Windows 7: The Linux killer

This article contains very little hard information and a lot of marketing style bs.

Question: How well does Windows 7 run on a netbook compared to XP and linux?

No answer from this "industry expert"

Question: Why wouldn't Microsoft be happy to allow XP to run on netbooks?

No analysis at all on this obvious point......

Maybe Windows 7 is a threat to linux on netbooks but I'd like to see some hard evidence rather than breathless overblown rhetoric and worthless "predictions".

I don't even bother to read this garbage anymore. A title like that indicates it's all hype designed to get clicks. Good for Digg, which is probably why I seldom visit Digg.

The touch screen will be the real linux killer. Dave

> The touch screen will be the real linux killer.

Why? you don't think linux can do touch screen?

The touch screen as a Linux Killer?

Well, everyone will start touching their screens, and we basement living Linux users will either inherit all of those pre-touched screens, or end up being ask to fix computers attached to those pre-touched screens.

Then we will be exposed to viruses. Not the computer kind, real viruses that attack real humans. Being basement living Linux users our underdeveloped immune systems will be unable to handle all of the viruses collected on the touch screens resulting in a decimation of the Linux population.

The FUD machine of the proprietary software houses will, of course, spin the news to spread fear that it is Linux use causing the death of Linux users, when really it is the fault of the germ laden touch screens.

This will result in the 'death of Linux', much the same as BSD has been 'dead' for 15 or 20 years now.

Since I have small children who regularly bring home nasty viruses from school, I may be more prepared for the coming onslaught than others.

herzeleid,

I hope you were joking, however, I sense you are not. Hence, let me give you a hint, d'hacker is.

[Unfortunately all serious tags] Please tell me I am missing the joke. Like you know of cases where Linux already runs touch screens, e.g. in-flight entertainment, right?

gack, touchscreens give me the creeps. Them things got cooties. Plus they build them all feeble so they don't stand up to actual use.

I don't know about in-flight entertainment but Linux running touch screen devices is nothing new, particularly in the embedded market. We're talking UMPCs, PDAs, and cell phones. I know some Nokia devices definitely run Linux and have touch screen support. If embedded Linux can do it so can the full-blown distros if the necessary drivers are included.

What Preston Galla is ignoring is that in the 18+ moths of Linux netbooks before the Windows 7 release a whole lot of people will have come to know and like Linux. Asus claims to be selling 60% Windows netbooks and 40% with Linux. They estimate their 2008 sales will top 5 million units. That means Asus alone will have sold 2 million Linux netbooks this year. How many more can they sell in 2009 before Windows 7 releases? What about other vendors like HP, Dell, MSI, Sylvania, etc...?

In the meanwhile Linux is invading desktop space as a result of the netbook successes. HP has announced that it will have a consumer desktop model with Linux preinstalled. Asus is now selling "nettops", itty bitty desktop PCs, with a choice of Windows XP or Linux. Hardware vendors have learned that they can make money selling Linux. So long as that's true they aren't going to stop.

Linux has gone mainstream. There is nothing the Microsoft hype crowd can do to change that.

How does one "kill" Linux? It's just a stupid thing to talk about. 1994 called and it wants its debate back. MS Office killed WordPerfect. Linux is not shrink-wrapped, closed software.

As for touch screens, first the touch screen needs to kill off the keyboard, something that won't happen anytime soon. Then we need to figure out why Linux can support all of our current hardware but will not support touchscreens.

#6 (what's the "x" for?),

I think you got it! Brilliant! "Touch Screen Gunk Wipes Linux Off the Map!", the headline roars. We are doomed I tell you doomed ... (croak, gasp fsstist ...) gone.

Sorry to see you all go, but I do standup comedy, hence, I am immune being inoculated to an excess. With all the venom thrown at me, both figuratively and literally (the latter sometimes airborne, sharp object covered with spittle from the pursuing raging mobs) I have super resistance. I will survive and so will Linux. Some of us live in the basement, but some of us also encounter the real world at its worst when the Sun goes down (which is nearly every day on the NASDAQ). We will be there to continue the fight. We might become guerrilla fighters, but the battle continues.

Whatever I and other survivors use Linux, Unix or Plan 9, it is only a temporary setback. Our enemies grow slack and lazy. Then they fail to notice our regained health and see too late their imminent doom.

That is the Future.

I'm a prisoner fan and number6 was already taken on a message board I used to be long to in the eighties.

So I started using number6x and have used it in other places as well.

My name is pretty common so it gets used long before I join any groups.

***So I started using number6x and have used it in other places as well.***

Just to clear up something 100%

You are "" number 6 "" , not "" Caprica 6 "". Right ?

nikkels, correct

My name is sean lynch

Quoting: herzeleid,

I hope you were joking, however, I sense you are not. Hence, let me give you a hint, d'hacker is.

I'm just playing along, assuming nothing - but if there's a punch line, I'd love to hear it.

No, now that you admit you were onto it the whole time, you were to explain the joke to me.

>> As for touch screens, first the touch screen needs to kill off the keyboard...

You old curmudgeons!

The keyboard killer is here. http://www.theonion.com/content/video/apple_introduces_revol...



Edit: added quote

That thing is kind of like trying to type on the Wii.

Except Mac users really would claim it was the greatest thing ever.

And if Vista ditched the keyboard, we'd be stuck with dozens of articles about the death of Linux because it still relies on the keyboard.

I think back a little while to the preview of the 2nd Gen OLPC, which has no keyboard, instead it has dual touch screens, one of which can be the keyboard as/if/when needed.

What is Windows 7 going to offer that is so compelling? A friendlier EULA? Fewer confusing editions, each one artificially crippled in a different way? Sleeker and less hardware-hungry? More stable? More secure? Less expensive? I have heard nothing to indicate a ground-up rewrite, which is what it would take to fix Windows.

SSDs are poised to replace PATA and SATA hard drives. I think Windows 7 deserves its own special abbreviation: the SSDD Edition. Yes, you got it right folks-- 'Same Stuff, Different Day'.

I couldn't agree more Carla, I have the same amount of 'inclination' to use Windows 7 as I do with Vista.

Which is of course, zero. ;-)

Preface: I am not a Microsoft apologist. ;-)

I can't believe I am saying it but if, IF, your going to use Windows, XP isn't too bad. Of course its had 8 years of tweaking and fixes applied to it but then that is why its "not too bad"..for Windows mind you. 2000 SP4 might as well be XP SP1 but Vista is a bloated, slow, broken dog (no insult to actual dogs meant) of an Operating System.

I cannot see how Windows 7 is going to break away from the Vista framework underneath.

> I cannot see how Windows 7 is going to break away from the Vista framework underneath.

It won't. Careful analysis (there were links here on LXer to the relevant articles) has already demonstrated that Windows 7 is still Vista underneath, with all of it's inherent flaws.

However, Microsoft will claim it has, and that's all folks like this need to start their celebration. You know, "a complete re-write from the ground up", and "the most secure version of Windows ever". Just like all the times before.

Exactly. Every article and benchmark I've seen for Windows 7 indicated that it runs at the same speed and hardware requirements as Vista.

I am pretty sure that Microsoft is simply pulling a big switcharoo here. Vista has gotten such a bad name that they need to move away from it. So, name it Windows 7, slap some UI enhancements on it and call it done. At the same time, rename the real Windows 7 that has all the new features to Windows 8.

It explains perfectly why (a) Windows 7 is so much like Vista and (b) why Windows 7 is coming much earlier than indicated.

Time to start pre-unselling winders 7.

Let your clients know that as bad a vista is its replacement is just more of the same. Don't wait, upgrade to Linux now.

Make them happy with Linux before the Rodents of Redmond even get the new malware out.

> At the same time, rename the real Windows 7 that has all the new features to Windows 8.

You expect more from Microsoft than I do. The only new "feature" I expect with Windows 8 is yet another redesigned start menu, utilizing the experience they've gained from Office 2007's ribbon. I'm sure it will be touted as the greatest UI improvement ever by the Redmond faithful.

Quoting:You expect more from Microsoft than I do.

I don't expect them to deliver :-) But you can bet that MS is *planning* a boatload of new features that will be killed off one-by-one as the release date approaches. Think XAML and WinFS.

> I don't expect them to deliver :-)

OK, we agree then. :)

> But you can bet that MS is *planning* a boatload of new features...

I expect they're planning to "announce" a boatload of new features. Whether they're actually working on them is anyone's guess. But, like as XAML and WinFS, they'll be vaporware, just as you say.