Both of my parents are using Linux exclusively. I use Linux exclusively at home on all of my machines except for a separate Windows VMware guest image that I only use when I need to work from home. None of my computers boot into anything except Fedora.
I make all of my software and hardware purchase decisions based upon Linux compatibility. That means I'm a much less active gamer than I used to be although in part because although there are some good gaming options available for Linux, such as Quake Wars, the overall Linux gaming market is still limited.
I switched completely to Linux because at some point the dual-boot option becomes really annoying. When you can accomplish 80% of your normal tasks on Linux it just seems much less worthwhile to maintain a separate OS that you need to boot into for that last 20% and eventually I found substitutes for that last 20% as well.
I partially agree with your point that many people who run Linux are also running Windows in their home or at work but I actually think that more people could run just Linux and not lose any functionality. My parents really have no desire to do anything beyond web browsing, e-mail, and basic web media with their computer. But then again they probably aren't the best target group for porting most software to Linux because they probably aren't going to have any need to purchase it (except Quicken).
A number of years ago as a student I worked for a University's IT department. The school had just built a school wide network and decided to upgrade all of the professor's Macs. The school bought all new Macs which came bundeled with MacOS and Microsoft Office. I was on the 'installation team' and we installed the machines in each of the offices over the summer. The license for the sofware was inside each computer box, and when we were done setting up the computers we left the licenses and manuals in each professor's office.
Maybe things were different then and no IT department would even consider leaving the licenses with each computer now, but what would have happen if, say, a year later the university was audited by the BSA for Microsoft Office licenses. I could say with absolute certainty that every computer in every office on campus was properly licensed for the base software (obviously no one could comment on software that might have been added by any individual professor), but could the University have actually proven that they actually had a legal license for the software on the machines?
Is a purchase slip for X hundred computers good enough to cover your software license for each of those machines? If not, how many man-hours would it take to get the license for each office (assuming that each person had bothered to keep the license and didn't throw it in the trash or lose it).
What about the machines where an end-user decided that they needed to have Microsoft Access (or something like that) installed? How do you even police that? I'm not aware of a good/unobtrusive software license monitoring package that is widely used (we used one in the computer lab itself, but didn't even comtemplate a school wide software package).
Unless you have a site license for every common piece of software that you run is it even possible to be 100% sure you are licensed for every software package running on your machines?
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Both of my parents are using Linux exclusively. I use Linux exclusively at home on all of my machines except for a separate Windows VMware guest image that I only use when I need to work from home. None of my computers boot into anything except Fedora.
I make all of my software and hardware purchase decisions based upon Linux compatibility. That means I'm a much less active gamer than I used to be although in part because although there are some good gaming options available for Linux, such as Quake Wars, the overall Linux gaming market is still limited.
I switched completely to Linux because at some point the dual-boot option becomes really annoying. When you can accomplish 80% of your normal tasks on Linux it just seems much less worthwhile to maintain a separate OS that you need to boot into for that last 20% and eventually I found substitutes for that last 20% as well.
I partially agree with your point that many people who run Linux are also running Windows in their home or at work but I actually think that more people could run just Linux and not lose any functionality. My parents really have no desire to do anything beyond web browsing, e-mail, and basic web media with their computer. But then again they probably aren't the best target group for porting most software to Linux because they probably aren't going to have any need to purchase it (except Quicken).
> time.pl
1234567889 (Fri Feb 13 23:31:29 2009)
> timepl.
timepl.: Command not found.
> time.pl
1234567893 (Fri Feb 13 23:31:33 2009)
Stupid typo!
A number of years ago as a student I worked for a University's IT
department. The school had just built a school wide network and
decided to upgrade all of the professor's Macs. The school bought
all new Macs which came bundeled with MacOS and Microsoft Office.
I was on the 'installation team' and we installed the machines in
each of the offices over the summer. The license for the sofware
was inside each computer box, and when we were done setting up the
computers we left the licenses and manuals in each professor's office.
Maybe things were different then and no IT department would even
consider leaving the licenses with each computer now, but what would
have happen if, say, a year later the university was audited by the
BSA for Microsoft Office licenses. I could say with absolute
certainty that every computer in every office on campus was
properly licensed for the base software (obviously no one could
comment on software that might have been added by any individual
professor), but could the University have actually proven that
they actually had a legal license for the software on the machines?
Is a purchase slip for X hundred computers good enough to cover your
software license for each of those machines? If not, how many
man-hours would it take to get the license for each office (assuming
that each person had bothered to keep the license and didn't throw
it in the trash or lose it).
What about the machines where an end-user decided that they needed
to have Microsoft Access (or something like that) installed? How
do you even police that? I'm not aware of a good/unobtrusive
software license monitoring package that is widely used (we used
one in the computer lab itself, but didn't even comtemplate a
school wide software package).
Unless you have a site license for every common piece of software
that you run is it even possible to be 100% sure you are licensed
for every software package running on your machines?