Linux Up in Servers, Down in Netbooks; Android to the Rescue?

azerthoth: If that were true we could move everyone to Linux. Most Windows people have one or two apps that they need. All the arguments that people use not to move to Linux can be applied to WinCE as well. Doubly so because Linux has much more software available than WinCE.

"pretty much" isn't good enough for most people. If it were, the world would be running desktop Linux.

Sander,

I don't think the problem is apps, it's inertia. Games notwithstanding, what are the most common apps at home?

Browser? Linux has got it for free.

Email/online chat? Got it for free.

Word processing? Got it for free.

Money tracking? Got it for free.

CPU-devouring mindless screensavers? Got it for free.

Anti-virus? Got it in spades, for free.

"Pretty much" is good enough, but people get defensive when you suggest they've been screwed out of US$500 or more. They don't like having it pointed out that they're conformists who didn't do their research.

Plus, when people ask about what they can do with Linux, they start with the wrong questions. They don't ask, "can I track my money on Linux?". They ask, "Can I run QuickBooks on Linux?". They've been inculcated with the thinking that "the Windows way is just how you do it," the same training that gives us the "PC==Windows" mentality.

And BigBucksCorps get vicious when your work demonstrates that the basis of their primary profit center is broken by design. Examples abound, but our Helios has one from the front lines:

http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2009/03/tempers-flare-as-reces...

@gus: This is not about Linux but about Windows CE. Every reason argued why people prefer XP over Linux on netbooks goes against WinCE as well, since it suffers from the same (real or perceived) problems as Linux does. Well, except for having a familiar logo :-)

Right, but if you say "Linux doesn't have the apps I need," the conformists will hear that as a slam on Linux, whereas if you say "Windows CE doesn't have the apps I need," they'll see it more as a commentary on you.

But even if WinCE doesn't have the apps they need, they'll still buy it.

It feels more like "The Matrix" every day.

I hate to say it but I'm with gus3 on this one. Windows CE is very limited but it has the Windows name and that may be enough.

> But even if WinCE doesn't have the apps they need, they'll still buy it.

Agreed. Windows has become a brand with clout. Even ME and Vista haven't been enough to destroy it. All they have to hear is "Windows" CE, and they'll figure it's compatible, even if it isn't, and blame themselves when it doesn't work.

Actually, Vista has done a lot of damage to the Windows brand. Just look at the arguments over "downgrading" to XP on a new machine. Even non-geeks are saying "Don't you dare put that $&%t on my system!".

> Vista has done a lot of damage to the Windows brand.

Damage, yes. But it would have destroyed a lesser brand. There's no sign it has with Windows.

It has for me jdixon. Vista's bad wrap has given me more people to convert to Linux than ever before.

Sanders right, not everyone will continue to buy spoiled goods. And when the Colonel is hanging on the corner handing out bootleg copies of Linux?

Oh, and don't forget the mentality of "they'll get it right next time."

They? Why not you? Oh, that's right, you're not allowed to fix your broken-by-design system.

Note to the Windows and MacOS fanbois: In large software systems, there's no such thing as "right". The best it can be is "better, and improving all the time."

> And when the Colonel is hanging on the corner handing out bootleg copies of Linux?

That's a good idea. From now on you have to donate $80 to a charity for each Linux install. They'll even be able to get updates on their bootleg copies. If it's pirated software, it must be high quality.

I hate to rain on the parade but... I see lots of businesses that did go to Vista on the desktop and I know a lot of people, including members of my family, who really like Vista. I think Vista's "bad rap" gets more play in certain corners of the tech press (including here) than in the real world.

bigg: Colonel 501c at your service.

caitlyn: You need to hang out in better places.

Sorry, I have the business community in this part of the country for my customers. I certainly am not going to turn my back on my family.

I sometimes believe that some people in the Linux community live in a bubble by choice and ignore large parts of the real world.

caitlyn,

A little less than a year ago, I would have agreed with you on your take on Vista. My son was telling me how much better Vista was than XP, e.g. more logical easier to set up, etc. However, even he dropped back to XP due to Vista's lack of performance on a machine that should have sufficed. That is one reason I am worried about Windows 7, precisely because it seems to be a refined version of Vista.

end [/serious] or maybe not.

By the way living in bubble worlds or multiverses may more closely describe reality than you might think. [Not quite sure what tab belongs here, sorry.]

@Txt, with the same tab as Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The guy who built a brick wall around his property and then referred to everything outside of the walls as the asylum after discovering the how to use instructions on a box of toothpicks. He concluded that if that was deemed necessary then the rest of the world must be insane.

Not sure what tab that would be either, but it does seem to be fitting.

> I sometimes believe that some people in the Linux community live in a bubble by choice and ignore large parts of the real world.

Is that directed at me? Is it really worth debating when someone says you live in a bubble because you think there is dissatisfaction with Vista?

> I think Vista's "bad rap" gets more play in certain corners of the tech press (including here) than in the real world.

99+% of the people I know use Windows. None of the users who have tried Vista are happy with it. A few have found it acceptable. Most can't stand it. I'd say the play it's getting here is pretty accurate.

@bigg: No, that was not directed at anyone in particular. It was a general statement about the community. Please don't take it personally if the proverbial shoe doesn't fit.

@jdixon: Your experience is different than mine, and once again, I need look no farther than my own family.

Why does Linux need to be rescued by the other evil empire? Google has done more to trash our privacy and rights to our own personal data than anyone. What's with this 'we need big corporate persons to save us!' jive anyway? Poor Linux, it's become just another nest of feedme baby birds.

I seriously doubt that the 90% figure for Windows is accurate. This IDC survey is based on interviews of 300 IT professionals chosen by IDC. It isn't based on actual sales figures. While the Windows crowd will trumpet this report it is pretty meaningless. I doubt Linux has lost 2/3 of its market share in three months.

I don't believe Google can save us from anything. For the reasons you've noted I trust them about as much as I trust Microsoft, or Novell, for that matter, who bought and paid for this study. Novell is, at best, ambivalent about Linux despite buying SUSE. If the problem really is people buying what they are used to (Windows) then Android, another Linux distro, won't change that.

I also don't believe Linux needs saving at all. We're doing better than ever, thankyouverymuch.

caitlyn, It is indeed doing better than ever. There are enough people who tell me they have no particular reason to prefer Windows over anything, it's just that they weren't aware there was a choice. The problem is connecting with enough of those people to be able to make a difference.

One of the really interesting things is just how much mind share Linux actually has, almost everywhere you go there are Windows shills talking about how bad Linux is, or why Linux isn't ready for the "main stream" or some such other none sense.

When you think about it, that's a lot of mentions of Linux, which really does ad up to a helova lot of mindshare. Someone somewhere is expending an awful lot of effort to convince people that Linux isn't worth the effort.

I agree Tracy, if anything, the shills are doing more advertising for Linux than Linux is. But then since Linux can't really 'do' its own advertising as of yet, I will let them do it for me.

Not that I am in charge of Linux advertising or anything..;-)

Ah, but Scott, you are in charge of posting articles by those shills. You've done an exemplary job of it, too :)

Tracyanne's last comment is spot on.