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Windows Interoperability in A Linux Distro
Magenta writes "There is a review of the Desktop OS Version 3 Business Edition from Xandros. This operating system is meant to allow users to easily move from Windows XP to Linux without the problems that can arise. Xandros not only can use Window's file system but it is able to run a great number of Windows programs using its CrossOver Office tool from CodeWeavers. This is one of the most accessible distros to come along in awhile and it marks a big step forward in the progress on Linux on the desktop."
Linux as it stands is nowhere near ready for the desktop. You have to remember that 99% of all pc users only care about being able to USE their computer. If they can't figure something out they start asking the people around them, who also happen to be windows users. Eventually they get an answer and keep moving along.
The second you tell someone that they have to do ANYTHING on a command prompt then you have lost them. When Linux's options and setups are GUI only and just as easy to understand and use as windows, then it will be ready for the desktop. It's actually very hard to break windows so that it doesn't work anymore by messing with the options. It's really damn easy to break linux by messing around with configs. I know this the hard way.
Actually this is universally considered to be a Bad Thing, if you speak to anyone who writes, maintains, hosts or supports Open Source or Free Software.
When you provide all of the same applications that you do for Linux for Microsoft Windows, there is ZERO INCENTIVE for those users to migrate away from Microsoft Windows. We're doing all the work for them, and reaping none of the benefits. They stay on Microsoft Windows, never migrating to Linux, and they keep sucking our community dry for all of this "freeware" they get.
How many Microsoft Windows users have you seen reporting bugs with the Free Software they're running on their Windows machines? How many contribute code fixes back? How many actually donate or support the Free Software projects they're using in ANY way? I'd venture to guess less than 1% overall.
Why should we continue to spoonfeed them when there is no benefit coming back our way? They aren't supporting our community, they aren't supporting our development, they aren't supporting anything we do, other than bitch that "Project Fu" sucks compared to Microsoft's alternative.
No thank you, when you take the "Fun" out of Free Software development, you can keep it. I'll just move on to another project instead.