That is an errrm, interesting look on MS and linux

I have read a number of well-reasoned and well-crafted arguments supporting the bridge to linux thru the 'Gates', but never, 'til your post, have I read quite so succinct and cogent a summation of the things that really matter-down to the marrow, simply stated, and very illuminating.

Your view has given me a new energy, at a point where I was seriously questioning the purpose of the whole effort.

Thankyou, sir.

I should take that as a username and start topics like "I'M GOING TO ***ing KILL LINUX!!"

I think that we should always look closely at commercial efforts, like Windows and OS/X (the latter of which is based on BSD Unix), to find opportunities and ideas that will make the Linux user-experience more successful for more people.

Right now, the most successful installations (other than strictly "appliance" installs) are likely to be "folks like us." That is to say, the pocket-protector squad.

The folks that we've got to make this drop-dead easy for are ... well ... your grandmother. My mother. And this can be an extremely unsettling and enlightening thing because many of the "advantages" that we think of, not only are of no perceived value to them but may well be decided in favor of ... ... The OS Which Must Not Be Named.

But the folks that we've got to get on-board first are ... We of the Pocket-Protector Squadron. Because Linux is coming. Whether it winds up on every secretary's desk or not right now, I think, is simply not the point. Longer-term, which in the world of computing is not long at all, demand for computing is beginning to outgrow Windows' capabilities, both in terms of overall "power" and in terms of hardware-types. We, certainly, can no longer be content, or feel secure, with "just a knowledge of Microsoft Windows." That MS certification on your cubicle wall won't mean squat to a Penguin. When the demand shifts, you need to have made it your business to be already there.

Pragmatically speaking, also, "you're gonna be straddling the fence for a while." Maybe for a long while, you're going to have to be supporting clients on both platforms. You're going to have to be polishing your skills on both. That's why you need a two-disk-drive machine that you can readily and easily boot into the latest-and-greatest offerings of both types. The "required learning-load" for a programmer in this industry has just gone up, considerably.