Re: Yet another OS


"mike" <spamme9@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:F9tCh.528$5F5.136@xxxxxxxxxxx
Dan N wrote:
On Sat, 17 Feb 2007 14:50:30 +0100, Xunil Resu wrote:


and Linux with all its flavors and 350 or so distributions
will remain something for a small group of people who like to do more
with
computers than simply run a few applications.

There may be 350 distros, but in reality, only a handful are widely used,
and the common features among them far outweigh their differences. Haiku
may not be Windows, but it's just another open source distro that will
end
up lost with the majority of the linux 350.

However, most people want to
do just the latter and are not all not interested in technicalities or
considerations such as yours.

Linux as a desktop computer is becoming a real competitor to windows.
It's as easy to use as windows, can run those few common apps that you're
talking about, yet can still double as a powerful operating system for
geeks.

Dan
Let's talk a little about what it means to be a competitor.

You're in the market for an automobile.

M$ will sell you an automobile that can take you anywhere you
want to go. It will occasionally stall for no reason,
but you can restart it. It mostly gets you everywhere you want to go.
You don't like the available colors, but you can live with it.

Linux will also sell you a car. You can get it in any color you want.
You can get a blue one with leather interior. Or a green one with
bucket seats. Or a red one with a tow package. But you can't get
leather bucket seats. But you can replace the seatcovers yourself.
You have to install your own wheels and radio and oil filter.
It's infinitely flexible.
You can put the headlights on the rear if you want...and are willing
to traverse the considerable learning curve required. It drives funny,
but you could probably figure it out. But you'd have to teach the wife
to drive all over again.

The Linux car will take you home, to work and get your kids to school.
But the Linux car won't take you to your favorite church.
It will take you to an "equivalent" church, just not yours.
Any church is good enough...right???
And "they" tell
you that it will support your church eventually...probably... if some
high-school kid gets the desire to do it. But you don't need to go there
often...you can just keep your old car for that trip.
And they're building a new mall across town. Linux can't take you there,
but "they" tell you that the mall will be supported...eventually...as soon
as some high-school kid wants to go there.

And you got this cool GPS navigation system for Christmas.
It would bolt right into a M$ car, but there's no way to get
it to work on your Linux car. But not to worry, there's a two-year-old
navigation system that can be made to work on your Linux car.
Too bad you can't still buy it. Double too-bad that's not the one
you got for Christmas.

And you'd like to take the EXPENSIVE music system out of your old
car and put it into the new one. Would work with M$, but your Linux
car is incompatible. But there's a rumor that you can bolt it in the
trunk and one
channel of the stereo would work...if you could find the guru
to tell you how.

And what if you need a repair?
M$ has a dealership. You drive it in and it gets fixed.
If your Linux car needs work, you just drive around until
you find one of those guys who washes your windshield for tips
at the freeway on-ramp. He can teach you how to fix it yourself.
And it won't cost you anything. And if you get bad advice, no
problem...just drive around and ask another windshield washer.

In order for ANY OS to become a competitor to M$,
some person, organization, corporation has to figure out
a way to make a BIG profit off it. And where do those profits
come from? Certainly not from free open-source software.
You MUST be able to walk into CompUSA and buy hardware that comes
with drivers.
The OS must do 100% of your desires. Like the song says,
"99 and a half just won't do."

The ONLY way to take siginficant market share in the general-purpose
home-user market is for some corporation with DEEP pockets to decide
to take on M$ on their own turf. Wal-Mart took on the drug companies...
maybe they could take on M$ too.


People are obsessed with money and market share. Let's, rather, talk about
other and more important issues than market share and monetary related
issues. In the end, it's the other issues that are more important. Market
share and monetary issues are overrated to the point of absolute absurdity.


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