Middlesex University has Netscape 4.7 installed. I was all ways suspicious of it not working on the WinNT machines but working on the Unix. Any way I hate to be a Linuk FAN(cough)atic but this just goes to show that Bill maybe the one who pushes users to free open source software. Just imagine when the kde gnome desktops are as well polished as windows with word processing packages etc. Its not going to take that long to get there, and then there will be two alternative on the market one free/cheep the other run by a man like Bill Gates. If users are slow to take up, and they usually are, then business will not be as slow off the mark. Just imagine companies paying subscription fees, if there is alternatives that are as good and free/cheep they will not pay Bill.
Thanks for the balanced view point but I never meant to explore all the other issues just the above point. It is about branding but not just branding, linux has some way to go to ofer the gui driven environment of Windows and there catching up quickly. I believe that when there are a rage of packages for linux in a GUI environment like Gnome or Kde that are installed by default why would people pay for an OS when one is free. If users will not change (and users usually are slow to change to more advanced alternatives in the face of a well known brand) business will. I just believe it be slow, years to be exact
"You are only a success for the moment you achieve something."
Phil Jackson
"Seems to me that there will come a point where a free operating system can do everything current OSes do, so the intuitive step is to ask 'Why when that happens will people pay for an OS instead?' - surely the burden is on people claiming linux will never win the desktop to answer that, even if that time is a year off or whatever."
Most people don't now what success entails!
no word processor = rubish operating system
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Middlesex University has Netscape 4.7 installed. I was all ways suspicious of it not working on the WinNT machines but working on the Unix. Any way I hate to be a Linuk FAN(cough)atic but this just goes to show that Bill maybe the one who pushes users to free open source software. Just imagine when the kde gnome desktops are as well polished as windows with word processing packages etc. Its not going to take that long to get there, and then there will be two alternative on the market one free/cheep the other run by a man like Bill Gates. If users are slow to take up, and they usually are, then business will not be as slow off the mark. Just imagine companies paying subscription fees, if there is alternatives that are as good and free/cheep they will not pay Bill.
Thanks for the balanced view point but I never meant to explore all the other issues just the above point. It is about branding but not just branding, linux has some way to go to ofer the gui driven environment of Windows and there catching up quickly. I believe that when there are a rage of packages for linux in a GUI environment like Gnome or Kde that are installed by default why would people pay for an OS when one is free. If users will not change (and users usually are slow to change to more advanced alternatives in the face of a well known brand) business will. I just believe it be slow, years to be exact
"You are only a success for the moment you achieve something."
Phil Jackson
"Seems to me that there will come a point where a free operating system can do everything current OSes do, so the intuitive step is to ask 'Why when that happens will people pay for an OS instead?' - surely the burden is on people claiming linux will never win the desktop to answer that, even if that time is a year off or whatever."
Most people don't now what success entails!
no word processor = rubish operating system
Here here!! As some else has pointed out "You are only a success for the moment you achieve something." Phil Jackson