Linux: It doesn't get any faster

The chicken came before the egg

You see a chicken and egg problem, but you are looking from the wrong perspective. The chicken definitely came first, in this case. Microsoft "Leveraged" (coerced) OEM's into exclusivity deals years ago. Why did they do that? Not for the ~$20 profit on each unit sold. That was nice, but it was a short term benefit. The REAL benefit is, today's generation grew up with Microsoft, and it's pretty much all that they know. Today's generation wants Microsoft, because they don't know any better. It is for this very same reason that Microsoft is quite happy with the mass pirating of Windows (and MS Office) in 3rd world countries. They WANT people to learn MS, and to become reliant on MS. The chicken laid the egg years ago.

The conversation descends into Anti-MS disputes

One of the wonderful things that happened to the world was the introduction of Minix, Linux and BSD.

Apple was able to put a wrapper around BSD (a Unix derivative) and loo-- The Mac and more.

Red Hat took linux and the world is grateful, due to the high quality of the product and the ubiquitous nature of linux (can run on any hardware).

Microsoft recognized a PC phenomenon and developped XP, Vista and soon, Windows 7 for the PC. But... as hardware prices drop, and performance increases, MS software increases or holds itself steady.

University students cannot advance their knowledge with closed source software, so the benefit to them is to have BSD, Linux and Minux code, as well as a few other systems to handle multi-processor based operating systems. All of this generates a great affection for Microsoft, as Anonymous reported.

And the same applies to databases such as MySql, Postgress Sql, SqlLight as alternatives to propriatory closed source systems.

Now we are moving to business systems, and here again, Open Source is winning the battle. I refer you to OpenBravo ERP which compares favorably to Navision, Sugar CRM, another winner, and a few other systems.

I have XP, I will also get Windows 7, since the approximate dollar a day cost is something I can afford. But, there is a billion pcs out there where people cannot afford the dollar a day cost. What choices do they have.

That is the problem. Software should not be a major expense and that is the way of the future. SaaS will be the next utility enterprise. Our gas, water, electricity, is purchased at reasonable cost from utilities, I see software being delivered the same way.

No, it is not MS bashing, it is recognizing that one era is over, and another is starting. The Model-T gave birth to Dodge, (Chrysler), General Motors, and so many competitors. Same will occur with software because it has to occur. And I believe that XML and html5 and some other system file designs will cause it to happen.

Microsoft has never brought

Microsoft has never brought "stability" to computing. It has brought homogeneity. Before Windows, we may have been running a variety of operating systems, but they generally shared the common traits of reliability and actual stability.

Now I reboot my Windows (work) machine every day to avoid the inevitable slowdowns and lockups I've gotten in the trade. OK, to be fair, maybe I don't have to do it *every* day. I could probably make it up to three days before it becomes unusable. But by reboot every morning, I can *usually* get through an entire day of work. That work, btw, is generally done via Cygwin on the *real* computers.

We don't reboot our AIX machines or our Linux machines or our OS X machines every day because they're stable.

Amen

Homogeneity is exactly right. And in the anon MS shill's example, why were there 10 pc's in an office that were incompatible? That's right, because of proprietary systems! Had the vendors of the time seen beyond their short-sighted protectionism, the market wouldn't have had to have chosen just one -- and we would be enjoying a market of healthy competition, OS stability, and interoperability. MS isn't the answer, it is the inevitable result of the problem poorly handled.

"That word that you keep using...

... -- I do not think it means what you think it means."

The word you're looking for (instead of "popular") is "ubiquitous"

u⋅biq⋅ui⋅tous –adjective
existing or being everywhere, esp. at the same time; omnipresent: ubiquitous fog; ubiquitous little ants.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ubiquitous