Linux: It doesn't get any faster

Does it really matter?

After reading this post and a number of the replies, it just looks like more of the same old crap to me. Let's bash MS. I've felt for a long time that most of you that do it are just jealous of Bill Gates. You know who you are, the ones that are wondering why you didn't think of it first because you're so much smarter than he is.

I bought the MS Kool-Aid for a long, long time because, like another commenter said, it was easier to find software that worked on a Windows machine than any other. I tried OSX and Red Hat at one time or another, but it just wasn't worth the hassle.

A year ago, I just got so tired of how sluggish my XP box had become, so I decided to give Linux another try. I don't know how or why, but I decided on Ubuntu and installed it to dual-boot on my XP machine. To make a long story short, I installed Ubuntu on all my machines at home. I'm finding very few things that I can't do in Ubuntu, but with Virtualbox, I've overcome even those few shortcomings. I don't care how smart you think you are, there are still some things that Windows still does better than Linux.

Why don't we all just give up the ghost and thank MS for making desktop computing as popular as it is. You can still keep banging away on your Linux box, but let the poor masses have their simplicity. You'll never be able to convert them to "the good side".

Just to be critical of the

Just to be critical of the opening...I usually find that the Windows' fan club is quite open to Linux....because it's not an OS from that other company we all know and love.

Congrats Linux.

Linux will always smoke the competition in the supercomputer field. At home I'm not sure they will ever get a foothold. Look at all of the netbooks with linux preinstalled that got returned in favor of a windows based os. I work in IT so I haven't ever had any problems with a windows OS since the late windows 95 B OS.
I prefer windows because my hardware supports it. I've had linux on my desktop and wanted to throw the thing in the street trying to get the correct drivers installed. It came down to needing to compile some files. I decided I shouldn't have to compile jack sh#t to get the hardware to work.

What distro?

What distro of Linux are all these supercomputers running?

Chicken and egg

The fact that Windows is run on most PCs is a chicken and egg problem. Windows runs on most PCs, so software developers usually only develop for Windows. Because most system only works on Windows, people run Windows on their PC.

There is a lot of Linux software out there, but it isn't what the mainstream wants to run. They want MS office, Photoshop, etc. Having something that does almost the same isn't good enough.

It's very unlikely for the public to break this cycle. The software houses have to make revenue and can't be asked to put so much time into such a small percent of the market.

I believe there is only one solution. And that is to make Windows (and/or Mac) software work on Linux flawlessly. A project like wine should get a for more prominent place and should be integrated fully into gnome/kde, having the applications look and function the same as native apps.

The Cathedral, The Bazaar, And The Reseller

Hello Steven:

Do you remember when you wrote the following paragraph?

"It's not just an NT show, though. NetWare does SMP. Linux does SMP. And the commercial Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) Unixes, especially IBM's AIX, does it best of all. Indeed, in cases where someone is bound and determined that SMP is the be-all and end-all of computing, a reseller would do well to set them up with an IBM RS/6000 and AIX solution."

Well, it's been more than 10 years since you announced "I've been accused of being a linux bigot by Windows fans..."

You even wrote your own "The Cathedral, The Bazaar, And The Reseller".

I've updated your page at http://tinyurl.com/lov6bd

I've also made it easier for people to learn about you and SCO via Google. Just search Google for SCO and Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols .

Cheers!

Interesting how no matter what the subject -

No matter what the subject, the conversation descends into Monopoly, anti-microsoft rhetoric, etc.

Unfortunately complaining here won't do you any good. It might make you feel better, but you won't accomplish anything.

Many of us old farts remember the days before Microsoft DOS. It was a painful experience. There might be 10 PCs in an office running 10 operating systems that were incompatible with each other. Like it or not, MS brought stability.

that stability is extrememly important for the business world. Change is something like IT is expensive and scared the managers half to death. that stability provided the foundation for computers to be useful.

Linux was present for lots of these activities, but was too unstable at the time to be of interest. MS was first and most stable.

Now after 18 years, Linux is finally somewhat grown up. Unfortunately, Linux has to get through the existing, hard won stability.

Microsoft rides on that stability and the related market inertia.

One must ask what reason people have to leave that nice safe stable world of Windows on the desktop?

Windows is slow, cludgy, etc. The windows interface does meet user needs. That's all that matters.

No way Windows will ever make the "Best" super computer in the world. Yet, it survives on the desktop rather nicely. All the technological advances really don't matter anymore. Windows is sufficient.

Until Linux provides sufficient reasons to convince the masses to move from Windows desktop, Linux on the desktop is a small sideline.

Perhaps SJVN should use his clout for pushing Linux forward instead of constantly harranging Windows. It just wastes time and energy repeating what we all know.