The future of Ubuntu Linux.... Will it make Micro$oft go bankrupt?

[Jerry Houston]

On Sunday 10 May 2009 02:41:01 Dotan Cohen wrote:
> > In all truth, I couldn't imagine having to do my work on a Windows box.
> >  I'd go nuts.
> 
> I thought so too, but today most of my complaints are with Windows
> Explorer (The GUI), not with the underlying OS. Running KDE on Windows
> will take care of that! And since most of the apps on Linux are
> available on Windows as well, there is little keeping me on Linux at
> the moment.

KDE on Windows has made a good start, but IMHO it's nowhere near ready for daily use yet.  The application I would use the most (KMail) hasn't been ported yet, as of v4.2.2, some of them (like Nautilus) simply don't work, displaying messages like "file system function stopped," or something to that effect.  Others are annoyingly slow, even on a fast Windows machine.

It *is* true that most Mozilla apps are ported to Windows, but I've never found Linux contenders for some of the other free Windows apps I use.  For example, ImgBurn.  It's been flawless and fast, whereas I've created a lot of coasters with my Linux machines.  And DVDShrink.  I've ripped hundreds of DVDs to a 1.5 TB disk in my home server, but I've had to do it from a Windows machine.  

Unfortunately, I still think the best answer for many of us is "both."  Here at home, my server boots to Linux only, but my desktop workstation boots to Vista Ultimate, Ubuntu 9.04 and SuSE 11.1.  

And at work, where I'm a Windows software developer, I've got no choice but to run Windows.  It's going to be a VERY long time before major business enterprises move to Linux, I'm afraid.  Individual users, whose main concerns are email and browsing, have more freedom in that respect.