Ingemar Nilsson wrote:
"Tomas Larsson" <tomas@xxxxxxx> writes:
Until that time that Linux installs as effortless as Windows,
without any tweaking, linux will be a nerd-os and nothing else.
I have the opposite experience. Windows XP is not simple to install,
while Fedora Core is.
We all have our horror stories for both OS's but that is not the issue.
The issue is why do people choose Windows over Linux.
I came across this article via slashdot and it is important to this
discussion.
The Virtues of Monoculture
http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2007/04/the_virtues_of_monoculture.html
Now I prefer choice over following the lemmings. I prefer to use the
best product for the job. This article points to one problem with
getting Linux adopted. Ease of integration.
Quote from article.
So what’s good about a monoculture, and why does Microsoft win so
often when people make a decision about platforms? Largely because
what the open source community sees as a strength, people trying to
get a job done in the real world see as a weakness. We celebrate the
diversity of choices available to solve a problem and call it
freedom. IT managers and CIOs look at it and call it chaos, confusion
and uncertainty.
He also goes into the development tools and how well they are documented
with no choices for alternatives.
Is this the path that makes Microsoft so good?
Now I look at this from my daughters experience. The school she goes to
us a Mac school but uses MS Office and IE. It crashes and has so many
other issues. She uses Linux at home and loves it. She wants to use
Firefox and OpenOffice but the school won't allow it. And some of the
people she has talked to have never even heard of Linux or OpenOffice.
Recently, I have been hearing more and more people are getting a shock
out of the visual eye-candy of Beryl on Linux and some are dropping
their Vista for Linux to use Beryl. It is eye-candy but Microsoft was
hyping up the Aero display in Vista which is a very poor cousin to Beryl.
--
Due to the move to M$ Exchange Server,
anything that is a priority, please phone.
Robin Laing
