Re: Linux no threat to Microsoft
- From: Unruh <unruh-spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 12 Aug 2006 18:22:48 GMT
"news.cogeco.ca" <BushIsATraitor@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
===Linux is no threat to Microsoft===
* - Scott Nudds - August 10, 2006 -*
It's been about 15 years since the original version of the Linux kernel was
produced by Linus Torvalds, and over those 15 years, Linux has grown from a
toy into a functional OS with some potential. My congratulations to all
involved.
The maturation of Linux has been reasonably swift - due essentially to the
duplication through the direct copying or reverse engineering of all manner
of features/tools/utilities found in the Unix environment. So although
reasonably swift, still probably encompassing several hundred thousand man
of development, the vast bulk of Linux development is a result of the
million or so of man years of development of the various versions of the
Unix operating system on which it has piggybacked.
Piggybacked? No it uses both the BSD and the GNU open source software
originally developed for Unix.
The Linux desktop(s), (probably the most impressive feature of the OS), are
equally dependent on the open source available for X-Windows from which they
were similarly derived.
No. They use X windows. That is the amazing thing about open source
software. Others can use it.
5 years ago, Microsoft could see Linux over it's sholder, rapidly
approaching and in their view a potential competitor on the desktop and
elsewhere. At that time, it was said that Linux commanded 2% of the server
market, and about 2% of the desktop market, and was thought to be growing.
Today Linux occupies about 25% of the server market but still retains only
about 2% of the desktop market or perhaps a bit less.
*Why hasn't growth of Linux been equally strong in both the server market
and in the desktop market?*
Because Windows is preinstalled on all machines sold, and people do not
have the technical knowhow to appreciate that changing to something else
would be advantageous. People running servers do.
Linux does not have a big advertising budget.
The answer is simple. Linux, like Unix, has always been, and remains user
hostile, and unsuitable for the desktop market.
Hostile to what user? Not me, not my family (none of whom are "computer
literate").
The server market is different because the server market is maintained by
trained experts who largely enjoy the challenge of dealing with complexity.
No, they enjoy NOT having to deal with complexity. Install it and forget
about it. That leaves them time to do what they actually enjoy-- helping
users.
The desktop market, on the other hand, consists of people trying to get real
work done.
The word is trying.
Now lets be clear, SIGNIFICANT improvements have been made in the way Linux
operates over the last decade, and the GUI has matured to the point where it
is almost as good as the GUI provided by Windows 2000 and XP. Yet Linux
continues to be rejected by 98% of desktop users and 75% of those
implementing web servers.
*Why?*
This answer is also clear. Unix has always been an extremely user hostile
OS. The fundamental design philosophy behind Unix and therefore Linux has
You are repeating yourself.
always been extremely flawed, and hopelessly inferior to the design
philosophy of Apple - later adopted by Microsoft. The Unix and by
You are joking aren't you? Microsoft adopted Apple's philosophy?
derivation the Linux community embody with a religious zeal, a loving desire
and passion for misplaced minimalism and that which is the purposely
cryptic, puerile, and adolescent.
As an example, while looking over a random snippit from a Linux driver file
the other day I found a setting called "HappyMeal". Professional
programmers do not engage in such puerile behavior.
Have you ever looken inside Microsoft source, or Apple?
In the early days of Microsoft, when machine cycles were relatively scarce,
and time was measured in microseconds, not the picoseconds measure that is
used today, Microsoft too used relatively cryptic commands typed from a
keyboard to command the OS. But while the Unix computing universe was busy
suing itself into near oblivion and issuing commands like grep, yak, ls,
chron, and building tarballs, Microsoft was busy listing directories,
finding files, and building file archives.
Microsoft won the war for the desktop, even when the desktop was a command
line interface because in part, Microsoft recognized that nomenclature
matters. Ease of use matters. Clarity of design matters. Consistency
matters, and yes, documentation matters.
You must be joking again.
.....
5 years ago, Microsoft saw Linux in it's rearview mirror and saw it is a
potential threat. 5 years later, Microsoft has developed DotNet programming
paradigm, and now it has a completely new VISTA API set to stave off the
They may have it. Noone else does, nor can anyone else use it.
Linux challenge. During this time, Linux has matured, but at the same time
stagnated at a point where it can no longer offer a serious challenge to
Microsoft.
Indeed, not only has Linux stagnated, but has actually declined in
functionality. I have been told by several people that Mandrake Linux was
significantly more functional and manageable, than current versions of
Linux.
?? It is a "current version of Linux"?
The hope of Linux was that it could provide interoperability with Windows
through the Wine emulation layer, support for NTFS, MACos, etc. This is no
longer possible with Vista of course. Proprietary interfaces can be
Nor wanted.
developed faster than they can be reverse engineered. Where is Linux NTFS
support? Further, Wine has taken 15 years to develop, and the new Vista
Where is VISTA?
interfaces are large and complex enough that it will take considerably
longer to clone. Where will Windows be in 30 to 40 years when viable
clones of Vista might be coming available?
Why in world would one want to clone vista?
....
*I and a circle of friends, collectively represent about 200 years worth of
computing experience, and we are all looking to jump from the bloated
Microsoft Windows platform, and have been for years. Yet we are all
??? I thought windows was wonderful?
absolutely disgusted by the equally bloated, still buggy and incomplete
state of the Linux/Unix environment. Linux/Unix is today as Unix has always
been, user hostile and inferior, which is a shame, and a shame that is
directly attributable to the underlying design philosophy of C/C++. and by
And Windows is programmed in Basic?
immediate extension Unix/Linux.*
[Vast amounts of prolixity eliminated in this reply.]
.
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