Well, Linux has captured 100% of the desktop market in my apartment -- J.W.

Haha, yeah. The same for my apartment. And it has just been great since I left Windows one year ago.

haha,

yes if we cared to lie with statistics as microsoft seems to feel ethically comfortable doing, we could claim 100% market dominance!!!!

its captured 100% of our office!

(except for the occasional transient windows computer...)

lol, bah...

there was an employee looking over my shoulder as i made the last post, with a windows notebook under his arm and a funny smirk on his face....

guess that lowers linux acceptance to 85% of our office...

(i do feel an ethical burden, lol... he's really not a transient! ... yet)

Well, 100% of my house as well. Anyway stats about Linux can never be accurate due to the fact that it's not easy to quantify the number of installations. Personally I think there are a lot more people using Linux than what the official figures state.

I'd agree. I'm one hundred percent at my home and my office.

What I don't understand is how the Linux desktop is "under attack" at all. I took a quick glance at the "About" pages for KDE and GNOME, since those are the two major desktop environments currently, to see why they exist and what they are trying to do. With all of the "Windows vs Linux" discussion, I think we're all losing site of the fact that we're talking about the GUI of Unix, generally speaking. I'm not saying Linux = Unix from a technical standpoint or anything like that.

I don't see how use of Windows really impacts KDE or GNOME use much since people aren't paying for KDE or GNOME directly when they buy Linux distro CDs, so it's not like KDE developers or GNOME developers are trying to increase revenue, etc. It sounds like the KDE folks felt existing X11 desktop environments, CDE I guess is it, were lacking and KDE is the "savior". (para-phrasing of course). Why should the KDE or GNOME projects care about what's going on in the Windows world?

On the KDE site, they do mention their application framework being designed to compete with other application frameworks, like Microsoft's MFC/COM/ActiveX technology, but that's just part of the picture (at least to me).

What is it that I'm missing here????

Peace...

Okay so let me throw an idea in the ring that I've had in my head for some time. If price is one of the main advantages linux has over Windows, what would happen if Microsoft were to release say, XP Starter Edition completely free of charge across the world. Download only say but that would blow the whole model out of the water, wouldn't it?

Stability & security probs with windoze will still be there, but hardly anybody cares about that it seems. So yeah, it Gates launches Starter for free, Linux will not be used as a desktop outside the Academia and a few specialized Government agencies & Industries.

So it isnt just me who is hoping like hell that it would breach anti-trust regulations if they did.......

Yep, you're probably right about this BUT I'm not sure how many existing Linux users (outside of some newbies struggling with it) would switch to XP (I know I would not) if it was 100% free.

Linux is in an interesting situation right now since the kernel developers want to develop a robust, stable, reliable, functional, fast, and secure operating system that runs on a plethora of hardware platforms and aren't "targetting" Windows, per se, yet the companies that have formed around Linux distros certainly want to "woo" Windows users (due to the sheer number of them) to Linux so they can sell CDs and Linux users want Linux to gain momentum on the desktop so the application and hardware driver availability will increase. So, on one hand those who produce the OS we love aren't concerned with Windows yet almost everyone else who uses the OS is.

I've been using Linux exclusively on my desktop machine at home since 2000 and switched from Windows 98 since I was tired of the crashes, etc. I've used Linux at work (configuring proxy servers) since 1998. I use Windows 2000 at work now and support a few XP Home Edition and Professional based boxes for friends. If Bill Gates were to hand me a Windows XP CD and say I could run it legally for free, I would hand it back to him. I think Windows does some neat things and when it does work, it can work well. Linux works better for me which is why I stick with it. The other day I upgraded from XFree86 4.4.0 to XFree86 4.5.0 RC1 from source and *without* having to reboot my machine. I thought that was neat. Yes, I am a geek.

I think it would be interesting if Microsoft released a version of Windows that:

1. Was free
2. Was architecturally changed to prevent 95% of the viral and spyware problems that exist today
3. Was stable, secure, etc...

I guess we'll see what Longhorn brings to the table when it arrives (despite it not being free).

Peace...

I wouldn't switch back to Windows if it were offered for free. I am annoyed that I still have to use Windows 2K at work. This morning I finished switching my box at home from Gnome to KDE and got it looking beeeeeeyoootiful. Then I came to work at was saddened by the ugliness that is Windoze. I promptly downloaded WindowBlinds and some skins. But it is still uglier than KDE. And if I wanted to tweak it, I'd have to pay for WindowBlinds. Go back to Microsoft? Never.

ALL HAIL THE AWESOME POWER OF TUX!!! LORD OF THE PENGUINS!! KING OF THE MIGHTY ANTARCTIC EMPIRE!!! AND SAVIOR TO US ALL!!!

lol I like that.


I just tried to learn a thing or two about C using KDevelop but then I was cut short because KDevelop required an older version of automake....I could have upgraded to the latest version of kdevelop or downgraded my automake (not sure if that's possible) but I just didn't want to mess with all that.

Not that messing around with my box isn't fun!

This article pretty much summarizes what I feel.

I just wish that things worked the way they are supposed to... well at least sometimes.

vxc

ihihih
Windows has got 100% (ONE HUNDRED PERCENT) of my trash can, respectfully...