April 1st Already?
 

Somebody has obviously been hacking the ntp servers at PC Magazine's site. How else can you explain this?

Shhhh!!! *** T O P S E C R E T *** MS-Linux could be just around the corner, driving all Linux vendors into despair!

yeah, because the main thought of all the linux users i know is "gosh, i wish this had a little more MS in it!"

granted, he poses an interesting thought in MS drivers for linux, but the community thrived from nothing to the huge industry it is today without those drivers, so i'm sure all that wouldn't be for naught, even with any MS-Linux...

dvorak continues to be one of my least favorite blow-hards. i don't know why this guy gets paid.

Since the author provides no links or sources, I can only conclude that they have fallen for the hoax page at ww.mslinux.org - note to them and to everyone else: it is a joke page.

And we have been discussing/dismissing this for a few years on LQ.

Konwn and noted, but this isn't just any journalist - this is John Dvorak, which is why I found the article funny (surely not the intent).

Sorry - I completely didn't read who had posted. My bad. Obviously the good looking and highly intelligent LQ Moderators would see the (correct) funny side of all this :)

Is this guy serious? I'm not sure who John Dvorak is, but I konw I've heard the name before. Did he used to be on ZDNet/TechTV/G4TechTv???
Anyway...onto my rebuttle:

First of all, I personally would not pay one cent for what would essentially be GNU/Linux with a bloated driver package. Who PAYS for drivers? That is not the way the computer hardware market works. You pay for hardware, drivers are an assumed part of that package. Granted, GNU/Linux driver support from hardware vendor's is still lacking, but vendors are starting to hear the cries of frustrated Linux users. We just as much for the hardware as any Windows user, thus, we should get Linux drivers for free. Go to ATi or nVidia's website. You don't have to pay a license fee or register your hardware's serial number to download the latest driver, be it for Windows or Linux. It is assumed that if you are downloading a driver, you already paid for the company's product. The only way Microsoft could push such a product would be to force hardware vendors to sign agreements stating that they would either agree NOT to develop driver's for Linux or that any driver's they develop would be the sole property of Microsoft. Nobody is going to agree to that.

This is exactly why Microsoft won't develop a GNU/Linux product. To market it successfully to their current customer base, they would have to convince/force hardware vendors to develop Linux drivers. They would also have to get companies like Dell and Gateway to stop selling PC's with Windows and start loading them with MS Linux instead. Assuming they could do that, it would kill Microsoft, not Linux. Their monopoly is maintained through the proprietary standards imposed by Windows. Take away that, you take away Microsoft.

Go right ahead, Redmond. I would personally write Gates and company a thank you letter if they did this. They would accomplish something that we have been trying to do for awhile now: get hardware vendors to provide equal driver support for Linux.

That's all I can say on the subject. Excuse my bluntness, but the ignorance displayed in this article is mind boggling. Who is this guy?

EDIT: Just so there is no misunderstanding, as is known to happen in this medium, I am not directing this at you, mcleodnine, for posting the article. Unless I misread your post, you feel this is as backward as I do. I am simply stating that it seems that Mr. Dvorak has been living in a cave for the last 10 years.