This is as days pass by, by Stuart Langridge

Heh – like the way you sucked us into your comment, and then bowled us over with the link to Andy Budd :) Agreed on every word.

Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered Operating Systems Advocacy community when recently Bloglines confirmed that non-parody posts account for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all OS-related blog content…

:P

Interesting, I tend to find the opposite with linux. I’d love to run it on my laptop, but it seems I have to compromise ease of use, hardware and a hell of a lot of time for software freedom.

If I was less lazy I’d do a lot more with linux but it requires so much work to get it installed to a decent state and then keep it that way that I can’t do it. I’m running win 2k so that really is saying something too!

I’m with Fizz. I’d love to run it on my laptop and server, but configuration and driver support are still major pains. NDISWrapper gets my unsupported WiFi chipsets on the air, but needs to be easier. I can finally right-click in some distros to change screen resolution, as I’ve done for years in Windows.


I revisit Linux at least once a year, and it’s grown my leaps and bounds. The app support is mostly there, and apt-get/synaptic makes installation almost effortless, although dependency issues still creep in when I have to roll my own apps.


Gaming’s a non-issue. I gave up on PC gaming years ago because I don’t have the time or the budget to keep my system updated to play this year’s killer game. With a console, I can pop in a day & start playing.


In the meantime, I’ll keep evaluation the occasional distro. Things are going to get better & easier. Besides, after Longhorn and the MacIntel debut, I’ll be running whatever OS/hardware combo that doesn’t feature “trusted computing“...

That’s hilarious! At first I ditched this post in my feed reader, thinking it’s just a duplicate of a post I’ve read a few days ago. Only at the second viewing I reminded myself that the last one was about Mac… Hilarious, I say!

Nice entry.

I’m with fizz on this one though. I wonder what the % for maintenance figure might be for someone without your skills. It certainly feels a hellofalot higher for me.

I’m with fizz too. Every time I ‘apt-get upgrade’ my Debian box something breaks. Usually sound support, sometimes peripheral support (I couldn’t mount my USB pen drive for a couple of months last year) and sometimes installed packages just stop working (gallery bit me hard once if memory serves).

I wanted to put the machine on my wireless network this last week and almost bought a cheap pcmcia wi-fi card (it’s a laptop), until I figured out that it would easily take me a couple of days to get the bloody thing working – and I’m in software so my estimates are far too optimistic.

On the other hand, my iBook may be proprietary but it bloody well works.

Complicated to install and configure? Guys what are you using,

I install, and configure new version of Mandrake (Mandriva) in 6 hours and get everyting I need … and I use bit of everything …

Actually true there is one thing on my notebook that does not work IrDA damn, but almost everything else gets configured automatically without manufacturer drivers and such strange things that I wasted hours with before with the M$ ...

But my experience is that devices works better with linux than windows, no driver installation for my digital camera or memory stick … preinstalled gimp reads raw format of my nikon D50 … KMobileTools works with my Siemens Cx65, SieFS reads mounts its flex memory without a problem …

Applications missing? no not realy one just should look around and find that there is everyting needed … Quanta for Editing web pages … Inkscape … instead of CorelDraw … OpenOffice … GQView for browsing images from camera … MPlayer for linux works better than MPlayer for M$ ... and you can choose 5 another movie players … XMMS instead of WinAmp …

I would never made step back to windows … it used to be such a pain …

I keep regular tabs on Linux and Mac, though of necessity I use Windows. I started getting interested a while ago when someone was looking into running a site using PHP, and also at home I'd upgraded to Windows ME on the understanding it was an improvement on '98, which I hated for its instability. I truly grew to detest ME for various reasons, but referting to '98 wasn't an option, so was researchin Linux, mainly Mandrake, at the time at the forefront of Desktop Linux. But sadly it was way behind even windows in usability. And since I've got XP, the immediate need has disappeared, I can run a test server (WAMP) just fine and never have any trouble. I've installed the occasional Linux distro to test how it's progressed, but stopped as I've got too much data to lose now, especially as some serious bugs have bitten people and destroyed their existing partitions on the early 2.6 kernel. I test Live CDs now and again instead. I'm particularly interested in the development of Gnome, as its philosophy fits best with where I believe they should go. Besides, the name and logo is cooler. KDE's name and cogs-logo is sterile and cold, not inspiring, even if they are more advanced technically.

Linux comes from the techie Unix terminal-hacking backend world, thanks to Richard Stallman & Co, and much as the backend has seen a lot of attention and it is very good at it, Linux is still severely lacking as a Desktop for the non-techie, and although every year is being proclaimed The Year of Desktop Linux, the truth is it is years away from that as is reflected in the quality of most Gui-based Linux apps. Just as Windows and the Mac comes from the other side of the spectrum, the Desktop world, and where they have very polished and user-friendly Desktops with a GUI developer culture, the Backend is lacking. More so in the case of Windows and security, The Mac is now Unix-based and along with every other BSD-Unix rated as the most secure, even more so than Linux, but just as a lot of effort has gone into the Desktop experience, its at the cost of backend performance, which needs a lot of performance tuning. Linux is clearly the better server, but not the better Desktop for the average user. And it won't change until Linux comes preinstalled and preconfigured on a reaonable percentage of PCs and gets mainstream commercial software support. The latter probably won't eventuate before the former.

About a year ago, that is a while after the linked ZDNET article was posted (late 2003), when IDC was quoted as saying that Linux had overtaken the Mac on the Desktop, I was curious and did some research on the Net of the truth of this, especially as I don't really take much credence in IDC figures. I also kept an eye on the various Linux magazines of what they might have to say to this news. Curiously no Linux site ever made mention of Linux being more widespread than Mac on the Desktop, in print or online. The truth is that, as one particular article pointed out, getting figures for Linux is particularly difficult. As servers, Netcraft can get a pretty accurate picture, and understandably this is where Linux has taken a big marketshare, since this is where it comes from. But on the Desktop, there are no figured of Linux-configured PC sales to go by like Windows, and many users still download their Distro of choice from the Internet rather than buying boxed sets and install the one copy across the network as needed. Where Microsoft counts every copy of Windows shipped, even when remaining unsold in the shop, and every OEM PC produced with Windows preinstalled, Desktop Linux users tend to buy a PC with Windows and dual-boot with a downloaded or cover-CD distro, which doesn't register as a sale anywhere. Increasingly there's a business in selling and supporting the Corporate Desktop, but only a few small companies aim for the home Desktop, and usually only as an addon to their corporate push. I'm following the development of OpenOffice, and I can now see with the increased pressure by governments around the world for an open Office Format Standard, with the leading contender being OpenDocument, that Linux may now have an opportunity to make a significant impact on the corporate desktop. In the corporate/government sector, you usually have a system Admin which can set everything up and maintain it, so this is not an issue, nor are other home Desktop concerns such as Multimedia and commercial app/game support, ie playing region-encoded DVDs or music and associated hardware trouble. Cost is the real driving force here, OpenOffice is far cheaper and uses an open standard, plus with the move to Windows Vista and Office 12, organisation face hefty hardware and software upgrade costs unless they move to OpenOffice on Linux. There is no such incentives for uptake of Linux on the Desktop for most users.

The most accurate figures I could find was actually collated from Google, going by the maxim that pretty much everybody on the Desktop use Google, at least occationally. Certainly Linux users are unlikely to use MSN search, and definitely doesn't use AOL, but may use Yahoo. Many Mac users would tend to shy away from MSN search, but almost as likely to use AOL as Windows users. Nonetheless it's as accurate a figure as you're gonna get. And it showed whereas Mac usage was a little over 3%, Linux usage was less than 1%. In other words, Mac usage was still over 3 times that of Desktop Linux.

But that was about a year ago. Whereas I see articles on how Desktop Linux uptake has stalled, Mac usage thanks to the iPod 'Halo' Effect is growing by 30% a quarter compared to the PC industry average of 10%. The Mac won't have much of an impact on the corporate Desktop though due to hardware cost (and still no OpenOffice), whereas Linux runs on existing cheap hardware. So this will be Linux's next frontier, and may cross-pollinate to the Home desktop from there as people get used to it at work and can remain compatible (ie no proprietary Office docs). But this depends on the backroom shenanigans of Gates & Co, thanks to George W. Bush the Antitrust suit fizzled out and every OEM PC manufacturer fear Microsoft's wrath as much as ever for even offering some Linux installs. Now, if only that deal with IBM, Compaq and Dell to license NextStep hadn't fallen through in the 90's before it was too late, we might have had a Unix-based alternative as the dominant OS on the PC with Windows resigned to a bit player.

I would agree with what you said back in the Windows 95, 98 and NT 4.0 days (forget about Windows ME, big disaster). However, I think you miss the mark on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. I have installed EVERY major Linux distro in recent years. There is no way that I spend less time on system problems. In fact, I would say that it isn't even close. I am not sure about percentages, but I can tell you that almost every time I boot a linux distro there is some kind of tweaking I need to do to get something to work. There was even one time when it was a network card that worked the day before. I have no idea why it quit, there were absolutely no changes to the system other than shutting down and rebooting. I never did get that card to work again on the distro, I even took it to one of my Linux-Only friends. He couldn't figure it out for days. Finally I just blew away the install and re-installed an upgraded version (Suse 10.0), which fixed the problem. Unfortunately, I was met with a new problem. It took about 20 minutes to boot about every other time (for the record, it was installed on IBM thinkpad T-23 1.13 GHZ, with 512 MB RAM and 30 GB hard drive). I finally got sick of that and the intermittent problems connecting with network resources so I blew it away again and installed Windows XP Pro. Since then, the laptop has been running great, I have been able to use it productively and have had no connectivity problems with any resources.

To me, what makes the OS worthwhile is if I can do the work that I need to. I want to be productive. If I am loosing productive time, every time I boot or try to use the OS, it doesn't make sense to keep using it.

I have not found the Linux alternative yet that enables me to be productive enough of a percentage of the time to offset the potential cost savings. Believe me, I would like to find such a solution, but so far it just isn't there.

That is my opinion, I know I will get flamed, but thats OK.

For all the "productivity" you gain by running M$ products, you forfeit your freedom to the corporate giants who OWN you. If you find issues with a particular distro of Linux, there are so many others to chose from.

I don't know about you, but I for one am tired of having to talk to India everytime I need tech support for one of their inferior products. Why should we pay a premium for their product and then another premium for support and then get stuck trying to understand the person who is supposed to be helping solve their issues. There are so many great support sites for the Linux community, that if there is an issue with a hardware driver or some gliche in a program, chances are, you are not alone. The community is always providing fixes and patches to solve these.

I think for personal use, you should use whatever you like and feels most comfortable be it Linux, MAC or M$. But, when it comes to the corporate world, businesses should be looking for the greatest level of SECURITY and you just won't get it with M$.

Someone once said (and I couldn't find the source) - "If you think outside the box, you don't need Windows"

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I have been using Ubuntu for a while now and it is so much better than Windows. When I install Windows, it takes at least 2 hours of updating and upgrading to service pack 2. On Ubuntu, I install, the Software Updates box appears and I click Install. No reboots or anything. Then I use the guide at http://easylinux.info/wiki/Ubuntu_dapper and install Automatix and in about 20 minutes it all Just Works. My wi-fi card, Linksys WMP54-G (rt2500) works fine. It is much easier to use than WIndows and runs much faster. It is more secure and easier to use and the OS works with you not against you.

I seriously love Linux, it has rekindled a joy for computers that was lost when I packed away my Atari. I started to use linux on and off about 4 years ago, with a major changeover in the last two years, I am now in a windows free household and have been for over a year. I do get excited about Linux and what it will become, I have seen so many changes, just in the limited time I have been using it. Then take into account GNU and Opensource, I use to only see free as in price, but now I fully understand just what the free means in the foss community, which make me want to just embrace it further.

Nobody will ever get me to believe that the market share for linux desktop and servers are close to being correct. How do you know Joe Blow downloaded linux last night and it using it now? Nobody will ever know exactly how many people use linux until people sell linux pre-loaded with PC's. I promise you there are a lot more people using linux these days along with windows installed.

Josh: same can be said for M$... I for example have 3 *UNUSED* xp coa's one for each laptop I own. I'm sure microsoft is counting me 3 times... but in reality its 3 linux installations. I would not go back to windows now, I've been spoiled by 2 flavors of debian maybe not vanilla but I use mepis for my media server and my destop and ubuntu for the lappys (I find gnome best suited for laptops, and prefer kde for the desk, and BTW its not a cold environment as someone suggested) I've been interested in an ethical alternative to windows for a while and have played with linux since shortly after the release of 95, and finally made the plunge 3 or 4 years back. we'll have to see what happens to the market share (especially in business and government) when vista *finally* ships. my guess is it'll be a happy day for linux and mac.

Since the above report, China, India, the EU, and Africa are emerging as major government and corporate users of GNU/Linux on the desktop, and now, in 2007, 49% of all Servers run it. Most colleges and Universities worldwide now use it. Google, Youtube, and other Internet content providers run it exclusively.

The Desktop use of GNU/Linux has expanded to 8%, or more, per net statistics of server connections. Many of we advocates for freedom are pleased that the revolution is succeeding so well.

We also tip our hats to the efforts of the Vista team.

A race well run, though cheating was obviously rampant.

It is what bullies do, even in a fair fight.

the world is full of microsoft trolls