its free – how can you tell how many people are using it?

Sure you can pass surveys round – but not everyone fills them in, you can look at the download rates but what if someone downloaded a fedora disc and then used it 20 times on all their mates PCs?

Buttom line is there is no way of telling what market share linux has…

-L

1) I won’t argue about security – all those “independent testsâ€? favour those who pay for them

[maybe, maybe not... I didn't really take the time to check out those links... all I know is that I've never been "attacked" on my windows computer]

2) I’m afraid there are fields in which linux alternatives are very immature or none at all: nVIDIA FXComposer/ATI’s RenderMonkey (no counterpart), 3D Studio Max/Maya/… (_very_ poor alternative: Blender), a decent IDE for C++ (don’t say KDevelop , cutting edge games, …

[Totally agree. Open source programs may be good, but I'd rather use Maya, even if it costs money, than use blender... the list just goes on and on. Some open source prgrams simply can't touch the commercial ones.]

7) I think you do not realize that many people do not wish to spend their time “scanningâ€? mailing lists and forums to learn how to do this or that. They just need the OS running to get their work done. They want to use it. It’s the same with your car – you just want to use it and not spend hours trying to figure out why or how it works.

Many people have no desire to acquire such knowledge, please do realize that.

[I couldn't have said it better. Linux has been built in such a way that it assumes that everybody using it WANTS to know about the command line, the super users, the administrative stuff and all that. Some people just want to grab the computer and start working right away.

I got ubuntu a few weeks ago because I wanted to try Maya on it and compare it to the windows version. It took me 2 or 3 days just to figure out how to install it, and I could have used that time to model and rig a character instead of fighting with the computer. Ubuntu may be the 10th wonder of the world, but if it makes me lose hours, days or even weeks by forcing me to wander around the net looking for information, then it's not efficient... needless to say that I don't use ubuntu anymore.]

9) Windows is versatile, too. You can find them in a fair few mobile devices (PDA, cell phones), hospital equipment, you name it.

[sarcasm mode on: but you can't run windows on your ipod!!! LOL!!!]

10) This one takes the cake. You mock everyone who doesn’t share your passion (in the whole article). “Not running linux? Noob!� You will not win users’ attention by mocking them :/

[well, people calling me a noob doesn't make me want to switch either :p ]

10. Using Linux makes you l33t. If you don’t agree, then you are wrong. STFU n00b.

Damn Straght…

Hey, dawg. You’re wrong. Go home. (just jokin’ bro). Happy Birthday. Thanks for finally posting on my blog. Good point, man.

I’m with ya’, bro. Good, solid arguments. I can actually agree with most of what you’re saying. I love a well-thought-out, no B.S. to-the-point argument (and I really like hyphenated words). Take a look at my comments to krater. Ya’ll make some good points, no doubt there. Thanks for taking the time to present your thoughts in an intelligent, respectful way. A couple of comments did not make it through the moderation queue because they were absolutely childish. Have a good one.

I’ll be honest with you, you have some solid, logical, respectful arguments. My piece was half humor, half my point of view. I don’t take myself as seriously as it may have seemed. Thanks for the thoughts. I can dig where you are coming from. Have a good one, and thanks for the comments.

I can’t agree with that enough. I’ve setup my Gentoo box “just the way I like it,” and I’ll admit it took me a long time to get some things setup the way I want, but the flexibility Linux affords me means I’ll never use anything else (Windows or otherwise). For instance, with all my preferences saved in my /home/steve directory, I can use *any* distro as my OS, and my window manager and application preferences are completely the same. It’s great.

Anyway, everythings setup how I like it, and now I haven’t had to tweak anything for a long time. I can just use my computer instead of having to fight it. It’s great.

Setup.exe is easy. It is, really, you just double click and answer a couple of questions. Yast takes a bit (not a lot but a bit) of thought, and you have to understand what dependencies mean, and how things relate. Heck my main desktop at home is stuck in a dependency hell right now, so I am resorting to use SMART to install stuff, simply because I don’t want to resolve those issues.

A command line is not friendly. A black box staring at you with a blinking cursor gives you little indication as to what to do next. A GUI with a button that says, “NEXT to continue”. Gives a lot more chance for your mom or grandma to do something. Just about every distro comes with a GUI now. And most of them make it that easy. But if EVER you have to drop into a command line, you have lost that mom or grandma.

The only true security is keeping a box turned off. There are TONS of exploits out there for Windows, lots of virii, and lots of trojans. There are exploits out there for Linux. Never gotten hit, or never seen one take a system? You must keep it up to date. I have seen Linux hacked, three times actually, at a previous company, twice via an exploit on ftp that was not patched cause the admin never patched. Once because of a stupid configuration setting. Again, because the guy did not care. It IS a lot easier to get exploited on Windows. But as with ANY OS, patching is the most important thing, if you think you are not vulnerable, then open up telnet/ssh/ftp/http with some of the daemons that were made in 2000. You will probably find some attacks running against your system after a while. No not 2 hours, but you will.

Uptime is meaningless on a home system. What Mom, Grandma, or parent needs to keep their system on 24×7? You only need that for a server. And honestly if you have been up for over a year, odds are you have a component that has a security issue that you have not patched on it. So really, is that necessarily a good thing?

It works forever? Not necessarily. It does if you don’t want to change anything. Kind of like I suppose Windows would if you never did anything to that. But as soon as you want to upgrade to the latest version of GAIM, or newer version of KDE, you are going to have to resolve dependencies. Its a fact.

Security? Windows actually has some pretty good security stuff in it. The auditing and permissions level is for stuff is pretty well defined. But its not for your Mom or Pop to configure. The same with Linux. Thats why zonealarm asks the user if XYZ application can get to the internet, cause god forbid they would need to figure out what ports needed to be opened and configuring that. Its just not something they can do.

So though I do agree, Linux is great. Its not perfect. Nor is Windows. People need the right tool for themselves.

1) I won’t argue about security – all those “independent tests” favour those who pay for them

2) I’m afraid there are fields in which linux alternatives are very immature or none at all: nVIDIA FXComposer/ATI’s RenderMonkey (no counterpart), 3D Studio Max/Maya/… (_very_ poor alternative: Blender), a decent IDE for C++ (don’t say KDevelop , cutting edge games, …

7) I think you do not realize that many people do not wish to spend their time “scanning” mailing lists and forums to learn how to do this or that. They just need the OS running to get their work done. They want to use it. It’s the same with your car – you just want to use it and not spend hours trying to figure out why or how it works.

Many people have no desire to acquire such knowledge, please do realize that.

9) Windows is versatile, too. You can find them in a fair few mobile devices (PDA, cell phones), hospital equipment, you name it.

10) This one takes the cake. You mock everyone who doesn’t share your passion (in the whole article). “Not running linux? Noob!” You will not win users’ attention by mocking them :/

For your information I’ve been affiliated with linux for almost five years now (Redhat 7, SuSE 9, Gentoo). Still, I consider windows to be more suitable OS than linux for _me_.

This comment has not been proof-edited because I wanted to see how my thoughts would flow since I’m writing a paper on the Windows v. Linux Debate. So please comment on my comment anything you wish.

And I get a couple of asnwers in no more than 24hrs…. Windows will crap itself, and then blam either us or mac for a dependincy problem. Then it will take it to 50 reviews and meeting (yes thats what companies do to solve problems…. this works if you’re company does not have over 60 000 employees!!) And Gentoo is a dream to run… and for the fact that many drivers have files is TRUE!! I mean i installed the linux broadcom driver then wiped windows and my internet still worked!! I mean for a company to spend a week making a driver and they get 5-10 % more customers is worth it!! And for those who would want to do it there way, and enjoy the fact that there OS is THEIRS… use gentoo.. if you have 6-8 hrs to spare, other words it will run untill the day the CPU melts due to stress.