[CoLoCo] OSX, UBUNTU, or Windows... take your pick... a PC that runs them all...

[Jim Hutchinson]

On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 5:44 AM, Michael TheZorch Haney <thezorch at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Lets see, Windows has hundreds of security holes, many of which haven't
> yet been discovered and/or patched, IE have more holes in it than a hunk
> of Swiss cheese, and Safari has one vulnerability and its blown totally
> out of proportion yet when a new IE vulnerability is found its barely
> mentioned.  I love it how Windows users seem to think their so much
> better than Apple or Linux users because their OS is so common.  Over at
> Digg.com they make comments about Ubuntu stories making the front page
> and complain about Linux articles demonstrating how much better it is
> over Windows.  Its really hilarious how ludicrous they are, and how
> blinded by Microsoft's PR lies they've become.  I still use Windows when
> I have to since WINE can't run many of my games and software, and I've
> done support for Windows since the days of 3.1 so I know how bad an OS
> it is.  You know what it is, its that most people are set in their ways,
> they're afraid of change, they fear anything different, and thus that
> all comes together and gives them the attitude that if its not Windows
> its not good.  They're deluding themselves and its forcing them to live
> with an OS which is riddled with bugs, vulnerabilities, questionable
> backward compatibility and is in no way user friend at all no matter how
> much they try to explain that it is.
>
> To put it bluntly, most Windows users bullshit themselves into thinking
> they're superior.  Plain and simple.


Windows aims to appeal to everyone so in effect they aim low. Being common
is not a good measure of quality. Hand made goods are usually of higher
quality than mass produced ones. However, there is comfort in being a
lemming so if you really don't know jack about computers and you have three
choices (assuming you even know that) which would you choose - the one
everyone else uses, the one that "usually" costs more and a few people use,
or the one the sales guy doesn't even know about? When people buy a windows
computer they don't buy windows they buy a Dell or Toshiba and are ignorant
of the option to actually choose the OS as well. When they buy an Apple they
make a choice to buy a different OS and when they go Linux they make an even
greater choice because they have to really search to find it or maybe
install it themselves. These are not things the mass of computer illiterate
people do.

I hate to say it, but I suspect that for these reasons windows will remain
in the majority for quite some time. However, if they release more upgrades
like vista or continue to pander to the RIAA rather than the consumer I
think they will increase the speed at which people flock away from them. I
also think the rest of the world is moving away at a faster pace than the US
and I don't think it will be long before it reaches a critical mass and it
becomes more obvious to the rest that there are choices. However, as long as
various groups fight over what Linux should be, how free (both senses) it
should be, whether or not there should be Linux standards (yes I know there
are some but not always followed) and various other issues I think it hurts
Linux adoption. I think more businesses would switch if there was clearly an
official version but Red Hat seems to break things (or only support a very
small core and sometimes poorly - dependency hell), Suse is just plain
annoying, and Ubuntu is a late entry but gaining fast. I wonder what would
happen to Linux adoption if the major players sat down and formed a
GNU/Linux corporation and began to market an official Linux OS. I bet the
corporate world would begin to look at Linux a lot more and I bet a bunch of
others would cry foul.

However, the real truth is
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2514730680283477734

Cheers.

-- 
Jim (Ubuntu geek extraordinaire)
----
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
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