On Sat, 2005-03-19 at 22:12 -0700, Craig White wrote: > On Sat, 2005-03-19 at 22:06 -0600, Brian Fahrlander wrote: > > > Yeah, and I was more than happy to let it die, thinking it either > > got the message across, or no one was going to. But I still maintain > > that if you want to stop viruses in your workplace, you don't make > > everyone walk around in rubber suits....you kick Microsoft to the curb. > --- > I know that you don't believe this but I can tell you for sure - that > viruses & spyware are of absolutely no consequence on any network of > Windows desktop computers that I maintain but that is not achieved > without cost or effort. No rubber suits though. > > your kick Microsoft to the curb reference pretty much assumes an > inability to manage a network of Windows computers with no regard to the > users needs. > > I am no fan of Microsoft but I am neither a fan of Apple, Adobe, Intuit > etc. either. > > I think that Linux as a desktop is still a bit short of what you can get > on the desktop on other 'proprietary' OS's and as long as businesses are > willing to pay for the licenses and there is no mitigating factor for > wholesale change to something that is perceptibly less usable to them, > they won't go for it. > You miss one very important point with this vitriol. $$$$$$ I have been M$ free for several years, and I can do almost anything on Linux that you can do on Windows at 0 cost. The office suite -- OS -- CD burning -- antivirus -- pop-up blocker -- firewall -- graphics editor -- web server -- database -- mail server and others all cost a windows user _several_ hundreds of dollars. All are available with most Linux distributions for free. For the home user or small business cost is often a major factor in what is purchased. The other major deciding factor is perception - both value and utility. BTW, I do not think of 'desktop computing' as a business workstation but rather as home users. In the workstation (business) market Linux seems to be taking market share from Windows at an increasing pace. You also seem to overlook the current state and the rapidly improving user friendliness and utility for the Linux distributions that _is_ starting to make it more acceptable across the board. It will be interesting to see where the status balances out. > Craig >
