While this article includes nothing new for any regular /. reader, it's still a really good one. It avoids the all-to-common journalistic practise of balancing one positive statement with one negative statement. This article doesn't serve as a bullborn for FUD, it's entirely positive wrt Linux and the open source model. And it's written in a way that any shmoe can understand.
So why would us slashdotters care about an article written for average shmoes? Well, because we can forward it to friends and family who have a hard time relating to this "Linux" thing they keep hearing us enthusiastically blathering about. I've already sent it to my friends and family, you should too. C'mon, get going.
No, I have no stock in BusinessWeek, don't be so cynical.
BSD probably wouldn't exist if not for linux (correct me if I'm wrong but it uses the linux kernel right?)
NO
BSD is much, much older than Linux.
They are very capable of squashing serious deployment of Linux out there, and putting it back to the realm of hobbiest-only.
And how do you propose they would do that? If they were capable of this and not doing it, they would be held to the fire by their stock holders for not exercising due dilligence with regard to competition.
But for now...they're letting us get any gains we have.
Are you suggesting that they are NOT actively fighting Linux adoption in forign governments, domestic corporations, and domestic Universities? Have you been following any of the news related to this in recent years?
Finkployd
The GPL ensures that Linux will never cost money itself,...
That's simply not true. There is nothing in the GPL about money. It's about software retaining its freedom. You are substituting "free software" with "linux" which is foolish because linux is only a kernel.
ha. They are very capable of squashing serious deployment of Linux out there, and putting it back to the realm of hobbiest-only. But for now...they're letting us get any gains we have.
uh-huh. That must be the reason for their "Get the Facts" campaign. That must be why they funded SCO's current media fracas. That must be why they are threatening CxO's with lawsuits if they switch to Linux. Make no mistake - Microsoft is fighting as hard and dirty as they can.
and this post got modded +4 Insightful - moronic moderators!
one point most people will agree on is that OS X and Windows are both more usable than XWindows...
XWindows, or more properly "the X Windows System", is not the desktop. It's a low level GUI API, not much different in purpose than Windows' own Win32 and GDI libraries. Except for one difference. I've programmed in both bare Xlib and bare Win32, and Xlib is by far the better library. It may take a bit more "scaffolding", but it's much more sensible and easier to use for the moderately experienced developer. (Ditto comparing Motif to MFC, the latter being completely unusable without the help of Visual Studio's wizards.)
Let's move up a step. You next mentioned window managers and desktops, so let's talk about them. The Windows desktop is perceived to be user friendly *ONLY* because it is familiar to people. The window manager portion of it is actually quite rudimentary and difficult to use. Usability features like snap-to and rollups are simply missing in Windows, yet standard offerings for even the most humble X11 window manager. Similar problems exist for on "desktop" side of things. Consider the "show desktop" button in Windows, which will minimize all windows, but tells usability to smeg off when it won't subsequently restore them. And where are the multiple desktops?
I haven't really used OSX that much, so I can't comment on it. But in comparison to Windows, Unix/X11 + [KDE|GNOME|XFCE] is far more usable and friendly. But people don't know it because they haven't been steeped in it like they have been for Windows.
I spent a couple of years using FreeBSD/KDE at work (until they forced me to stop). The phrase "wow, how did you do that" in reference to my desktop was often uttered in my cubicle. This wasn't in response to the "cool" stuff of KDE, but in response to the ordinary everyday things I take for granted. Such as multiple desktops, "show desktop" that also restores, snap-to windows, rollups, z-ordering, etc, etc.
As long as Linux/Unix has newbies from Windows-land, we will continue to hear whines of X11 being difficult and obtuse. But that's only because they refuse to learn the new culture. In many ways the X11 desktops certainly are difficult and obtuse, but they are a lot less so than Windows.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
I think perhaps these most people (if they exist at all) have either not studied user interface design, or not tried KDE 3 or gnome 2.6. Different does not mean unuseable. Designed for a different experience level does not mean unuseable.
Overall you seem to be misunderstanding the role of X (which handles the input and display devices ONLY), and the GUI. You also seem to be either a troll or completely ignorant of up to date OSS GUIs like KDE 3.3 and Gnome 2.8
And you have some problem with the drivers both Nvidia and ATI produce?
No, it's a time waster. X, KDE and Gnome all work extremely well. There will always be room for improvements, but they are every bit as good as the MS and Apple GUIs. Before you start flaming me, note that I have studied GUI design, and I use Linux/KDE and MacOS X at home and Linux/Gnome and Windows XP at work, so I do have some basis for comparison.
only trademark law has a strict use it or lose it clause.
with copyright and patent law unintentional infringement is less serious than intentional infringement legally but its still actionable.
Not as bad as Indonesia. I have spent two months in Ecuador and the corruption there is NOTHING to what you see in Indonesia.
It is true, though that if you bribe the right people, you can usually get some traction. However, things have unpredictable consequences.
When I was in Indonesia for six months, there was a massive movement among businesses to switch to Linux. So, I wondered why, and I asked a few people. The answer really didn't surprise me, but it is of interest to this discussion.
It seems that the Indonesian Government had begun a serious crack-down on the distribution of pirated movies and software (apparently due to presure from the US). Now you couldn't get Windows for $10 anymore, and nobody wanted to pay for it, so they were adopting Linux wholesale.
So, in this case, you have to bribe a WHOLE LOT of people. And in the long run you still lose.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
That would be trademark law.