Can Linux ever overcome this?

See attachment...
http://www.microsoft.com/caseStudies...rce.aspx?22988

Attached Files

microsoft_propaganda.txt (160 Bytes, 32 views)

As this isn't technical, I have moved it to General. I have also put in the link directly to the Word document with the case study (opens fine in OpenOffice.org). The case study is fairly similar to ones that Red Hat or Novell put out saying how an org has gone from Windows to Linux.

its only targeted at russia AFAIK.

Actually, Microsoft has been busy around the world. http://www.techworld.com.au/article/...ria_linux_deal

fw12, those articles/documents are old. The first one from 2005 and the last one from 2007.

So we're now 4 years further and Linux is still alive. So I think that the answer is that Linux can indeed overcome this.

Still alive and getting stronger.

I agree. Linux has improved, compared to just 4 short years ago. Linux isn't going anywhere. It'll always be here.

However, my question is, can Linux shed the "OS for enthusiasts" label in the minds of today's desktop users, and get accepted in major institutions around the globe?

I think only when Linux starts to be accepted by schools, would it stand a chance of reaching critical mass.

Adults are stubborn about sticking with what they already know, e.g. Windows. But school kids are malleable, and would gladly learn Linux. Hence, the need to get Linux into schools.

As much as I hate these tactics from Redmond, it's only natural for them to do this.

I think I told this before, but in my city a school moved from Linux to Windows. Of course such a move was welcomed by the Redmond marketing department. They where ready with discounts, support and all and the whole migration was advertised as 'Redmond saves a school from the dangerous incompetence of Linux'. The language was very similar to that in the document you brought to our attention. But it was in local newspapers and all.

What they didn't mention was that the school had ~150 workstations and a couple of servers. In the same year, the local government of the same city with >4000 workstations and a fully grown server park moved from Windows to Linux.

Funny they failed to mention that, aye?

not until it fixes and unifies its GUI(s) api calls for applications.

Linux as a server is 10x anything MS has ever put out and i do not see that changing any time soon.

as far as desktops go? win7 and OSx are 10x anything Linux has ever put out so far as usability, easy of use for the AVERAGE end user, and their GUIs just work. no fiddling with tweaks, no nothing. you get much better media playback, better audio support, things just work.

that is not to say that the Linux GUI can not do those things, but unless you are the "enthusiasts" you will not get them in any 1 distro 100% out of the box like you do with both Windows and Apple OSs.

yes i understand the license issues, i understand the money involved to get those codex and media support, but hey you asked, i answered.

I think having a billion distros is very confusing for the newbie.
However, I don't think Linux at this point has any issues with gui usability. The Gnome menu is clean: Applications, Places, System.

Under Applications you get: Accessories, Graphics, Internet, Office, etc. How much easier than it get?

For somebody looking for a web browser, common sense dictates to look under Applications->Internet. For a spreadsheet, I would look under Applications->Office.

I have not touched Win7, but I doubt it's 10x better than Linux as you said. What does "better audio support" mean? Audio has always worked for me out-of-the-box with Ubuntu. If you had said "better wireless support", I would have been more inclined to agree.

As for media playback, yes you're correct. Especially on Fedora with their "free software only" policy. However, with Ubuntu, when you try to play something, it asks you if you want to install the app for it, you say yes, and it does the rest. Same with Flash support. I think that's easy enough.

BTW, most hardware on Windows require driver install. On Linux, you insert it and it just works. E.g. I put wintv go-plus tv card in Fedora 10, fired up TVtime, and I was watching TV in minutes. No drivers to install. You can't do that under Windows. By that token, Linux is 10x easier than Windows.

Hm, my HP printer required an updated hplip, so yes, a driver install. And my Epson 4490 scanner is not supported out of the box in my current distro (Hardy Heron).

And a Huawei modem in Ubuntu 9.10 does not work (but worked in 9.04); maybe they have fixed it in the mean time but it was the state at release time.

If learn to live with this kind of problems .
My HDA Intel ICH7 family audio works works perfect with opensuse 9,3
Can not get working under opensuse 10. 10.1.10.2.10.3
Works perfect again with opensuse 11.0 11.1.

eventually someone will write a FOSS program that reads proprietary formats.
trademarks/patents/copyrights are ignored ALOT!
i have found lots of GIF readers and avil open source even when the compression patent was in effect.
and some other proprietary format readers.

This has been discussed a zillion times, and really, there's no point.

When you buy a computer, you've got some notion of what you want to do with it. You don't think about "the computer" and "the operating system" as two separate things. Rather, the combination (hardware and software, taken together) is a tool for a job, and the only thing that really matters is "how well it does it."

Microsoft is losing a lot of market (to Apple, not to Linux) just because it has lost sight of that fact. To Microsoft Corporation, "Windows is the center of the universe, and the hardware doesn't matter." Although this is technically-true, as any seasoned computer geek knows, "anyone who is not a seasoned computer geek doesn't give a ... nor should they." What the ordinary person wants most of all is: "it just works."

Even though Windows can be made to be better than it is, and even though Linux can be everything Windows is and so-much-more, both of these points-of-view make the same mistakes:

• They put the operating-system at the center of the universe.
• They're not "the shortest distance between 'here' and 'a tool for the job at hand.'"

What do you want (and expect) from your car? That you can sit down behind the wheel, turn the key and go. You don't change the oil for 120,000 miles. You don't have the foggiest notion of "how it works." But the car is a reliable tool that allows you to "go." Because the one thing that you bought the car for (other than "to impress chicks...") is: to "go."

What does Linux lack in that regard? Linux has plenty of getup and go.

After switching from Windows, I experienced a bumpy road with: Quickbooks, Winfax, Wifi install. Game players miss their games, and some won't switch for that reason.

For Quickbooks, I had to install Virtualbox for the accountant.
I replaced Winfax with Hylafax.
And wifi is no longer a problem with ndiswrapper.

Every new Linux user will invariably contend with these kinds of problems. This is one of the reasons that Linux is dubbed "difficult" to use in many circles.