![]() ![]() Like I said before, the Linux kernel has millions of hobbyist developers and testers. Factor in the other distros and that figure is easily doubled.įinally, we need to stop talking about applications, and get back to the heart of an OS, the kernel. Perhaps by number of downloads then? Red Hat alone has had more than 10,000,000 downloads. How do you track the number of users running something that wasn't purchased, but downloaded. The number of estimated machines running Linux is sorely underestimated. When we need our boxes to run and stay running for long periods on end, NT and 2k are not options for us. The fact of the matter is that Linux deserves the business place because when server downtime means losing customers and cashflow, one cannot afford to run a "high-maintanance" NT server. Most of our internal servers run either Linux or UNIX. Most of them opt to use Linux because for programmers it delivers more features, tools, and does so with ease. Our software developers are given the choice of running either Linux or Windows NT on their primary work machine. I work for the largest networking company in the world (Cisco) with over 35,000 worldwide employees. Like it or not, OEM is where the computer business lies. Until Linux is able to some how grab some chunks of the OEM pie (which in and of itself is a near impossibility considering it is an open-source OS), it will always be an enthusiast OS. Most people who own computers probably can't even spell Linux, much less tell you what it is/does. But the problem is that these people are typically in highly specialized computer related fields (i.e. Now granted, there are probably plenty of people out there who actually get more use out of a Linux platform than out of a windows platform. There are lots of people out there who perceive a particular software package as better because they want it to be better. You get the idea? Simply b/c it is considered to eb the #2 OS doesn't mean that it is a neck-and-neck race for #1. Linux may have 10 runs scored, beating out Mac's 9, Unix's 8, Be's 5, or everything else's collective 4, but compared to Microsoft's 50 runs? I don't think so. Imagine the PC market as a baseball game. Compared to the other OSs out there like Mac or BeOS, yes, Linux is the #1 threat. Simply because Linux is the top threat does not necessarily mean it is a legitimate threat. Wow, that's a misquote if I have ever heard one. Steve Ballmer considers GNU/Linux to be the top threat to Windows, so it is clearly more than just a toy for enthusiasts. So you can't critise them for being late but you can't say Linux is SO much better to use than MS either. Linux is purely for enthusiast and shouldn't be treated as an MS alternative. Linux at the moment has very limited use and no place as a credible alternative in business or in the home when dealing in mass markets. Now if Linux is to be a serious commercial alternative, as it's proponents continually tout it, then it should be judged on the same scale as MS and compared with MS directly it does not fare well.įor almost every computer task (apart from the extremely specialised) there is an MS-based solution. 6 years later almost every PC that leaves an OEM has a MS OS on it. I remember when Win 95 was released in Decemeber MS got slated for being so late, and rightly so. Splitfire's original critism is that the new Kernel is over a year late and all the pundits are like "WOW, that's SO great!". So you could actually have a Linux-like environment running on Windows if you're interested (and which could make it easier to eventually switch over completely if you're so inclined).In my original post if you take the whole thing in context rather than just the last line you can see what I mean. Many of them replicate desktop features found on other OS's such as Linux or Mac. They come in various shades of complexity, configurability, support and features. If you do a google search for Windows Shell replacement, you should find quite a few of them. As explained above, they completely replace the Explorer shell with a new one, one that usually gives you more features while being lighter on your system. Shell replacements, OTOH, are a different thing entirely. Personally to my mind all it does is hog a lot of system resources (resulting in greater system instability) in exchange for a few pretty pictures. It changes some colors and graphics and such, but the underlying windows are still the same as before. Windowblinds is really just a theming program.
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