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'WannaCry Makes an Easy Case For Linux' (techrepublic.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The thing is, WannaCry isn't the first of its kind. In fact, ransomware has been exploiting Windows vulnerabilities for a while. The first known ransomware attack was called "AIDS Trojan" that infected Windows machines back in 1989. This particular ransomware attack switched the autoexec.bat file. This new file counted the amount of times a machine had been booted; when the machine reached a count of 90, all of the filenames on the C drive were encrypted. Windows, of course, isn't the only platform to have been hit by ransomware. In fact, back in 2015, the LinuxEncoder ransomware was discovered. That bit of malicious code, however, only affected servers running the Magento ecommerce solution. The important question here is this: Have their been any ransomware attacks on the Linux desktop? The answer is no. With that in mind, it's pretty easy to draw the conclusion that now would be a great time to start deploying Linux on the desktop. I can already hear the tired arguments. The primary issue: software. I will counter that argument by saying this: Most software has migrated to either Software as a Service (SaaS) or the cloud. The majority of work people do is via a web browser. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari; with few exceptions, SaaS doesn't care. With that in mind, why would you want your employees and staff using a vulnerable system? [...] Imagine, if you will, you have deployed Linux as a desktop OS for your company and those machines work like champs from the day you set them up to the day the hardware finally fails. Doesn't that sound like a win your company could use? If your employees work primarily with SaaS (through web browsers), then there is zero reason keeping you from making the switch to a more reliable, secure platform.
> and therefore Linux is NOT going to become the largest market portion any time soon.
Oh really? Try taking off the myopic PC blinders for once.
Google achieved 2 Billion devices with Linux in 9 years what Microsoft WinCE couldn't do even in 20 years
MS may have 96% of the gamer's PC desktop but that ignores all the servers and virtual machines running non-Windows, let alone consoles.
MS is a total joke on the Top 500 super computers.
Hell, even 33% of Azure runs Linux
In the OS server space things get fuzzy -- are we talking Web Servers? Database Servers? Email servers? Windows be has high as 33% or 20%-- there are no accurate stats.
Let's recap where Linux dominates:
[x] Mobile: Linux
[x] Super computers: Linux
[x] Servers: Technically *nix, due to BSD and OSX.
[ ] PC Gaming Desktop
The only place Windows has a niche in is PC gaming and XBox -- but desktops aren't the only thing anymore.
In the global space MS is slowly becoming irrelevant next to Android, iOS, PS3/4, Servers, Super computers, and Wii/Switch.
Not bad for an OS that "(free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu)"