The Thin Line Between Victim and Idiot

> ...the only work available to me is Windows work.

I know the feeling, TracyAnne. :(

I'm pretty sure I could find Linux work if I move to a more metropolitan area, but I really like living in the country. Supporting Windows is one of the prices I willing to pay.

I'm here, you can delete the thread now.

Here bob, have some popcorn and root beer!

RE: year of the desktop Linux

ugh!!

And why do I say that? I don't think Linux is going to have a single shining point where that year can be considered THE moment Linux was "in".

What happens when you apply heat to glass? It takes time and it slowly morphs over to a liquid state, unlike most other matter. That's the analogy I personally see for Linux: it'll take time and "heat" (more continuous advocacy, some marketing, continued strong improvements) before folks will look up with bloodshot eyes from their monitors and have the epiphany that Linux has sneaked "in".

Heck, might even write that one up for LXer. :)

OK, it's up to LXer now. Editorial's in the queue.

kingttx, there is an entire parasitical "news" industry devoted entirely to "This is the year of the Linux desktop!/Not neither, so Linux is dead!" It gripes me that people get paid to write such piffle. No, it doesn't even rise to piffle, it's piffle lite. As you say, it's a long-term process with no magical "AHA" moments. Just nice steady growth and improvement. Contrast that with the borg empire, which has grown but shown no improvement whatsoever. Which in itself is a noteworthy achievement :)

Agreed, and a good laugh at "piffle lite".

I'm a believer in choice. If someone prefers Windows and I don't have to support their use of Windows in any way, I'm happy that they don't use Linux. My goal is that everyone be informed of their choices and make good decisions. I think it's perverse to care about someone else's preferences.

Linux has been easy enough to use for 80% of computer users (conditional on willingness to learn) so I really don't care what the market share number is. Linux is an option for most of the population. That's the number I care about.

Quoting:Linux has been easy enough to use for 80% of computer users (conditional on willingness to learn) so I really don't care what the market share number is. Linux is an option for most of the population. That's the number I care about.

That's the real issue, isn't it. If we weren't in a hostile environment, it wouldn't matter, anyone could choose linux at any time, regardless of its current market share.

But in practice, there is this notion of critical mass, and below that point, it is very easy for those opposed to the viability of competing OSes to cut off the air supply to the competition. For example, If 99.8% of your customers are using msie8 on ms windows vista, what manager wouldn't agree to a great deal on some sort of microsoft-only website package? Who cares about the tiny minority of freaks, right? Screw them, they can just get with the program and use ms windows.

However, if alternative OSes and/or browsers constitute, say, more than 10% of the traffic to your website, any old bean counter would balk at shutting out that 10%. I'm not sure what the magic number is, but clearly, there's a point which is dangerous to fall below.

I'm all for everyone using whatever OS they want, as long as it correctly implements the relevant standards. I'd be thrilled to one day see those numbers at 10% linux, 15% OSX and the rest ms windows.

@herzeleid:

I'm in complete agreement about the importance of critical mass. IMO, though, we're already there. All this talk about 1% market share and all that is hooey.

I go to Best Buy and buy an Acer laptop and everything works out of the box. I click the network icon to connect to my wireless network, type in the password, and I'm on. I've got Intel's open graphics.

I read the story this morning about the NY Times Timesreader software. They boast in the video about supporting Windows, Linux and Mac.

We're already there. The year of the Linux desktop usually refers to mass adoption. Maybe it's just semantics, but I think some Linux users really do care about market share numbers.

Quoting: I think some Linux users really do care about market share numbers.

I care about honesty in reporting, which in tech reporting is limited to LXer and a few other blogs. The real numbers are what they are no matter how hard anyone tries to spin them up or down. I get very tired of how BS seems to stick like glue, while good and accurate information is ignored. That NetApplications survey was akin to counting how many boxed Linuxes are sold at the Microsoft Company Store.

I actually almost completely agree with the last two posts. They only quibble is that I am not sure Linux has reached critical mass quite yet. It's close and netbooks have helped push it there. I still run into way too many people that have never heard of Linux. Maybe they heard the name and it just didn't register. I don't know. I just think we have a little way to go yet. We're close.

OK, my last agreement post was about what herzeleid and bigg had to say. tuxchick beat me to the send button :)

I also agree with tuxchick. I love how Microsoft claimed a 96% share of netbooks based on brick and mortar store sales (no online numbers counted) in the U.S. only. When Asus, Dell, HP, and Acer are quoted the number seems to be holding around 25% Linux to 75% Windows, the same as last year's numbers. Linux is also gaining ground on desktops and full sized notebooks.

There are "journalists" who see their livelihood as dependent on Windows and only Windows. They write piece after piece to try and convince the public that Linux has failed, is difficult to use in any case, and is not worth their consideration. It's all a crock and it makes all of us who write for at least part of our living look untrustworthy. We on LXer all know that tuxchick tells it like it is but the rest of the world doesn't.

Sorry caitlyn, my Internet is still way slow so I have time on my hands. AT&T seems to be having a hairball or two.

gus3, it's good to know I'm not the only one who's not in denial.

> Linux has failed, is difficult to use in any case, and is not worth their consideration

The starting point for nearly all 'reviews' of Linux is to install it on a Windows machine. I can honestly say I've never seen a review for Windows that started with installing it, and certainly not installing it on a Linux machine. If there were not good preinstalled Linux options, this might make sense.

I'd like to see the 'Linux is hard' 'journalists' install Windows. I just purchased a refurbished desktop for my mother and I can tell you it was a lot harder getting wireless and the other hardware going with XP. On Linux it's pretty much a matter of plug and play.

> I care about honesty in reporting, which in tech reporting is limited to LXer and a few other blogs.

I was actually referring in my comments to those who fantasize about Linux having 90% market share. I agree about the dishonesty.

> I was actually referring in my comments to those who fantasize about Linux having 90% market share.

I don't think Linux will ever have a 90% market share. Nor would it necessarily be a good thing if it did.

Quoting:Could you provide some specific examples of stuff that required ms windows? Not denying what you're saying, just curious.

Anything AutoDesk or SolidWorks; meaning any cheap 3D CAD application. No, there are no free alternatives. Yes, Pro/E and CATIA etc. run on UNIX, but they are 10 times more expensive. No, that AutoDesk / Solidworks stuff doesn't run under a Win guest in VMWare, especially not for corporate use (I tried). AutoDesk products have more versions than Wine. And believe me, when your company spent 10k+ per license on CAD software for Windows, they're not going to change to Linux if their employees are asking. Worse, there are not many branches of trade suffering as much from vendor lock-in by means of file formats than the CAD-branch. Especially when PLM is involved it's a total mess, only video formats and image formats come near.

Conclusion: When your job is mechanical drawer, Windows is inevitable unless the employer has a gazillions of dollars and uses CATIA (Boeing is such an example AFAIK).

I hope this is an exception, however I suspect the manual writers are locked in to Adobe to such a degree they couldn't do without Windows or Mac.

Corporate accounting software for Linux is really limited too. A small to midsized business can make do with QuickBooks at a cost of ~$3,000. Larger systems are still mainly Windows. The only exceptions I know of are really, really expensive.

I think the problem with accounting software and the like is that it's also very country specific, with rules that need to be updated each year. Luckily there are a few SAAS and web-based accounting providers in The Netherlands. Not really Linux accounting packages, but at least you don't need to buy windows licenses and hardware for it.